Hey, look! It’s time for another Pokémon spin-off game that I surprisingly haven’t seen a lot of reviews for. Like I said in a past review of Pokémon Rumble, spin-off games are a mixed bag. Sometimes you find one that is highly enjoyable, and sometimes you find one that is not that fantastic. In another review, I also mentioned that puzzle games are rather hard to reinvent. Why do I bring this up? It is because today’s review is of the fantastic puzzle game for the 3DS, Pokémon Battle Trozei. While the idea of matching the faces of the little pocket monsters might not be original, since the concept of matching blocks has been done before with games like Tetris Attack, Pokémon Puzzle League, Candy Crush Saga, and this game builds on that concept and it ends up bringing a more fast–paced puzzle game with plenty of challenge and replay value for you to come back to.
There really is no story to speak of with this game. Battle Trozei is a puzzle game where you match up little icons of the Pokémon in rows of three and even up to six icons in a row. The main goal is to defeat a certain number of Pokémon in each level. Before you enter each level, you can see how many of the pocket monsters there are in each level. Sometimes, you won’t face them all, but if you complete certain objectives while solving some quick tile-sliding/matching puzzles like clearing the entire grid or beat an opponent in a certain amount of time, you will be able to encounter each Pokémon seen in each level. Sometimes you will be encountering more than one opponent that surround your grid of Pokémon icons, and when that happens, you need to make rows of five or more Pokémon icons to hit two or more enemies at once. You can also use certain Pokémon abilities to help you tackle the tougher fights, like when you fight with Chansey among your ranks of Pokémon icons, he can heal you up. It is also a good idea to know the weakness of the Pokémon you are facing, so you can more easily get through the battles like the main games in the franchise. This means you can use the Pokémon you have caught in puzzle battles against the opponents. The more times you use said Pokémon, the more they will bond with you and have their attacks increase. For the most part, the levels play pretty much the same, but certain levels or as they are called in the game as “zones”, will have different gameplay styles. For example, one level will have an endless puzzle mode, or on a daily basis when you play the game, another level will change up the Pokémon you encounter. Another challenge is that you won’t be able to reach certain levels if you don’t get an A ranking. There is even a multi-player mode, so you really get a lot of variety and replay value from this game.
Graphically, Pokémon Battle Trozei is what you should expect from a game like this. It has bright and colorful 2D graphics. There are multiple Pokémon you will see while solving puzzles and multiple kind of Pokémon when you are fighting them. The music is upbeat, bouncy, and intense when you get to the tougher fights, and the battles become more fast-paced. There really isn’t much to talk about with this game’s graphics.
There really isn’t a lot wrong with this game. I guess my only real complaint is that I wish we could get a story mode with this game like you got in that Gameboy Color Pokémon puzzle game, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge. Sure, it might have been stupid, but at least it added more content to the game. I also wish the Pokémon you were fighting with were not just flat pieces of art. It looks nice, but since the recent Pokémon games have gone full 3D, I feel like that would have given more appeal to the overall graphics.
In the end, the gripes are just minor since this is a fantastic puzzle game. It is fast-paced, tough, and fun to play. It is easily one of the best spin-off games from the Pokémon franchise. The game is only $8 on the 3DS e-shop, and I think it’s very much worth the price. This is easily one tile-sliding puzzle game worth checking out.
This game gets an 8 out of 10.
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