Pokémon Puzzle League is basically Tetris Attack with a fresh coat of Pokémon paint—and honestly, it works way better than it should. You’re sliding blocks around to match three or more, clearing rows before they stack up to the top, but now Pikachu’s cheering you on and Team Rocket’s talking trash. The anime-style cutscenes between matches give it that late-90s Pokémon charm, and the higher difficulty levels get brutal fast.

What surprised me was how much the Pokémon theme actually adds—special clears trigger little animations, and clearing a huge combo while Misty smugly watches from the other side of the screen just hits different. The 3D mode’s a neat gimmick, but the real meat is the versus matches. You’ll either love or hate how punishing the chain reactions get when you’re up against someone who knows what they’re doing.

Still one of the best puzzle spinoffs Nintendo ever put out, even if it’s just reskinned Panel de Pon.