Panel de Pon: of fairies and forgotten franchises

That moment when you realize just how little Nintendo cares about this series anymore.

oh wow

how did they fuck that up

it's funny because in Brawl and Melee, they specifically refer to Panel de Pon as the origin game and not Tetris Attack

Apparently it's only in the European English version. Still frustrating.

They've been dropping the ball with the trophies in Smash 4 and it disappoints me. I honestly would rather they use the actual origin for particular entries, No Export for You and Console Wars be damned.

MRW Pokémon Crush Saga Pokémon Shuffle

Goddammit, the AI in Planet Puzzle League is way too good. I can't get past Stage 2 on Hard, even with the slower gameplay allowing for easier chaining.

I've only made it to Stage 8 in VS CPU Mode in that game.

I've read that the AI was improved in every subsequent game. Compare the AI routines in the original Panel de Pon to Pokemon Puzzle League or even Planet Puzzle League. Then again, Planet Puzzle League doesn't have a hidden V-Hard or S-Hard difficulty level...

The Super Hard mode of Panel de Pon is still overly reliant on combos instead of chains, making clearing garbage really easy.

I've been playing the original Panel de Pon recently, but I can only really get up to around speed level 25-30 on Endless mode before I start going "uh...", making stupid decisions, and game-overing. And I'm still better at this game than I am at Tetris.

I can 99999 the game pretty easily on Easy and Normal Endless (Hard just doesn't give me enough time to do my 10+ chains).

All right, so this thread's been collecting dust, but I'm gonna bring it back so I can drop a rant. I'm very upset right now.

Panel de Pon is a dead franchise. I'll just come out and say it. Okay, fine. Puzzle games aren't as big as they used to be. Even Dr. Mario only gets an occasional nod. But what's infuriating to me is that you never see the fairy characters in anything anymore. It's like Nintendo thinks it's not just the game, but the characters that won't sell. Like they're ashamed of them or something.

And that's bullshit.

Anyone who has working eyes can see that Lip and the others every bit as marketable as any of their other franchises, just in a different way. There's Mario for general audiences, Pokemon and Kirby for kids, Zelda and Fire Emblem for the older crowd. Panel de Pon could be brought back as Nintendo's answer to My Little Pony. Something that appeals to young girls while still being palatable to older/male players. I'm telling you - there's unrealized potential here for not just a new game (even if it's not a puzzle game - possibly especially if it's not a puzzle game) but a full-out merchandising empire on the level of what Mario and Pokemon have become. Anime, manga, toys, just to name a few options. Something to compete with Monster High maybe. Nintendo's been trying to branch back out into other forms of media lately, right? What's keeping them?

What's even more infuriating is that whenever I try to voice my displeasure and convince other Panel de Pon fans to band together in a fan movement to just... prove we exist... literally everyone else sits on their hands. Whether this is out of complacency or just thinking it won't work, I don't know. Either way it sucks, because if we just tried, I can see the fairies' fandom getting on the level of, say, Undertale. ...All right, so that's a bold claim. Still, the internet is all about strong female characters (or strong characters who happen to be female), so I think if Panel de Pon were just a little bit bigger, they'd be all over it.

I don't know what I should do, or even can do, at this point. I want to do something, I just really am at a loss as to what.

What do you think of Puyo Puyo? It's not dead, it's a puzzle game, and it sounds like a direct competitor that probably contributed to Nintendo not bothering?

edited 16th Dec '15 4:20:54 AM by Malco

Puyo Puyo is actually one of the reasons why I've got my knickers in a twist over Panel de Pon. Sega isn't afraid to flaunt its cuteness (at least not in Japan). Why is Nintendo?

They stick Pokemon on their last three puzzle games...

Actually, I have no idea why they don't release a new Panel de Pon or even a Dolled-Up Installment thereof.

EDIT: I'm the type that thinks: yo, here's a successful game of this genre, there's probably a market for you in the same/similar genre!

Sadly, no one (not even Activision!) believes that Call of Duty should attempt another Wii U release because of Splatoon's success.

Maybe, maybe Nintendo's done their homework, maybe the last one was a flop to them... (I sure hope not.)

edited 16th Dec '15 5:22:13 AM by Malco

I'm going to be blunt and say it's because no one really cares about the characters.

"No one" is painting with a bit of a broad brush. Not everyone, certainly, but enough do (or would) to make Panel de Pon ultimately an appealing prospect.

yep.

Beside Nintendo has already found their "magical girl character that appeals to older audiences in Ashley from the Warioware series, who I suspect is a hell lot more appealing and successful in that role than the panel de pon characters would ever be.

Ashley's not bad, but she's a bit downbeat and pessimistic for most people, I'd imagine, and she's part of a larger franchise that's already marketed to hell and back anyway.

Isn't this game just a skin of Tertis Attack? I don't see a franchise here when Nintendo can release other skins that are more likely to sell.

I'm talking more about the fairy characters than the games themselves. The games are fun, but as far as puzzle games go, they're hardly unique (well, not after the sea of online clones).

If we ever get a new game set in that universe, I'd personally like for it to be an RPG or something else with a lot of dialogue to allow for character development.

Panel de Pon is what Tetris Attack was originally called in Japan. The reason Nintendo no longer uses the "Tetris Attack" title for the series (opting for simply "Puzzle League" instead) is because it's highly misleading, as the game does not resemble Tetris in any way. This is also the reason why there has been no Virtual Console release of that version of the game.

I believe we've already covered this several pages back in this thread.

edited 16th Dec '15 2:47:18 PM by Aflac

And Puyo Puyo was that Dr. Mario variant that may involve Dr. Robotnik or Kirby, right?

Right. I've pinned the answer for all three reskins on casual '90s sexism. (Because they sure as hell weren't edited for cuteness. Kirby is cute, and wasn't edited. Kirby is male. Ristar is cute, and was barely edited. Ristar is male. Panel de Pon is cute, and was mangled into a Yoshi game. Lip is female.)

American Kirby Is Hardcore, though, especially back in the '90s.

The execs should've changed their mind about the Girl-Show Ghetto after Sailor Moon got dubbed and was proven to be a hit, but I guess not.

It reminds me, why doesn't Nintendo release a version of Puzzle League for online play just like Puyo Puyo Tetris! Likely for 3DS but if they have Wii U version too they should have cross-platform multiplayer. They should put in all of the characters that ever appeared in a Puzzle League game (including Tetris Attack). A perfect time as any to introduce the Panel de Pon cast to worldwide audiences.

edited 20th Dec '15 7:20:03 PM by Malco