sparkling planet puzzle league

in my last post i had written about getting back to the panel de pon, aka tetris attack, aka puzzle league series, and i had been, quite frankly, somewhat demoralized by my recent experience with pokemon puzzle challenge. i thought i’d skip over the GBA version and try dipping into the DS iteration, planet puzzle league, since i had it on hand. like the GBA version the DS game eschews both yoshi and pokemon trappings and instead like many other recent puzzle games opts for a very lumines (i.e. trippy techno) influenced design.

as i’d expected, my poor performance in pokemon puzzle challenge wasn’t just due to my gradual decline towards senility. as i mentioned in that post, the size of the board definitely plays a factor (it’s significantly smaller in both the GB and GBC titles), but comparing it to planet puzzle league it immediately becomes apparent that that game gives you much more time to create “active” chains (i.e. making chains during the small pause before the blocks drop due to gravity). i’m guessing the amount of time is about the same as the N64, but in the case of pokemon puzzle challenge you have to rely on setting up all of your chains before you set them off, which is much more difficult and limiting.

the ability to make chains more easily made the game much more enjoyable than the GBC title, and overall the game is easier than the N64 game as well. the biggest change, though, is that the DS version introduces touchscreen controls to the series for the first time (and also allows you to hold the DS sideways as in brain age or in its usual orientation). this addition almost makes the game feel a bit too easy, but it’s probably the biggest evolution the series has seen thus far and helps make this the most addictive game in the series yet. there are all the standard puzzle game modes (marathon, time attack, etc.), plus the addition of wi-fi friend and random battles and items in VS mode with all the abilities that you’d expect.

it’s easy to see why the game received such a warm reception when it was released, and it’s probably the first game in the series to really rival the pitch-perfect original. the game was also released on DSiware in a stripped-down version (mostly due to excluding multiplayer features), but copies of the original DS version should be fairly readily available. in either case this is a wholly enjoyable title and certainly earns a spot near the top of the games i’ve played thus far this year.

sparkling planet puzzle league links:
– page at nintendo.com
– entry at wikipedia

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gold and silver pokémon puzzle challenge

yet another series of games i’ve been slowly working my way through is the panel de pon, aka tetris attack, aka puzzle league games. next up for me was pokémon puzzle challenge for the game boy color. as with most puzzle games the core gameplay of the puzzle league games doesn’t change at all from game to game, and the main differences are the trappings. in this case the game is based on pokemon gold and silver, as opposed to the pokemon anime skin of the N64 version released around the same time and which i played a couple of years ago.

like that game in pokémon puzzle challenge you select which pokemon you want to play as, but the choice is purely aesthetic and has no bearing on the actual gameplay. in this game you can unlock a few others as you progress, mostly via accomplishing hidden objectives (such as making a 8- or 10-piece combo) in the game’s “challenge” mode. this is the game’s version of a story mode, and in it you battle to become the pokemon gold and silver champion. in the easy mode you battle up to the eighth gym leader, and in the normal mode you battle the elite four as well. in normal mode you get unlimited continues, but in the hard mode, similar to the first game boy version of tetris attack, the number of continues available is limited by the number of pokemon you’ve collected. unlocking all the pokemon can be challenging, but otherwise this mode is easier than in other games because instead of having to beat your opponent by overwhelming him/her with an avalanche of garbage blocks (i.e. from creating large chains), here the opponent has a hit point meter that you just have to whittle down. so you just have to wait until you get a large set of garbage blocks and then return them over and over again, which is easy to do. there are two harder settings (super hard and intense) which may make the game more challenging, though.

aside from these differences the game suffers slightly overall for the same reason that the game boy tetris attack did. i discussed this issue in my post on that game, but basically the problem was that in both games the board is 9 pieces high and 6 across, whereas in the “standard” console versions the board is 12×6. the shorter board makes it harder to create chains, although i’m sure puzzle league masters would have less of a problem with the difference.

