The Fairy with Fighting Spirit: Lip for Smash! *Play Panel de Pon on NSO!*

[Shinuto]

Just a rumor Fatman has heard from his sources nothing about them saying it's happening or anything yet.

How's Lip related to Iwata though?

 

[RetrogamerMax]

How's Lip related to Iwata though?

I don't know she's Retro. I'm not sure if Iwata worked on Panel De Pon or not.

 

[DOTBHDD]

I imagine an Iwata Tribute character would be Balloon Fighter rather than Lip. Although Villager has taken a piece of that character already.

I don't know if an Iwata Tribute character rumor should be taken seriously. That said; if by random luck it is Lip, I will have no complaints.

 

[Staarih]

I don’t think Iwata even worked on Panel de Pon, and the rumor itself is kinda iffy as is so I wouldn’t look too much into it.

Anyway, great to finally get PdP in the west!

 

[Sunredo]

What do you know...


Here comes an unexpected blessing from Bill Trinen himself!

Panel de Pon, people. https://t.co/Et9MrcjnNn

— Bill Trinen (@trintran) May 15, 2020

Looks like this might have been more about our wishes being finally heard!!

While I'm sure that they couldn't get the rights to the Tetris attack name because of the modern Tetris guidelines that the Tetris company are very strict about allegedly, SPP2 getting a release instead of Kirby's Avalanche does make it more likely that they wanted to finally show the series true identity to the rest of the world. If Nintendo revives PdP, it's more than likely that they'll continue with the fairy setting. Planet Puzzle League was criticized for the lack of personality and you can say what you want about TA and Pokemon Puzzle League, the fact is they don't contribute much to the series identity, you could even argue that they hurt it since they sought to replace it entirely.

Moreover, what's keeping a new PdP from having a Yoshi/Pokemon stage for the fans of those games? Maybe it could be a secret stage, like Lip's stage in the JP version of Planet Puzzle League. You would still have the core setting of the fairies in the main game and in other modes you could pick one of those other stages if you're a fan of those series.

I don't know she's Retro. I'm not sure if Iwata worked on Panel De Pon or not.

I looked into it and Iwata doesn't appear to have any real affiliation with PdP sadly.

 

[Emelie]

Yay, justice for Lip! Better late than never...

I hope she gets to be in more games in the future. She is a really cute character. I hope Captain Rainbow will get an official translation one day too.

 

[DOTBHDD]

One hope that I do have is Lip having her own stage as well as more music than just Lip's theme.

 

[Sunredo]

One hope that I do have is Lip having her own stage as well as more music than just Lip's theme.

It'd be sick if there was some tracks from Planet Puzzle League as well, I'm particularly fond of Bodkin Point myself. If that song got in Smash my arena would have that and only that playing on repeat forever.

 

[DOTBHDD]

I wonder how many new fans Lip will gain from this. I'm not expecting a huge wave but hopefully a trickle of support comes in proceeding the Panel de Pon release.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

I wonder how many new fans Lip will gain from this. I'm not expecting a huge wave but hopefully a trickle of support comes in proceeding the Panel de Pon release.

Times have really changed as of last decades to have plenty of demand for cutesy appeal of the Popple Fairies, so I'm expecting slowly growing of new fans, most likely from current zoomer-side. Sakura Wars has seen similar interest since approximately last year with the translation of the 1st game and the current reboot installment.

Most of all... with the localization barriers finally broken and buried, there's definitely open opportunities for a full-blown new installment that could star the fairies again, if Puyo Puyo's now-global popularity has shown after the success of Puyo x Tetris, Champions and the VC-releases of Madou Puyo-games.

I really hope I.S tries their hands on PdP this way - and incase they're not feeling confident on fairies doing it on their own, then the natural occurrence of PdP going to crossover territory under the various "Puzzle League"-installments on the mainstream Nintendo IPs can definitely help drawing in even further audience.

