And with Puyo Puyo becoming a gold-medal esports title at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games , it is interesting to look back at an earlier generation of Japanese character-based puzzle games.

A Sanrio game on the Famicom?

Yes.

And the cartridge itself tells part of the story.

Your copy of Sanrio Carnival has a very distinctive late-1980s/early-1990s Japanese character-game design, featuring Hello Kitty and several other Sanrio characters.

Sanrio Carnival
Character Soft
1990
Japanese Famicom

This is exactly the kind of physical Japanese game that JP RETRO GAMES wants to introduce to players outside Japan.

Not just the game itself, but the culture surrounding Japanese games of the era .

What kind of game is Sanrio Carnival?

At first glance, it looks like a cute children’s game.

But underneath the Sanrio characters is a traditional falling-block puzzle system.

Characters fall from the top of the screen, and the objective is to line up matching characters.

The interesting part is that matching can be done vertically, horizontally, or diagonally .

The original game also included several modes, including stage clear, high-score play, a beginner mode and two-player play.

This is where the game becomes interesting for overseas viewers.

Instead of seeing only Hello Kitty, you get a whole collection of Sanrio characters from the period.

It looks cute… but the puzzle gets serious

This is the part I wanted to show in the JP RETRO GAMES No.03 video.

The gameplay starts simply.

Characters fall.

You line them up.

They disappear.

But as the level increases, the screen becomes much more crowded.

And suddenly, planning your next move becomes much more important.

Then comes the satisfying part.

CHAIN CLEAR!

A large group disappears and the score jumps.

This is why I didn’t want to make this video simply a “cute Hello Kitty game” introduction.

There is an actual puzzle game underneath the characters.

From Sanrio Carnival to Puyo Puyo

And this is where the story gets even more interesting.

Sanrio Carnival was released in 1990.

The original Puyo Puyo appeared in 1991, first on MSX2 and the Famicom Disk System, before becoming a major arcade and console series.

The two games are not the same.

Sanrio Carnival uses Sanrio character blocks , and three matching characters can be lined up vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

Puyo Puyo uses colored “puyo” pieces, with four or more of the same color connected to clear them.

But both belong to the same fascinating Japanese puzzle-game tradition:

falling pieces → matching → clearing → chain reactions → higher scores

And then, 36 years later…

This is the part that makes this article especially timely.

In September 2026, Puyo Puyo became an esports medal event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games .

Japanese player Yuki Kurihara , aged 11, won the gold medal on September 26.

He defeated South Korea’s Kang Dong-shin 10–2 in the final . During the final, he also produced a 15-chain , one of the key moments reported from the match.

That victory made him the youngest medalist in Asian Games history , according to reports.

And suddenly, looking at this 1990 Famicom game feels a little different.

The games are very different.

The technology is very different.

The competitive scene is completely different.

But the basic satisfaction is familiar:

Connect. Clear. Chain. Score.

From character game to esports

Sanrio Carnival shows one side of Japanese puzzle-game culture:

characters + simple rules + colorful presentation.

Puyo Puyo shows another:

characters + simple rules + deep competitive strategy.

The original Puyo Puyo series has now been around for more than 30 years, and Sega describes it as a long-running action-puzzle series with players around the world.

And in 2026, that puzzle-game tradition reached the Asian Games medal stage.

That’s quite a journey from the Japanese Famicom era.

What I found interesting about Sanrio Carnival

For me, the most interesting thing isn’t whether Sanrio Carnival is as deep as modern competitive puzzle games.

It isn’t trying to be the same thing.

Instead, it gives us a snapshot of what Japanese character games looked like in 1990 .

Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters weren’t just merchandise.

They were becoming part of Japanese video-game culture too.