Written by Derrick Sanskrit
It's friday, which means it's time for some chiptune!
Nintendo is primarily known for its innovative platformers and unique characters, but they are also responsible for some of the most addictive and original puzzle franchises in recent history, like my high-school addiction, Puzzle League (Panel de Pon in Japan). Now, springing a new puzzle franchise on an unfamiliar audience isn't easy, especially back in 1996 when the SNES was losing a lot of ground to Sony's brand-new Playstation. Nintendo relied on brand recognition to smoothly Americanize Panel de Pon , renaming it Tetris Attack, despite the game having no similarities to Tetris beyond moving blocks. The elemental fairies that populated the Japanese game were also replaced for the more familiar denizens of the big N's last great SNES platformer, the soon-to-be-cult-classic Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Tetris Attack's fast-paced color tile matching gameplay and aggressive versus mode made it a favorite in the tournament puzzle crowd, and later versions — Pokémon Puzzle League for the N64, Nintendo Puzzle Collection for the GBA, and Planet Puzzle League for the DS — each brought excellent additions to the already great puzzler. but the one thing they all lacked was the FUNKTASTIC soundtrack of the original. While the synth strings were pleasant enough, it was the warbled tones of midi-slap bass that kept me coming back for more. Well, that and burying my friends under mountains of bricks.
Please enjoy one of my favorite tunes from the game, "Lunge Fish's theme". Who'd have known such an ugly fish could have such fantastic music?!