What happens when you combine Sonic the Hedgehog and Tetris? The answer is a surprisingly good game by the name of Dr. Robotnik Mean Bean Machine. The game is not particularly original. You receive two beans that can be rotated in any direction they are made up of six possible colors. Match four like-colors in a row and they disappear. This game shows the best graphics that a Sega Genesis could handle, which is, at best, crude by today’s standards.
This game probably should have disappeared ten years ago, but one unique element has kept this game alive.
What happens when you combine Sonic the Hedgehog and Tetris? The answer is a surprisingly good game by the name of Dr. Robotnik Mean Bean Machine. The game is not particularly original. You receive two beans that can be rotated in any direction they are made up of six possible colors. Match four like-colors in a row and they disappear. This game shows the best graphics that a Sega Genesis could handle, which is, at best, crude by today’s standards.
This game probably should have disappeared ten years ago, but one unique element has kept this game alive. Instead of playing a single player game, like Tetris or Dr. Mario, the Mean Bean Machine relies exclusively on a one-on-one gameplay. If you setup chain reactions of beans,
then that creates a bonus that sends bricks to your opponent’s screen. This style is shockingly addictive. Whether you are playing your best friend, like I spent so much time doing, or going head-to-head against Dr. Robotnik himself, the fast-paced, competitive gameplay pulls you in. This game is more fun that it should be. The single player game requires the gamer to beat a number of Robotnik’s robots, increasing in difficulty, until you reach him. I beat this game, one time. The speed of the game increases so quickly with each level and the opponent’s AI becomes so good that it is a challenge for even the most seasoned gamers.
I cannot explain why this game has a Sonic the Hedgehog theme. However, in the same way that Mario Party is slightly better than ‘random group of characters’ party, knowing the Sonic characters makes the game a little more inviting. I must mention that Sonic or Tails or Knuckles (even though the last was not even created when this game was originally released in 1993) never appear in this game. It focuses on Robotnik and his group of evil robots.
As a simple strategy, puzzle game, the Mean Bean Machine can quickly lose its appeal. But, it represents a lost breed of games. The Mean Bean Machine is almost perfect in its simplistic amusement. It has simple, effortless controls. Four buttons: left, right, rotate and drop. The graphics, while simple, enhance the gameplay as you can watch Grounder or Scratch cry as you finish them off. I would strongly recommend spending fifteen minutes getting reacquainted with this classic. On the other hand, the addictive gameplay could easily turn that fifteen minutes into days and weeks.
