YMMV / Panel de Pon

• Ass Pull: Lip's Missing Mom goes entirely unmentioned until The Reveal that she was disguised as Cordelia the whole time. The game's Excuse Plot nature leaves little room for foreshadowing, but Lip did have a brief introductory monologue, and she said nothing. The only hint is in a Dummied Out character bio of Cordelia intended for Attract Mode, which cryptically mentions a "secret".
• Awesome Music:
  • The final boss theme in the SNES version, The Place Where Evil Sleeps. It was still present in Tetris Attack, though Demoted to Extra as Bowser's appearance theme.
  • The Stage Clear Credits is quite a beautiful tune. It is just called "Special Ending 4", but it is quite heartwarming as well. It also has the background set randomly.
  • The ending of the Game Boy version of Tetris Attack. A most emotional/heartwarming chiptunes, especially everything after 2:00. The more calm, beautiful example of this is the SNES Version: whether it's a young fairy girl or a cute dino dragon running on a rainbow, it really sets up your mood. Especially after the clearing the hard mode.
  • Bowser's theme is really good here, too.
  • Thought Thanatos's theme (the theme we got for Bowser) was a little too comical in the SNES version? The Gamecube version definitely has you covered. Ironic, given how he looks even sillier in this version.
  • Like it or not, Planet Puzzle League has a soundtrack that goes along the Techno motifs very well. A particular example is Lobelia Cardinalis a catchy orientalsounding music that play on the flower themed level. The flute and the beat makes the song sounds both modern and traditional at the same time!
  • For Pokémon Puzzle League, Misty's theme, which doubles as an awesome remix of the original song, "Catch Me If You Can" from the "Pikachu's Vacation" short of The First Movie.
  • Did you enjoy listening to the anime songs from the Pokémon 2.B.A Master CD? Chances are, you are going to love the music in Pokémon Puzzle League, which mostly consist of songs from the CD, albeit without lyrics.
• Critical Dissonance: While longtime fans are divided about it, whether about the lack of characters or the difficulty, Planet Puzzle League has been generally really well received by the press, holding an honorable 86 on Metacritic for example.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Amongst the original fairies, Elias, Neris and Flare seem to be the fan favorites.
• Fanon: The Nintendo Puzzle Collection version of Panel De Pon changed the entire cast and reworked the Excuse Plot. The relationship between the new fairies and the old ones has never been explained, assuming there is any relationship at all. The most accepted fan theory is that Furil is the child of Lip, the other fairies children of Lip's friends, but if Nintendo ever shows an interest in the fairies again this could be proven false.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Puyo Puyo, due to having similar aesthetics and skill level curves.
• Funny Moments: Yoshi losing his patience after you beat the Easy level.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: This is the main reason why the series became Tetris Attack and Pokémon Puzzle League in the West. Due to Panel de Pon 's girl aesthetic and presentation, they were changed in an attempt to attract male players, at least until the SNES Panel de Pon was added to Nintendo Switch Online rather than Tetris Attack in 2020.
• Good Bad Bugs: In Pokémon Puzzle League, Giovanni's voice clips overlap each other, resulting in pretty funny voice clips if he pulls off several moves at once.
• I Knew It!: The moment Super Puyo Puyo 2 (a game exclusive to the Super Famicom beforehand) was included on the Nintendo Switch's Online Service for Super Nintendo games (despite being untranslated) instead of something like Kirby's Avalanche (which ended up being released later), fans speculated that Panel de Pon would face a similar treatment internationally.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Planet Puzzle League is accused of this due to its slower falling physics and ability to use the touch screen.
• Moment of Awesome: Defeating the Final Boss on the hardest difficulty in any of the games is most definitely one of these and something to be proud of.
• Most Wonderful Sound: When you get a chain combo of 4x or more, a very satisfying sound is played. However, if your opponent does this, it counts as Oh, Crap! unless if you're ready to counter that upcoming garbage block.
• Narm:
  • While most of the characters in Pokémon Puzzle League were true to their anime personalities, Mewtwo was pretty ridiculous with how he was voiced. He sounded annoyed when he was "going to winnnnnnn".
  • Thanatos, from his intentionally boorish theme (made surprisingly intimidating in the GameCube version) to his comical expressions and design. His original depiction even have a high pitched laugh that contrasts his appearance greatly.
• Nintendo Hard: Sure, the game looks adorable, but it will kick you to the curb if you don't get comfortable with the game mechanics.
  • Making chains (especially "active"/"skill" chains), which are the basis of huge attacks and high scores, is very difficult. It requires foresight on where panels fall, as well as significant amounts of dexterity to keep things going.
  • Try getting a "x?" (x14 and higher) chain in single-player Endless Mode. The board is only 6x12, meaning you need to both play dangerously close to the top and have the board filled with as many panels as the game allows for the best setups. The game acknowledges how many "x?" chains you made after the Game Over screen though, along with the other combo / chain counts.
  • Beating Corderia/Bowser on Hardest mode is exceedingly difficult, having incredible speed and execution that can tire you out trying to keep up.
  • Corderia/Bowser can't even be fought on Normal in the Super NES version. You have to be on Hard or Hardest to face them. The same is true for Lance, as well as Gary's rematch in Pokémon Puzzle League, and Mewtwo in the latter requires no less than Very Hard in order to take him on.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Thanks to improved AI and less slowdown, the games after the original Panel De Pon/Tetris Attack tend to be far more challenging, not that the first game was a breeze by any means.
• Surprise Difficulty: Under the series' cutesy presentation lies one of the most maddening skill floors in any puzzle game, only rivaled by Puyo Puyo. And don't think that you're safe in single-player mode, as CPU opponents on higher difficulties and boss battles will smoosh you if you can't reliably make active chains.
• That One Boss: Butch and Cassidy in the Spa Service mode. Their level scrolls at 45, they have the rare diamond blocks to throw off basic combos and chains, and they have a very large health meter. They're even harder than Giovanni, the final boss, as while his stage features are mostly the same, he’s is in a 3D scrolling area that makes it easier to rack up combos and stop the scrolling. Butch and Cassidy's isn't. To make matters worse, you only get one shot to beat them; the only way to fight them more than once is to quit in the middle of the level or restart the mode.
• That One Level: A number of the Special Action levels for the University in Pokémon Puzzle League fall under this. You need to have frame perfect inputs to rearrange the panels so that they fall with the right timing to be cleared together for a four or five combo rather than a regular clearing of three panels.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Many fans' reaction to the fairies nearly disappearing from the series. Planet Puzzle League is a sore point particularly among Japanese fans as it has no characters whatsoever, leading to accusations of the game being soulless.
  • Planet Puzzle League allows you to use the stylus instead of traditional controls. You can guess how this turned out with fans, especially purists. However, you can turn this feature off.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Yes, even a puzzle game can have this: the N64 version of Pokemon Puzzle League had fully voiced anime cutscenes on a Nintendo 64 cartridge, with no compression in the audio or visuals. They look like they came right out of the show (well, the 90s version of it, anyway). Considering that the Nintendo 64 was believed to be incapable of such a thing by many developers, this is quite a feat.

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