It's why I believe a mobile game title would be perfect for PdP's current format and history as a puzzler franchise so far.

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

I think the best way for IS to be encouraged at taking a stab at PdP again is if the next Paper Mario bombs (which is likely if Tanabe is the producer yet again). Otherwise they may not fully get out of their comfort zone.

 

[meleebrawler]

I think the best way for IS to be encouraged at taking a stab at PdP again is if the next Paper Mario bombs (which is likely if Tanabe is the producer yet again). Otherwise they may not fully get out of their comfort zone.

That seems rather unlikely. Moving past the questionable thought that Paper Mario essentially needs to die so Panel de Pon can live, Sticker Star got a respectable amount of sales despite negative reception, and Color Splash probably would have sold more on a different system and more vocal word-of-mouth about it's improvements.

There is just no way Origami King will bomb that badly when it has a fresh audience with no preconceived notions to look forward to, and is friggin Mario. It would have to be a complete train wreck in every regard for that to be feasible, and Color Splash very much isn't that expect for the vocal minority of very old Paper Mario fans. And that's only a very conservative scenario of what Origami King will be like.

 

[smashkirby]

You know, there are legit times when I wonder... how would Lip (and PdP as a whole, for that matter), be received if she/all of them made various cameos/references made to them in Fire Emblem over the years up until now?

 

[Arcadenblog]

Intellegent Systems also made the Pushmo series during the Wii U/3DS era, so they're capable of developing smaller eShop titles in addition to major titles like Paper Mario or Fire Emblem.

 

[GoodGrief741]

You know, there are legit times when I wonder... how would Lip (and PdP as a whole, for that matter), be received if she/all of them made various cameos/references made to them in Fire Emblem over the years up until now?

Kind of clashing aesthetics, don't you think?

 

[DOTBHDD]

Kind of clashing aesthetics, don't you think?

It depends on how it's executed. I imagine making Lip a full scale anime model would be bizarre. That said, Capcom has done such things with Mega Man. Making him fit various different appearances to blend with certain aesthetics.

Not sure how well it would work for Lip but it is a curious idea.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

TBQH, I keep feeling you could integrate the world of Panel De Pon to Mario's world seamlessly. I mean, the elemental flower powerups? Magical flora and fauna? Yoshi-species' affinity to rainbow colors and natural yet fantastic environments? And this all before Tetris Attack would make both series clash reluctantly.

Heck, went off on with these particular headcanons yesterday in Panel De Pon-discord:

 

[StarDustStorm]

You know, there are legit times when I wonder... how would Lip (and PdP as a whole, for that matter), be received if she/all of them made various cameos/references made to them in Fire Emblem over the years up until now?

There was already a reference to Lip in FE but only by name in Genealogy of the Holy War in chapters 3 and 5. (coincidentally celebrated its anniversary on the same day as the PDP SNES NSO anouncement)

Kind of clashing aesthetics, don't you think?

There actually exists a FE lcharacter that is pretty much a fairy. She's fairly a fine base to use along with other characters who appear in the "Dream Book" in Fire Emblem Heroes. The character shown here is Peony.

While I haven't posted in a while (Previously announced my closure on posting here), the thread is definitely going to be much more stable thanks to the Switch Online announcement. While people don't like the release schedule of Nintendo's retro games, I'm pretty sure Panel de Pon would of not worked with the virtual console release format. (As VC games and indie developers would literally compete against each other)

Panel de Pon may be one example of what Nintendo wants to do when it comes to some of their NSO retro game releases (W/their IPs in particular) as no other recent retro Nintendo game re-releases will not there to compete against it based off weather you have one specific digital product or not.

If this is part of Nintendo's recovery IP plan for Panel de Pon, one of my insane predictions would be that Lip would be the 5th fighter in the 2nd Ultimate fighters pass. Others would be having a Puyo Puyo Quest collaboration w/Panel de Pon if a Mobile game comes out one day. (Though this can be an issue since Puyo Puyo Quest lacks an English release) Of course I know you desire a crossover between the two game styles.

