Everyone makes mistakes, and when it comes to gaming journalists, we’re probably at the top of that list. But with the advent of online publishing, it has become easier than ever for us writers to correct every time we make a mistake, thanks to the ability to constantly update and alter our work.
Unfortunately, however, this was not really the case for our predecessors working in print in the ’90s, who often had to live with their mistakes, no matter how bad or embarrassing they might be.
The reason we say all this is because a review of Puyo Puyo SOL for Sega Saturn appears to be making the rounds online again (thanks to YouTuber Kenny Lauderdale), where the author made the strange and hilarious mistake of accidentally changing the name of the game to “Ijidkijidk SUN” after misinterpreting the Japanese hiragana for Puyo Puyo (“ぷよぷよ”) for a bunch of letters from the Latin alphabet.
To give the writer the benefit of the doubt, it’s easy to see how something like this could happen, since journalists often have to review things outside their comfort zone and quickly get up to speed while facing a tight deadline. Therefore, the writer or editor may have never heard of the other versions of Puyo Puyo and may have been operating on very little sleep. But it seems a little bold for the person putting on the finishing touches to simply assume they can take a look at the Japanese logo and try to pick out English characters that don’t actually exist, as if it’s some kind of weird Japanese Rorschach test. .
While no source for the review was originally provided in the screenshot that was shared, we quickly identified it as being from the first issue of Saturn Power. This was a short-lived British magazine, launching in June 1997 as a successor to Sega Power, but only lasted 10 issues before its parent company Future Publishing pulled the plug.
The review in question was part of a small collection of imported reviews, all by a single writer (who will remain anonymous), and the game scored a respectable 84%, despite the magazine’s difficulty in getting the name right.
Did you read Saturn Power back in the day? Do you remember this review? Let us know in the comments!