the game also features the usual puzzle game modes, such as marathon, time attack, puzzle, and multi-player. overall i feel like my puzzle league skills have plateaued somewhat, so i was happy to play through the game’s main modes and put it aside until i get around to tackling the next entry. i suppose that would be the dual pack with dr. mario for game boy advance, which has a conspicuous lack of either yoshi or pokemon trappings but does squeeze in the full 12 x 6 board, a first for the handheld versions.

gold and silver pokémon puzzle challenge links:
– info on how to unlock all the pokemon
– collection of cheats at gamefaqs
– entry at wikipedia

“can’t win ’em all” in pokemon puzzle league

i’ve been continuing to play a lot of sequels (or titles that spawned sequels, as the case may be), although i have a few standalones coming up in the near future. i’d been meaning to play another N64 game for a while, so i though i’d give myself a little mindless break after the punishing f-zero and have a quick playthrough of pokemon puzzle league.

for better or worse i was quite mistaken, though. although i had been right in assuming that the game would be pretty much the same gameplay-wise as the two previous panel de pon aka tetris attack titles i had played (although with pokemon trappings instead of yoshi’s island ones), there was one significant difference: namely the addition of some painful levels of difficulty. although i knew that there was definite room for improvement in my skillz, i’d thought that by now i would be at least good enough to get through most challenges with enough continues, but sadly this proved to be far from the case. on the very hard 1-player setting PPL is rough: the CPU will regularly do 7+-chains repeatedly, and there’s apparently a super hard mode for people who want even more punishment. i worked on polishing my skills and made some progress so that i can now do 3- or 4-chains somewhat regularly, but after a while it just seemed like too much effort to match the computer and i was just too demoralized to continue. i’m sure there are many who have become true puzzle league masters and can breeze through even the super hard levels, but i took comfort in my improvements and have put the game aside for another day.

outside of the regular 1P mode vs the CPU, there’s also a 1P solo mode that incorporates the game’s most unique feature, which is a 3D board that wraps around in a cylindrical shape. that mode also gets to be more frustrating than fun in the later stages because it becomes focused more on quick combos as opposed to chains, and i’m not quite sure that the 3D version really adds that much, but it does provide some variety. the game also includes the usual puzzle mode (a limited number of moves to clear the board), timed and marathon modes, and 2P modes, along with a create-your-own-puzzle mode that i didn’t bother with. i had thought the game might include at least something involving pokemon beyond its presentation, but it doesn’t. although you can select one of your character’s three pokemon before a battle, your choice apparently doesn’t have any effect whatsoever. the pokemon visuals and sound effects are from the TV series and are colorful although the voice samples are fairly annoying, but in the kind of “so annoying it’s kind of entertaining” way, e.g. team rocket’s “i’m feeling giddy!” and “mee-owwth” and ash’s “i’m a pokemon master!”.

it’s kind of hard to rate this game. in terms of its presentation i prefer the less grating yoshi skin, and in terms of the difficulty i suppose i can’t mark it down for containing higher levels than i’ll get to anytime soon. the 3D mode isn’t a big draw, so overall i suppose this is a game for people who don’t mind the pokemon trappings and are seeking more of a challenge, or for people who really love the pokemon anime series. apparently the game boy color version has some minor pokemon collecting, so i’ll be tackling that one next, although i don’t expect it to be as difficult as this one. incidentally, this is one of the few nintendo games that have been released in the US and europe but not japan.

win all of these pokemon puzzle league links!
– serebii.net has a pretty good subsite, with a rundown of all the characters and their three pokemon
– good review at gamefaqs that goes into more detail on the CPU’s abilities
– good FAQ at gamefaqs
– FAQ with details on point values
– random awe-inspiring gameplay video
– entry at wikipedia

tetris attacked — on the go

just a quick post. i know i said i was going to cut down on the sequels, but i had some games already in the pipeline to finish, one of which was the game boy version of tetris attack. i had played and thoroughly enjoyed the SNES version and was looking forward to trying out the various iterations the game has gone through since its original release in 1996.

