Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (Game Boy Color)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.9 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 01/02/2001
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 09/01/2000
• Originally published on GameSpot: Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (Game Boy Color) Review

If you've played Pokémon Puzzle League on the N64, you're already familiar with Pokémon Puzzle Challenge. Despite a few missing options and the addition of Gold/Silver Pokémon, the games are roughly identical. What you may not realize, however, is that Pokémon Puzzle Challenge isn't just a generic puzzle game surrounded by Pokémon characters. Instead, Nintendo has taken one of its most beloved SNES-era classics, Tetris Attack, and given it a Pokémon-themed facelift.

Although formerly dubbed Tetris Attack, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge has little to do with Alexey Pajitnov's historic creation. You begin with a pile of cubes called garbage. Your job is to clear away the garbage by matching cubes of the same color into lines of three or more. When those lines disappear, the remaining garbage falls into place, sometimes causing further chain reactions. If you're unsuccessful at clearing the garbage, the pile will eventually collide with the top of the screen, which ends the game. What makes Pokémon Puzzle Challenge exciting is its system of groups and chain reactions. Single matches and chains can remove four, six, ten, up to 30 cubes at a time from the screen! Where Tetris was merely a game of shapes, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is a game of color, coordination, and chain reaction.

In keeping with Pokémon tradition, each of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge's six single-player game modes also encourages the collection and battling of Pokémon. In the challenge mode, you'll face off against a series of CPU-controlled opponents and try to bury them in unwanted garbage through the deft completion of combinations and chain reactions. Depending on your performance, namely how many chains you complete or how fast you defeat your opponent, hidden trainers may challenge you to a grudge match. Pikachu, Pichu, Togepi, and Marill are just a few of the many Pokémon you can acquire via this route. Puzzle mode also offers hidden Pokémon, such as Igglybuff and Magby, provided you can solve each of its 163 unique layouts in four moves or less.

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