The eShop is rife with puzzle games, and it’s understandable as to why; they’re fairly simple in design and can provide a huge amount of entertainment to an incredibly broad audience. Some of them can be a little bit monotonous or shameless clones of another game, but you’ll sometimes find something just a little bit different without being quite as mind-bending as Wario’s Woods.
Pokémon Puzzle Challenge takes place in the Johto region that's famous from Pokémon Gold and Silver, and features many of the iconic critters from that generation of games, such as Cyndaquil, Totodile, and Chikorita. Of course there’s the obligatory appearance of Pikachu as well, but we’d be surprised if the loveable red-cheeked menace wasn’t here. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is just a generic puzzle game with a Pokémon skin slapped over the top, meanwhile, but that’s not entirely the case.
The basic premise of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is to switch coloured blocks along a horizontal axis so that they line up to make three or more in a row. As you’re clearing blocks the level slowly rises revealing a new row of blocks every time, which you can also speed up by pressing the B button. If that sounds simple to you, you’re right. If that sounds easy to you, you couldn’t be more wrong.
There are a number of different modes, most of which have a difficulty setting which can be set to Easy, Normal, or Hard. These don’t actually increase the rate of the flowing blocks as you might assume – that's handled by a separate ‘Speed’ option – but rather increase the number of coloured blocks you have to work with as well as presenting you with more complicated arrangements of blocks. This is a nice touch, as you can still feel like you’re being challenged at slower speeds, and you’re gradually eased into the chaos that occurs at higher levels rather than just being thrown straight in.
The modes are nicely varied as well. There’s the typical Marathon mode where you simply play until you fail or simply lose patience, there’s the Line Clear mode which tasks you with clearing a certain number of rows so that there are no blocks above a previous line, and then there’s Time Zone mode, where you have a set amount of time in which to attain the highest possible score you can. These are the simplest of the six modes, as the others take on significantly more detailed elements.
Challenge mode is easily the option that has the closest connection to the Pokémon series. You fight gym leaders one after another and ‘attack’ their Pokémon by clearing lines and creating combos; you can also line up special blocks with exclamation marks on them to hit them extra hard. Once their HP is depleted you move on to the next opponent. In Puzzle mode you’re presented with a specific set of blocks and a limited number of moves in which to clear them — these start off simple but rapidly become taxing, and even though the first ten are almost laughably easy there are fifty more to put you through your paces, and put you through your paces they will. Garbage! mode is much like Marathon, except every so often huge blocks of ‘garbage’ will be dumped down on top of your blocks and you have to clear them by creating a line of blocks that connects with them. They don’t just disappear once you’ve done this, instead they turn into normal blocks and attempt to choke your cleverly-planned arrangements. All of the modes in the game are nicely unique compared to one another, and allow a vast variety of gameplay despite the basic premise remaining the same.
The presentation in this title is rather lovely; the colours are bold and clear, the blocks are all clearly distinguishable from one another and the text is easy to read. Whenever you play you choose a Pokémon which sets the background for your game, which is a nice touch but does very little; you can unlock additional Pokémon by completing undisclosed challenges, but it’s purely aesthetic. All of the game modes are unlocked at the start, which is good, but unfortunately the 3DS still does not have compatibility to allow multiplayer on some Virtual Console titles, so two-player mode is strictly unusable. The sound in this game is excellent, taking some of the best tracks from the first and second generation of Pokémon and re-orchestrating them to make them more dynamic and enjoyable.
Conclusion
Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is a deceptively meaty experience with plenty of content to keep you occupied for hours at a time, or you can simply dip into it every so often for a few minutes if that’s what you prefer. The Pokémon theme is not a complete necessity, but it does allow for the Challenge mode to have a bit more substance to it. All in all this is a very solid title, and for the price you really can’t go wrong if you’re a puzzle fan.
Comments 15
Never enough puzzle block games.
My brother loves this game. We got Pokemon Puzzle League back on N64, when it came out, but we never got the chance to have the GBC version. He got it on the eShop, right away.
@Alex - I think you missed an "e" on one here
"You fight gym leaders on after another"
Nice review. Not going to go out of my way to get it.
Only an 8 for one of fhe most addictive puzzlers ever? Or is this not the best version of Panel de Pon?
This and puzzle league ds makes me dab tears of (fairly recent) nostalgia
Wondering whether to pick this or Pokemon Link Battle?
@Dr_Corndog I hear Tetris Attack on the SNES is really good. That might be a more definitive version, you know... If you like Yoshi.
This seems like a good alternative to Tetris Attack on the GB. That game was awesome.
@Dr_Corndog
The screen size might strike some points against this particular version of Panel de Pon, the game zone in this one is 6x9 (width x height), against 6x12 in most games of the franchise (SNES, GBA, DS, N64 in 2D) and a freaking 18x12 in the 3D mode of N64. For people accustomed to the series, the play zone feels cramped from the get go.
I HATE HATE HATE that they don't allow multiplayer on these games, it is ridiculous. Nintendo, surely it can be implemnted... surely! Grrrr...
I loved Tetris Attack, I might try this out.
What an amazing game! After 14 years, I STILL haven't unlocked Sentret...
@Dr_Corndog
It is. Propably minus 1 point because of the lack multiplayer. That mode was a blast, although my cousin always destroys me in multiplayer. I still haven't beaten Challenge mode on the 5th difficulty setting, gotta do that one day.
Those who haven't played the most epic version of Panel de Pon, do it now. Buy this!
@Gauchorino
That one is really hard to get. Not only you have to get that specific move done right, and then defeat Sentret.
Hey, thanks for getting this review out here.
Thanks for the review, but its pokemon so instant buy for Mii!
Tap here to load 15 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...