Dear Reader:
Mini-Review: Pokemon Trozei!
Pokemon, gotta catch’em all…and there is a lot to catch. We all know that there have been a ton of Pokemon games released over the past 10 years. From catching to organizing, and even snapping, Pokemon have done it all. Now Nintendo’s pocket monsters are no strangers to the puzzle genre, having appeared in Pokemon Puzzle League, which was nothing more then a remix of Tetris Attack. This time around, Nintendo saw fit to put the Pokemon into their own official puzzle game. When I first heard about Pokemon Trozei, I thought that this was going to be the shoehorning of everyone’s favorite fighting cuddly creatures into mediocre puzzle game. There have been milkings of the Pokemon franchise before, and I figured this to be no different. I kept that attitude all the way up to yesterday when the review copy landed on my doorstep. After spending quite a good amount of time with the title, I was very surprised to find myself becoming a Pokemon Trozei pusher! Those of you who were skeptical about Trozei please read on, this game just might be worth your time. At least you will find out what the hell a Trozei is!
The heart of the game is the Adventure mode, which actually contains a story. Who would have guessed that the story is actually somewhat entertaining! You will be taking on the roll of Lucy Fleetfoot, a member of the Secret Operations League (SOL). Lucy is alerted by Professor P. (SOL team member) to a disturbing occurrence. Pokemon all around the world are disappearing due to the evil acts of the Phobos Battalion. The Phobos Battalion is using their Phobos Mobiles to roam the land and steal thousands of Pokemon. Why they are stealing all the Pokemon is not clear in the beginning, but it doesn’t matter…your job is to travel the country hunting down these Phobos Mobiles, break in, and free the Pokemon inside. How are you going to transport so many Pokemon back to their rightful owners you ask? You will use the Trozei Beamer of course! The Trozei Beamer is an invention of Professor P’s that allows you to digitally transfer the contents of a Pokeball ( the Pokemon inside) back to the SOL base. The only problem is that you need a strong signal from the Pokemon to transfer them. The signal is created by lining up four of the same type of Pokemon in a row, and once the transfer begins you can use that strong signal to gather up other Pokemon. So now you see that the main gameplay screen is actual the interface of the Trozei Beamer. A very interesting way to explain just how Pokemon Trozei works, and I applaud Nintendo for even trying to make a story to explain the puzzle gameplay in the game. Usually puzzle games just have you squaring off against the computer player to reach the final boss. It’s nice to see something a little different.
Pokemon Trozei’s gameplay is extremely easy to pick up and play, but it will take a very long time to master. Early on in adventure mode you learn that the main objective is to slide the Pokemon left and right, up or down to line up four in a row. Once four of the same Pokemon are lined up they will disappear. What happens next goes hand and hand with the story. Now that you have gotten rid of four Pokemon, the signal from the Trozei Beamer has grown stronger, and it is possible to create a line of three Pokemon and have them disappear. Basically, as soon as you get rid of a line of four, you have a few seconds where any three Pokemon that are lined up will disappear. If you manage to line up three Pokemon to have them disappear, the signal becomes stronger once again, and you are able to line up any two Pokemon to make the disappear. The main objective of the gameplay is to line up four to start your Trozei chain. You can continuously chain together lines of Pokemon to have them disappear, with chains starting at four and ending on two. Once you reach the level two chain and run out of paired Pokemon, the chain will eventually end. On the screen there is a Trozei chain meter that lets you know how much longer you have to make moves until the chain will be over. Each successive chained move will continue to add time to the Trozei chain meter. You can also tell when your chain will end based on the color of the background. The trough where the Pokemon fall will turn a light green once your chain starts, and that color will fade as time runs out on your chance to chain. Keep in mind that you never really have any more then two or three seconds to find the next move in a chain, which keeps the action extremely fast paced.
Each level has a certain amount of Pokemon that you need to capture. As you travel around the map, new locations of the stolen Pokemon will pop up. You enter the level, and it will tell you how many Pokemon you need to capture to leave the level, and what your high score objective is. While the high score objective doesn’t have to be met, you cannot leave a level until you have captured the correct amount of Pokemon. As you get further into the game, the Pokemon capture level continues to grow. On top of that, the amount of Pokemon that fall into the trough grows, thus making it harder to find the matches you need to start chains. Add in the fact that as you progress through levels the Pokemon will fall into the trough at faster and faster speeds, and you will start to get an idea of how hectic the game is.
