My best friend and I played this game on a whim one day and had a blast. Neither of us had played Panel de Pon before, so we were on equal footing and slowly learning how to play better. It's become a mainstay anytime we meet up now. We love making fun of the voice lines.

There's a lot more to this game than just the PvP, but I don't find Panel de Pon fun enough to actively go after it.

"AWW POOR BABY"

It's really weird how Pokemon took over Panel de Pon with like next to no hesitation. Like it's pretty obvious that Nintendo did not realize how big pokemon got, and knew they had to make more games for it, so they just repurposed Panel de Pon again. I don't know if the series is just super unlucky or cursed, but it's weird that it keeps happening.

What's worse is we didn't even get a good pokemon game either. Like the animation that was shown was repurposed from the show, and next to nothing exciting happens through out the rest of the game. It does try to create a lot of scenarios from all the reused assets, but unless you have a high suspension of disbelieve you can't really enjoy it. Cutscenes are often too vague or feel like the syncing is off, a lot of the characters talk with little or no mouth movement, and all the characters and background are rather static cutouts of reused assets. Like there is something to be said about the slap job reskin of this game, but that's appraisal for it's workers rather than the game itself.

Thankfully, Pokemon Puzzle League is still a proper puzzler. Panel de Pon mechanics still work the same, there is still plenty of other modes to work with, and it even supports 4 player battles. They also have a new 3D version of the game where you navigate a tube like board, but it's basically just Panel de Pon with more blocks when it comes down to it. Really, the rather rushed paint job of Pokemon on this game still didn't stop it from shining, but I would certainly put that on Panel de Pon's addictive gameplay rather than the branding itself. While I'm sure plenty came for the Pokemon, gamers stayed for the Panel de Pon.

I'd like to spend more time with this game before I give it a more confident rating, since, as of the time of this writing, I've only completed a few runs of the game's 1 Player Mode. But I'm giving it a quick one now to help round off games I played last year.

It's an update of Panel de Pon, one of my absolute favorite games, themed around the Pokémon anime, one of my most nostalgic things. I think I'm more likely to turn to Panel de Pon as a rule, since I'm better tuned to that game's speed, but Puzzle League is hardly a step down. The main appeal here is in the anime cast reprising their roles, the MIDI versions of the "2 B A Master" album's tracks, and the completely superfluous detail of being able to choose your Pokémon. But I also think theming the blocks around the Gen 1 badges is a cute touch and another smart way to integrate Pokémon as an aesthetic.

Like I said, I want to spend more time with this game before I give a more definitive review/score, so don't be surprised if I revisit this and end up giving it an adjusted score down the line.

P.S. Team Rocket having a Golbat pisses me off for some reason. Like, you couldn't bother ripping anime clips or more stock animal sound effects for Lickitung or Victreebel or something? Ah, well.

The second best re-skin of Panel de Pon that the western world ever got. It was topped by Planet Puzzle League for the Nintendo DS only because that game had online play with randoms (rip). Pokemon Puzzle League takes the gameplay previously seen in the Super Nintendo's Tetris Attack, removes the Yoshi aesthetic and replaces it with a Pokemon theme. How much you enjoy the change will depend on your love for Gen 1 & 2 of Pokemon and the early seasons of the anime. But the meaty puzzle gameplay is what keeps me coming back. It could be themed after Bubsy and I'd still enjoy it.

The puzzle-sliding-chain-combo gameplay is perfect here, and there is a LOT of single player content. This Panel de Pon/Puzzle League installment also features a 3D mode where you are given an cylindrical tube to play on instead of the normal flat screen. A fun game that I have a lot of nostalgia for. However, Pokemon Puzzle League failed to innovate from Tetris Attack imo. There is no 4 player mode despite being on a system with 4 controller ports built in. This would be introduced in the next console installment, but only in Japan. I'd love to see this series resurrected, with any or no theme at all. I think it would be perfect for Nintendo's "99" series of online multiplayer titles. It's currently available on Nintendo Switch Online, with online friend multiplayer!