Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (ドクターエッグマンのミーンビーンマシーン Dokutā Egguman no mīn bīn mashīn?, lit. "Doctor Eggman's Mean Bean Machine", also known as Dr. Robotnik and His Mean Bean Machine in European countries outside of United Kingdom) is a falling block puzzle game developed by Compile and published by Sega. It was released for the Genesis/Mega Drive in North America and Europe in November 1993 and ported to the Game Gear in 1993 and Master System in 1994.

The game is a Westernized version of Puyo Puyo (1991), and replaces its characters with those from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, primarily the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog animated series. The Puyo Puyo character Carbuncle appears under the name "Has Bean" and makes different animations depending on how the player plays the game. The gameplay is similar to puzzle games such as Tetris, in which the player organizes colored shapes as they descend aboard.

Plot
Dr. Robotnik, the evil mastermind of planet Mobius, has hatched a new plan to menace the world and its inhabitants by kidnapping the citizens of Beanville and turning them into devious robot slaves, the doctor will create an army that will help him rid the planet of music and fun forever. To this end, he has created a giant robotizing machine called the "Mean Bean-Steaming Machine" to use on the jolly bean folk of Beanville.

Putting his plan into motion, Robotnik sends out his henchbots to round up all the unfortunate bean folk and group them together in dark dungeons so they can be sent to the Mean Bean-Steaming Machine. With help from Has Bean, the player must now stand up against Robotnik's henchbots by breaking into the dungeons, freeing the bean folk before it is too late, and get through the henchbots to the deranged doctor himself and foil his evil plans once and for all.

Why It's Not Mean

 * 1) It is faithful to Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog from having the titular supervillain, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, and his iconic henchmen (including the robot monkey, Coconuts). On every single level, nearly every single badnik from the very first episode of that show appears in the game.
 * 2) Great graphics that also are faithful to the cartoony nature from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and the greenish backgrounds in the levels are clearly inspired by Puyo Puyo. Which adds a layer of charm to its level design.
 * 3) It gets very addictive when you're stacking beans on top of each other because of the "blast processing" that the Sega Genesis is known for.
 * 4) * If you happen to battle the badniks for a long amount of time, regardless of difficulty level, it speeds up and it also encourages you to find different chain combos for the beans you've been stacking.
 * 5) Whenever you win a level, you get creative passwords that resemble each element in the game like the beans you use to win and the smiling Has-Bean.
 * 6) Whenever you lose, you are always given the option to continue without needing to necessarily start the game all over again. Which makes it rather rewarding, relaxing, and otherwise, helpful for the player's progress.
 * 7) Enjoyably challenging levels; these range from beatable to getting rather intense, especially Robotnik's very own stage.
 * 8) You are able to play the game with two players with any selectable level of difficulty in its Exercise Mode, which makes it have tons of replay value.
 * 9) It has a consistent tone with the appeal of the goofy and cartoonish nature of the aforementioned show that includes the characters. The enemies' facial expressions they make to communicate their nervous reactions to losing are downright comical and expressive (sometimes hilarious!), which adds a layer of fun and entertainment value to beating them.
 * 10) * Speaking of Robotnik's level; it actually shows a mild example for making Robotnik, a seemingly eccentric and ridiculous villain, more of a formidable threat than he seems.
 * 11) Downright catchy and awesome sound design. Where the Sega Genesis is very well-remembered for having some of the best soundtracks ever put into video games including the Sonic the Hedgehog series and this game is no exception. The Stage 1-4 theme is a prime example (which is a fan favorite amongst many gamers).
 * 12) The Game Gear version of this game (or even the Master System version), despite being a tad bit mediocre, is passable, playable, and it does have some creative things about it to make it stand out from the Genesis version.
 * 13) * Some of these include having a notepad for how to use the beans and after you beat a level.
 * 14) * Not to mention that Robotnik has plenty of wacky expressions while you battle him in this port, which can be also seen in the instruction manual for the Game Gear port; the latter being surprisingly faithful to Milton Knight's drawings he made when creating the character design model sheet for this take on Robotnik.
 * 15) This version of Dr. Robotnik was one of the first video game villains to have mild voice-overs in the 16-bit era alongside the villains from Altered Beast. All with some decent voicing that contains laughs and one yell that was provided by Max Taylor to voice Robotnik himself.
 * 16) The box art is awesome. All versions of this game's cover are equally just as good.
 * 17) This game was such a beloved classic, there was a whole entire level that is dedicated to this game on an actual Sonic game! That being a mini level as the boss battle in Chemical Plant Zone Act 2 of Sonic Mania.
 * 18)  "Yee-Hah!" 
 * 19) *  "Yip-pee!!" 

