Level 51 - There's No Time To Pokémon

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 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.