Collection essentials #425: Pokémon Puzzle League (N64)

What we have here is basically an updated version of Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack for the Super Nintendo, only with Pokémon characters instead of fairies or Yoshi’s Island characters. It’s hard to call this a sequel, because there’s barely anything new here aside from the new skin. Basic gameplay is exactly the same, and for more info on that, you can read my post about the original release.


Pokémon Puzzle League is specifically based on the hugely popular Pokémon anime TV series at the time, which was in its second season in the English-speaking world at the time. And so the main protagonist is Ash Ketchum and his right-hand Pikachu as Ash seeks to become a Pokémon master…by battling with puzzle pieces! The English voice actors from the anime are all present, which is a nice touch. There’s even a bit of original animation for the game’s cutscenes, too. What’s very odd is that this game was never released in its home country of Japan! I honestly have no idea why.


Pokémon Puzzle League has all the same modes as the original game on Super Nintendo. Although it doesn’t feel very original, that’s not to say there’s nothing new at all. Puzzle mode is changed up and not simply the same puzzles from the original copied and pasted. There are more difficulty modes for the single-player versus campaign, with the highest being much more challenging now. There was occasionally a bit of slowdown on the SNES when the screen got really packed with stuff, and I’m not sure if I’m remembering right but I think there’s not so much in this version. And perhaps the most notable addition is the “3D” mode, which makes the playing field a complete cylinder that you can rotate rather than a flat rectangle. There’s one big issue I have with this release, though, and that is…there’s no four-player mode!! You’re still limited to just two. It’s kind of baffling as to why, as this was a later Nintendo 64 title, and so many releases for the console tried to throw in some kind of way for four people to get in on the action. Thankfully, Nintendo righted this wrong the next time they brought back this series, which I’ll get to at some point.


The game is called “Puzzle League” because the “Pokémon League” is a major thing in the Pokémon games and anime. But strangely enough, after this game, English Panel de Pon releases without any Pokémon branding adopted the term “Puzzle League” as the series title, since bringing back the name “Tetris Attack” carries some copyright difficulties. 


As a kid, this was one of the few games I remember my family renting. And of course, I realized as soon as I booted the game up…hey, it’s Tetris Attack!! Obviously I love Tetris Attack, so I didn’t mind too much, though I wished that there was more new stuff on offer. Truth be told, while this release objectively has more to offer than the original, I kinda prefer the original as I like the presentation and music more. But really, you can’t go wrong with any release, as it’s a super fun puzzle game at its core. While it’s not my go-to Panel de Pon experience, Pokémon Puzzle League is still an essential in my book.

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