Nintendo/Intelligent Systems PDP IP Recovery plan so far: ACNL:WA - Minigame (2016) and Lip outfit, SFC Mini 2017 (For Japanese players who missed out on PDP), Smash Ultimate Mii Outfit/Spirit+Friend Icon (2018), and Panel de Pon on Nintendo Switch Online SNES Worldwide (2020).

Last but not least, feel free to put me back on the list.

 

[DOTBHDD]

In my opinion, Nintendo could integrate Lip into so many various Nintendo games.

Obviously one of the major ones is Smash Bros. She'd be a really great addition to the roster. But even playable in Mario Kart or a cameo in Kirby would be cool.

What makes Lip work so well is her mixture of adorable and badass. Integrating her into Animal Crossing was smart but Yoshi, Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Zelda, all great choices for Nintendo to do something with.

On top of that, a new female mascot for Nintendo would be great. Peach and Zelda are cool but aren't protagonists of the series (Zelda is debatable). Samus rarely gets spotlight. Dixie Kong get shine occasionally. Lip; however, could be a consistent female mascot for the company. It'd be smart to take advantage of that possibility.

 

[pupNapoleon]

I wish there were more Panel de Pon fans that could back up the genuine enjoyment of the series. Lip needs as much discussion and support as she can get.

To be fair, I'm absolutely not a fan of Panel de Pon- in fact I'd go as far as to say, as I did in the newcomer thread, that I feel blueballed with the game; any name it's under, whether it's with Lip, Yoshi, or Pikachu, I feel like I'm promised something via characters that the game has nothing to do with and completely shoehorns in.

That said, I really like Lip as a character, and would find it very Smash to finally include a fairy character, but to take it from a series that really doesn't have anything to do with her being a fairy.

 

[Shinuto]

To be fair, I'm absolutely not a fan of Panel de Pon- in fact I'd go as far as to say, as I did in the newcomer thread, that I feel blueballed with the game; any name it's under, whether it's with Lip, Yoshi, or Pikachu, I feel like I'm promised something via characters that the game has nothing to do with and completely shoehorns in.

That said, I really like Lip as a character, and would find it very Smash to finally include a fairy character, but to take it from a series that really doesn't have anything to do with her being a fairy.

its a puzzle game what the hell are you expecting?

 

[pupNapoleon]

its a puzzle game what the hell are you expecting?

Better marketing.
I know that I wasnt given Pokemon Puzzle League because I love moving little squares around.
Rather, because I loved Pikachu.

I'm not faulting the game for what it is- I'm faulting how it was never marketed (or even emphasized within the game itself) to highlight the strength of the gameplay.

 

[Shinuto]

Better marketing.
I know that I wasnt given Pokemon Puzzle League because I love moving little squares around.
Rather, because I loved Pikachu.

I'm not faulting the game for what it is- I'm faulting how it was never marketed (or even emphasized within the game itself) to highlight the strength of the gameplay.

Marketing focuses on appealigng to vast majority, and most people arent going to be intially attracted to the gameplay of puzzle games without having already played it but the aesthetic tied to it to give it a sense of charm and immersion.

 

[smashkirby]

Kind of clashing aesthetics, don't you think?

It depends on how it's executed. I imagine making Lip a full scale anime model would be bizarre. That said, Capcom has done such things with Mega Man. Making him fit various different appearances to blend with certain aesthetics.

Not sure how well it would work for Lip but it is a curious idea.

There was already a reference to Lip in FE but only by name in Genealogy of the Holy War in chapters 3 and 5. (coincidentally celebrated its anniversary on the same day as the PDP SNES NSO anouncement)

Yeah, I was way too tired last night, so I didn't get to go into much detail with this. What I meant was various PdP things could be referenced like a random citizen having Lip's name and/or general design, Lip's Stick being a usable weapon by mage characters, a drawing of Lip and/or other members of her cast showing up in some random location, etc.

