Nintendo Puzzle Collection

Overview

Nintendo Puzzle Collection is a tile-matching puzzle game collection developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube exclusively in Japan on February 7, 2003.

It features enhanced ports of three Nintendo puzzle games: Dr. Mario, Yoshi's Cookie, and Panel de Pon. Two of these games are based on Nintendo 64 versions (Dr. Mario 64 for Dr. Mario and the unreleased Panel de Pon 64 for Panel de Pon), and all three games support four-player multiplayer and multiple accounts for record-keeping.

One of the biggest features of the collection is link cable connectivity with one or more Game Boy Advance handhelds. Not only can they be used as extra controllers, but players can use them to temporarily download feature-limited single-player versions of each game to the handheld for portable play. The portable versions of Dr. Mario and Yoshi's Cookie are based on their original Famicom counterparts (similar to the Classic NES Series).

Games

Each of the three games have numerous game modes, both single-player and multiplayer (for up to four players).

• Dr. Mario - Based on the Nintendo 64 game Dr. Mario 64 (which was never released in Japan), Dr. Mario has players dropping multi-colored capsules on the playfield in order to clear special "virus tiles" (by matching four or more tiles of the same color, clearing them from the board). It includes a story mode based on that from the original version.

• Yoshi's Cookie - Based on the Super Famicom game of the same name, Yoshi's Cookie has players shifting entire rows and columns of the playfield to form a row or column of the same type of cookie, clearing them from the board.

• Panel de Pon - Based on the unreleased Panel de Pon 64 (which was reskinned and adapted into Pokémon Puzzle League), Panel de Pon has players swapping tiles on the playfield to form a match of three or more tiles, clearing them form the board. It includes a story mode that acts as a sequel to that of the original Super Famicom game.