Panel de Pon

Originally released in the West with a massive redesign as Tetris Attack, Panel de Pon was destined to be ignored by me for quite a while. Drop-block puzzle games that weren't actually Tetris didn't really interest me for a long time. It wasn't until I played the Puyo Puyo Tetris demo with my wife that I realized playing Puyo Puyo (or other similar titles) could be fun too. I still wouldn't actually play Panel de Pon for years after that, but it's thanks to Puyo Puyo that I opted to give this game a chance in the first place. Plus, I can be a sucker for games that only released in Japan.

Panel de Pon is pretty straightforward. The board follows the typical rules of a match-3 game, clearing any blocks that match in color and form a contiguous line of three or more, with the game ending if any blocks make it to the top of the screen. As expected, the required block matches don't tend to happen naturally. You are provided with a cursor that is two tiles wide. As full lines of blocks slowly rise up from the bottom of the screen, you can use your cursor to swap the horizontal location of two adjacent blocks in order to line up matches. Because your swapping power is limited to the horizontal plane, a lot of your block manipulation will likely involve taking advantage of the board's gravity to encourage vertical movement. Apparently, people can also set up combos to trigger multiple clears in a row, but I will need a lot more practice to do anything like that. Once you get used to the mechanics, likely through solo free play, you'll be ready to take on my favorite part of this game.

Similar to what games like Puyo Puyo Tetris are still offering today, Panel de Pon has a sort of story mode that challenges you with beating an increasingly difficult group of NPC's in a competitive version of the puzzle game. This competitive version lets you spawn garbage blocks on your opponent's board by making large matches or big combos. These garbage blocks turn into regular blocks if a successful match touches them, making them available for clearing as well. The story mode ends up being pretty basic, but it is the perfect motivation for continuing to play and improve in a game that otherwise has no clear end goal. With so many games on my plate already, I like when a game lets me know that I've played enough to comfortably move on, and Panel de Pon does that for me. This approach does end up making the game pretty short, but I don't really mind. There are plenty of sequels to let me hone my craft in the future.

I have recently heard Panel de Pon touted as the best puzzle game of all time, and while I am still firmly a Tetris fan, I can see why people think that. This game has a lot of the same appeal that Puyo Puyo does for me, with colorful characters and a rewarding learning curve. I just don't have the attention span to work through that whole curve in one game. Maybe over time I will try to improve by playing subsequent entries, but for now, I'm just glad I started playing the series here.

Popular posts from this blog

Meow Tower: Nonogram Pictogram

Image
I seem to have a thing for mobile games about cats, and I am a huge fan of Nintendo 's Picross series. Normally those two interests don't overlap, but Meow Tower changed that. Combining the fun of befriending cute cartoon cats and solving intricate number puzzles hooked me immediately. While it's technically not a Picross game, seeing as that is a Nintendo trademark, the nonogram puzzles are still the same, and I loved being able to play them on my phone. Granted, there have been plenty of options to play these kinds of puzzles on the phone for years, but Meow Tower  sets itself apart from the rabble thanks to its stellar aesthetic. The developers behind this game are true artists. While it's a solid, straightforward nonogram game at its core, Meow Tower just looks so much better to play than any of the numerous generic options that crowd the app stores. The bubbly sticker-book style used for the art and menus gives Meow Tower a lot of charm and personality from t
Read more

Space Lich Omega

Image
Inspired by the ever popular Candy Box and Candy Box 2 , Space Lich Omega is an browser-based RPG adventure with an almost entirely ASCII display. However, it chose to step away from the established fantasy style of it's inspiration for a more science-fantasy theme. I ended up having a fun time with this game, despite its need for a little polish, thanks to the unique story and hilarious pop-culture Easter eggs that can be discovered throughout the different explorable locations. Despite the crude-ish interface, I never had any trouble navigating throughout the game. I actually ended up beating it in a relatively short time, especially when I had my gunk production going all out, allowing me to jump my health up enormously. Although I did need to do a little grinding every now and then for an item that I missed, that didn't interfere with my enjoyment too much. Ultimately, this is no Candy Box , but it still has its merits and is worth playing if you ever find yourself in
Read more

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

Image
Reusing game engines has proven to be pretty popular in the Zelda series. It offers developers a chance to craft more experimental and risky games, as the initial investment on the engine was covered by the previous, more traditional release. As a huge fan of A Link Between Worlds , I was ecstatic to learn it was getting a pseudo-follow-up. My excitement only grew when Nintendo sent me an early-access demo, and I somehow had no concerns that this was another multiplayer-focused game, despite my preference for solo play. Since the previous multiplayer Zelda games had pretty functional single-player modes, I anticipated that I could expect the same here. Unfortunately, that wasn't an entirely accurate assumption. Like its predecessors , Tri Force Heroes is level-based in order to accommodate its multiplayer focus. All of the stages are designed like dungeons, so they hold up really well for puzzle-solving challenges, but they lack a lot of the same charm you can find in Four Swor
Read more