Eventually Professor P. will be able to sniff out the location of one of the leaders in the Phobos Battalion. When you enter that location on your map, your job changes a little bit. While you still have to collect the right amount of Pokemon to exit the level, you will have to do so with the Phobos Battalion leader attacking you at the same time. These leaders have a number of different moves. For instance, one of the battalion leaders will use a jet of air to blow Pokemon out of line just as you are trying to line them up. Some leaders will use a special attack that makes the screen go dark so that you can only see the silhouettes of the Pokemon, making it much harder to line them up. The Phobos Batallion leaders give you a nice boost in challenge, and prepare you for the levels that come later in the game. Things may start of fairly quiet in the game, but the later levels throw Pokemon at you at an alarming rate.
As I said earlier, the heart of the game is the Adventure mode, but that isn’t the only style of gameplay there is. Pokemon Trozei offers up Endless Trozei, Trozei Battle, and Pair Trozei. Endless Trozei plays exactly the same as the Adventure mode with the exception of it being one never ending level. As you continue on, more Pokemon fall and things get faster and faster. Trozei Battle plays like classic Tetris battle. You are pitted against a friend (via wireless) where you are trying to clear your field of Pokemon. The bigger chains you make, the more Pokemon you said to your rival’s game. Last up is Pair Trozei which also has you playing a friend, but instead of fighting each other you are working together to beat a high score. The best part about the multiplayer is the single card play feature, but unfortunately you can only play against one other person regardless of single or multicard play.
Graphics are usually a null point in a puzzle game. As long as the puzzle pieces are distinct, clear and colorful, there is nothing to complain about. That is the case with Pokemon Trozei. It is a puzzle game, the graphics are more than functional for it’s genre. My only complaint is that later on the in the game you are bombarded with tons of different Pokemon, and every once in awhile there are Pokemon that look somewhat alike. When things get extremely hectic and you are racing against the clock, you can make stupid mistakes because you thought a Pokemon matched up when it really didn’t. This is a very minor problem, and almost all of the Pokemon have a very distinct look. The only other area of graphics worth mentioning are the cut scenes. I found myself continually impressed with the art direct/style of the cut scenes, always impressed when a new one popped up. These scenes aren’t still frames, they are a combination of layered animation within animated frames. The best way I can describe the look of the cut scenes is by comparing it to Sly Cooper’s cut scenes, or perhaps a much more animated/stylized version of Wario Ware. While I was playing through I actually looked forward to seeing the next cut scene presentation.
The sound effects in the game are spot on puzzle fodder. Clicks and sliding effects for the movement of pieces, and that is pretty much all you can ask for. The sound effects for creating and continuing a chain are very satisfying. Sometimes you will feel like you are in a barrage of sound effects for the later levels, but that just adds to the hectic gameplay. While I didn’t enjoy the soundtrack as much as PSP puzzler Lumines (which is based around music) I found what was here to be extremely likeable and memorable. Smooth techno tunes for puzzling, and a more hardcore tune for the boss battles. The only thing that needs to change is the variety in the music. You get one main puzzle song, one map song, and one boss battle song. While these tunes are great, I would have like to hear what else the music team could have done. I guess it works to their advantage that the limited amount of tracks never got repetitive, and were enjoyed time and time over.
Pokemon Trozei honestly surprised me. It contains a seemingly simple puzzle mechanic that actually pulls you in the more you play. The game gives a great sense of urgency during play, a key element to an enjoyable puzzler. While the core gameplay stays the same throughout the entire title (sliding pieces to have them disappear), the difficulty is ramped up at a very gradual level, which helps keep the feeling of the game fresh. Pokemon Trozei forces you to get better and better at chaining combos to stay alive, and in turn feels like new gameplay elements are being added in. While there is a limited selection of (great) music, and wireless multiplayer functions are limited, Pokemon Trozei more than accomplishes what it set out to be. A fun, engaging puzzle game based in the Pokemon universe, instead of a rehashed puzzle game with the Pokemon logo slapped on it. You know what, the story is mildly entertaining too…tell me the last time you saw effort put into a puzzle game’s story!