If I'm being honest, I don't know if I'd want to see Lip (and the rest of her cast, for that matter) using F.E.'s aesthetic of realistic proportions. I mean, maybe someone like Elise from Fates could wear a Lip costume, but otherwise...

In my opinion, Nintendo could integrate Lip into so many various Nintendo games.

Obviously one of the major ones is Smash Bros. She'd be a really great addition to the roster. But even playable in Mario Kart or a cameo in Kirby would be cool.

What makes Lip work so well is her mixture of adorable and badass. Integrating her into Animal Crossing was smart but Yoshi, Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Zelda, all great choices for Nintendo to do something with.

On top of that, a new female mascot for Nintendo would be great. Peach and Zelda are cool but aren't protagonists of the series (Zelda is debatable). Samus rarely gets spotlight. Dixie Kong get shine occasionally. Lip; however, could be a consistent female mascot for the company. It'd be smart to take advantage of that possibility.

Now that you mention it, I'm starting to think Lip would have made for a perfect cameo in Kirby's Dream Land 3...

 

[pupNapoleon]

Marketing focuses on appealigng to vast majority, and most people arent going to be intially attracted to the gameplay of puzzle games without having already played it but the aesthetic tied to it to give it a sense of charm and immersion.

Yes, the marketing has to find a way to make the game appealing.
The way they chose was to make it not about the game at all, which is why I found it misleading and a let down.

Either way. I do quite like Lip. Enough that I wish the game had more of her personality within the gameplay.

 

[DOTBHDD]

I'm not sure if I'd want a genre shift. Mainly because the enjoyment I get from playing Panel de Pon is what I enjoy most.

That said, I would love for there to be more advertisement with her character. It's rare to have adorable and badass female video game characters that appeal to younger female audiences.

As for her personality, I'd be cool with Panel de Pon extending to mini games. Kind of like how Mario games on the DS used to have little mini games that came with the main adventure. Having Lip and her friends be express themselves through minigames while still having Puzzle League be the main appeal would actually be a really fun packaged game.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

Speaking on about possible references to Lip, I got to actually discover that Minh.T, the flower-tending Toad(ette?) from Paper Mario 64 shares her Japanese name with Lip.

Looks like I.S seemed pretty fond of Lip back in the day.

I'm not sure if I'd want a genre shift. Mainly because the enjoyment I get from playing Panel de Pon is what I enjoy most.

That said, I would love for there to be more advertisement with her character. It's rare to have adorable and badass female video game characters that appeal to younger female audiences.

I'm still curious how something like Henry Hatsworth-styled platformer/puzzle game hybrid would look like for Lip - considering how that game's almost a spiritual successor to PdP while also doing it's own thing:

Nevertheless, I feel highly confident that Lip could really build a loving following due her charm that'll definitely make everyone fall for her irresistible moe.

The Japanese Twitter also seems fond of Lip and friends still today, with how I've been finding some retweeted fanart from them during yesterday's announcement.

 

[StarDustStorm]

Yes, the marketing has to find a way to make the game appealing.
The way they chose was to make it not about the game at all, which is why I found it misleading and a let down.

Either way. I do quite like Lip. Enough that I wish the game had more of her personality within the gameplay.

Nintendo pretty much has a policy that you can't really change the game that much when they have their retro games gets re-released, meaning you can't add features to the game. The only thing you can really do is change some text (such as changing Yahoo! in Link's Awakening DX on 3ds VC, or grammatical corrections like in SMB3), blur effects to prevent seizures, and minor sprite color adjustments (One of the BG for Mother 3 on Wii U VC).

This is actually my biggest gripe I have against the characters, they really have to express the relationships between the characters more. Puyo Puyo had been doing this by doing some cheesy funny cutscenes. Competitive fighting games were the main inspiration for Puyo Puyo and Panel de Pon's Competitive action puzzle game format, and I don't see why Panel de Pon couldn't have cutscenes which tells us the relationships between the characters. When people were familiar with characters in a spin-off rebrand we already know the relationship between the characters, those games can sort of simply use glaring details without having to tell us again in the plot.