puzzle games tend not to vary much, and the original game boy version of tetris attack has even less reason to as (according to the game’s page at wikipedia) it was released pretty much simultaneously with the SNES version. in terms of the trappings and modes the games are pretty much the same. the biggest difference is the size of the well [alert! alert! geek speak ahead. skip to the next paragraph to avoid!]: in the SNES version the well is 6 blocks across and 12 high, whereas in the GB version it’s 6 across and only 9 high. this definitely changes the rhythm of the game, and working your chains vertically becomes less feasible. the difference in the well size will probably require you to adjust your strategy if you were reliant on working in the middle of your stack to make chains like i was. also, perhaps as a way to compensate for the limitations on making chains, it feels like the game handles garbage blocks a bit differently than the SNES version. as in the SNES version, making a line next to a garbage block causes all the garbage blocks to turn into regular blocks, but in the GB version there seems to be a significantly bigger pause while the garbage blocks are popping; this makes it easier to rearrange blocks below the garbage blocks and set up chains based on what the garbage blocks have turned into. this change helps make the game more balanced overall, although it also makes it easier to rebound from getting a lot of garbage blocks. since i haven’t played the SNES version in a while i may be mistaken on that, but that was my impression.

since i hadn’t played any version of the game in a while i had a good time just getting back into it. even though i’d played the SNES version a fair amount i’m still far from being a chain master, so there was definitely plenty of worthwhile time spent just improving my tetris attack/panel de pon skillz. i cleared the regular mode on the hardest difficulty, which was rather on the easy side, before proceeding to the “vs COM” mode. on the hardest normal setting this was definitely more of a challenge, but the game gives you infinite continues so it doesn’t take too much effort. after beating bowser the game challenges you to beat bowser without any losses in the first 7 stages (in which you battle your “friends”, e.g. lakitu or poochy, who have supposedly been put under a spell) and with less than 7 continues in the final four stages (i.e. you can use each of the “friends” you’ve accrued as a continue). this is also more of a challenge and definitely kept me coming back for more.

all in all this was a nice portable alternative to the SNES version. the graphics, music, and sound make the transition pretty much intact, and although the gameplay ends up having slight variations, it’s still the tetris attack you know and love and it’s very much worth checking out. especially if you’re a geek like me who gets into the minute differences between versions of the same game! lucky for me there are still plenty of iterations of the series to check out in the future. hahaha. 😉

another attack of tetris attack links!
– linked to this before, but still worth noting: nice general PdP fansite
– themushroomkingdom.net has a comparison of the SNES tetris attack to the original, japanese-only panel de pon
– passwords at IGN
– entry at gaming.wikia.com with info on all the characters

tetris attacked

[a new year, another round of complete time wastage due to fire emblem … more confessions to come …]

the first game of the year i sat down and finished was the original US release of tetris attack, a.k.a. panel de pon. i’ve been a fan of puzzle games since i first played tetris on the game boy, so i was looking forward to seeing how i’d like this, one of the most venerated series of tetris-like games (the other main one being puyo puyo, which i played last year in the form of kirby’s avalanche). in short, i found panel de pon to be fully deserving of its reputation as one of the greats. it’s an addicting game, although with a learning curve that’s much higher than tetris and even puyo puyo. as a result its gameplay is deeper, particularly with the numerous ways there are to make chains. but this is not to say that panel de pon is “the best”; each of the three series for the most part holds its own against the others.

in terms of the implementation of it, as with kirby’s avalanche tetris attack’s artwork, etc. are actually a complete reworking of the original japanese game. in this case, characters are taken from super mario world 2: yoshi’s island. unlike avalanche’s problems with balance in vs mode, here the gameplay is very well balanced and it’s quite easy to have long matches in which garbage blocks get sent back and forth as each player struggles for the advantage. there have been tons of sequels on various platforms, the most recent being planet puzzle league on the DS. you can be sure that i’ll be checking all of them out, as well as revisiting the original (in the US anyway) tetris attack to play some more vs matches and finish the puzzle mode. oh, and this is another great game from intelligent systems (who also do the fire emblem series). they’re my heroes!

attack of the links!
– screenshots of the endings to all the modes
– great fansite with info on how to play, animations of various ways to make chains, passwords, and music
– some worthwhile cheats at IGN
– entry at wikipedia