Pokemon Puzzle League is an interesting game to give a score. The game is fun because Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon is fun. The thing is that's the only thing good about this game. The UI is that of a 2000s flash game, the soundtrack is composed of terrible renditions of the Pokemon anime music, and progression through the single-player campaign is even ruined by the fact that you can't reach the end on anything but hard mode. If this game invented Panel de Pon and was the only way to play it then this game would get more of a pass and at the end of the day, the gameplay would supersede the terrible way this game is presented. But it isn't the only way to play Panel de Pon so what does this game actually have to offer. Giving this game a good score would feel like giving every match-three game on the app store a good score because the concept of match-three games is solid. This is a bad version of a good game. Now I'm going to go play a version of Panel de Pon that doesn't feature Ash screaming every two seconds.

I do love my panel de pon.
Started playing it cause it got released on NSO. Never got the game back in the day, but puzzle games likes this will forever hold up.

My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
+ Gameplay;
Solid and introduces new "3D" mechanic. Not really a fan of that tho, bit too much for me.

+ Music;
Love all the songs I recognize from back in the day. Soundclips can get a bit too much tho.

+ Graphics;
Used actual footage from the anime. Not really anything to complain about.

- Story/Characters;
Nothing special, but less than the one on SNES.

Recommend?
Would recommend if you're into puzzeling or want to find out if it's something for you.

First time ever playing Panel De Pon. Or Tetris Attack or whatever name it happens to have in English at any given time. It's a pretty fun puzzle game, easy to play, hard to master, that type of thing. The Pokémon skin over it all is...odd. Like they don't implement any of the actual Pokémon mechanics - moves, super effectiveness, catching, etc. The Pokémon you choose just acts as the backdrop of the stage and has the sound effects. I get that making RPG mechanics in a puzzle game might be broken, but why choose an RPG to base the game around then? Just use Yoshi again or something if you're too scared to use the real Panel De Pon characters. At least the anime music is pretty cool to have.

Also I know there's a "story", but having only Ash be playable, and then only 3 of his Pokémon be available to play is kind of lame. Like you're already doing next to nothing with the Pokémon, at least let me choose between his full kanto roster. Funnily enough you can't even choose other characters in the other various 1 player modes, as they don't have selectable Pokémon at all. So I think choosing from the wide cast is only available in 2 player mode? Admittedly I never checked that much.

Anyway I am terrible at these games. I have no eye for setting up chains, and definitely no reaction speed to put them into place. But even with that in mind, the difficulty in this game is WILD. Easy mode was of course easy, but then I got roadblocked hard by Gary, the first battle, on medium. I almost gave up, but after finally beating him I managed to stroll through the rest of normal with little difficulty outside of Erika, weirdly. Then hard mode came and I got all the way to Blaine without a single loss, but Blaine beat my ass multiple times in a row. I didn't win a single battle in one try after that, but it varied between 2 tries or many many tries. I guess you could say it's consistent that the difficulty ramped up at the end there, but, for example, with Loreli, after multiple ~3 minute matches where I kept losing, I had one game where she just lost in 18 seconds. And I didn't do anything special in that game. Maybe there's a mercy counter or something, but if that's the case then even that isn't consistent because some opponents seemed to have their "easy" match way faster than others. There were also games where I managed to pull off some pretty crazy chains (mostly by accident tbh) and the opponent recovered like nothing, while the winning game would be me doing nothing but getting a few 4 block combos. I don't get this difficulty at all, it's like the difficulty is mostly RNG, but the difficulty you select is more like the "highest" RNG it will pick.

Trying to get through npc dialogue felt pretty clunky too.

So a decent puzzle game, with a lazy Pokémon implementation and a difficulty that makes no sense. Lots of modes at least if you really wanna go deep into it.

Gotta stack em all!

Pokemon puzzle league brings the fun and adds more to the puzzle style game. The game just like Tetris attack has a story mode where you challenge the Kanto Gym leaders and many others to battle against the puzzle champion. the choice of pokemon doesn't make a difference at the start of the battle. just pick your favorite and keep stacking.

The music is possibly the huge nostalgia for a lot of pokemon fans including myself. most of the songs are from the 2.B.A master soundtrack and others from the pokemon orange league anime.

If your new pokemon fan that started further in the series, I recommend you give this a game a try as the old fans who never played tetris attack to try this as well.

Puzzle League/ Panel de Pon is a fun, easy-to-understand puzzle game with a high skill ceiling and fast-paced yet occasionally tactical play. The way the blocks look and the sound the cursor makes are pleasing, but the anime art is cheap and aliased. As far as speed goes, Pokemon is a little on the fast side, but, thankfully, in intense moments, the Virtual Console might lag and give you an extra second to think. 3D Cylinder mode is fun and makes chains easier than ever. The sound pokemon make when they get chains ranges from grating to funny. Makes me wish I could play a Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart version of Puzzle League with endless, easy-to-implement custom characters. I don't think one version of Puzzle League is the "definitive version," and Ninty haven't made a new one in years, so, there's potential here.

I'm not saying this is the best N64 game. But I'm not saying it's not.

Sadly it takes the cartoon route by having the Pokemon be voiced, although something can definitely be said about hearing the VAs do their best full cringe freakout while a big combo is happening. Adds a certain energy to the gameplay for what it's worth.

The 3D mode is insane and it's a shame it has never been done again in later Panel Pon games, even though you basically can not lose in it. Although the same technically applies to Player 2. Irresistible force paradox, as told by shrieking Pokemon and colored blocks.