Pokemon Puzzle League

"Now THAT'S what I like to see..."

I have always liked the Pokemon anime. I'm 15 now but I still will watch it if nothing better is on. The quirky characters and fun feel of the show are very nice if you're open minded (why people think that being 13+ makes you un-eligible to like Pokemon is beyond me.) I think that the anime, thus, needs more games based around it. This is the first attempt at a pokemon anime game, and I can breathe a sigh of relief that it's a good game. Well, onto the meat of the review!

Gameplay: 8
I have never played Tetris Attack, so there will be no comparisons. Putting aside all the pokemon stuff (don't worry, I'll be talking about it soon,) This is a fun puzzle game. I'm not going to explain how it works, because you probably know, so I'll just say that the game is very very fun. Does it get boring, sometimes? Yes. Does it get repetitive? Yes. Do you ever want to put the game aside and leave it? No. This is one of those games where it's a simple premise but it's so fun you just want to keep going.

There are several modes of play. In 1-P Stadium, you essentially play a story mode in which you fight various trainers from the show which get progressively harder (you can only be Ash in this mode, which brings the score down because Ash's voice gets very annoying in the game). 2-P Stadium is the versus mode. In Spa Service you must get the blocks below a certain line to beat Team Rocket. Puzzle University is puzzle mode, and in Marathon you see how long you can go before the blocks reach the top of the screen. All of these modes are fun, but you'll find yourself spending the most time in 1-P Stadium and Puzzle University.

Graphics: 9
Excellent! The graphics for this game were clearly designed by the animators of the show. The blocks are bright and look like a lot of time was put into them. In all, the only graphics in the game which I don't like are on the Main Menu. It's just to flat and lifeless it doesn't fit the animated feel of the game. Still, I'm nitpicking.

Sound: 8
All the music (or at least most of it) is remixed versions of tunes from the show. Each character has their own theme song which, if you know the song, fits them. (For example, Brock's theme is ''Viridian City'' and Team Rocket's theme is ''Team Rocket's Rockin''') I really like some of the songs, especially Misty's (''Catch Me if You Can''), Erika's (''What Kind of Pokemon are You?''), and the theme from the wedding stage in Line Clear mode (this will make sense when you play it.)

The voices are a blessing and a curse. The voice actors from the show obviously did them (That's good), but they did very few per character (That's bad). They sound very nice (That's good), but they get old fast (That's bad). Still, you can always hit mute. (That's good...or is that bad?) Please pardon this homage to the second pokemon movie. Sorry.

The sound effects are very nice and don't distract while at the same time being fun to listen to.

Control: 10
They did it right, that's all I'll say.

Story: 5
Ho-hum. Ash has been asked to a Pokemon Puzzle battle thingy in Pokemon Puzzle Village (Do I hear the dubbers sleeping on the job?) Well, at least it HAS plot. Another bad thing about the plot is the rather watered-down dialogue scenes between 1-P Stadium battles. The opponents essentially say ''Hello Ash. Good to see you. You're doing well, but my pokemon are really strong. Let's battle!'' Sigh....

The Bottom Line
Pokemon anime fans will probably get the most out of this game, as there are many references to the show. Still, newbies will like the puzzles and surprising challenge of the AI. I can only hope that we see more Pokemon anime games in the future (Team Rocket Advance, perhaps?)

Until next time, it looks like Rocketlex's blasting off agaaaaiiiinnn!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/02, Updated 03/23/02