06/08/01

                   Pokemon Puzzle League

System : Nintendo 64

Price : I got it for 10 bucks, a mighty steal!

Genre : Tile flippin' puzzle madness.


Forget your preconceived notion that anything with the Pokemon license is necessarily evil. (Well, it might be, but for a minute, put that aside.) Because for once, something good comes from the little yellow rat that could. Pokemon Puzzle League isn't what you think it is, a candy coated, groan inducing cutefest of characters too sugar-coated to even conceive playing. No, proving the best stuff is the classics, Nintendo wisely repackaged the best puzzle game of all time, Tetris Attack (which had absolutely NOTHING to do with Tetris, by the way) and placed it out for the world to consume.

For those who don't know, Tetris Attack's main premise is to line up 3 or more blocks of the same color on a rising playfield and make them vanish. By doing combos and chained moves, you can either slow the computer to a crawl or flood your opponent with massive "garbage blocks" and have him scream obscenities for some time to come. This was the utter beauty and madness that was Tetris Attack, and thankfully nothing has really changed except for the Pokemon overcoat.

Graphics.....well....it's Pokemon. At least it's clean. Everything's easy to see and the Pokemon presentation is well-enough done. The little in-game cartoons are nice and short, just long enough for you to not become extremely annoyed. Admittedly though, I like the little animation of Jigglypuff getting singing and getting mad when you bust out a particularly big combo.

The sound is actually nice...if it weren't so damn repetitive. Hearing Ash scream out "I'm gonna win!" constantly grates on the nerves after a while, but you need to hear the sounds of the Pokemon as a signal for warning of large combos. Besides, it adds SOME character to the game I guess. The music is alright, just MIDI tunes of songs off of the Pokemon:2 B A Master CD, but it fits. Voices are overall well done, but as stated, too much, too often.

Controls are simple. Two buttons, switch blocks and speed up blocks. Use D-pad to navigate, commence ass-beatings. Need I say more? Okay.

Alright. Admittedly, people don't like puzzle games much anymore (and with the advent of Capcom's fighting games, I can't say I blame them.) But this is fun. It has so much rivalry causing potential, it's competitive draw cannot be denied. Screw the Pokemon license, Tetris Attack forever.


The Reverend Mofat Jones runs the local chapter of Team Rocket out of Game Hits in Lansing, Michigan. Tryouts are Tuesdays and Fridays at 6:00 sharp. Be there or be square.

-Mofat

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