Panel de Pon: of fairies and forgotten franchises

Not sure Ashley's a good example of appealing to whatever the magical girl audience is. She has no games and Wario Ware has effectively been replaced by Rhythm Heaven. I guess she is currently more visible than, say, Lip supposing there was a large untapped demographic she's hardly a good example of marketing towards it.

Midna, if you've still got steam to blow off, I have a suggestion. This site has a Panel de Pon page but it doesn't have very many bullet points. Most of the tropes listed could use elaboration and there is almost no information about most of the games in the series, particularly the game featuring Lip's daughter/granddaughter/whatever, which I figure is a point of interest for you. This pretty bare bones page managed to gather forty two outbound links. You might attract even more people if you improve the page.

edited 23rd Dec '15 2:20:58 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

nintendo has been marketing the character a lot in 2015, that's why I brought her up.

edited 21st Dec '15 9:03:29 AM by Glowsquid

You sure? I haven't really heard anything about that.

yeah:

-on halloweeen 2014, the Japanese Club Nintendo added a set of ashley handkerchiefs. they were some of the most popular reward and constantly sold out until the service closed.

-Ashley appears with the rest of the WW cast in the 3DS Rhythm Heaven. She's the first character to appear in the warioware minigames and the only one to appear outside them.

-Paid Ashley DLC was released for the (Japan-omly) 3DS Band Brothers.

-ashley is an unlockable character in Super Mario Maker, over several Mario regulars and the rest of the WW cast.

-A Nintendo 3DS Ashley theme was released internationally in October (note Wario still doesn't have one). A web comic drawn by WW's character designer was also released to promote it, and the theme was the best-selling one in Japan the week it launched.

-The Japan version of Nintendo Badge arcade had warioware badges released in October. The app's host introduce Ashley as "BY FAR warioware's most popular character", and Ashley has her own halloween and christmas badge sets.

- the belated Japanese release of Art Academy Home Studio used a drawing of Ashley in a promotional vid to demo the game's timelapse recording feature.

-an ashley mii costume will be released as paid dlc for Smash 4.

obviously a lot of this is quite minor and more geared toward Japanese audiences, but Nintendo has definitely been marketing and merchandising Ashley's character in the past year, and they're apparently quite successful at it. Which is why I questioned Midna's assertion that Nintendo should ressurect a dead, obscure franchie to appeal to the magical girl crowd, when they already have a character that is successful at doing that (and imo, does a better job at it than what the panel de pon characters would as they are now) : p.

edited 21st Dec '15 9:44:58 AM by Glowsquid

Huh. Okay, fair enough there, didn't realize all those.

In the breaded eggs vein, have Ashley help promote Puzzle League. Why not!

My recommendation for online multiplayer Puzzle League with a massive crossover cast still stands, just Recycled With Ashley.

Now I really wish Lip was being marketed as aggressively as Ashley was. She'd make a good idealistic counterpart to Ashley's cynicism, relatively speaking.

Guest character in a new Panel de Pon game, maybe? Although that might upset a few fans who don't really care for WarioWare.

176 I'd love to help, but I don't really know that much about the GCN game/port/sequel/call it what you want.

edited 23rd Dec '15 2:06:33 PM by Midna

Just throwing this out there, but it would be pretty cool if the next Panel de Pon game was themed around notable Int Sys works (Panel De Pon, Fire Emblem, Nintendo Wars, Paper Mario, etc.) like how Tetris DS had Super Mario Bros, Legend Of Zelda, Metroid, and various other NES games.

I'm pretty sure it's ok to upset those fans but bring in the Ashley/Warioware crowd. <3

Plus, Lip and Ashley can work together in a Vitriolic Best Buds or Enemy Mine or Starfire and Raven fashion.

To lift some ideas from Puzzle Bobble and Puyo Puyo Tetris, everyone plays about the same, except that character choice modifies the drop rate of certain colors.

Final boss is Cute Grima. <3

I'd prefer my Puzzle League crossover for everyone who was ever in a Panel de Pon/Puzzle League game (read:Panel de Pon characters, Yoshi characters, Pokemon) plus Ashley. Though Fire Emblem guest characters are not a bad idea.

edited 13th Jan '16 6:35:27 PM by Malco

Tetris DS IS the best Tetris game in the entire franchise, so following in its footsteps would be great.

Crossover RPG? Something like Project X Zone? Every Panel de Pon character (just from the first game to avoid clutter and redundancy) + every Tetris Attack character + a few Pokemon (Pikachu definitely, maybe the Kanto and/or Johto starters, maybe Meowth to translate for them) + Ashley for good measure?

Lip and friends would be the main characters, obviously. Bonus points for giving Lip a rivalry with Yoshi - maybe also an adoration for Pikachu to reflect the more natural evolution (AHEM) of Panel de Pon GB into Pokémon Puzzle Challenge.