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While the enemies' facial expressions they make to communicate their nervous reactions to loss can be downright comical, their reactions when they win can be a little provocative.
 * 2) Some of the levels can get extremely hard to pass them. For example, stages from Davey Rocket to Scratch's levels; But at least they're all playable, you do get passwords to save your progress and you are given more than one chance to try again on a whim.
 * 3) Some of the game's ports can be considered mediocre, such as the GG and Master System versions that are much more simplistic by graphics, sound, and gameplay that is a little bit slower; the music is very minimal and not as memorable as the Genesis version.
 * 4) Sometimes the quick controls that Stage 5 starts off with, for example, can be a little too sensitive (these controls are noticeable when you're still on the same stage for a long amount of time).
 * 5) The ending is a bit anti-climatic. Especially since the game is somewhat short despite its high difficulties.
 * 6) While it is very faithful to the cartoon, there aren't that many references from the show aside from the titular villain with the recurring antagonists, the one-off robots that appear, and Robotnik's fortress (with the minor nitpick of Robotnik's missing golden statue of himself).
 * 7) * As such, you never get to see a cameo of Sonic, Tails, or anyone else from that show. Especially since this game is still a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise as a whole and AoStH fans may get confused about why other characters never appear.

Trivia

 * This was one of the many games that were imported to the Sonic Mega Collection Plus and the Sega Genesis Mini.
 * Both this game and Sonic Spinball are spin-offs that were made in the exact same year of 1993 to give a proper delay for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles while it was having a slight hiatus before it was released in 1994. Especially since Sonic CD was also released in the same year as the aforementioned spin-offs were.
 * Every A.I. in the game is modeled after Puyo Puyo's A.I's. Which can be found here in the Sonic fandom's Opponent list.
 * The composers were inspired by Germany's greatest band of electronic musical artists, Kraftwerk. The song "Home Computer" is a prime example.
 * The 2022 film Sonic the Hedgehog 2 references the game with a coffee shop called the "Mean Bean" serving as a hideout for Robotnik.
 * The game over screen in all versions of the game is based on the scene from AoStH's unaired pilot where Robotnik informs all of his henchbots from the S.S.S.S.S. Squad about catching and subduing Sonic having a sense worth and value to it.

Reception
It received generally positive reviews. It holds an average score of 75% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate of five reviews

Critics praised the various aspects of gameplay, although the puzzle genre's difficulty and overuse were negative factors. Andy Dyer from Mega acknowledged that the game had a simple concept and also observed that it did not provide enough of a challenge. Lucas Thomas of IGN enjoyed the game's array of puzzles and recognized that its design was intended to encourage two-player competition. Reviewing the Mega Drive version, Damien McFerran of Nintendo Life similarly echoed Thomas' opinion of the game's intention to encourage two-player competition and also noted that it provided a "decent" challenge despite viewing that a single-player could get bored easily. In contrast, Andrew Webster of Gamezebo criticized the high level of difficulty and the game's general accessibility due to its "ancient" password save system. Aaron Thomas of GameSpot found the game difficult to recommend due to the availability of free Puyo Puyo clones on the PC, but commended its basic mechanics, a wide range of game modes, and gradually increasing difficulty. Eurogamer's Kristan Reed labeled the game as a "fairly unapologetic reskin" of Puyo Puyo and thought that Sega decided to "shoehorn" the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise in order to enhance their sales, although Reed admitted the gameplay was solid and addictive. A reviewer from Jeuxvideo.com questioned the game's originality, saying that "stacking beans to make them disappear is not a new concept" but would still satisfy fans of the genre. Amanda Tipping from Computer and Video Games thought that the game was as addictive and as puzzling as the Tetris series, and also preferred the game's colorful visuals as opposed to Tetris. GamePro reviewer Andromeda found the game most enjoyable when using an offensive strategy.

The Game Gear version was also well received. In a retrospective review, Ron DelVillano from Nintendo Life praised the game's wide variety of game modes but noted the soundtrack's lack of diversity. DelVillano also thought that the graphics had not aged well as of 2013, but accepted that games in the puzzle genre did not require prominent visuals. In a similar vein, a reviewer from Joypad [fr] opined that the game's graphics were not "a joy" to look at, but understood that it was "normal" for a game of that genre. Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report lauded the game's addictive and "fun" puzzle gameplay but admitted it contained flaws due to the limitations of the Game Gear.

In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked the Genesis version and Kirby's Avalanche collectively as number 84 on their "100 Best Games of All Time", calling it "one of the simplest, most addicting puzzle games around." In 2017, Gamesradar rated the game 20th on its "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time."

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