Wait! Don't forget the currency we have
in my office in Buzzalene Village! Yeah!
Did you hear me, Ash? Welcome
to the show, everyone! My name is David Petrangelo
and I don't know what I'm doing, but I am quite glad
that I recognize these Pokemon. Gen
1 for the win! I am old! And
of course, Jiggy Lookback is with me once again. Who
is that Pokemon? It is Pikachu! No!
Jiggy Lookback. It's Jiggy Lookback. It
played out funnier in my head, but whatever. Please,
please, just if you're gonna watch any of the
videos, any of our, any of our video versions of these
episodes, just even if it's only the first like two or
three minutes, just watch Jiggy's intros because as I
said before we hit record, I'm glad that he is the
one that gets physical with our intros and does
anything that's not just sitting here talking into a
microphone. It is worth it just for the
first few minutes of that. So
I will explain it slightly, but there was there was
some Pokemon that made it on screen. So
some Pokemon made it. I wish I had them hanging.
They were hanging. And
then I came in and just like punched and just threw
some punches like some fishing, fishing wire sort
of hanging. So you then wire and I just
punch him and they fly off. It's
like Pokemon action movie. Here's
a real question for you. Yes,
please. If you were a Pokemon, not
what Pokemon would you be, but what type would you
be? I don't care what Pokemon you
are. I want to know what type you
are. Interesting. I think I think I want to
go with the psychic ones. And
I'm going with what the descriptors are for the
first gen or maybe the first two genes, because
that's kind of all I'm familiar with, which we'll
talk about in a little bit. But
the psychic ones always seem to be pretty powerful
and also psychic is kind of like magic. And
that's kind of fun. So yeah, I'd probably go with
that. Yeah. What about you? OK,
I think I would go. I'd probably be. I
always wear gray. Oh, so I feel like I would be
like a rock type. OK, plus I hit so hard. Maybe
a rock fighting. That's what I would be. Oh,
come on. Rock fighting. Yes,
I didn't say combos. You can be a combo. I
don't know. I don't know what the combos
are. Like, I don't know if there's
rules to combos because not really not really. OK,
any any Pokemon that has a combo that is. Like,
say you have like a water electric or something,
right? And electric would be super
effective on water. Yeah, not your electric. So
it's dope. That sounds too complicated. I'm
glad I only played one and a half gens of Pokemon. It
sounds too much for me. Golden
Silver was the best, though. That's
the one that's the one I want to finish. That's
the one I got a few hours into. I
stand firm that Gen two is the best gen. Like,
I love Gen one, but Gen two is Gen one plus more.
Is that because the games
themselves or because of the Pokemon that are added
or a combination of both, I guess? Both.
Both. OK, all right. OK.
Oh, yeah. One of my favorite one of my
favorite Pokemon of all time is Bayleaf. Oh,
yeah, I know which one that is. Oh,
that was Gen two. That was the evolution of
Chikorita, not the final evolution because the final
evolution, let's be honest, not that great. But
Bayleaf is dope. What's the name of the evolution?
Because I don't know the name. I'm
going to look it up. It's like Maganium or Meganium.
I don't know how to pronounce
it. Is Chikorita, Bayleaf, Maganium,
Meganium. Oh, that one. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I
would say Meganium because it's like mega, like. Oh,
it could be. I don't know. Maganium.
Yeah. Yeah, it's OK. It
kind of looks like a kind of looks like a really
like phallic dragon with a flower on its neck. That's
what it's like. Yeah. Yeah, it's OK. It
was it's not bad. Yeah. Yeah. The
the the Bulbasaur, Venusaur, Ivysaur sort of combo, I
think, is is cooler if you're going to compare the
grass types overall. But so it's funny, as I always
I often pick the Pokemon evolution I like the most.
Yeah. And then like the others,
I'm like, ah. So like Squirtle, I I actually
think Squirtle and Blast Ours are cool, but War
Turtle sucks. OK, I like Bulbasaur and I
love Ivysaur. I don't really care about
Venusaur because I think he's ugly. OK.
And then I sort of like Charmander. I
dislike Charmeleon and I love Charizard. Yeah,
I think everyone's kind of on the same page. Like
Charizard's pretty just cool looking like it just. Yeah.
Is a cool looking Pokemon regardless. You
don't have to like fire or what? You
know, I have to like. He's almost like. Who's
a dragon? You have to pick Charmander
because you know it turns into Charizard. Yeah.
Charmander and Charmeleon are kind of just meh.
Whereas like if I was picking Gen
One or like just from like the base evolutions, I
probably would go Squirtle myself. OK,
OK. See, I usually I usually went
Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur, I usually went with grass.
I think because honestly, like
I think it's because the first. I
think the is it the first or the second gym and the
water water is effective against against rock. Was
it? Is that what it is? Yeah.
So you could get obviously you could make the first
first gym easier. But grass was also kind of
good against rock and then obviously good against
water, which is I think the second or third one.
So I think that's why I did
it. And then by the time you
evolve enough, like, oh, I got other buddies. I
got, you know, the other five to sort of round it
out and stuff. And I always liked the way
that all three of those looked. So
I think that's why I always went that way. And
also everybody loved Charmander because it was
fire and it was a dragon. I'm
like, you know what? I'm going to go the opposite
because I'm. Yeah. Not a sheep. You
know, that's. Yeah, it's not. There
is a sheep mentality there that makes me not want to
pick Charizard or Charmander. And
I definitely was between the two. I
think what I did was I had so my original like
blue play through. I had Squirtle. OK.
And then in my when I went back and got leaf
green, the remake, I did Bulbasaur. OK.
But but I really don't like Venusaur. And
I don't like him because he's a very ugly frog.
