I'd love to catch a tetrad right about now

I think that I speak for everyone when I say that there is nothing quite like a good puzzle game. I'm sure that if I was to ask 100 random strangers on the street and ask them about Tetris memories, no less than 90 of those people are going to reminisce for me.

Now, I can imagine the brain trust at Nintendo ponder this bit of information, along with their hot new franchise. People like puzzle games. People like Pokemon. What would happen if they had a puzzle game with Pokemon? Why, they'd sell millions!

Well, interested, I borrowed a copy off of a friend. I figured I appreciate a good puzzle game, and I like Pokemon. Seems like a match made in heaven, right? And so it seemed, until I got playing.

Now, the game itself is a very basic variant on the puzzle theme. Blocks continually rise from the bottom, and you make them disappear by making rows or columns of three matching blocks. Now, maybe I've been playing too many of these things, but couldn't they have picked something a little more original? I mean, could someone please tell me how this is drastically different than, say, Yoshi's Cookie? This style of puzzle game is rather old. I'd like something other than the same puzzle game I've already got.

Of course, though, you get to do it with Pokemon. Now, some of the modes, like garbage or puzzle mode, that just means that you've got one Pokemon providing a cute background while you move around blocks with no obvious connection to the game play. Effectively, you're playing a game with no reason to be called a Pokemon game.

It actually does turn out to be somewhat important in Story mode, although it even then is barely that. To simplify things, you follow a straight line, fighting all the Gym leaders from Pokemon Silver and Gold. You 'fight' by playing out a round of puzzles, and damage your opponent by making combos with your movements. Fans of Tetris or Dr. Mario should recognize this post-haste. Only problem is, when the computer will attack you is impossible to determine. At least with the other games, you could strategize and fight back against your electronic aggressor. No such luck here.

In theory, your Pokemon gain 'levels' with each round of Story mode they play. And if you can notice any difference in a level 1 Pokemon and a level 50 Pokemon, well, you've played this game way too much. Simply put, there is no obvious reason as to why you should even bother leveling up your Pokemon, except that it is a natural consequence of you playing the game, if you actually stick with it.

On the bright side, the game is not that hard on the eyes. The color shapes are brightly colored without being too garish. Thus, you'll never have a problem distinguishing them all the while you won't be blinded by a horde of Lucky Charms rejects. All the same, after this, you probably will think Lucky should just stick those stale marshmallows where the rainbow won't go.

Of course, there is always the issue of sound. Last I checked, the Game Boy still has the most inferior speaker system this side of the X-Box. As such, unless you want to make ears bleed, turn the sound down. And consequently, if you do play with the sound on, you deserve a Turkish prison. Just a little reminder there.

The control is thankfully fairly responsive, although slow at times. This usually isn't a factor, but the controls seem to become more sluggish, along with a tell-tale slight skip in the game's music, if the game's speed is too high and you try to twitch the cursor to the other side of the screen. A careless player might lose before he's had the chance to play, and that just isn't right.

Now, there is a two player option on the game, which is essentially just a garbage match between you and a friend. Great, so instead of playing Tetris, a well made multi-player puzzle game, I can play this, a much more poorly made puzzle game. On the bright side, since Pokemon is so popular, you'll probably find another rube who owns the game.

Really, the biggest flaw I can point out is that the game fails to deliver a consistent puzzle game as well as failing to take advantage of the Pokemon license. I love Pokemon, but not even I have the urge to sit there and fool around with this game. So, unless you absolutely must own every single Pokemon game, or you must own every single puzzle game out there, don't pick this up. For cheaper, you could pick up Kirby's Avalanche, which was a much better franchise character puzzle game.