There are even many Magical Girl series that has simple plots but we get to know their relationships because they at least had time to interact with each other, which is the most essential thing for the genre, the thing people watches it for in the first place (and also helping a troubled local in an area). Meanwhile Panel de Pon literally locks some of the fairies to be only usable in Vs mode and we only get an implied summary of their personalities and their role in the story when they were in the spell. (Which is more likely for those characters to feel lacking in qualities) Here's an example of what I am talking about.

In this scene it really only tells us that
1) The game follows a victim of the week format when it comes to freeing the fairies (Then becomes a monster of the week in Death Mountain).
2) Windy probably acted like some upset Wind god against Lip.
However, it'd be more interesting to see how the drama plays out between the characters in the game.

Here's a cutscenes in Puyo Puyo Sun:

The character descriptions in Panel de Pon does tell you some of the character's relationship, but showing it to us is much better than simply telling us in
some infodump,

This is seriously one major thing they have to fix for the next game, not even Panel de Pon GB (added expressions for their portraits in the square box, but no character interactions really shown outside of Lip, Cordelia, the mysterious guy, Thanatos or Kain) or GCN (only built up Furil and Kain's relationship) even addressed this issue.
Because if not fixed, the characters will feel like they lack personality on a surface level. (This is actually quite a number of people's impressions on the characters.)

 

[pupNapoleon]

Nintendo pretty much has a policy that you can't really change the game that much when they have their retro games gets re-released, meaning you can't add features to the game. The only thing you can really do is change some text (such as changing Yahoo! in Link's Awakening DX on 3ds VC, or grammatical corrections like in SMB3), blur effects to prevent seizures, and minor sprite color adjustments (One of the BG for Mother 3 on Wii U VC).

This is actually my biggest gripe I have against the characters, they really have to express the relationships between the characters more. Puyo Puyo had been doing this by doing some cheesy funny cutscenes. Competitive fighting games were the main inspiration for Puyo Puyo and Panel de Pon's Competitive action puzzle game format, and I don't see why Panel de Pon couldn't have cutscenes which tells us the relationships between the characters. When people were familiar with characters in a spin-off rebrand we already know the relationship between the characters, those games can sort of simply use glaring details without having to tell us again in the plot.

There are even many Magical Girl series that has simple plots but we get to know their relationships because they at least had time to interact with each other, which is the most essential thing for the genre, the thing people watches it for in the first place (and also helping a troubled local in an area). Meanwhile Panel de Pon literally locks some of the fairies to be only usable in Vs mode and we only get an implied summary of their personalities and their role in the story when they were in the spell. (Which is more likely for those characters to feel lacking in qualities) Here's an example of what I am talking about.
View attachment 271950
In this scene it really only tells us that
1) The game follows a victim of the week format when it comes to freeing the fairies (Then becomes a monster of the week in Death Mountain).
2) Windy probably acted like some upset Wind god against Lip.
However, it'd be more interesting to see how the drama plays out between the characters in the game.

Here's a cutscenes in Puyo Puyo Sun:

The character descriptions in Panel de Pon does tell you some of the character's relationship, but showing it to us is much better than simply telling us in
some infodump,

This is seriously one major thing they have to fix for the next game, not even Panel de Pon GB (added expressions for their portraits in the square box, but no character interactions really shown outside of Lip, Cordelia, the mysterious guy, Thanatos or Kain) or GCN (only built up Furil and Kain's relationship) even addressed this issue.

Again... I truly dont understand how we are lacking a magical girl type character in Smash Bros.
Then again I guess we don't have a giant mech.

So perhaps we can get Ray MK and Lip (I'm aware the former is super tiny).