He's a very ugly toad. I
think it's a toad. I think that's kind of what
it is. And then like Bulbasaur and
Ivysaur are cute. They are. And
then you get they are. And you get Venusaur and he's
just like really ugly and big. And
I'm just like, he's like, he's more intense, right?
All three of the final
revolutions are more intense, I would say, at
least. But he's not intense in the
way that would make him intimidating. He's
intense in the way like they they turned him into
clungo from Banjo or something like he just gets
dopey. Whereas like Blastoise gets machine
like rocket cannons on his back. He
gets rocket launchers on his back. Darsaur
gets wings. It's like he got he got a
slightly bigger flower. That's
what Venusaur got. Longer vines, man. He's
more of a more of an intense weed. That's
what it is. Although although I like it, I like
I like that I can use cut. I
like that you can use. I can't remember what other
ones are. There's like a spore one or
something. I don't know. I
like the moves that they had. Maybe
that's part of what it's one of those comfort
things. Like the reason why I intro the
way I did is because, hey, I pretty much only
recognize the first maybe 200 Pokemon on an average
day. Sometimes pop up and like I've seen
that before. Could I name it? Hell
no. But if you showed me the
original one fifty or fifty one, I would probably 90
percent of the time be able to pull the name out
of at a hat like top of my mind right away just
because I played. I also had the blue one. I
also play. I played blue version,
probably, I would say, 10 times at least. Yeah,
at least on the original game. Yeah,
at least so you want to know something I did that
was really like stupid, but I did it and felt cool.
Pokemon blue, you could do like
Pokemon dooping. Oh, where if you it was I
can't remember the exact way of doing it, but it
was basically you could go into your box. You're
on the computer or whatever on the. Pokédex.
Yeah. Well, you could go into your box
and like organize your Pokemon. And
it was like if you moved it and then quickly like
ripped out the game, it would duplicate that
Pokemon. Oh, I remember something like
that. Now that you say that. Yeah,
I had an entire team of Pidgeots. And
they were all like level 100. And
they all just fly all the time so no one could ever
hit you. Like you just hit fly. I
just I liked Pidgeot as a kid too. Like
those were those were surprisingly good. That
was a surprisingly good early investment is to get
grab a piggy and go with it. Love.
I loved his his hair. I had like a little toy
figure. And I think this is why I
loved it so much. My dad got me like a Pokemon
figure. It was like they had the
Pokeball with like Pidgey and it actually might have
been Pidgeotto. I can't remember his Pidgeot
or not, but they look like somewhat similar. Yeah,
somewhat similar. But I remember I had that toy
and I just loved it because it was like the
only Pokemon toy I had basically. And
so I was like, this is my Pokemon. And
so it's the most common Pokemon, but it's mine.
It's all maybe not. Yeah,
it's like happened. Like for me, I was I mean,
this is not the same. And obviously it kind of shows
our age a little bit, but like I had. We
have a Canada's Wonderland is what they call it, but
it was sponsored by Paramount. Like
Paramount Canada's Wonderland. That's
what it was. And we had Hannah, Barbara and
everything was like, oh, yeah. Yeah.
So Flintstones was a big thing growing up. I
watched lots of Flintstones. The
cartoon, the original cartoon was on repeat all
the time. The movies came out when I was
younger and I won a. A Dino. At
a game at the theme park, not massive, but like, you
know, a sort of cuddling type of plush toy. Plush
toy when you're, you know, seven years old, five years
old, something like that. And
I won it myself. I remember actually remember
doing it. It's one of those games where
you have to throw the the baseball in the basket and
have it like sit and it's like, oh, yeah, yeah,
angled impossibly. And you just have to get. I
think I said, yeah, you have to get like two out
of five or something or two out of three. I
got it. I got it. Right.
I'm going to blow your mind right now because I
have had no one to tell this to. OK.
And no one that's brought up the Flintstones in the
same conversation. I went on Facebook
Marketplace. I was game hunting. Yeah.
And I was just looking at deals and stuff. And
one of the things that just randomly popped up for
me was someone made the Flintstones like vehicle
like foot powered, like they just made it. But
it's like extra long and they call it a Flintstones
bus. And it was like it was like
two hundred dollars or something. Like
like like lifestyles like you'd sit in it. Like
for people like you sit in it and you you move your
feet and it's got like a rolling wheel in the front.
What? And I was like, who makes
this? Who wouldn't want that? It
was crazy, though. That's hilarious. Oh,
my God. Yeah. That's great. Oh,
my God. Anyways, your your Pidgey Pidgey
yacht or Pidgeotto is kind of like me where it's like
I had this like affinity for Dino, for some reason,
in the Flintstones. And I had that toy that plush
for 20 years or something like that. His
collar fell off. His neck was sort of like, you
know, because it was like the thin part of his body
and his tail. Yeah, kind of like, you know,
his head just kind of like sat to the side kind of
thing. But I held on to it until I
passed until I absolutely couldn't anymore. One
of those like childhood things, right? So
I don't have that for Pokemon, but I but I do
still have my original cartridge over there. My
my Gameboy. My Gameboy is is in the
grave, but but my cartridge itself still works. The
battery is still alive. I have a Pokemon silver, but
that battery is dead. I didn't know that until
after I played it for about three hours. So
that sucks. That's why I've never gotten
through that games, because I haven't started it in
any other way. But I played it for about two
and a half to three hours a couple summers ago. I
hit save. I was like, all right, it's
saved. I turned it off. Next
day I turned it on. Start from the beginning. So
I didn't realize. Oh, yeah. So
I'm going to have to play through that one. I
enjoyed the beginning few hours. That's
all I got to say. So that's that's all I know
about Gen two. So all of all of that, all
of that. If anyone has a guess, yes,
we are talking about Pokemon, not Flintstones,
but we could talk about both. And
that's fine. We are talking about Pokemon
Puzzle League. No, we are not hitting up
Pokemon Stadium just yet. That
will come at some point. But
Pokemon Puzzle League is something that we're talking
about this week. It's a game that has a bit of
a mix of Tetris and Dr. Mario
style and I think it's Tetris sphere or something.
