Pokémon Puzzle League

Pokémon Puzzle League features the same gameplay as in Panel de Pon. The objective is to clear blocks from the playfield by arranging them in horizontal or vertical lines of three or more blocks. A continuous stream of new blocks pushes up from the bottom of the playfield, causing the entire playfield to rise continuously. If the blocks reach the top of the playfield, the player loses. The player can temporarily stop the progression of blocks by scoring combos and chains, and in two-player battles, these actions also cause garbage blocks to stack on top of the opponent's playfield.

Unlike its predecessors, Pokémon Puzzle League features a 3D mode in addition to the traditional 2D mode. In this mode, gameplay takes place on a cylinder with an effective width of 18 blocks, compared to the six-block width of the flat 2D field. It also features the original block design from Panel de Pon and Tetris Attack, as well as a Pokémon-oriented design (which is selected by default).

In two-player games, players can select one of fifteen Pokémon trainers to play as. Unlike most Pokémon games, trainer and Pokémon selection are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay whatsoever.

Ash and Pikachu are on vacation (presumably after having competed in the Orange League) when they are called on the phone by Professor Oak, who tells Ash he has been selected as one of the challengers for the official Puzzle League Tournament. Excited, he races off with Pikachu to the nearby Pokémon Puzzle League Village.

To succeed in the tournament, Ash challenges Gary, his first rival, eventually defeating all eight of the Kanto region rivals and earning their badges after being obstructed in his path by Tracey, Team Rocket, and Giovanni, all of whom he also defeats. Soon after, he defeats the Elite Four and comes face-to-face with the Puzzle Champion, who is none other than Gary.

Upon defeating Gary once again, Ash is rewarded with a trophy, which immediately warps him to another dimension where he is welcomed into a last challenge by Mewtwo. After defeating Mewtwo, Ash is warped back to his vacation spot where he discovers a Pokémon Puzzle Master trophy awarded to him by Mewtwo.

The characters in Pokémon Puzzle League either come from the anime and were once exclusive to it, like Ash Ketchum, Tracey Sketchit, and Gary Oak or have appeared in previous Pokémon games but appear in the game as they do in the anime like Misty, Brock, and Giovanni. There are 16 playable characters in the game. In the 1P Stadium, only Ash is playable and Gary's Pokémon, a Nidoran♀, Growlithe, and Krabby, will fully be evolved into Nidoqueen, Arcanine, and Kingler, respectively, in Hard mode, Very Hard mode, and Super Hard mode when challenging him the second time. These fully evolved Pokémon are not playable with Gary. The final opponent of each difficulty setting varies. Giovanni is the last opponent of Easy mode, Bruno is the last opponent of Normal mode, and Gary with his evolved Pokémon is the last opponent of Hard mode. In Very Hard mode and Super Hard mode, Mewtwo is the final opponent, and beating him gives the player the true ending of the story in 1P Stadium.

Blake Fischer reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Well, it's either this, Tetris, or Bust-a-Move. If you're jonesing for some puzzle action, this is one of your better choices on Nintendo 64."[12]

Pokémon Puzzle League received generally positive reviews, according to review aggreagator Metacritic.[5] Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a 9.2/10, noting its similarity to Tetris Attack, and calling it "highly addictive".[6] IGN rated the game 8.9/10, stating "I'm totally addicted and thrilled with Pokémon Puzzle League."[11]

• Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, a Game Boy Color companion game based on contemporary Pokémon main installments.