If there is one game series that you can wake me up for, it’s Puzzle League (Panel de Pon in Japan). If you never played a Puzzle League game before, or Tetris Attack as it is called here, you are in for quite a treat. You move a cursor around, with which can swap two blocks horizontally. Your goal is to make pairs of three blocks or greater to create combos. By pulling off massive chains of perfectly placed combos, you not only score more points but you stop the raising of the floor as well. This gives you time to plan your next moves. If you think things are going a bit slow, however, you can simply press a button to quickly reveal more rows.

The concept has remained the same for ages and always offers the same slew of modes. Players can play endlessly, compete against computer opponents, solve puzzles, get under a certain line, or go for a simple time attack challenge. With the Game Boy version, however, there are compromises players have to deal with. The game doesn’t do a good job of showing you how the COM opponent is fairing, which makes it feel all more like a regular game. You’ll also have to pay more attention to the pieces due to the game’s lack of color. More annoying is the lack of the multiplayer mode, which makes other Puzzle League titles stand out from most other games in the genre.

All things considered, it is still a solid Puzzle League title. It could, however, be just a snap of the fingers until Pokémon Puzzle Challenge comes out on the Game Boy Color Virtual Console, which is more a charming and attractive version. That being said, Yoshi and friends add their own charm to this hopelessly addictive endeavor.