I can't remember exactly which
one it is. That is what we are going to
be talking about this week. And
to get things going and to see and just to hear a
little bit of it. This time, this should work. If
anyone has listened to past episodes where the sound
has not worked with me, I think this will work. OK,
little intro. Welcome.
It's so good to see you. Welcome.
So it's like it doesn't even let it play for any
longer. Like, come on, that would be
nice, wouldn't it? I feel like that would be
good. It would. It's
so it's so weird that he's like saying things that
aren't what his text dialogue says. Yes,
so strange. And then this game. So
OK, so. One of the reasons why we
chose to do this is because we're not going to
be able to play it. It's a pretty simple game to
play. It's really just a puzzle game.
It's kind of like Tetris. We're
like, you know what, let's give it a shot. So
we haven't played a game like this together or
talked about a game quite like this yet. So
I thought, you know what, it's on Switch Online as
well. Let's let's just play it. I
tried it on both. It plays exactly the same. I
tried it on the 64 and I tried on Switch. It's
literally exactly the same. So
so that that was kind of fun. We
had an experience to be able to do that. It's
easily accessible. So if anyone wants to play it
while you're listening. Then then you can do that. But
before we before we dig into the game itself, I
need to do this closer to the top because I will
always forget, sir. I I need to make sure that
we are plugging the Patreon page and talking about the
podcast itself and your YouTube. Look
at it. Look at it. So
look at I'm plugging away. Patreon
.com slash remember, sixty four show is where you can
support this show monetarily with some free content as
well. But episodes, every single
episode, I think there's only been a handful, maybe
a couple that I haven't been able to get out
early, but the vast majority of them are at
least a couple days early. Also
some small other side reviews that I'm going to
do, some free contents going up as well. So
it is something where you can sort of have a one
stop shop of some extra content like sometimes going
to be written. I'm probably going to record a
couple of audio things of stuff that is not and
sixty four related as well. So
there's going to be a little bit of a variety.
But it really just gives you a
chance to keep the show running, keep the show
going kind of thing. So that's the easiest way to
support the show. And if you can't or don't want
to monetarily, totally up to you. Leave
us a rating leave us a rating on your podcast, App
of Choice. Typically it is a Apple or Spotify.
I think those are the easiest
and the ones that really take ratings, quote unquote,
seriously, I guess. But yeah, give us a star
rating across the board on those. And
it'll help us know how well we're doing or not
doing. And it'll also help more people
find the show because the more ratings and more
positive ratings we get, the the more chance more
people are going to find it just kind of organically
and be able to do that. So
what Dave is trying to say. Yes.
What am I trying to say? He
wants to be the very best. I
want to be the very best. No
one ever was. Like no podcast that there ever
was ever, ever, ever. To rate him is your true
quest. To pay him is his cause. OK,
sir, you are brilliant. You're
so much better at this than I am. So,
OK, so. Whoops, I changed my window and I
screwed this up. Man, come on. Really?
Real time figuring things out, people. Here
we go. OK, so Pokemon Puzzle League.
Pokemon Puzzle League. Pokemon
Puzzle League. Let's talk a little bit about
how this game was made, because of course, let's
bust out the history books, everyone. I'm
learning. We're going back to September of
2000. So much later in the console
cycle than I thought it was. I'm
not sure if you had any. Yeah,
it's in North America, at least, right? That's
where I was in North America. So
OK, Pokemon Puzzle League is I wrote down straight
up a Nintendo joint that is published by Nintendo,
developed by a Nintendo studio. Nintendo
software technology. Does that sound familiar to you
at all? I don't know if that Nintendo
software technology. Yeah, it's very, very vague, but
they have a lot of they have a hand in a lot of
other games that I'd be like, oh, shit, that's
pretty good. OK, so Nintendo software
technology is an in -house North American developer
that Nintendo launched specifically to make more
games in North America and just give them a bigger
sort of portfolio. I guess you could call it
around this time. So as I did my searching, I
realized that they made a whole bunch of stuff for
the N64 or sorry, a couple of things for the N64 and
then did a lot of other things that weren't just
games. So they did the 64 emulator
for the Wii and they also did funny little things
like Mario and Animal Crossing calculators and
clocks for the DS. Interesting,
which is so random. So random. It
is. So all the rage, I guess. I
guess I don't know. I didn't have a DS, so I
don't know if it was the rage. Oh,
man, there's nothing like driving into a shady, shady
neighborhood and getting a random picto chat. Sure.
Is that is that what the kids call it these days?
If you go, if you go places
and you just like have your picto chat on, I did
that. I bet other people did that,
too. That's just be like seeing if
someone else had picto chat that you could like chat
with and like draw pictures and send pictures and
stuff. Oh, that's so it's kind of
what they call on 3ds. Was it like not Game Pass? It
was they call it Street Pass. Street.
Yes. But it's not not quite the
same, but similar concept. It
just it's way better than picto chat was just really
cool because it was just like drawing and like notes
and stuff. Oh, OK. In
in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,
there is a stage that's like picto chat and they
have like little messages. Oh,
yes. Oh, that's what that's from.
Yeah. OK. See,
they know all that time. That
is that's a cool looking level, too. I
like that one. Yeah, it kind of like evolves.
Doesn't like the background like
move and stuff. Yeah, changes in everything.
Changes. Yeah, that one's cool.
Nice. What else? OK.
