As a child during the 90‘s I was exposed two times to puzzle games that opened my eyes and stimulated my imagination, by combining familiar elements from 2d platformers with falling block puzzle games.
One was Tetris Plus for Playstation. Pretty much any time I saw a 2D game for Playstation or N64 during this era of the latter half of the 90’s, I was immediately enthralled:
Then at some point I saw a game that I never forgot about, but didn't rediscover and get the name until yesterday. My cousin had the Game Boy Color version of Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy:
https://youtu.be/fzuE4X_bU7w?t=234
https://youtu.be/OfgdSbI0aAo
at the time I just thought it was Tetris, and I was enthralled.
But it turned out that's not really what HKCF was. So I still haven't seen many games like Tetris Plus.
Looking at it now, it's a whole different class, more like something else I discovered in 2018, and a most Insert-Credity game, I would say, more like the figurehead of this genere of lil fella block puzzler Lemmings-likes:
Gussun Oyoyo
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/NkQDlnk.png]
https://youtu.be/31_GTqiY0lM
The main thing that sets these apart from something like Solomon's Key is that you don't have direct control over the character, like in Lemmings or Mario & Wario. The ones like Tetris Plus that combine falling block puzzles as the interface to the world are my favorite. It means you don't have to learn an all new, foreign interface, you can just use tetris commands to express the next move to the lil fella onscreen.
This is kind of in the vein of @"bankbank"#307 [highly specific](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/502-games-that-dont-require-up-or-down/34) [puzzler](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/167-tsuyoshi-shikkari-shinasai-taisen-puzzle-dama) [threads](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/1394-n64-sprite-based-2d-games/25), and I'll admit I'm no expert to these genres beyond my 90's childhood perspective of wonderment. Anybody familiar with this games, and others like them?
This genre had its biggest go in the 90s, but folks have still been trickling out games in this dubiously defined genre since then. I guess you specifically mean the lemmings style puzzle with the falling block mechanic? Gossun Oyoyo is the main one I think of, but I feel like if you consider an active protagonist as part of this, there's more to explore.
In that vein a couple I can think of include Steamworld Pocket Dungeon, which kind of matches the falling block, guy moving around thing with the mechanics of mister driller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfD-2aoCrV4
An older game in this genre you don't want (lol) is tall twins tower, which I guess came westward as tall unlimited, removing all the cool characters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8WXo9yk47A
(I'm realizing now that Tall Unlimited is a sequel that also came out in japan)
Then there's the punchuin (terrible name for searching/remembering how to spell) which has you moving the blocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFAV5b2HOxE
I guess games like that are somewhat common (here's one I'd never heard of)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WfggiiBZvfQ&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
There's no falling blocks, but I almost feel like pushmo (aka pullmo) is somewhat related:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lB_FYe0qn4
But these are all peripheral to your specific genre here which is lemmings+tetris, so doesn't really help you! I know there are more, but I can't think of them... I did find a modern one that lacks the pressure element:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lRs7jNu3D1s&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE&t=200
Troddlers is like the inverse of the idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drQASeuyhTw
Hmmm. I'll have to think on this some more, there's one right on the edge of my brain.
I love games like Mr.Driller and Wario's Woods, but Tetris Plus style indirect character movement seems pretty rare. I think it's super interesting. Thanks for sharing all those games, each one is extremely cool looking, even Tall Unlimited HA
It’s no longer available but I really liked Stair: Slide The Blocks To Ascend (iOS, 2014) by AP Thomson with art and sound by Bennett Foddy. Probably the highest I ever got on a leaderboard. Maybe not a falling block puzzler but this thread reminded me of it.
Good post but I’m heartbroken I can’t play Mario and Wario on my little Miyoo emulator. I’ve always wanted to play it since I learned about it in Super Smash Brothers Melee. It’s a trophy from the gatcha machine and the in-game text describes it as “an excellent game”.
@“antillese”#p98864 Good post but I’m heartbroken I can’t play Mario and Wario on my little Miyoo emulator.
>
@“treefroggy”#p98870 you can come over to my house and play it.
antillese (and a buddy) going on a road trip down the west coast to treefroggy's van in order to play Mario and Wario _the way it was meant to be played_ would make an excellent premise for a cult stoner comedy.
afro ken: the puzzle has you controlling a dog (and looks to be based on an anime):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--m6-RarzVQ
lupupu cube has mechanics sorta similar to falling puzzle block games, though is closer to sokoban in gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHgAxtmR7aE
(also there's a more recent game called [hampuzz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C_Z2i4N7WI) that seems to use the same mechanics)
everyone is posting games where you control the critter like it‘s Wario’s Woods. I‘m looking for games like Tetris Plus where you don’t control the little fella. But this is the thread about “falling block puzzle games where there's a little fella on top” so do what ya like, I do enjoy seeing these games either way.
Let's think of a name for the different subgenres, which I will list now:
- falling block puzzle games where you control the guy as the cursor to move puzzle pieces, _wario's woods, egg mania_
- falling block puzzle games where you control the puzzle pieces as normal, and the guy who you don't control traverses or is directly affected by them, _tetris plus,_ the game that is so cool that I started the thread
- puzzle platformers where you don't control the guy, whether you're adding blocks or items, _lemmings, mario & wario_
- puzzle platformer where blocks fall from the sky and you control the blocks, not the critters: _hello kitty's cube frenzy, gussun oyoyo_
it can be hard to tell at first glance whether the player is controlling the critter or not. you have to look at the cadence.
it seems like there is not much on the pure level of tetris plus: a traditional falling block puzzle game, where a guy you *don't* control is climbing around. In 90's japanese game developer terms, it's kind of like a virtual pet who is trying to survive amidst your usual game of tetris. still have not found _anything_ that's like a tetris-plus-like
It would be less confusing if I thought of some @"bankbank"#307's [puzzle theory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhFqUbyyIPI) style names like uppy-downy, east-west, etc. but I have to go for now.
@“chazumaru”#p98984 they are rivals?! I thought they were the same thing, like San-x was a subsidiary company. They sell San-x merchandise in Sanrio stores, that’s weird! Will read when I have the time because I love taropanda
...and if you'd like to try being the little dude getting rained on, there's Art Style Precipice/Kubos/Nalaku for DSiWare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbjdwTh70H0
