117. Sanrio Carnival 2 (?, Famicom, 1993)

Sanrio Carnival 2 is the sequel to game #113 Sanrio Carnival, though pretty much only in name. While they are both puzzle games, the mechanics and presentation are pretty different. Instead of matching up the faces of Sanrio characters falling down 2 at a time, in Sanrio Carnival 2, you are controlling a character who is hitting falling pieces of candy to line them up in groups of at least 3. So the match three aspect is still there, but the mechanics are very different.

You are on the left side of the stage where candy is falling in a vertical column and you can either hit a candy one space to the right with B or 2 spaces to the right with A. You are on a little elevator platform that can move you up and down to reach the top or bottom of the playfield. The game is broken up into 3 modes based on this same puzzle style:

1. Stage Mode: This mode has you playing a series of increasingly challenging (though not ever difficult) stages, broken up with a bland tile-sliding minigame that you thankfully do not have to solve to progress.
2. Battle Mode: The only interesting mode in the game. You are battling against another character who has the same abilities you do and you are trying to make 5 matches of all 3 colors before them. There are special bomb tiles in this mode that will stun you if they explode on your side of the screen, and timing them just right to block your opponent feel great.
3. Challenge Mode: This is just an endless/practice mode. The least interesting of the three modes.

Unfortunately, the varied and interesting mission mode from the original Sanrio Carnival is nowhere to be seen, though at least the base gameplay is a little more interesting and something I haven't exactly seen before.

3/5 another solid but not super interesting Sanrio puzzle game, I prefer the original