Puzzle League was one of their first games, was one
of the first games that they've remained, but they
also created a bunch of other great games over the
years. One of them is a game that we
played this past year. They developed Wave Race Blue
Storm. So they made the sequel. Yeah,
they made the sequel to Wave Race 64. So
if you want to hear us talk about that episode or
level 49, we talk about Wave Race and that is the
sequel to it on GameCube. So
they made that and they also made the Mario vs.
Donkey Kong franchise as well as
the remake that just came out and F -099, which also
came out within the last. Wow.
Yeah. And they're coming back. Yeah.
So they have done a lot of really cool stuff. I
think that is a pretty good pedigree of games. I
would say maybe not all like all star type of
games, but but those. And that's not all of them.
They made other ones, too. Those
are just sort of the ones that I that I sort of
made note of. But but that's pretty good. I
think that's pretty good. So
that they must have known and been happy with this
because they thought, oh, this isn't pretty good
hands. Let's let's keep going with these
guys. So yeah, that's basically it.
I think they it seems like
everything that I looked up was Nintendo wanted to make
a Tetris like game. This was one of the ways that
they've done it. There's a puzzle league also for,
I believe it is for a GBA plays very similar, but it
doesn't have the exact same setup and everything as far
as modes go. We'll get into it, but there are
a bunch of different modes you can play. But
to start things off, Jiggy, what did you think of
Pokemon Puzzle League for the N64? Well,
OK, so first off, I got a few thoughts. One,
please. I don't know if it was
mentioned, but I believe it said it's based. It's
based on Nintendo's pre -existing game, Panel Daypon.
I saw that, yeah. But
it was so I was never released as far as I can
find. It was something that they
worked on, but I don't know that it was released.
I could be wrong about that.
That's that's what I saw. It
looks like it was. Was it? OK.
Yeah. And the well, it says the
English patch was 2007. I don't know in the actual
end, but but apparently it was based on that game,
which it's you know, it's a puzzle game. There's
a there's a lot of puzzle games that function very
similar. Yeah. And you'll find that a lot
of these puzzle games are based on like two or three
different games. Like it's like at the at the
core, there's like three puzzle games that cover
like every other puzzle game. And
then they're just kind of reskins or rethemes. You
know, it plays functionally sort of like Dr. Mario,
except I I found this hard personally. OK.
I was struggling throughout. But
to talk about the Pokemon theme. Yeah,
because that's a that's a draw, right? I
mean, like that's that's part of the point of doing
this is that, oh, you're doing something different.
It's not just, you know, another
not only not only is it a draw, but this is
specifically catering to fans of the anime. Right.
Right. No Pokemon game ever did that
really. Like, I mean, there might be a
handful, but few and far between that actually
focused on like Ash being the main character. And
the fact that you boot up this game and you get a
full like movie sequence. Right.
That was awesome. Yeah. I loved that. I
owe that is that's where we have to start to
because I captured the clip of Professor Oak saying,
hey, you're involved in the Pokemon Puzzle League. And
this is part of his explanation. Being
selected for this event is such an honor. Well,
there's no time to explain everything. You
know, classic Professor. Be excited, but also there's
no time. There's no time. We
have no time. I love how Professor Oak is
always like, he's that guy that's always there somehow.
Yeah. He's always explaining
something to you, but he doesn't actually have much
to say. Or he's like, he's like, oh,
Ash, I see you've got your first badge. Congratulations.
Badgers are drives away. Like
he never, he never, he's like the he's the Neil
deGrasse Tyson of the Pokemon world. He's
always explaining everything, but it's kind of like
roundabout, never finishes a thought like he's got the
knowledge. He's got the knowledge. He's
just he's just not. Of course. He's
not putting together. He is a Pokemon expert. Of
course. Of course. He
always talks like this. There's
no time, Ash. There's no time. There
is no time. I want to help you with
puzzles and Pokemon, I guess, but there's no time.
There's no time to explain other
than it is a great honor. All
you need to know is you should be honored. You
should be honored. Not many people get to play in
the Pokemon puzzle league. You
need to move around pink, red, blue, green, sometimes
blue, sometimes gray squares, go Pokemon. Yep.
That's pretty much the game. Play.
And that's the game. Yeah. So yeah, so if anyone
doesn't know, it's it's quick. Like
you said, it's based on a lot of other other games
for sure. You're right. Tetris,
Dr. Mario like. There's
all obviously different types of Tetris as well.
One of the things that that
differentiates this is there's a possibility. I
don't know if you got to it, but there's a
possibility to play a 3D version of. I
heard that. These stages. Yeah.
So. Like any other puzzle game like
this with the bricks or pieces falling down from
top to bottom, and you need to match three or
four or five or however many you can do or combos
to clear the bottom of the screen. Actually,
they don't fall from the from the top here. They
come from the bottom. That's
how this works. And if you get a combo and
you're playing against someone, then it falls from
the top and you have to deal with it that way. So
it's a little bit different, not quite Tetris,
but. OK, here's the thing. Here's
the mechanic I don't understand. OK.
Right now, what just happened? Yes,
you were selecting your Pokemon. OK,
yeah, we've got to get to this. Yes,
yes, either. A Pikachu, Squirtle or
Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur, yeah. Same
options the whole way through. As
far as I know, as far as I've experienced, it was
the same all the way through. I
played two different difficulties in the normal,
like one player mode. And then I think I played, I
want to say a total of a couple of hours in like
the other modes sort of combined kind of thing. So
yeah. So my question about that is
does type affect the match? So
Misty, for example, year is a water type water. Yeah.
And you are using Bulbasaur. Yep.
And it seems right now you had an advantage right off
the bat, like she had more squares populating her side
just from the get go. Right.
And I'm wondering if maybe that was my problem. I
wasn't like addressing that mechanic. And
like that might be why I was finding it harder. So
I can't find anything about that specifically. OK,
so I got Nintendo power. This
is where I wanted to get my research from. This
is exactly what I was thinking, too. I
had no idea if it mattered automatically. Like
you see, like you said, I see Misty and I'm like,
cool, I'm going to use Bulbasaur. Why
wouldn't I? We just talked about this five
minutes ago, you know? Yeah.
