DS Review: Planet Puzzle League

Puzzle fans rejoice, the Panel de Pon series hits the Nintendo DS in Planet Puzzle League. The popular puzzler series has had many iterations on various Nintendo systems; you’ve probably heard of Tetris Attack for the SNES or Pokémon Puzzle League / Challenge for the N64 and Game Boy Color 2005’s Dr. Mario / Puzzle League compilation for the GBA opened the way for the series into nex-gen handhelds; this time, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have taken the formula one step further, introducing touch screen controls, wireless worldwide multiplayer, and a variety of new and interesting features and gameplay modes that make Planet Puzzle League the best game of the series. Read on and find out what makes this game a worthy addition to DS gamers whether they have mad puzzle skills or not.

Planet Puzzle League and its predecessors play as traditional tile-swapping puzzle games. By swapping adjacent blocks and joining three of the same color together, they disappear, plummeting down anything above them. You can make combos by linking more than three tiles together, but the core of the game and mastery of experts is the chain system; you can destroy some blocks and make falling blocks land next to similar tiles to make them disappear as well. As you destroy blocks and prevent your stack from reaching the screen’s top, you score points or send huge garbage blocks to your opponent to keep them on their toes. The core gameplay is simple and easy to understand, but it is one of the most addictive puzzle formulas out there, and skilled players can find a lot of challenge by trying to make the longest chains possible. The game’s tutorial does a great job of explaining how things work, offering demos and short play sessions for you to practice.

Panel de Pon fans have done all this already, however. Fortunately, Planet Puzzle League features many new features. First and foremost, you can now play the game using the Nintendo DS touch screen, making block swapping as easy as flicking your stylus sideways, whether you’re left or right handed. Once you get used to this new control setup, you’ll be destroying blocks in no time, or if you prefer you can use traditional button-based controls. The falling speed of blocks has been reduced a bit, and advanced players familiar to the series might find this weird at first, but once you get to know the new style of play you will be chaining your way to victory like in the good old days, although it takes a while to get used to the slower speed of play.

Planet Puzzle League features many gameplay modes. Aside from the standard VS Mode against players or the CPU, you can enter the addictive and challenging Puzzle Mode, in which you’re given a specific amount of moves for you to clear the screen of blocks. The standard Endless Mode (play until you fail) and Time Attack Mode (get as many points as you can in a certain amount of time) are also available, extending replay value even more. Daily Play is new to the series and allows you to train and achieve high scores on daily 2-minute play sessions. Mission Mode is also new and challenges players by giving them specific tasks to perform before moving on to the next stage.

The single player experience in Planet Puzzle League is quite robust, and so are its multiplayer features. You can send demos or challenge up to three friends locally with a single copy of the game. New to the series are battle items which, once destroyed, create a variety of effects, such as shifting the color of blocks or sending your garbage back to your opponents. An even greater feature is the introduction of online play. Using Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service you can challenge worldwide players to some puzzle action. At first, you can enter Novice Mode to test out your skills, but once you’re good enough you will be moved to Free Play mode to challenge random worldwide opponents. You can even play against people that share you date of birth in Birthday Mode. If you take the time to exchange friend codes with people, you can enjoy yet another feature; voice chat. During setup and also during actual playtime, you and your friends can talk smack using the Nintendo DS microphone or headset, and the sound quality is great.

The game’s audio isn’t impressive, but its up-beat style matches quite well with the puzzle genre. Some songs are a bit too bland and short, particularly during long battles. The game’s backgrounds and graphical style are varied enough but won’t wow you, although that is of little importance, as you must focus on your block stack all of the time.

Planet Puzzle League offers a traditional, addictive puzzle experience with new features and gameplay elements to keep things fresh. Touch screen controls and online play will keep Tetris Attack veterans busy for a long time, and the incredible replay value in both the single and multiplayer sections of the game make this an excellent addition to DS collections of puzzle amateurs and experts alike.

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