Panel de Pon

Panel de Pon (Or Tetris Attack, or Puzzle League, or Puzzle Challenge, or one of any inumerable ripoffs running around the world) is a Match Three Game published originally by Nintendo, but copied (both in formula and directly) by dozens of others. While not the Trope Maker for the Match Three Game, it certainly helped popularize the genre.

Gameplay is simple. You have a screen full of differently colored blocks (also marked by different shapes). You can swap the blocks freely horizontally, but you cannot swap them vertically. Get three or more of the same block in a row, and they vanish. Get more than 3 in a row, clear multiple sets of 3 at once, or create a chain--the blocks that fall in to replace the ones that you just cleared form more sets of 3 or more--and you get more points. However, the stack of blocks is constantly growing, and if it reaches the top of the screen, you lose. While a simple formula, it lends itself well to many variants: Play until you lose, score as many points as possible in a limited time, clear all the blocks on screen with limited moves, face off against a CPU to see who loses first (with unclearable "garbage" to speed up the process)...

The original Panel de Pon came out for the SNES in 1996, along with a Game Boy version. The plot (such as it was) starred a fairy named Lip trying to rescue her friends. Since no self-respecting gamer would buy a game featuring 'girly girls' in those days, Nintendo decided to do the infamous palette and name swap, the same way they did to Super Mario Bros. 2. The US version was Dolled-Up Installment as Tetris Attack, with identical gameplay but with a Yoshi's Island theme, a few extra options and character profiles, and nothing to do with Tetris at all. It later saw two Pokémon-themed reskinnings: Pokémon Puzzle League, for the N64, introduced a "3D" mode with a cylinder of blocks instead of a stack, and Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, which was almost a proto-Puzzle Quest. It had "battles" between Pokémon played out in puzzle matches, and some adventuring on the side. The name "Puzzle League" stuck: A Game Boy Advance compilation release (along with Dr. Mario) simply entitled it "Puzzle League," as did the DS version.

Aside from a Super Smash Bros. cameo, Lip has been nowhere to be seen in puzzle land for quite some time. She did, however, show up as a character in Captain Rainbow.

Tropes used in Panel de Pon include:
  • The Artifact: The "lily castle" from Panel de Pon remains in the background of Tetris Attack's story mode.
  • Artifact Title: Pokémon Puzzle League was so-titled because it involved Ash from the Pokémon anime joining a new type of Pokémon League--not just a Pokémon League, but a Pokémon Puzzle League. While there haven't been any Pokémon-themed entries in the series since the Game Boy Color game Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, the title stuck.
  • Bishoujo Series: The art style of the first game in Japan, and the probable reason the US version was a Dolled-Up Installment.
  • Cap: The score capped at 99999 in Endless mode in the original Super Nintendo version. In Pokémon Puzzle League, this was increased to 999999. The GBA version lets you choose which to use, as well as sort of lampshading this by recording your fastest time to each one.
  • Combos: And Chains. Master them if you want to score big in single-player modes or kick ass in versus modes.
  • Defeat Equals Friendship: In the story mode of the SNES games, for the first 8 stages the protagonist (Lip in PdP, Yoshi in TA) battles their friends who have been put under a spell. Winning against them breaks the spell.
  • Dolled-Up Installment: The first game was released as Tetris Attack in the US, and featured characters from Super Mario World 2, making it a double doll-up with both Tetris and Mario. Some of which have undergone a Heel Face Turn. Then there was Pokémon Puzzle League, localized by Nintendo Software Technology Corporation from the then cancelled Panel de Pon sequel, which gave the series' most recent entry its title after removing the license.
  • Dummied Out: Lip's Stage from Planet Puzzle League is only unlockable in Japan. Other countries will have to access it via Action Replay.
  • Excuse Plot: Lip's fairy friends/Yoshi's monster friends getting kidnapped. Pokémon Puzzle League featured Ash taking part in a "new kind" of Pokémon battling league.
  • Generation Xerox: Furil, from Panel de Pon, looks very identical her mother Lip.
  • Harder Than Hard: Hardest in the SNES version, Very Hard, Super Hard, and Intense in the later games. Generally only applies to 1-Player VS Mode, though.
  • Fundamentally Female Cast: The original two Panepon games.
  • In Name Only: There's nothing Tetris about Tetris Attack. This and Tetrisphere were part of a late 1990s brand extension that The Tetris Company now concedes was a mistake.
  • Japan Bonus: When the Panel de Pon sequel was finally released in Japan, it received the new feature of 4-player Vs., a feature that Pokémon Puzzle League didn't have.
  • Lip, I Am Your Mother: A bit of a Shocking Swerve, really. We didn't even know her mother was missing!
  • Match Three Game
  • Nintendo Hard: Making chains (especially "active"/"skill" chains), which are the basis of huge attacks and high scores, is very difficult.
  • Perfect Run Final Boss: The "story" modes of the SNES/GB versions wouldn't let you fight the "final" enemies unless you played on higher difficulties than "Easy Mode Mockery."
    • Corderia & Bowser can't even be fought on Normal in the SNES version. You have to be on Hard or Hardest to face him/her. The same is true for Gary's rematch in Pokémon Puzzle League, and Mewtwo requires no less than Very Hard.
  • Puzzle Game
  • Recursive Import: Tetris Attack was later released in Japan as Yoshi's Panepon, for Satellaview.
  • Recycled Title: First we have the original Panel de Pon, its Gamecube sequel is also called Panel de Pon. Guess what the Panepon portion of Dr. Mario & Panel de Pon is also called.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The GBA version features some kind of... flowery hamster thing as your visualization during the game, which reacts to how well you're doing in-game.
  • Score Multiplier: Gameplay is highly reliant on combo-based multipliers, as the game moves at a relentless pace and requires such chains both to keep up and to keep the opponent at bay.
  • Secret Test of Character: The entirety of Panel de Pon's story was actually Lip's mother, the queen of fairies, trying to find the right fairy to make the new queen.
    • "Pokemon Puzzle League" is pretty much this with Mewtwo at the end.
  • Sequel Difficulty Spike: The AI is much harder in Pokémon Puzzle League (and probably other sequels) than the original game. The AI in "Planet Puzzle League" is also much harder than the AI in "Pokemon Puzzle League" too.
    • According to Wikipedia, the AI in TA is also tougher than in Panel de Pon at the higher difficulty levels.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Cordelia / Corderia.
  • Villain Forgot to Level Grind: You can fight the final boss (or a minion with equal difficulty) halfway through the single-player campaign. They're exactly as tough as at the very end.
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