It's going to give me an advantage. So
Nintendo power issue one thirty six. It's
one of the games that's on here or featured in the
Nintendo power issue. And it's basically just like a
feature of like, I think it's like six pages. So
it's not huge, but it's on there. Sort
of tell you what the game is and what you can
expect. So different modes. I
can chain the blocks together. You
know, they have fun titles like block party and quite
a puzzler. You know, stuff that you would
expect in Nintendo power in in 2000. As
I looked through this and as I was trying to find
out if that even mattered, I also found the manual at
one point. I I really don't think it
matters. It doesn't seem like it makes
any difference at all. It's just choice. And
that's it. OK. And to me, that's a missed
opportunity. That's disappointing to me because.
It's kind of like when you
start, you know, any Pokemon game, or at least
I think this is how the newer ones also make or
start. But presumably all the Pokemon
games you pick your starter or however the latest ones
for switch work. And, you know, within the first
few minutes, you're facing your rival. Your
rival always picks the one that is most effective
against you. Yeah. Yeah. So
Misty pops up, for example, and she's water. But
you choose first and she chooses a water type if
you choose fire, for example, something like
that, right? But that's the fun in is that
now you have to work up against what is most
difficult in that. That's part of the of the
struggle, right, is be able to. As
far as I can tell, there is nothing that I can
find. Please, if people are listening or
watching, tell me if it matters, but I played
through the easy and normal difficulties in the one
player from start to finish. And
it didn't make a difference. I
didn't find any difference. The
difference I found was the AI was better because they
were faster. They made more combos and more
stuff dropped from the top. I
wish that was there. I think that that's what
makes it Pokemon is that that's the. Yeah,
that's the turn based battle RPG part of it. Is
that I don't. But like we said, it's a. It's
the same puzzle game just with a different skin.
Yeah, that's essentially that's
the problem. You know, it did make me feel,
though, that having that option had some sort of
advantage or disadvantage if you chose wrong. Yeah.
So it made me think it made me think in Pokemon
terms. Yeah, 100 percent. The
world of Pokemon and the world of Pokemon types
matter. Diggy, if you pick fire against
water. You get steam. Science,
bitches. Oak out. Oak
just slides off screen. Gets
in his Flintstone bus and runs away and gets out of
there. Yeah, it's it's I look the game.
Like you said, the game works
well functionally. It it does exactly what it's
supposed to. I think, you know, it's it's
smooth. It feels pretty good to play
it, I would say. But yeah, it's it's kind of a
missed opportunity that there isn't more Pokemon
like stuff that you can do in it. Like
I feel like if they're like maybe you don't have
to level up your characters. That's
fine. You know, you just go from,
you know, level one to level 11 in the single
player, you know, you play multiplayer against someone.
That's totally fine. I
get it. There's a time trial type of
thing. There's also a mode where you have
to do all you have to clear a screen in a
certain amount of moves. I don't remember exactly which
one that's called, but I have the thing that you
were to the spot. No, not spot puzzle university.
That's what it is. I
tried those. Who eventually they're tough,
man. They give you like a screen
with a, you know, mishmash of blocks. And
I was like, shit, man, sometimes I spent 10
minutes on one of them. I was like, yeah, it's this
is this is hard. This this game is as far as my
my puzzles go. So here's how I view it. I
don't know what the original games are. OK.
But you have, I guess you do have Tetris and stuff,
but I wasn't even going to count that. Yeah.
These puzzle games like. Dr. Mario.
This one. And
Dr. Robotnik's mean bean machine. Oh,
I've never played that. I've
never played. OK. Well, let me just say,
having played all of these. Dr. Robotnik's
mean bean machine still stands at the pinnacle. Oh,
really? OK. It
is my favorite. It is my favorite. I
go back to I like puzzle games. Yeah,
I find them like relaxing in a casual way, like
whenever I'm just like, I'm just going to go play a
couple rounds of. Dr. Robotnik's
mean bean machine is the one I go back to.
Sometimes I do go to Dr. Mario
and I play a little Dr. Mario,
but I just love mean bean machine. And
I don't see myself going back to Pokemon Puzzle
League. OK, it just it doesn't feel
as fleshed out. It feels like the Pokemon
theme is a shoehorned in there and it doesn't
actually do too much. I like the the actual like
anime being incorporated rather than the just the
games. It looks good. It
definitely looks good. Video.
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Professor Oaks, cool. Yeah,
it's just, you know, it just doesn't do enough for
me, I guess. Yeah, so I played when I
realized that this was on Switch Online. I
think I think they put it on like a few months ago
as of this recording, like sometime in 2023, I believe
it went on. Maybe it was even earlier than
that. On my emulation device, I
played the the GBA one is the GBA version of the
game is Pokemon Puzzle Challenge is what it's
called. It's actually the same game, but
there's a little bit more of like a story element to
it. I wouldn't call it like, you
know, really detailed or heavy or anything like
that. But you basically go across
this this the screen from right to left or left to
right and and you kind of bump into other characters,
recognizable ones in the in the Pokemon world. And
you and I think this includes also Gen 2. Yeah,
it also includes Gen 2 in it. And
you're kind of fighting different and battling
different people as you go. It's
not just, hey, here's one, two, three, four and so
on. And just fight the gym gym
leaders. And that's basically the one
player version of it. It actually has a little bit
of that, you know, quote unquote story to it. And
it plays the same way. It just does. And
the screen is obviously a little bit smaller. It's
actually more horizontal than vertical. So
it's a little bit different that way. That
felt more fleshed out as far as single player goes.
