"The Challenge awaits, young trainer!"
The game is based on the Snes classic Tetris Attack, which is based off the game Panel-de-Pon which is loosely based on Tetris. While Tetris was a game of interlocking shapes, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is a game of color, coordination, and chain reaction, as you switch panels to rack up your score.
You begin with a pile of cubes called garbage. Your goal is to switch panels around horizontally to match up 3 of more same colored cubes to clear away the garbage. sometimes this causes combos, and chain reactions. Single matches of colors and chains can remove four, six, ten, or even more cubes from the screen, radically increasing your score. If the cubes reach the top of the screen it's game over.
The Pokemon them fits in as the single player mode encourages you to collect and "battle' with your Pokemon you obtain from eggs (that hatch over time) and from ones you obtain in Challenge mode. depending on you performance in that mode, you'll unlock trainers who you can challenge to obtain creatures like Marril or Pikachu to add to your roster.
Besides the main challenge mode, there are other modes like marathon in which you rack up your score until the cubes reach the top of the screen, garbage mode, which is similar yet you try to clear off falling garbage blocks at the same time, and puzzle mode, where you try to solve puzzles with only a limited of number of moves to clear the screen. In the time and line clear modes, you're racing the clock to achieve a high score before your time expires or your pile ducks below a certain level. In 2 player mode, challenge, time attack, and line clear options further extend this game's replay value.
What's great also is that the Pokemon license is tacked on, nor annoying! Challenge mode is a genius way of doing the Pokemon quest (which puzzle League kind of lacked), and the theme, music (which is from the past 5 Game Boy titles) fit perfectly. When you're in "battle", the Pokémon characters you have react to your progress by making facial expressions or yelling out their familiar Game Boy battle cries. It's satisfying hearing Pikachu's attacking noises as you perform a 7+ chain combo.
Pokemon Puzzle Challenge is one of the best titles you can have if you love Puzzle games. Don't let the fact that it has Pokemon in the title throw you off. With lots of characters 6 game modes, 2 player support, and tons of options, This game will satisfy a puzzler-lover's addiction for a long time.