Dr. Robotnik Mean Bean Machine

I first played this classic game on the Sega megadrive and it was an instant hit with both myself and my little bother who although not old enough to appreciate it at its release still found it highly enjoyable.
Doctor Robotniks Mean Bean Machine is a classic puzzle game in the style of other puzzle games where the purpose is to arrange like for like objects by shape or color such as columns, doctor mario and tetris. The aim of the game is to sort a range of falling colored 'beans' into the same color varieties of 4 or more in order to make them disappear and prevent the screen from filling up; if you are not quick enough you lose!
What makes this game interesting and different to other games of it's ilk is that In addition to simply removing the blocks (or beans) in fours one can gain a higher score and additional bonuses from producing combinations whereby the removal of one set of blocks triggers others to meet and in turn be removed; as stated this action then allows you to gain bonuses which provides you with the opportunity to penalize your opponent by sending useless blocks over to their screen which makes their life more difficult!
The single player option offers a sort of 'story mode' and as you progress through the game you can play against a familiar array of strange characters from the popular sonic game series which obviously become more and more challenging the further you progress through the game; inevitably you find yourself being pitted against Doctor Robotnik himself (although I never personally got that far myself).

On the whole this game is highly entertaining and addictive and is both appealing and accessible to a range of audiences. I spent many an hour (or day!) playing this game with my little brother (aged 10) and both of us found it hard to put down; even my mum had a go and she is a complete luddite!. As well as being a great multiplayer game the one player option is also very time consuming and enjoyable and you find yourself saying 'just one more go' to allow you to beat that next opponent and progress that little bit further through the game.
In summary I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a good puzzle but also to families who enjoy competitive fun.