GBA == SNES, it's the same game minus showing the other screen in Vs CPU. Pokemon Puzzle League has framerate issues and they "fixed" several of the high level techniques that made the SNES version interesting. You also have longer to push blocks in during chains, and shorter to push blocks around underneath garbage blocks that are popping. (And you have to listen to the terrible music and repetitive Pokemon noises.) It's straight up a bad port. Gameboy Color is also a decent port, strangely enough.
I knew N64 had issues, but I'm more curious how Gamecube and DS compare. Any thoughts on those, or have you not played them? I love love love the Gamecube version, it has the best AI, N64's 3D mode but this time with a working framerate, a nice 4-player mode if you don't mind squinting at a tiny playfield, great music, GBA download play, and it comes bundled with two other okayish games. Sucks that it never got localized (though they probably would've killed the fairies again if it did), and I haven't heard anything from the folks who were supposedly almost done the translation patch quite a while ago.
I was never terribly good at the game though, so IDK anything about high level techniques - though if you can point 'em out for me I could try and see how it compares?
Funny you should mention GBC, I kinda have a soft spot for it 'cause I liked trying to unlock all the Pokemon so I'd have extra lives to get through the hardest difficulty, not to mention that being portable is good. Looking back though, it's hard for me to not say it's objectively inferior since they had to make some concessions for the hardware - like not having an actual AI kinda sucks!
No, that's not true. Yes you got outplayed in some manner because they won, but it's HOW that "outplayed" happens that's important.
The difference being, in most versus puzzle games it is possible to drop enough garbage at once that the opponent simply loses because you covered their piece-spawn position/passed the line/whatever. There's nothing they can do once it happens. In Tetris Attack you can drop a huge amount of garbage past the top of the screen but it is NOT AN AUTO-WIN when you do. That's a really major thing.
Let's make a fighting game analogy since this is Skullheart:
Tetris Attack is like a fighting game, you losing depends on your own actions. As long as you can dodge/block/parry/whatever, you can stay alive! And maybe win. EVERY OTHER versus-puzzle-game I have ever played is like a fighting game, except that when your opponent fills their meter and does a lv3 it instantly kills you from anywhere no matter what. In that case, you losing does not depend on YOUR PLAY, it depends on THEIR PLAY. It's a race to Lv3. Your actions are irrelevant to your own survival except as a means to kill them first.
Yes, you can do things to kill them before they do the same. That is still not equivalent, because once ONE of you releases enough junk to fill the screen, the game is over with the loser having no recourse. In Tetris Attack, you can do as many drops of giant garbage blocks as you want, the opponent will not lose until THEY MESS UP. It's your failure on defense that kills you, not their success on offense.
Tetris Attack is the only puzzle game I've ever played where it felt like direct COMPETITION with the other player. Other puzzle games just feel like races to the kill condition - the other player mostly acts as a timer for your demise, rather than an opponent. Nothing else is even in the same universe.
Hopefully that was more clear.
I totally get what you're saying, that is a big difference and I do like that aspect of Panel de Pon (though at the same time I start to get annoyed when matches drag on too long, I think it needs something to reduce the time you have to save yourself after a certain point). I just don't like saying other games working differently isn't skill too!
Oh, and if you say you haven't seen any other puzzle games that do this, I can name one you must've missed (my all time favorite in fact, PdP is #2 after this): Go play Meteos! It's very similar to PdP with sliding blocks to match 3, but instead of being cleared they turn into rockets to lift blocks above them off your screen to be sent at your opponents, with combos letting you generate more thrust to get a high stack off the ground. What really sets it apart though is that you have 32 different planets to pick from, each with their own physics, play field size, spawn ratios, etc. It's probably not very balanced at a high level, but if you want a fair fight you can always just mirror match. Just having the option of asymmetry is a cool thing I wish more of these games would try, and IMO this implementation is a lot more interesting than Puzzle Fighter's.