Panel de Pon
Latest
'Wild Guns' and 'Panel de Pon' are coming to Switch Online next week
Nintendo is adding Rygar, Operation Logic Bomb, Wild Guns and Panel de Pon to the Switch Online library.
Joystiq hands-on: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure combines a block-matching, DS puzzle game--think Panel de Pon/Planet Puzzle League--with a side-scrolling platformer. This puzzling mash-up keeps the blocks on the bottom screen, Hatsworth jumping up top, and you toggling between each to maintain progress. We recently played this stylish title, due at the beginning of 2009. With so many small things to get right, we're uncertain that the puzzle-platformer will work, but we're impressed by its potential. %Gallery-29502%
VC Monday Madness video wrap-up 5/5/08
This week, we've got two titles on the Virtual Console tap. How are they? Well, we can't waste precious space here telling you about them. That's what the video above is for! And, if you can't check out our videos for some reason, head past the break for some screens and text.
VC Tuesday: Poor King's Knight
We have a soft spot in our hearts for King's Knight. Not enough of a soft spot, we don't think, to pay 500 points for the thing, but it's still just such a weird product. It looks pretty much like Ultima in screenshots, but it's totally a vertical scrolling shooter. And the Square nostalgia crowd just has no interest in shooters -- unless they're Einhänder. Square couldn't even get the title right in the game's own title screen. Something as maligned as this, you just have to love a little. By the way, this brings the number of Square Enix games on the VC worldwide to three. And only one of those is really any good.King's Knight faces tough competition this week in the weirdness category. Panel de Pon is pretty normal, although we suppose that being remade as Yoshi, Tetris, and Pokemon games is kind of weird. Still, it's just a great puzzle game. But Legend of the River King is a fishing RPG, and Langrisser is a strategy game from Masaya. And, as a Masaya game, it features cameos from Adon and Samson from Cho Aniki. In fact, they appear as hidden bosses, and, once defeated, grant you the ultra-powerful "Aniki" summon. Cho Aniki is basically the weirdness-in-games trump card. King's Knight (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Panel de Pon (Super Famicom, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) Langrisser (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 700 Wii Points) Kawa no Nushi Tsuri (Legend of the River King) (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
Metareview: Planet Puzzle League
Planet Puzzle League has been known by many names over the years, but we really only need one word to describe it, and that word is awesome. It's not just us, either; the reviews have been pretty positive so far. The puzzler has even edged out Ouendan 2 score-wise, by a single point. That's quite a feat! Here's what the reviewers have had to say:Nintendo Power: 85% - "Holding the DS like a book and pushing blocks with the stylus makes for an intuitive and fast-paced experience ... Planet Puzzle League lives up to the rich tradition of its heritage, and puzzle fans would be remiss to ignore it." (Issue 217, p. 97)Game Informer: 85% - "Sure, it's not terribly original, but I'm not complaining about another chance to play one of the all-time greats – especially when this new DS version has been created with such care. The touch-screen functionality (which allows you to slide blocks with the stylus) fits perfectly, and Wi-Fi play means that you can take your skills online."IGN: 90% - "... the core gameplay is identical in the Nintendo DS, but the biggest change is its control: instead of using a D-pad to control a reticule in the stack of tiles, now it's a simple matter of tapping and dragging the tiles left or right. While it changes the overall feel of the original Panel de Pon by increasing the pace of the game, that's the only thing that it changes. The puzzle game still has that same enormous amount of strategy -- much of the skill comes from shifting tiles around in a way that'll trigger the stack to fall multiple times for huge amounts of points, a technique that's absolutely important in Vs. play. But now it can be done a lot more quickly and intuitively with the stylus."Games Radar: 90% - "It's not as inventive or charming as last year's Tetris DS, but that game's overwhelming Nintendo aura could easily have turned a lot of people away. Planet Puzzle League opts for a very clean, uncluttered approach that simultaneously makes it seem generic and intensely stylized. The ability to share this joy with people around you and then play them from anywhere in the world serves to make this one of the better buys you can make for the DS."
Panel de Pon DS announced
Panel de Pon, aka Tetris Attack aka Panel de Pon, is a game we've loved in many guises. We loved it on the Super Famicom, with its fairies and pixie music (nothing to do with Frank Black); we loved it on the SNES, when it became Tetris Attack; and we even flirted with the GBA version in Nintendo Puzzle League. What we really need now is more Panel de Pon -- and according to Nintendo's latest release schedule, we're going to get just that. The Japanese version of Panel de Pon DS lands on April 26, with wi-fi multiplayer and -- as seen in these screens -- some very funky backgrounds. No news of a Western release as yet, but we can't imagine why it would be a Japanese exclusive.%Gallery-1738%[Image credit: Famitsu]
Panel de Pon coming to DS
We have great news for puzzle fans! Panel de Pon, aka Tetris Attack, aka Pokémon Puzzle League, aka Puzzle League is going to get a DS release in Japan in April, according to some rumor-hounds at NeoGAF. This marks the first time we can think of that the same game has appeared on both the Game Boy Advance and the DS.We can think of one thing in particular that could elevate this new version over its predecessors: delicious online multiplayer. We're dreaming of future Game Nights already.
