Online Tetris Attack. Did that get your attention?

User Rating: 8.1 | Panel de Pon DS DS
Planet Puzzle League (PPL hereafter) is the latest entry in the long-running Panel de Pon series (you know it as Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle League), except once again anything associated with Panel de Pon was removed. This time, however, there are no personalities to be seen in Puzzle League. That fact might make PPL seem “lifeless” at first, but you'll quickly forget Yoshi and Pikachu once you realize how much fun you're having dumping garbage on your opponents online.

For those who are not familiar with Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle League, here's a brief rundown: gameplay involves manipulating blocks to match three blocks of similar colour. Matching blocks will destroy them, earning you points, and causes any blocks that were standing on the destroyed blocks to fall. Matching more than three blocks (called a combo) gives you extra points, and matching blocks as they fall (called a chain) earns you even more points. The goal is to make huge combos and chains; it might seem onerous at first, but over time you will begin to see moves well before you actually make them, and the effort is rewarding. There are alternate modes of play where instead of gathering points, the objective is to drop “garbage blocks” on an opponent. Garbage blocks are simply obstacles that restrict one's moves. They can be eliminated by matching blocks that are directly touching a garbage block.

PPL offers various single- and multi-player modes, but the biggest reason to own PPL is to play against other players online in Wi-Fi battle mode. The game offers a novice battle mode for those players who want to get their feet wet against other new players, but once the game thinks you're good enough, novice battle becomes locked. You will then be forced to try either free play mode, which is an unranked battle mode; birthday battle, a quirky mode that lets you challenge other players who share your own birthday; or friend battle, which lets you challenge players in your friends list. The latter is noteworthy because it allows you to use voice chat during gameplay.

Wi-Fi battle is where you will spend most of your time playing PPL, and the great thing about Wi-Fi is that there is no lack of competition. Japanese players in particular will make short work of anyone who hasn't been practicing on a consistent basis. Once you get tired of being pummeled by someone whose name you can't read, you can play some of the single-player modes. Daily play allows you to play three different modes, but each mode can only be played once per day. A handy chart shows your progress on the path to becoming an expert player. There's also Puzzle mode, which consists of puzzles that range from clearing all blocks in a fixed number of moves, to very specific tasks, such as making an L shape out of a limited set of blocks. Vs. com pits you against an AI-controlled opponent to do battle in various modes, though the only mode that matters—in preparation for online play—is garbage battle. PPL offers local wireless play for up to four players. All the vs. com modes are available here, plus the ability to send a playable demo of PPL to any DS unit in range. The latter is a handy feature to have, and will hopefully be included in future games.

There are a few issues with PPL. Daily play is a nice feature to have, but its purpose is nullified by the fact that the same modes in daily play are available elsewhere in the single player menu, and you can play these modes at any time. PPL's other problems involve online play. The game will track your wins and number of matches played, but there is no real leaderboard. The online rankings are reset every week, and even worse, instead of one main leaderboard, there's one board for each day of each month. In other words, you are only ranked in birthday battles, and your rank is compared against other players who share your birthday. If you can't find any players with your birthday, you may have to change your birthday in the DS system settings. It's a silly way to find good players.

Those flaws aside, PPL is still a game worth owning. It's hard to resist what's essentially online Tetris Attack, and the fact that competition is fierce means PPL isn't going to be put down for quite a while. Any future iterations of PPL should focus more on online play by offering more modes and features, as well as a single leaderboard that allows players to check their stats against the world's (i.e. Japan's) best. For now, let's enjoy what we have and hope that someday, we can survive the 14+ chain that gets dropped time and time again...