If you want to do, like I
said, the quote unquote story version of it,
there's more modes in this one, because it's just more
possible to possible to put more things on here. But
unless you're playing this multiplayer, it does your
right. It does just feel like a skin
with with Pokemon. It looked, I think it looks
good. But like these these kind of
games aren't something that I would particularly play
multiplayer. I understand there's a there's
a 2v2 mechanic. Yeah. But. Again,
there are other games I would. I
would do that before this as far as puzzle games go.
Like this is not the game that
I think of. And maybe I just have zero
nostalgia for it. But I just I I'm not I'm not
huge into Pokemon. I was in the wave. I
liked Pokemon. I was never like Pokemon is
everything. Yeah, same, same. But
if you were talking about Beyblades. See,
I would be like, I what's a what's a Beyblade? You
know, like, I know what it is, but you know what I
mean? Like I just know it doesn't
mean that means literally next to nothing to me.
Beyblades and dude, I love just
launching a Beyblade. And you've explained it sounds.
It sounds cool. Like
it sounds. It just was out of the age
range at that time for me. That's
that's really what it was. Like
I used to have all my fingers. Man,
I miss my I miss my right pinky. It
was great. Man, I regret nothing. I
am a Beyblade Masters. I would as Beyblade Masters
Beyblade Masters Bay champion. Bay
champion. Oh, OK, I like that. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It
sounds cool, too. Also, it looked pretty cool.
Beyblades look look kind of cool. I
get it. I get it. I
get it. There's like an arena. It's
physical, such as cards. Well,
it had an anime, too. It had an anime, too. That
that's what I know it from is just that is seen that
the commercials like on TV, essentially, everything was
trying to mimic Pokemon. Right.
Sure. And Beyblade, it's about
spinning tops, but the spinning tops had monsters
like stickers in the middle. And
in the show, those monsters would like beam out of the
Beyblades, like holograms almost. And
then the monsters would like fight and the
Beyblades would be like replicating how the monsters
are fighting. Hey, that you know what? That's
an inventive idea. I think it was cool. Yeah.
That's I you know what? Hey,
man, you're not crazy. My favorite was Black Dronzer.
Dronzer. It was. Yeah,
Dronzer was like a red phoenix. OK.
And it was like one of the main one of the main
Beyblade. Guys, right? One
of the main characters, Beyblades. Yeah.
But Black Dronzer was like the evil version that he
like went rogue. And that like his whole team
had to like gang up on him to to beat him. And
I was like, Black Dronzer is the best. I'm
the whole team has to fight him to win. I
mean, that's that's just fun as a kid to be able
to have. Yeah, I get it. I
get that. Like we were saying, we didn't
want to be a picked Charizard at first because
we wanted to not be sheep. Wanted
to be the don't be mainstream. We
can't we can't come on. That's
why there's an N64 podcast. Yes.
Oh. And surprisingly, this game has
really good reviews. Yeah, I just looked it up. It's
like really, really kind of overwhelmingly positive. So
you're pretty surprised by that. I
well, I'm surprised that. I'm
not surprised that it got good reviews because it's
not a bad game. Right. I'm surprised that
everyone's like, oh, it's the best bubble game ever.
Oh, here we go. Here
we go. Sorry, what was that? A
six out of 10 by Yo Jimbo 2015. Oh,
Jimbo. Thanks, Yo Jimbo. Rather
cynical attempt to repackage a bog standard block
matching game with Pokemon characters. OK,
it has a perfectly decent. It's
a perfectly decent one, but has little to do with
Pokemon, which is exactly what I said. Yeah,
it's kind of what we're saying. Yeah,
I would I would give it a seven, probably. OK,
like I'm on my skill. I feel like it's solid. It's
a good it's a good game. It's
not bad at all. It's just. Yeah,
it's basic. Yeah, it just doesn't need to be
Pokemon. Like the Pokemon aspect of it
is is just an ad. It doesn't hurt it. No,
that's no, that's that's true. That's
true, because that's not like we say we said that
it was like shoehorned in. But
shoehorned sometimes is more negative. It's
more just like the skin that that is doesn't make
the game worse. It's not like they tried to add
stuff in that made the game feel like, well, this
isn't a puzzle game anymore. This
doesn't make sense. I'll tell you exactly how I
feel about this. Please. OK, the skin, the skin
thing, the skin comment. OK,
it is an echo character in Super Smash Bros. It
is like Daisy to Peach, whereas Peach would be the
original puzzle game. And then if people like Daisy,
they're going to like this more. But
it's fundamentally the same, maybe slightly different,
like stats or something affects it slightly
different, but it's very, very similar. OK.
Yep, I can see that. Yeah, that makes sense. That
makes sense. That the one thing I mentioned
this earlier and I wanted to make sure my biggest
disappointment with this game isn't the fact. Well,
actually, it probably is actually that the the
Pokemon aspect of it and the sort of balancing your
your different types and stuff isn't quite there.
The other thing that I don't
quite understand this this idea or why they went this
way is that you can play this game in a 3D version
and you can play it in like a cylinder,
essentially. So it's not just flat on the
screen and 2D as you move from left to right. The
screen kind of rotates left to right. I
have a video of it, so I'm going to I'm going to
find it and pull it up while we're while I'm
talking about this. But what happens is is that
just makes things more like in depth, like there's just
more going on. And it's just it's just. Oh,
yeah, it's just way more fun this way. And
I don't know why they buried this behind a higher
difficulty and behind a mode that isn't part of
the basic mode. So the only reason why I got
to play this was because the cheat codes can be
entered at any time and you can access different
difficulties and different levels. And
at a certain point, I think it's in the spa
service one or in the time trial one, you just open
that mode, you type it, you put it, you hold on
to the Z or the Z button and you do like L R A or
something. You can do it on Switch
Online, too. It's available on both, which is
kind of nice. You can do the codes and then
you're able to access these stages. But
you have if you didn't have the code, you have to
play for a long time to reach these stages. And
it's unfortunate that they bury it behind that because
I think this is it's more difficult for sure. But
it is way better. It's way better. And
little jigglypuffs over there in the corner like
getting angry. It's awesome. I
don't know why. Trying to like shove the
microphone. Let's go. We
go. Yeah, actually, I'm going to turn
the sound on for this this mode, too. It's
kind of the same, but let's see if it works
here. Did it work? No,
it didn't work. But you know, it didn't work.
