DS Game Profile: Planet Puzzle League

Maybe you know it as Tetris Attack, or perhaps you know it as Pokémon Puzzle League or Pokémon Puzzle Challenge. You might even know it as Puzzle League. No matter; the game has many names but only one great concept, which will soon be available in a DS game called Planet Puzzle League. Don’t make the mistake of confusing this with yet another Tetris clone; Planet Puzzle League offers a completely different experience than the popular line-clearing puzzle game. Instead of having pieces fall on your playfield, you start with a set amount of colored blocks, and more lines of blocks come from below at a regular rate. Your objective is to swap adjacent blocks, only horizontally, to join three or more of the same color together to make them disappear. That’s the core of the game; moving your cursor around to swap pairs of blocks. For more advanced players, the ability to create combos and chains is available, and required for mastery of the game’s higher difficulty levels. The game takes advantage of the touch screen by giving players the ability to swap blocks quickly and efficiently. The game is played using the ‘book style’ DS orientation, where the system is held sideways.

Planet Puzzle League features the standard modes that players familiar with the franchise expect, such as Endless Mode, where you play for as long as you can to achieve the highest score possible, and Line Clear Mode, where players destroy lines after lines of blocks until they reach the specific target line to more on to the next stage. Other modes include Puzzle Mode, which deviates form the quick-reflexes style of gameplay from the other modes and takes a more calm, think-before-you-act approach; you have a pre-determined amount of moves to clear the screen of the set arrangement of blocks. This mode starts out easy, but the upper levels can be quite frustrating.

For those looking for multiplayer action, Planet Puzzle League has you covered. Local wireless gameplay for up to 4 players is available, as well as 4-player Wi-Fi support for worldwide puzzle matches, complete with voice chat capabilities. New to multiplayer is the addition of items, which can be turned on or off, and a variety of backgrounds and block shapes to add some twist to the formula. Puzzle fans craving for a good challenge, or everyone looking for a great multiplayer experience, should look no further. Planet Puzzle League is expected to release in North America on June 4. We’ll make sure to give you updates as they become available.