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jp's Panel de Pon DS (DS)

[December 31, 2023 04:17:30 PM]

It's a match 3! And there are so many variants on the gameplay, BUT Panel de Pon is - if I recall, one of the earlier match-3 games, though originally it would have been considered a Tetris variant of sorts?

Hmm. I'll have to think about it some more. So, the first game was (according to Wikipedia) a SNES game called Panel de Pon (in Japan) but Tetris Attack everywhere else. Again, according to Wikipedia, Nintendo just slapped the name on it because they could (according to the terms of their licensing deal for Tetris at the time) , presumably to get some market recognition and drive greater sales. The game play is of similar (but also different) (and here I'm referring to Panel de Pon DS, which is the one I played):

LIKE modern match-3s, when you match three (or more) symbols of the same kind, they disappear.

LIKE modern match-3s, the core gameplay is swapping two tiles. However, here the swap is only horizontal AND, you can swap with an empty space. You can also swap without making a match. The swapping with an empty space I found really interesting, since you can "drop" tiles in a tall column by swapping with the empty space alongside. Oh, you can also swap quickly to create chains while an earlier match is still "resolving".

LIKE Tetris, you lose when tiles reach the top of the screen. The screen starts with some tiles, rather than being empty. Unlike Tetris, where pieces drop from the top, here a new row of random pieces scrolls in from the bottom (you can also speed it up, if you're just waiting to make a match)

LIKE Tetris, the longer you play the faster things move/go.

I'm sure there's more stuff - and, since I'm playing the Japanese version - and there's lots of menus and I wasn't that patient, I only tried out a few modes...so who knows what sorts of other nonsense I missed out on? (there's a puzzle mode where your goal is to clear the screen entirely, an "endless mode" (I wasn't able to play endlessly, but that's what it seemed the mode was) and more...