There we go. Don't
mute it. There we go.
That's OK. It's
OK. You didn't hear it, but I
heard it and it was me failing. So,
yeah, so. I think this should have been
the main draw of the game. I
think I think this would have been so much better
because it differentiates itself. It
maybe you don't have the different types of Pokemon.
Maybe that's not something they
end up going with. But at least this made it feel
different than other ones in the genre or other ones
with a similar style. So they should have had the
little Pokemon like battling at the top or something.
And like whenever you get like
a chain of blocks or something, it would attack.
And then the other Pokemon be
like, ah. Yeah, instead of just like the
color falling because all it is is color coordinated.
Yeah, blocks that fall. So
they try to do it like via types, which just
further confuses and makes you think that the type
thing is a thing. Yeah, exactly. 100 percent. It
doesn't matter. It doesn't do anything. Kids,
don't waste your time. But you know what? Don't
waste your time. But you're right. Playing
the game is still pretty good. I
enjoy it. I wish this 3D thing was was
more accessible and was more clear. You
can get it easier. You can play it in the
multiplayer one as well. So we play against somebody.
It's available, but, you know,
we were just playing at single player. I
think that's also a missed opportunity. There's
a lot here, though, if you play the different modes,
you know, there's there's the puzzle one, the
university thing that I that I mentioned. There's
also one that's like an endless mode. There's
another one where the team rocket is involved and you
have to like go through like a hundred stages or
something crazy like that. So
there's a lot to play, but it still is the same thing
over and over and over again with a little bit
more difficulty. So it really depends on if
that's what you're looking for, I think. Yeah,
I just wish they had a separate mode that was just
the 3D one and you didn't have to go searching for
it or enter codes. I think that would actually
go a long way in making this a little bit more
robust or making it a little bit more
entertaining. But I like that it spins. It
gives you a sense of urgency. Like
you got to look at everything. Yeah,
and you can kind of see your your rows that are
that are around the cylinder behind you as
well. So as it's moving up, you can
kind of be like, oh, shit, the one that's, you know,
five rows over or five columns over, I need to
get over to that one before I fix this one.
Yeah. And then, you know, you
have combos, it chains and all these things that you
see in other games. But I see it. It's
a good time. It's just not a home run. I
think that's that's kind of where I sit with it. Yeah.
So, yeah. It doesn't if you haven't
played it before and you have Switch Online or you
have an opportunity to get this for 64 or even
emulate it, if that's something that you you're
you're doing, you're not going to hate the time
with it, but I don't think you're going to experience
anything that you haven't experienced before,
unfortunately, unless you play the 3D version of it.
I think that's actually really
fun. And I would recommend if you
do have the Switch Online one, you want to try the
3D thing, look up the codes are really easy to
find and try that out and just I think that's that's
a better time. It's more fun. So,
yeah, Pokemon Puzzle League. It's
it's OK. It's OK. That's
kind of it. Yeah,
it ain't no Elmo's number journey, but you know. But
hey, not everything can be, you know, not everyone. Not
everything can be. Not everyone can. Everything
was almost number journey. We
have only good games. We if everything could be as
good of a journey as Elmo has when he's snowboarding
and collecting their world would be so much better
off. There'd be peace in the Middle
East. There'd be just OK. I'm
going to stop right there. You're
right. I mean, I don't think you're
wrong. I don't think I don't think
you're you're off on this. You
know, taxes would be lower. House
prices would be manageable. That
would be free. And we'd be slowly transitioning
to electric. Right. That's it. At
that we would at no cost at zero cost, like zero
costs. It would just be everyone
would break even. It would be you'd be fine.
And the economy would survive.
Yeah. You'd walk into restaurants
and they'd be like, hey, here's your food for free.
You know, have a great day.
Have a great day. Thanks
for stopping in. You're welcome, kind sir. That's
not my. Now my. You're
done. That's our professor, Oakwood. Oh,
my God. But also he would have no time
to explain being selected for this event is such an
honor, while there's no time to explain everything.
Oh, I will say I'm going to
play that again. And the music in this game is
actually pretty good. Being selected for this event is
such an honor, while there's no time to explain
everything. Yeah, it is. It's
decent. There's there's some there's some
jazz bass going on, some like cool music. Even
the rendition of the theme at the beginning and like
the menu music was really good. It
is good. I wish it lasted longer, but
it is good. Yeah. So that's that's a positive
for two. I think they did a good job
with that. Part of it is like you said,
they're trying to bring in the the anime crowd and
stuff like that, too. And I think they did a good
job of making that happen. So
and that opening scene, like you said, is fully
animated, just like the show is. It
looks it's brief, but it looks really good. Doesn't
feel choppy. Doesn't feel really pixelated or
nothing. So there's positive here.
That's right. Meow.
Yeah, it's just it's yeah. There's
that. There's lots of voiceover, which is
a mixed bag, I think. Oh, but the. No,
the cheesy awful voice acting is what I like
about. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, straight straight from the
show. Right. So. Oh,
yeah, it's it's awesome. Yeah.
