Pokemon Puzzle League

"Tetris Attack + Pokémon = a good, solid puzzle game"

Nintendo brings the Pokémon world to life in a new way on the Nintendo 64. This time around, it’s a different kind of tournament; you are Ash Ketchum, the aspiring Pokémon trainer whose number one desire is to be the greatest Pokémon Master in the world. But you won’t be using your Pokémon in battle, per say…your weapons will be your intuition, your reflexes and your puzzle-solving abilities. Welcome to Puzzle City

Graphics (8/10)
Overall, Pokémon Puzzle League looks like it came straight out of the anime; heck, if someone were to animate enough battles between any number of trainers, the Puzzle League could be canon. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here…the images are very nicely done, though the character animations (such as Tracey’s demonstrations in Mimic Mansion, the training area) are merely stills faded into one another quickly. Not too bad

Oh, and James still cross-dresses. He’s either very secure with his “orientation” or has a lot of issues; I’m leaning toward the former.

Several animated cut scenes are present throughout the game, and are all very nicely done as well. The voice actors for the Pokémon dub have all given their voices to this game, and in the cut scenes, I’m tempted to say that there is near-perfect lip-synching.

Game play (9/10)
Remember the game Tetris Attack? You should; the game play is exactly the same! Yes, I know it’s a virtual copy of the aforementioned game, but they did a good job of it. There are six modes—1-Player Stadium (lead Ash Ketchum to Puzzle League glory, defeating everything in your path), Spa Service (Team Rocket has snatched all of Ash’s Pokémon, and you have to eliminate them before they eliminate your Pokémon), Puzzle University (solve a wide array of puzzles given a limited number of moves), Time Zone (you’ve got two minutes to inflate your score as much as possible), Marathon (you keep going until you lose), and 2-Player Stadium (you and a friend battle head-to-head).

The object sounds simple enough: slide three or more same-colored pieces together to make them disappear from your field. Simple, right? When you’ve got a fast-scrolling screen, an über-talented opponent or powerful computer AI doing the same, it’s tough. Combos (4+ block combinations) and Chains (make a match that causes other blocks to fall into place as a match) quickly turn from showmanship to prerequisites in some cases. The 1-Player Stadium has five difficulty levels, ranging from Easy to Super Hard. I kiddeth ye not, Super Hard is everything it sounds…and worse.

Before each match in the 1- or 2-Player Stadium, you get to choose which Pokémon to take into battle with you. This does nothing more than to determine the color of the garbage you send your opponent.

What’s unique about Pokémon Puzzle League is the addition of a 3D mode. This puts a whole new spin on the game, leaving you with more ground to cover and more garbage to clean up. Your patience, stamina and even sanity are put to the test as two player battles – and by battles I mean individual rounds – in 3D mode can easily last at least 20 minutes (if you don’t believe me, just ask Acidfreeze ^_^).

Sound (6/10)
Nothing to write home about here, really.

As I stated earlier, the dub voice actors are all present and accounted for. Each character has their own “theme” music, which is really just a rehashed song from any of the various Pokémon soundtracks. Making Combos elicits a taunt from your trainer (hearing Misty’s cry of “YAY!” repeatedly is about as pleasant as nails upon a chalkboard), while Chains make your Pokémon stand up and shout. That’s about it.

Control (8/10)
The controls are simple. You can either use the control stick or control cross to move around, and the L, Z or R buttons to raise the blocks (just in case you need material to work with pronto). The A button switches blocks during battle. These simple controls are quite effective.

Replay Value (10/10)
There’s a lot to get done in this game. You probably won’t want to put the game down until after you’ve beaten/unlocked everything. Beating all the puzzles in Puzzle University and beating all five difficulties in 1-Player Stadium are milestones in themselves. A few matches in 2-Player Stadium is an excellent way to kill two, three hours. And despite the listlessness, irritability and loss of sanity that are caused by such a long ordeal, you know you’ll be back.

Judgment
Ari gives Pokémon Puzzle League an 8 out of 10.

“How good are you?”

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/19/03, Updated 04/19/03