Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

The Puyo Puyo character Carbuncle appears under the name "Has Bean" and makes different animations depending on how the player plays the game. The gameplay is similar to puzzle games such as Tetris, in which the player organises coloured shapes as they descend a board. The plot sees Sonic antagonist Doctor Robotnik kidnapping residents from Beanville and turning them into robots. The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the gameplay but criticising the difficulty.

The game is set on the planet Mobius, which is inhabited by bean-like creatures. Doctor Robotnik conceives a plan to bring terror to the world by kidnapping the citizens of Beanville and turning them into robot slaves, and eventually creating an army that will help him rid the planet of fun and joy. To achieve this, he creates the "Mean Bean-Steaming Machine" in order to transform the bean-like creatures into robots. Putting his plan into motion, Robotnik sends out his Henchbots to gather all the bean-like creatures and group them together in dark dungeons so they can be sent to the Mean Bean-Steaming Machine. The rest of the game's story revolves around the player character, "Has Bean", and their journey to stop Robotnik's henchmen by breaking into the dungeons and freeing the bean-like creatures. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is based on Puyo Puyo, a Japanese falling-block puzzle game. In the story, players must rescue Beanville from Dr. Robotnik and his army of Badniks. In Scenario Mode, the player plays against 13 increasingly challenging computer opponents. In the multiplayer 1P vs 2P Mode, two players battle against each other, and in Exercise Mode, players can simply practice. The Game Gear and Master System versions feature an additional mode, Puzzle Mode, in which players must attempt to clear predetermined sets of beans. On each player's grid, groups of beans fall from the top of the screen and can be moved and rotated until they reach the bottom. When four beans of the same colour are matched together, they disappear from the grid, causing any beans above to drop. These beans can trigger other matches, resulting in chain combos. By performing chain combos, players can send grey "refugee beans" to hinder their opponent. These beans cannot be matched normally and can only be removed by completing a match adjacent to them. A player loses when beans spill over the top of the board, leaving them unable to add more beans into the grid.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a Westernized version of Puyo Puyo (1991), a Japanese falling-block puzzle game developed by Compile and released for the MSX2 in 1991. Fearing that the game would not be popular with Western audiences, Sega replaced the characters of Puyo Puyo with those from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, particularly those from the 1993 Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog animated series. An 8-bit version was also released for the Game Gear in the same year and the Master System in the following year, adapted from the Japanese Nazo Puyo game. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine has also appeared in retrospective compilations, such as Sonic Classics 3 in 1 for the Genesis in 1995, Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube in 2002, as an unlockable bonus Game Gear game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube and Windows in 2003, Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004; which also contains the Game Gear version, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (known as Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in PAL regions) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2009, and Sega Genesis Classics (known as Sega Mega Drive Classics in PAL regions) for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2018. In 2006, Sega released the game on the Wii's Virtual Console. In 2010, it was released on Windows via Steam. In June 2013, the Game Gear version was released for the Nintendo 3DS via its Virtual Console emulation service. In 2021, the Genesis version was released on the Nintendo Classics service. On June 23, 2023, the Game Gear version was released on Sonic Origins Plus.