I'm going to turn my trusty frying pan into a
drying pan. Like you don't find dialogue
like that, you know, that doesn't exist in other
places. I mean, it does, but just
not so special. White like that. So
special about it. Yeah. Yeah. For
sure. I love it. All
right. Pokemon Puzzle League. Give
it a shot. You know, if it's your thing,
if it sounds like your thing, I think you're going
to you're going to find something here. It
just might not be a home run and that's OK. It
happens, right? So Jiggy, you were saying
that's probably like a seven. I
would say it's something like that for me, too.
Maybe maybe a little bit lower
just because I'm disappointed with some of
the choices that they made, but it doesn't mean that
the game doesn't play well. So
it's just more of like I'm puzzled by the choices that
they made in some ways. So I'm a little bit
disappointed, but it's not not a terrible game. So
check it out if you want. It's
out there on Nintendo Switch online. It's
a unfortunately, as far as I can tell, kind of
expensive to buy the cartridge. I
don't know if that's because it's late in the
cycle of the console. And it just probably wasn't a
ton out there. I got a copy of it ages ago
for a pretty good price. I just grabbed it. So
for now, I have it, whether it's something I
hang on to or not. I don't know. But
I'm not I'm not upset about it. Those
games that released like post 2010 to be a little
more expensive, I've noticed. Yeah,
because it's just far less on them. So
that's their focus was elsewhere, right?
Understandably. So so. So
Dave was by this game. I was struggling. I
thought it was kind of hard. It
was a little out of my league, you might say.
Might say you might say. But
it was OK, man. Oh, I will say, as far as the
difficulty goes, really briefly before we get out
of here. I thought the easy mode,
which is a good place to start still, like don't go
straight into normal. I recommend try the easy one
and do just the one player thing where you just go
through all the all the badges that I had no
problem defeating and beating like I did a whole
run with it without failing once. But
when I got to normal, it definitely gives you a
test. Like things move faster. They're
making matches better to combat you and stuff. So
and if you get to the higher sort of matches in
the other modes, you notice a difference. But
I would say get your feet wet with the with the easy
mode and single player if you're playing it and then
just kind of go from there. Don't
don't be here. Because yeah, it's not easy. It's
definitely not an easy game. And
I think I think for me, like the learning curve
came from. I wanted to match as many as
I could, as opposed to getting high match. You
know what I'm trying to say is I would see three
and I would line up those three so I got a match.
But really what you want to do
is you want to wait until you have like six, you
know, or five, like he just got. Yeah.
You really like it in other games, I feel like
you could do that. And it's just about kind of
bringing things down and chipping away at everything.
Whereas this game, it's more like
you want to get those high matches so you can really
like screw over your opponent. Otherwise,
you know, I mean, being machine was a little bit
of that, but I don't feel like it was as as
necessary. Well, it was necessary like you
had to do it, but it wasn't as. I
don't know what the right word is, like not as I
guess necessary. I guess like I guess
necessary is the word because it's it feels like
if you didn't do it, you were going to lose and
they start loading you up. Yes,
100 percent. That's what it feels like. Yeah.
Yeah. And that's when you're playing
against someone when you're doing the sort of solo,
just try to like. Yes, clear a certain amount. It
definitely helps you because you're clearing more at
once, but it's not going to make or break it, I
don't think. But yeah, when you get into
the higher difficulties and when you're playing against
someone, whether it's the CPU or whether it's an
actual person, you got to like line up combos or
larger numbers. Otherwise, stuff does not drop on the
opponent's screen. And then now not only are you
not clearing stuff faster, they're not being punished
for your good place. So there's a difference there.
Yeah. And it's also it's also
throw it throws me off a little bit because it
doesn't play like the puzzle piece comes from the
top, like Tetris style or maybe in machine style or
Dr. Mario style. Everything
just kind of shows up. Yeah,
it comes from the bottom. And
it's like you have no you have no. Like
pre vision of what you're about to match, like you
barely see anything. Yeah, I just see like a tiny
bit. But as I'm watching you play
this and I can like focus and look at the pieces,
I'm just seeing why I think this is more
difficult than other puzzle games because or like why
I personally was struggling because I'm so used to the
way other puzzle games function. The
first one just functions slightly different. It's
like fundamentally it's similar, but it functions
just different enough. It throws me off. Yeah,
you got to get a wrap. It was a type thing. It's
why am I not getting right? You
got to wrap your head around the differences when
you when you almost like felt like you were going
into something different or felt like it functioned as
I totally get it. I'm like that with a bunch of
different types of games, too. So
it's kind of the same thing for me. I
was mostly OK, but I I definitely struggle with the
combo thing, especially at first and was like, oh,
OK, yeah, I really got to do this. Got
to do that. And it took me a bit. It
took me a bit. It wasn't wasn't a simple,
simple get. So yeah, anyways, give it a
shot. Pokemon Puzzle League worth your
time. Probably not going to blow you
away. Maybe it will. Didn't
for us, but it's still a fun time. But
until next time, Jiggy, where can everybody find
your awesome stuff on YouTube because it is
awesome? Yeah, well, my awesome stuff on
YouTube can be found on YouTube on the Jiggy Look
Back channel. I just looked back and
realized that my look back. I
realized all the lights on my shelf went off for some
reason. So I hope that doesn't mean
something. But yeah, but we're all good.
Yeah, Jiggy, look back on
YouTube. Go look me up. It's
fun. You won't be disappointed. We've
been I don't know. I've been going pretty hard.
Yeah, it's you're being kicked
out for me. You've been kicking ass. It's
been it's been great lately. And
I think everyone needs to be a part of it. So
just keep an eye on that on YouTube. Give
them a subscribe and and tell your friends. That's
that's kind of the tell your friends. Tell
them friends, you know. But but that's it. That'll
do it for this time, everybody. Thank
you so much for joining us. There's
no time. This we've got to go. There's
no time to explain. We have to go. This
has been Remember Sexy Park. Goodbye.