- NA release: 25th September 2000
- PAL release: 2nd March 2001
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Nintendo
- Publisher: Nintendo
- N64 Magazine Score: 89%
The lack of a Japanese release for this is interesting for a few reasons. For starters, it is one of the few (if only, alongside the GBC version) Pokémon games to not get released in Japan. It’s also a version of a Japanese puzzle game called Panel De Pon, which was released on the SNES and known outside of Japan as Tetris Attack, featuring Yoshi.
A sequel for Panel De Pon was developed for the Nintendo 64 and ended up getting cancelled, although it did eventually make its way to the GameCube. The Western version, however, ended up still getting developed with the Pokémon licensing attached.
However, it wasn’t just a generic Pokémon theme, but one specifically relating to the English dubbing of the anime. The game opens up with a nice little animation featuring Ash, Pikachu, Oak, and the narrator from the show introducing the game, and various voice lines from the show are used throughout. The theming is really well done, and they’ve managed to fit everything around Pokémon extremely well.
As a puzzle game, it’s also a really good one, with nice symbols used instead of just colours (you can also swap from the Pokémon themed icons to the original Panel De Pon ones). The object is to swap two neighbouring blocks in order to form blocks of three, with the focus on clearing multiple groups or combos at once – which sends over bad blocks to your opponent. It’s fast paced, but also feels like you can plan fairly well. If you do find yourself clearing lines too quickly, you can also press a button to speed them up, to give you more to work with.
There are also a few different ways to play, with the most impressive being a 3D version, played in a cylinder that you rotate all the way round. While there’s a lot more to keep an eye on at any one time, you can quickly move some blocks a vast distance to score some good combos. There’s also a mode for solving specific puzzles, and a mode where you have to clear a set number of lines to defeat Team Rocket.
Pokémon Puzzle League is a solid and very enjoyable puzzle game, and the Pokémon theming works really well. There’s a lot to like about this one.
Great
In all honesty, it’s extremely difficult to find fault with Puzzle League. Nintendo haven’t skimped in any area: the backgrounds on each screen show faithful renditions of your Pokémon favourites; the sound is perfectly cute and chirpy and there’s an ideal learning curve. For puzzle fanatics and Pokémon fans alike, this is not to be missed.
Geraint Evans, N64 Magazine #52
Remake or remaster?
We’re due a new Puzzle League game. Perhaps it’s time to return to Pokémon for it, too?
Official Ways to get the game
There is no way to buy a new copy of Pokémon Puzzle League, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.
Europe
Japan
North America
Re-Releases
2003: Nintendo Puzzle Collection (original Panel De Pon Version, Japan Only, GameCube)
2008: Wii Virtual Console
2022: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
and one of the most difficult 64 titles to emulate in my poor Anbernic😅
I alluded to this when I looked at this game on my Pokémon Spin-off’s thread, but this is one of only three times where the Pokémon video games even so much as acknowledge the anime, the second one is a clumsy cameo of Ash’s Greninja in Sun/Moon, and the third one is an awful mobile game which shoved Ash Ketchum in for Gacha purposes.
Smash Bros. Brawl, and especially Smash Bros. Melee also does so (Mewtwo and Lucario are specifically based on the movies they feature in). Although even this series has started to veer away from using the anime too much.
You’d think with how prominent the anime actually is, more games would be based on it, but nope. It’s very strange.
This was my first experience with the Panel De Pon/Puzzle League series and naturally it became a lifelong obsession for me. I utterly adored this game and played it to absolute death, becoming pretty darn decent at it if I do say so myself.
Looking back on it, it’s actually now one of my least favourite entries in the series, owing to its rather janky presentation (you can literally see and feel the seams where it switches game engines from Intelligent Systems’ Panel De Pon 64 game code into NST’s bolted-on Pokemon Puzzle League code). It feels like a hack of another game… and that’s because that’s exactly what it is…
… in fact, the original Panel De Pon 64 was actually recently just found! Someone got their hands on a beta development cartridge containing the original PDP64, before it was cancelled and later ported to the Gamecube as part of the Nintendo Puzzle Collection!
However, despite my issues with PPL’s overall janky feeling, it’s still Puzzle League and it still plays very well in the actual gameplay department; which means that it kicks arse. It’s crazy fast and frenetic, and it rewards fast thinking in a way that no other puzzle game does. While it makes the player have to think several moves ahead of their opponent, it doesn’t require the player to spend so much time setting up chains in advance as seen in Puyo Puyo. In that respect, the closest analogue to Puzzle League’s gameplay is probably Magical Drop (and its own lovingly made knockoff, Money Puzzle Exchanger; which is also a great game for the NeoGeo BTW!).
However, Puzzle League’s gameplay doesn’t end with its kick arse multiplayer battle mode, because it also shines as a single player puzzle experience; as the core gameplay lends itself surprisingly well to limited-move puzzles too. It’s a surprisingly malleable set of core gameplay mechanics.
It’s so sad that the series ended proper in 2007, but we did at least get a little tease of life in Animal Crossing New Leaf Welcome Amiibo of all things! But that was just a minigame (and not a particularily good version of Puzzle League at that either, featuring gameplay that is pretty slow and unresponsive). Come on Nintendo!!! Bring back Puzzle League already!! If Famicom Detective Club of all things can get a revival, surely Puzzle League can!?