Much like the United States, Nintendo's Pokemon Trozei is quite the melting pot. Its developers have pulled ideas from other puzzles games and mixed them to form a product that, despite being able to stand on its own, feels a bit too familiar. That's not necessarily a terrible thing because the game is fun to a degree, but it lacks the addictive punch found in some of its competitors, namely Zoo Keeper, Meteos, and Polarium.

The second I saw Trozei it reminded me of Zoo Keeper because numerous heads (in this case, Pokemon heads) are spread out across a play field and the goal is to line up four or more of the same type in horizontal or vertical rows to make them disappear, except in this case, you can drag the Pokemon using the stylus up, down, left, and right, so in a way it's really Zoo Keeper Advanced. And of course, while things start off relatively easy, the Pokemon heads, which are constantly dropping from the top screen, drop faster and faster until your brain is fried and you're incapable of seeing patterns. That's the pedigree of many great puzzle games, but in Trozei's case, the frantic sliding is somewhat tarnished by the game's difficulty, which isn't all that tough. I don't claim to be a Trozei master, as the game has kicked my butt on several occasions, but I'm not getting any sense of accomplishment from clearing one row and then watching as the rest of the pieces conveniently fall into place and disappear. There's just no sense of, "Doh! I made a really big mess here" because the game has a nasty habit of bailing me out at the last minute.

To be fair, Trozei has some signature traits that separate it from the aforementioned games. Being able to actually move the pieces after they've fallen into place is one, and so is the ability to drag them up one space and hold them with the stylus, so the game does have its unique qualities. The problem is none of them really propel Pokemon Trozei to must buy status. Because it reminds me of several other games, all of which are better than Trozei, I'm inclined to play those instead, especially since they offer me so much more in terms of options. Trozeidoes have a few modes to tinker with, but most of them don't stray too far from the main formula. Endless Mode is what I expected, that being the standard game where I try to clear lines of Pokemon, but Adventure Mode (also known as Trozei Adventure) is a big let down. Nintendo created this story about how you're helping the Secret Operations League combat the evil Phobos Battalion while rescuing kidnapped Pokemon using this gadget known as Trozei Beamer, but the gameplay is pretty much the same old puzzle shenanigans found in Endless Mode, and in order to track down the rare Pokemon you have to replay the same levels again and again. It's just really tedious.

On the multiplayer front, Trozei has a couple modes, both of which can be played wirelessly against one other person. You can either enjoy the full suite of options by using two carts, or you can beam a limited version of the game, dubbed Pokemon Trozei Mini to your friend/opponent's DS. None of this is mind bending stuff, just simple battling.

Visually, the game is simplistic (it really is just a bunch of Pokemon heads), though the cut scenes that play during Adventure Mode are very stylish. However, the music, which is an assorted mix of dance and techno, outshines the graphics.

Pokemon Trozei isn't awful or incredible. Rather, it's just a simple, cool puzzle game that's worth buying if you love all things Pokemon and/or you've grown tired of the other games that I mentioned. I'm upset that it didn't turn out to be the next big brain teaser, but at the very least, it offers up some harmless fun for a few hours.