Pokemon Trozei review

Because some prefer their falling blocks to be cute and cuddly

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Worthwhile puzzle action

  • +

    Music's not too bad

  • +

    Lots of multiplayer options

Cons

  • -

    It's kinda easy

  • -

    Still no Poke-RPG on the DS

  • -

    Pokemon license might deter a few

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Is there anything the Poke-critters can't do? As much as you want to write them off, the sickeningly-adorable little monsters manage to sneak into a decent game from time to time. In this case, it's a falling-blocks puzzler called Pokemon Trozei.

Instead of blocks tumbling from the sky, it's a bunch of Pokemon. The bit is to line up four of the same type horizontally or vertically with the stylus. Once you do - pop, they disappear like Tetris blocks. After you match four, you only need three to make them clear. Then just two. At that point you can really start cleaning the board. The catch (of course there's a catch) is you have about two seconds to keep the combo going before everything resets. If you're not fast enough, you gotta start all over again by lining up rows or columns of four.

So that's the gist of Trozei. What makes it a little deeper and more rewarding than other puzzle games of this ilk are the various collecting bits. Every time you clear (or trozei) a group of Pokemon, that creature is added to your captured Pokemon list. Some of the little guys are harder to find than others and only appear if you're clearing some serious lines. It's not much, but just by adding a goal to the normally-endless puzzle game, you get a few extra miles of gaming.

Then there's story mode, in which you follow some Powerpuff Girls knock-off around as she reclaims a load of stolen Pokemon. The best thing here are the versus matches against evil Poke-wranglers. They can throw blocks in your puzzle set that can only be cleared in the middle of a larger trozei - the bad guys, too, have to be hit with successive trozeis to be beaten.

More info

GenreFamily
DescriptionIt's a simple puzzle concept dressed up to look like a cross between the pocket monsters, Tetris and a pinch of Powerpuff Girls retro style.
Platform"DS"
US censor rating"Everyone"
UK censor rating"Everyone"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.