Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S is…. one of the more confounding game releases for the Nintendo Switch 2 launch. The mash-em-up puzzler where Puyo Puyo and Tetris combine and collide in a variety of different game modes broke onto the global scene with the first game’s release for Nintendo Switch (and PlayStation 4) in 2017, a localised port of the 2014 Japanese release. That was then followed a few years later with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, with a new story mode and Skill Battles.
Now that same game is coming to Switch 2 with a sprinkling of added content for the new system. It’s essentially the same game with a new Tetris Doubles mode where two players share the same board with their own stream of blocks – something that we sadly didn’t try out while going hands on – and support for Joy-Con 2 mouse mode.
It’s the mouse mode that everyone at Sega’s preview event really focussed on. It’s pretty simple, really. As a new block appears at the top of the grid for you to drop, you move the mouse and that block swipes from side to side while gradually dropping down to the pile of blocks you’ve previously placed. Click with the shoulder button to rotate the block, but then to drop the block down hard you pull the mouse towards you.
And that’s where I had my biggest issue. Time and again, pulling the mouse toward me also had me moving left or right just enough so that the block would also shift over a space or two, ruining my placement and plan – not always so disastrous in Puyo Puyo at my skill level, but always a pain in Tetris to adjust. It’s quite a strange input choice for such a key mechanic, when the PC versions of this series allow for mouse inputs, but use a key press for the hard drop instead of a gesture.
There is also a way to hard drop using the analogue stick, though this didn’t really sit under the thumb for me, so thankfully there’s also other control presets that you can switch between. These let you trigger that hard drop with a face button press or one of the shoulder triggers, which should be much more reliable. Why is that not the default? I don’t rightly know, but that does help with the biggest issues I had with mouse inputs.
Even then, I’m not entirely sure that it makes sense for me. There’s an argument to be had for rapid swipes, but these are games where the players have to make fast, if not instant decisions, and rely on precise digital inputs. Even for a frankly very run-of-the-mill kind of player like me, I imagine that I’d find that imprecision rather annoying in the long run.
Spending half an hour with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S and checking out the new mouse mode, the first impressions are a bit underwhelming for what’s touted as an enhanced release. It’s fair to say that there’s some strong opinions about how this game is priced from this, as there’s no upgrade path from Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 to 2S.
At the very least, it’s no more expensive than other versions, and this game is still jam-packed with different ways to play and combine Puyo Puyo and Tetris, whether it’s the solo adventure mode, Skill Battles, a variety of multiplayer battle modes, or just playing a straight up game of either of these puzzle legend. If someone buying a Nintendo Switch 2 wants a Puyo Puyo Tetris game, this will likely be the one to get.