 

[StarDustStorm]

Again... I truly dont understand how we are lacking a magical girl type character in Smash Bros.
Then again I guess we don't have a giant mech.

So perhaps we can get Ray MK and Lip (I'm aware the former is super tiny).

Spoiler: Ray MK's case

The Mecha Genre has been on the decline for quite a while, there hasn't been that thing that revives interest on the genre, and also creating new fans. Which also tries to retell the story of old IPs. Some think the genre isn't really going to recover. The Super Robot Wars series typically appeals to veteran mecha fans. This may unfortunately be why there may be a lack of games for this series for a while.

There are a huge catalogue of Magical Girls that never had an release outside Japan (Especially the cute witch archetype). Which means most people aren't familiar w/the genre. (Ex. Oh is that a Sailor Moon rip-off? Pretty Cure gets that lauded like that despite Toei having a popular series that had tropes that predate Sailor Moon - Sentai/Power Rangers that used a color-coded format)
The are only ones that has a following for America is like Sailor Moon, Madoka Magica, Shuga Chara, Cardcaptor Sakura, plus ones released on 4kids.

Most series I described above aren't Pdp's influences as they were released after PDP (Except a little bit of Sailor Moon which probably inspired PdP to have color-coded clothing), its likely older series like Minky Momo ((Windy seems to look like she got design influences from that titular character in some ways), and the 80s Perirot Mahou Shoujo)) Which literally means that the things that the inspiration for the Panel de Pon characters are not felt outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Minky Momo, Windy Comparison

The landscape of the Magical Girl genre has actually changed quite a lot, this is due to the success of Madoka Magica in 2010. The ideal Magical Girl was negatively impacted by this so instead they want to cash in on Madoka's success (Which are called the Dark Magical Girl), Basically any new ideal Magical Girls didn't have a place in the 2010s (bc you aren't like Madoka) unless you are a big IP/Company like Precure (Which is probably the reason it struggles in the mainstream for English fans to this day, with people really starting to get interested w/Heartcatch which is like too late), some of Sanrio's anime (Both those series lack an official English release (Outside Futari wa), or remakes and a revival to an existing IP. The resurgence of the idol genre is also a big competitor for attention against any releases of an ideal Magical Girl.

What does this have to do against Panel de Pon, the perception of Magical Girls outside of would look more into the Dark Magical girl and may be turned off that it actually lacked any. Ironically this sounds like the gaming landscape in the 2000s era when Nintendo was written off as being childish. Luckily its expectations will be leveled thanks to being part of Nintendo.

 

[PsychoJosh]

If they wanted to add a giant mech or a giant mech user they should add somebody from Battleclash/Metal Combat. You wanna talk about another series with its own universe and characters that's woefully overlooked, look no further than Battleclash. I think it got overlooked mainly because it is a peripheral game and can't be played without the Super Scope which I think most people didn't have.

I was able to pick up a Super Scope and a sealed copy of the game, which was fun in its own way, it's nice being able to open up a brand new copy of a SNES game and re-experience what that felt like all those years ago. It's a really fun game, world is kind of reminiscent of F-Zero too.

Since Panel de Pon got announced for a western release I've been working on a little animation. I hope I can post it here by Monday.

 

[Iko MattOrr]

Now that you mention it, I'm starting to think Lip would have made for a perfect cameo in Kirby's Dream Land 3...

You talk of Kirby's Dream Land 3, you summon me
I wonder what side mission she could have had. Maybe one of those where you have to sculpt the star blocks into a particular shape, or a puzzle minigame (like Sonic Mania's Puyo Puyo boss?).