It'd still be a puzzle game, of course. I'm not sure how they can put in RPG elements... +1 resistance to garbage blocks drop, somesuch stats?

Puzzle and Dragons and Puzzle Quest could both be sources of inspiration. The higher your defense, the smaller the garbage blocks you get hit with, and the higher your attack, the larger the blocks you send are.

Oh, apparently Puyo Puyo Quest did it already. Just straight up damage, HP and certain other RPG stats just like Puzzle & Dragons. :(

Well ever since falling in love (not literally) with Ringo after seeing her in some other troper's avatar, at least Puyo Puyo's only problem is No Export for You and Dolled Up Installments. The latter especially infuriates me. I mean, how could Sega authorize a game like Cranky Food Friends, they could just port Puyo Puyo Quest for my sake!?

So, now I kinda know your pain, but over a lesser problem.

ayo, I bought the original Panel de Pon for my Super Famicom at MAG Fest a couple of days ago for $20.

Also had me a few matches in Tetris Attack and Pokemon Puzzle League with other people. Having played the DS iteration of Panepon for so long, it took me some time to adjust to the faster speed of the older games and not having Exploding Lift to make absurdly long chains. I don't think I've lost more than two games though.

So how about that Super Mario Maker? Nintendo seems to be adding all of the retro characters they don't want to add to Super Smash Bros. in here as costumes. It's only a matter of time before they get to Lip! (...Hopefully.)

Here's a custom sprite.

They'd better! Puzzle League/PDP is a big part of their history it might be injustice to deny that.

BTW Sorry for invading the thread again but let me talk about other puzzle games... let's face it, Tetris Ultimate sucks.

So let us petition to give the Tetris license to Sega so I can have my Puyo Puyo! https://www.change.org/p/tetris-holding-give-the-tetris-license-to-sega-so-they-can-release-puyo-puyo-tetris

I think Puyo Puyo is proof that an audience for competitive puzzle games with cutesy graphics exists, and if PPT is localized and does decently, maybe there's a bigger chance Nintendo will bring Puzzle League/PDP back?

It's not really related to the thread, and I'm not sold on the petition because, at this point, I'm sort of convinced that if Puyo Puyo grows to the point of international popularity, Nintendo will have even less reason to revive Panel de Pon because they feel there's no point in competing with the Puyo juggernaut. I think Panepon needs a genre change if it has any hope of staying relevant, preferably to something with a lot of text to allow for the character development I think it so desperately needs.

Splatoon is probably the biggest counterexample to Nintendo's conviction that games with cute main characters and a focus on girls (in advertising if nothing else) won't sell. They really don't have any excuse for not bringing the fairies back at this point.

edited 9th Apr '16 5:11:20 AM by Midna

I think the thing with Splatoon mostly just proves new I Ps are able to work and be successful. Nintendo has quite a few series that I doubt will ever become more than just references.

F-Zero, Custom Robo, and Panel De Pon aren't likely to get new entries in the future. It sucks, but the older games are all we've got.

Have you seen Fast Racing Neo on the Wii U? The F-Zero spiritual successor. There are two ways to look at it: RIP F-Zero, or if this game is moderately successful, maybe Nintendo will license a new F-Zero made by these indies?

Well they're either see that there's actually a market for competitive puzzle games, or respect Puyo Puyo's monopoly in that post-apocalyptic scenario. There are two ways to look at it.

That said, it is right they have already realized thanks to Splatoon that cutesy games can be successful. Though the problem with this comparison is that there's no "cast of girls", and the female inkling is presented as a tomboy. Puyo Puyo's (once) main protagonist Arle is also kind of a tomboy too.

Right now, I am still of the opinion that if they are reviving Puzzle League/PDP, or creating a new cutesy competitive puzzler, they are likely to make Ashley the main character. Ashley isn't a tomboy, but she does have a bit of edge and decent popularity.

edited 12th Apr '16 8:44:35 PM by Malco

Lip's bio in the original SNES game also describes her as being tomboyish, so ppbbtt. The game doesn't have a lot of dialogue, so there's not really any opportunity for that to be apparent, but she does have the ponytail. Make of that what you will.

edited 16th Apr '16 10:33:31 AM by Midna

Clearly I should read more into the PDP lore before I talk.

/obviouslyhaventplayedtheoriginal

It's not super obvious at first glance, though. What with the dress, colors for said dress, and choice of poses. Informed?

edited 17th Apr '16 6:03:25 AM by Malco

It's quite possible she's a tomboy who's comfortable enough in her femininity to wear dresses and such.

I sure hope it isn't just informed and only on Lip's English bio though.

Like Daisy.

Well, now I have to play one of them games or get a summary to find out.

So Midna, have you looked at the Panel de Pon page lately? I tried to expand it based on what I do know of the games(which, admittedly, isn't much) and it appears some other people have too.

edited 19th Apr '16 10:14:29 AM by IndirectActiveTransport