Games that Never Were Released in America in Their Original Form: Panel De Pon

One of my all time favorite puzzle games is Tetris Attack, released in 1996 for the Super NES and featuring characters from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. What I did not know back then, though, is that the game is actually an alternative version of a game released in Japan the year before. There, the game was called Panel de Pon, the initial title of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems' Puzzle League games, which had a number of differences, including an entirely different cast of characters. This version of the game has never been released in America, and as such, it is my duty to tell you more about the game that became Tetris Attack.

The characters featured in this version of the game consisted mostly of fairies who resided in the magical world of Popples. One fairy, Lip, was the game's protagonist, and in the story mode, she embarked on a quest to undo a magical curse that forced other fairies to fight with each other. She would restore the fairies to normal and defeat Thanatos, the one who cast the wicked spell, only to face a goddess named Cordelia. After beating her, Lip would discover that the entire quest was a test to see if she was worthy enough to become the new fairy queen. As in Tetris Attack, Lip would face the final boss only after defeating her other opponents in Hard Mode.

Besides the characters and story, the game had other features that would be changed for the American version. Some of these changes were related to the music and sound effects. While most of the musical score would remain intact, some tunes taken from Yoshi's Island would be featured on the title screen, Yoshi's stage, and game over screen. The theme song of Thanatos, the boss of Stage 11, was given to Bowser, the final boss in Tetris Attack, while Cordelia's theme was deleted. The voice acting was completely different on account that the cast of characters had changed. Other than that, the music and sound effects were identical in both versions of the game.

Some backgrounds had to be taken out, mainly on account that no character from Yoshi's Island was an ideal fit for them. For example, the fourth stage took place in a jewel-filled land. For the American version, this was changed to a flower stage for Flying Wiggler. Lip also had her very own Fairy Land which was replaced by Yoshi's Island. In Panel de Pon, the ninth stage took place in a blue-and-purple cave, the tenth stage happened in a dragon's castle, the eleventh stage occurred at nighttime, and the twelfth and final stage took place under a dark pink sky. All of these backgrounds were deleted for the American version with the exception of the dragon's castle, which was changed to include Bowser's face in the final stage. Stages 9-11 would be changed to feature the background from the Cave of Wickedness cut scenes.

As for other changes, the versus mode would be given a password feature for those who wanted to resume the story at a later time. An option mode would be added, and additional characters besides letters and numbers could be used for passwords. The thirteen garbage blocks, one for every character, each one related to his or her level, were narrowed down to two: a blue one created by your character and a red one given to you by your adversaries. Lastly, in versus mode, the opponents become much harder as you progress unlike in Panel de Pon. All of these changes made the two titles seem like very different games in spots, though the alterations were not quite as dramatic as those that occurred as a result of changing Doki Doki Panic to Super Mario Bros. 2.

Rather than bringing the game to America in its original form, Nintendo opted to make the aforementioned changes, perhaps in an attempt to make it more successful by including characters from a popular game and making it into a Tetris game. It was likely an easy decision to replace Lip and the other fairies with Yoshi and his friends and foes, as Yoshi's Island had been released the year before and had become a massive hit. As such, players would be familiar with the characters. Nintendo made the game into a Tetris title, even though the game play has nothing at all to do with Tetris, likely on account that the Tetris games had become best selling games. These changes did little to diminish the game's appeal, and its rather addictive game play would help it become a critical success, as well as one of the last great SNES games.

As much as I have loved Tetris Attack since its release, I would have wanted to check out the game in its original form, as well. I would have surely enjoyed seeing what the characters and story would have been like, and I would have been fascinated by the other ways in which Panel de Pon differed from the American version. Of course, the amazing game play would make the game all the more appealing, just like in Tetris Attack. It is not very likely that we will ever see Panel de Pon released in North America in its original form, as I am sure that if Nintendo were ever to include the game on the Wii Virtual Console, it would most likely be the American version and not the Japanese one. As such, Lip and her friends will remain virtually unknown outside of Japan.

Panel de Pon sounds like it was a solid game in its own right, which should come as no surprise seeing as how it was developed by the reliable Intelligent Systems, which went on to create other Puzzle League games as well as the Paper Mario games. It could have been released in America in its original form, giving the fairies the chance to become major characters in future games. The version that we did get is solid, and one of Nintendo's very best puzzle games, but I still would have wanted to play the original version. We may never get the chance to do so, but we can always be think about what might have been had our version of Panel de Pon remained intact, without a name change or the addition of Yoshi and his friends and foes.