Anyway, both Minky Momo and the Pierrot mahou shoujo anime are considered a cult in my country, but I'm not sure about the rest of the world. I think that the mahou shoujo and the big robot genres share a lot of things in common... they both were popular in the 80's and both seem to have disappeared recently, aside of some rare cases; in case of the robot anime, I think that the genre started to fall after Evangelion... it was revolutionary at its time, so much that the traditional robot anime felt outdated; the same happend to the mahou shoujo genre, but I don't think it's because of Madoka. I think that the mahou shoujo genre started to fade earlier, when anime like Pretty Cure/Precure started to become more popular than the traditional ones. When Madoka came out, the genre was pretty much already dead (the last world wide popular traditional mahou shoujo was probably Ojamajo Doremi that ended in what... like 2002? But I'm not sure)... mahou shoujo was (and in some cases still is) a genre that is made fun of in other anime, there's always that otaku obsessed with some magical girl in every slice of life, and a huge amount of parodies exist (including stuff not originated in Japan, such as Star vs the Forces of Evil). Ironically, big robot anime were made fun of in some mahou shoujo anime (Minky Momo too), but they were still respected enough (unlike mahou shoujo that are usually portrayed in parodies as moe fanservice trash - the closest equivalent of making fun of robot anime is Keroro being an obsessed fanboy of Gundam models).

This to say that sadly both the big robots and mahou shoujo genres have lost their appeal in the modern generations, and unless a big nostalgia operation will revive them, there's not much that can be done. In order to bring Panel de Pon back, IMO they either have to change the image of the series to something more unique and separated from the concept of mahou shoujo anime, or go full 80's nostalgia and try to build a strong identity on that... it may be risky but if they do it in the right way, it might work (in a similar way as to what Cuphead did with 30's cartoons). As for the big robots, I don't know... Gurren Lagann did a pretty good job at bringing back the genre and modernizing it, but it was a rare exception; I wish there were more attempts like that.

 

[StarDustStorm]

You talk of Kirby's Dream Land 3, you summon me
I wonder what side mission she could have had. Maybe one of those where you have to sculpt the star blocks into a particular shape, or a puzzle minigame (like Sonic Mania's Puyo Puyo boss?).

Anyway, both Minky Momo and the Pierrot mahou shoujo anime are considered a cult in my country, but I'm not sure about the rest of the world. I think that the mahou shoujo and the big robot genres share a lot of things in common... they both were popular in the 80's and both seem to have disappeared recently, aside of some rare cases; in case of the robot anime, I think that the genre started to fall after Evangelion... it was revolutionary at its time, so much that the traditional robot anime felt outdated; the same happend to the mahou shoujo genre, but I don't think it's because of Madoka. I think that the mahou shoujo genre started to fade earlier, when anime like Pretty Cure/Precure started to become more popular than the traditional ones. When Madoka came out, the genre was pretty much already dead (the last world wide popular traditional mahou shoujo was probably Ojamajo Doremi that ended in what... like 2002? But I'm not sure)... mahou shoujo was (and in some cases still is) a genre that is made fun of in other anime, there's always that otaku obsessed with some magical girl in every slice of life, and a huge amount of parodies exist (including stuff not originated in Japan, such as Star vs the Forces of Evil). Ironically, big robot anime were made fun of in some mahou shoujo anime (Minky Momo too), but they were still respected enough (unlike mahou shoujo that are usually portrayed in parodies as moe fanservice trash - the closest equivalent of making fun of robot anime is Keroro being an obsessed fanboy of Gundam models).

This to say that sadly both the big robots and mahou shoujo genres have lost their appeal in the modern generations, and unless a big nostalgia operation will revive them, there's not much that can be done. In order to bring Panel de Pon back, IMO they either have to change the image of the series to something more unique and separated from the concept of mahou shoujo anime, or go full 80's nostalgia and try to build a strong identity on that... it may be risky but if they do it in the right way, it might work (in a similar way as to what Cuphead did with 30's cartoons). As for the big robots, I don't know... Gurren Lagann did a pretty good job at bringing back the genre and modernizing it, but it was a rare exception; I wish there were more attempts like that.

