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.