Panel de Pon has one of the strangest footprints in Nintendo history: a puzzle series that most Western players never played under its real name, starring a fairy most people have hit someone with in Super Smash Bros. without ever knowing where she came from. The games stayed largely in Japan, the rebrands buried the original characters, and yet the series kept leaking out sideways — as items, trophies, spirits, and one very odd Wii cameo. This is a tour of every notable place Panel de Pon has surfaced outside its own puzzle games, and what each appearance quietly tells you about how Nintendo treats the IP.

The item almost everyone has used: Lip’s Stick

If you have played any modern Super Smash Bros. game, you have probably grabbed a small pink wand and bonked someone with it. That is Lip’s Stick, and it is Panel de Pon’s most successful ambassador by a wide margin. It first showed up as a battering item in Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2001 and has returned in every entry since — Brawl, the 3DS/Wii U games, and Ultimate.

What makes Lip’s Stick clever as a reference is that it does not just hit — it plants a flower on the target’s head. That flower blooms over time, ticking damage as it grows, and the victim has to mash to shake it off. It is a direct nod to Lip, the flower fairy who wields exactly this wand in Panel de Pon. Millions of players have used the item as a joke weapon without realizing it is a load-bearing piece of a whole puzzle franchise’s identity. If you want the full backstory on the character behind the wand, we go deep on her in our profile of Lip, Panel de Pon’s flower fairy.

The collectibles: trophies, a sticker, and a spirit

Beyond the item, Nintendo has repeatedly used the Smash Bros. collectible systems to keep Lip and the Panel de Pon world catalogued — which is notable, because for years those collectibles were the only official Nintendo acknowledgment in the West that the original characters existed at all.

Melee and Brawl

Melee included a trophy tied to Lip’s Stick, framing the item and the character for players who would otherwise have no reference point. Brawl continued the pattern, folding Lip into its sticker system — the small collectible images used to buff fighters in that game’s Subspace mode. A puzzle-game fairy sitting in a bin of stickers next to Mario and Samus is a small thing, but it kept her in the official roster of “Nintendo characters that count.”

Ultimate’s spirit

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Lip returns as a spirit — the game’s replacement for trophies, where hundreds of characters from Nintendo’s history are represented as collectible spirits you equip and battle. Getting a spirit in Ultimate is, in practice, Nintendo’s modern way of saying a character is officially part of the canon zoo. Lip made the cut, which is quietly remarkable for a character from a series that never got a mainline Western release under its own name.

The deep cut: Captain Rainbow

The strangest and most affectionate cameo is Captain Rainbow, a 2008 Wii game that never left Japan. It is a bizarre premise even by Nintendo standards: a washed-up superhero visits an island populated by forgotten and obscure Nintendo characters, helping them make their wishes come true. The whole game is essentially a home for B-side and deep-cut characters — and Lip is one of the island residents.

That context matters. Captain Rainbow is a game about Nintendo’s neglected mascots, so Lip’s inclusion is a wink from the developers: they knew she was a beloved obscurity, and they treated her as exactly that. For a character whose home series had been renamed and re-skinned across regions, showing up in a game explicitly built around forgotten Nintendo faces is almost poetic.

Why the cameos matter more than they look

It is tempting to file these under “fun trivia,” but the cameo trail actually explains a lot about Panel de Pon’s odd position. Consider the pattern: the series itself rarely got Western releases under its original name, getting rebranded into Tetris Attack, Pokemon Puzzle League, and other skins instead. Meanwhile, the character Lip kept appearing in high-profile games that everyone played.

The result is a franchise that is simultaneously obscure and everywhere. A player in North America might have logged hundreds of hours with the mechanics under a Pokemon or Tetris label, and separately spent years throwing Lip’s Stick in Smash, without ever connecting the two. The cameos were doing the work of keeping the IP alive in the collective memory even while the games themselves stayed regional. If you want to see how tangled the release history got, our breakdown of every version of Panel de Pon and Tetris Attack ranked lays out just how many identities this one puzzle engine has worn.

What is not a cameo (and why the distinction matters)

It is worth drawing a line here, because fans sometimes lump everything together. The Nintendo Puzzle Collection on GameCube, Planet Puzzle League on DS, and the various Pokemon Puzzle titles are not cameos — they are full entries or ports of the actual game, just wearing different branding. A cameo is when the series shows up inside a game that is not a Panel de Pon game: the Smash item, the collectibles, Captain Rainbow. Keeping that distinction clean helps you understand the two separate survival strategies at play — the mechanics survived through rebranded ports, and the characters survived through guest appearances.

The characters themselves are richer than most players realize, too. Lip is only the most visible of a whole cast of fairies, each tied to a different element and stage. We cover the full lineup in our guide to the Panel de Pon characters and story mode, which is worth a read if the cameos have you curious about who else could theoretically show up someday.

The cameo that keeps not happening

The obvious question every fan eventually asks: why has Lip never been a playable Smash fighter? Her wand is already in the game. Her flower mechanic is already implemented as an effect. The character is already modeled, catalogued, and canonized as a spirit. From the outside it looks like most of the work is done — and yet she remains an item and a spirit rather than a fighter.

There is no official answer, but the likely reasons track with everything else about the series: a puzzle-game protagonist with limited Western name recognition is a hard sell for one of gaming’s most contested roster spots, and Nintendo has historically preferred to promote characters from series with active, visible release schedules. The cameos, in that light, are both a tribute and a ceiling — enough to honor the character, not quite enough to elevate her. For a series this beloved by the people who know it, that tension is the whole story in miniature.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lip’s Stick in Super Smash Bros.?

Lip’s Stick is a battering item that first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee and has returned in every game since. When you hit an opponent with it, a flower sprouts on their head that deals damage over time as it grows, until they mash it off. It is a direct reference to Lip, the flower fairy from Panel de Pon who wields the wand.

Is Lip a playable character in Smash Bros.?

No. Lip has appeared as an item (Lip’s Stick), a trophy, a Brawl sticker, and a spirit in Ultimate, but she has never been a playable fighter in any Super Smash Bros. game.

What is Captain Rainbow and why is Lip in it?

Captain Rainbow is a Japan-only Wii game from 2008 built around obscure and forgotten Nintendo characters living on an island. Lip appears as one of the residents, which fits the game’s whole premise of celebrating Nintendo’s deep-cut mascots.

Are the Pokemon Puzzle and Tetris Attack games cameos too?

No. Those are actual Panel de Pon games released under different branding, not cameos. A cameo is when the series appears inside a game that is not a Panel de Pon title, such as the Smash Bros. item or Captain Rainbow.