RetroCrush (part of Digital Media Rights) has a goal to make older anime accessible. In order to accomplish that, they are more active on social media (On Youtube and Twitter) only available in US and Canada. It does have some anime you mentioned (Creamy Mami, and Pastel Yumi), plus some old mecha anime. They do plan on bringing more old Mahou Shoujo (That was never licensed in English) and Mecha to the service. Anyways, I hope RetroCrush is going to be successful in bringing more classic anime into the conversation, which in turn will help Panel de Pon (and other video games that were influenced by them) give more familiarity to people. That's all I'll be talking about w/that part of the thread.

Its kind of ironic that Panel de Pon and Custom Robo are both series that represent genres that were pretty popular back in the day but its also unfortunate that Panel de Pon didn't get to take advantage of that style of the genre while it was still relevant due to rebrands. Magical Girl references also appear in Nintendo games too such as New Horizons and Kirby Battle Royal. Also moe is even acknowledged in their recent games for characters such as Isabelle (Since her debut), Inklings and among other characters.

 

[DOTBHDD]

Puzzle League would definitely be great if it was on mobile. Now that Nintendo has extended games to the platform, Lip could've been on of the pioneers of the movement over.

But that's just a wishful thinking hypothetical.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

I wonder if this is the first time I come across this but...

If it wasn't for some fans merely exploring this as "Lip can grow replicas of her wand, hence why you see many on Smash"-fanon, this would be having some unfortunate implications if looking at how Smash's whole roster essentially plays with Lip's most precious possession around.

In all seriousness, I never knew about this...

 

[DOTBHDD]

In two days, Panel de Pon will officially be made accessible to the west legally. That's kind of crazy. The game we're all here for will be here for us all to play in merely a couple of days.

Does anyone here plan on playing some games online? I'm actually not sure if it's possible but many have said that it will be. I'm glad to be getting another puzzle game outside of Puyo Puyo Tetris to play this summer.

 

[PsychoJosh]

I wonder if this is the first time I come across this but...

If it wasn't for some fans merely exploring this as "Lip can grow replicas of her wand, hence why you see many on Smash"-fanon, this would be having some unfortunate implications if looking at how Smash's whole roster essentially plays with Lip's most precious possession around.

In all seriousness, I never knew about this...

Yeah it's tough, I imagine she needs the wand like some people need glasses or a walking cane. But she's not alone, Selene also uses a staff. Although I'm not sure if that's out of necessity or just a choice of hers.

Me and N. Onymous have been swapping ideas for lore in the game in case it ever got rebooted, and we came up with a plot point about how Lip is seen as inferior or teased by her schoolmates because she needs a wand to use magic. It could be a theme to explore for drama in a potential reboot.

 

[RetrogamerMax]

That seems rather unlikely. Moving past the questionable thought that Paper Mario essentially needs to die so Panel de Pon can live, Sticker Star got a respectable amount of sales despite negative reception, and Color Splash probably would have sold more on a different system and more vocal word-of-mouth about it's improvements.

There is just no way Origami King will bomb that badly when it has a fresh audience with no preconceived notions to look forward to, and is friggin Mario. It would have to be a complete train wreck in every regard for that to be feasible, and Color Splash very much isn't that expect for the vocal minority of very old Paper Mario fans. And that's only a very conservative scenario of what Origami King will be like.

I don't think Origami King's success or failure will not effect how well Panel De Pon will be received on Switch Online.

If they wanted to add a giant mech or a giant mech user they should add somebody from Battleclash/Metal Combat.

If we are talking about mech characters than they could put in Dr. Eggman or Tron Bonne from Mega Man Legends.

 

[PsychoJosh]

If we are talking about mech characters than they could put in Dr. Eggman or Tron Bonne from Mega Man Legends.

Yes, of course I support those characters but I was talking specifically about giant mechs, similar to gundams. Nintendo has a series about that. I used to play it.

 

[DOTBHDD]

Wait. What did Paper Mario have to do with Panel de Pon? Pretty sure either game would have no effect on each other.