Puyo Puyo DA! -featuring ELLENA System- (Puyo Puyo DA! Featuring Elena System) is a competitive music game released in December 1999 for Dreamcast and arcade. It was developed by Compile and published by Sega.
This game is a spin-off of the Puyo Puyo series, based on the dance game Broadway Legend Elena featured in the 1994 PC-98 magazine disk Disk Station Vol. 4. In Elena, players would memorize their opponent's dance moves and replicate them using the arrow keys, whereas in Puyo Puyo DA!, players press five buttons in sync with the arrows on screen that correspond to the song's timing. There is no story or comedy skit, and the ending consists solely of illustrations and messages at the end of each course.
As the title suggests, Puyo Puyo DA! features characters from both Puyo Puyo and Magic Story series, including the protagonist Arle Nadja and six other characters, along with the protagonist Elena Stevens from Broadway Legend Elena.
All eight characters in the game wear dance-themed outfits. Additionally, the music charts (Puyo symbols) differ depending on the character used, and they change with the difficulty level.
Players press the directional buttons in time with the arrows and star Puyos displayed on screen, sending garbage Puyos to their opponent. Garbage Puyos can be countered, similar to the original Puyo Puyo. If the opponent attacks, the "Nori Nori Gauge" decreases according to the amount of garbage Puyos sent. However, scoring high will restore the gauge. The dancer who has garbage Puyos at the end of the song loses, and if the Nori Nori Gauge runs out during the song, the player will immediately lose. The preview Puyos follow the same system as in Puyo Puyo~n, though star Puyos do not appear in the preview Puyo system.
The judgment system has five levels: EXCELLENT, GREAT, GOOD, FAIR, and BAD. Continuous EXCELLENT or GREAT judgments build up CHAINS, increasing the number of garbage Puyos sent to the opponent. CHAINS are broken if GOOD or lower judgments are made, but unlike other music games, CHAINS in Puyo Puyo DA! will not break if you choose to ignore arrows or star Puyos.
Single Player Mode
In this mode, you select one of the eight dancers and battle against CPU-controlled dancers, progressing through various stages. There are three difficulty levels: Sweet (easy), Medium (normal), and Spicy (hard), with higher difficulty making the music charts more challenging and increasing the amount of CPU attacks. The number of stages you need to clear also differs depending on the difficulty and platform.
