Panel de Pon (universe)

The Panel de Pon universe (, Panel de Pon) refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of properties that hail from the Panel de Pon series of puzzle games developed and published by Nintendo. Since the series' debut in Japan, it has been re-branded internationally under several names, such as Tetris Attack and Puzzle League.

Franchise description
Panel de Pon is a tile-matching puzzle game series developed by Intelligent Systems, where gameplay involves matching three or more tiles of the same color at once to remove them from play. The first game in the series was released on the Super Famicom in Japan in 1995, and starred a series of fairies as its main characters. Its storyline involved the Flower Fairy, Lip, setting out to free her friends from the control of the demon king Thanatos and save the world of the fairies.

In bringing the game outside of Japan, Panel de Pon's original characters were completely replaced by the cast of ' (with characters from Killer Instinct being planned earlier in the localization process ), and it was renamed ' (referencing the name of unrelated puzzle series ), setting the precedent of keeping the Panel de Pon gameplay but replacing its characters. This was followed up by a port of Tetris Attack for the Game Boy, which retained the series theming; the two Tetris Attack games were also re-released in Japan as Yoshi no Panepon (, Yoshi's Panepon).

Another pair of rebranded Panel de Pon games, ' and ', used the cast of the series. Both of these games were originally unreleased Panel de Pon titles, as indicated by unused Panel de Pon GB content found in Puzzle Challenge and a prototype of Panel de Pon 64 using the same engine as Puzzle League. All English installments of the series moving forward continue to use the Puzzle League name.

The last game in the series to use the fairy-based theme of the original game was the version of Panel de Pon included in the Japan-only  for Nintendo GameCube. This version of the game, based on the unreleased Panel de Pon 64, starred a new generation of fairies similar to those of the Super Famicom game; Nintendo Puzzle Collection was planned for release outside of Japan and was shown at E3 2003, but was canceled for unknown reasons, despite receiving an rating. The next two games in the series, ' and ', featured no characters at all (barring Pupuri from Puzzle Collection appearing in the former, and Lip's stage being an unlockable theme in the Japanese version of the latter). These installments instead solely featured the gameplay without any story or theming from other series.

After nearly a decade of absence, the series made a reappearance as a minigame in ' under the name ', featuring the cast. Reaching certain milestones in the minigame allows the player to unlock Lip's outfit for their Villager to wear. In 2020, 25 years after the series' debut, the original fairy-based Panel de Pon was released internationally for the first time, via the Nintendo Switch Online service.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
The signature item of Lip, the fairy protagonist of the series, appears as the Lip's Stick item beginning in this game.

Items

 * Lip's Stick: Inflicts a flower effect on an opponent upon contact.

Misc.

 * Beginning in Melee, Kirby's Stone move uses Lip's garbage block as one of its possible designs.
 * The flower effect is representative of the flowers seen in the Panel de Pon title screen. Other causes for the flower effect other than Lip's Stick includes some of Crazy Hand's attacks or the when Togepi is summoned using Leech Seed from the Poké Ball item.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Lip's Stick returns as an item in this game. Additionally, , a remix originating from the first game of the series, appears as a track in My Music for PictoChat. There are also several stickers of characters from the series: specifically, Furil, Pure, Sala, and Cecil from Nintendo Puzzle Collection, along with one of the titular Panels. However, in localized versions of the game, these fairies are incorrectly named as Lip, Ruby, Elias, and Seren; these are the names of their respective counterparts from the Super Famicom version of Panel de Pon. Equipping the Furil/Lip sticker in Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary will grant the player a Lip's Stick when spawning into a level.

Items

 * Lip's Stick: Returns as an item in this game.

Music

 * : An unlockable arrangement of Lip's theme from Panel de Pon is used in the PictoChat stage.

Misc.

 * Lip's garbage block returns in Brawl as one of the possible designs for 's Stone move.


 * The flower effect returns and can now be afflicted through certain moves, such as Rest and Negative Zone. The ailment can also be turned on throughout the whole match within Special Brawl.

In Super Smash Bros. 4
While there is no new content for the Panel de Pon series, Lip's Stick returns once again as an item in this game, and the Lip's Theme (Panel de Pon) remix reappears in on the Wrecking Crew stage.

Items

 * Lip's Stick: Returns as an item in this game.

Music

 * : The remix returns as a default song for the Wrecking Crew stage, exclusive to the Wii U version.

Misc.

 * Lip's garbage block returns in SSB4 as one of its possible designs for 's Stone move.
 * The flower effect returns as an effect in this game. The ailment can also be turned on throughout the whole match through Special Smash within the Wii U version.
 * In the Wii U version, one of Yoshi's tips refers to Tetris Attack for the SNES, while in the Japanese release, it refers to the Game Boy version instead.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In this game, Lip makes her first on-screen appearance in the Smash Bros. series (as well as her first physical appearance in any form of media released in Western territories) as a support spirit. She is also the basis for a costume for Mii Swordfighters and a Friend Icon for online play. The appearance of the flower effect has been changed, now resembling those seen on the title screen of Panel de Pon. Lip's Stick also returns as an item.

Items

 * Lip's Stick: Returns as an item in this game.

Costumes

 * Lip Outfit

Hats

 * Lip Wig

Returning Track

 * "": A remix of Lip's theme from Panel de Pon, returns from Brawl.

Misc.

 * Lip's garbage block returns in Ultimate as one of its possible designs for 's Stone move.
 * The flower effect returns as an effect in this game, being redesigned to now resemble the flowers seen in the Panel de Pon title screen. The ailment can also be turned on throughout the whole match within the Custom Smash mode.
 * One of Yoshi's tips refers to Tetris Attack for the SNES, while in the Japanese release, it refers to the Game Boy version instead.


 * Playable characters:
 * The garbage block is one of several forms can take when using Stone.
 * Lip appears as a costume for the.
 * Item:
 * Lip's Stick appears as an item.
 * Trophies:
 * Lip's Stick appears as a trophy.
 * Spirit:
 * Lip appears as a spirit.
 * Music:
 * "": An arrangement of Lip's theme from this game.


 * Stickers:
 * Flower Fairy Lip, Jewel Fairy Ruby, Moon Fairy Seren, Water Fairy Elias, and panel appear as stickers.

Trivia

 * Although there are no fighters from the Panel de Pon universe in the Super Smash Bros. series, some of the characters that were playable in rebranded Panel de Pon games are fighters, such as Yoshi and Bowser from Tetris Attack, Pikachu and Pichu from Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, Squirtle and Mewtwo from Pokémon Puzzle League, and Villager from Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome Amiibo's Puzzle League minigame.
 * Jigglypuff and Isabelle also make non-playable appearances in these games.