Nintendo Puzzle Collection, Yoshi's Cookie -- 25 October 2010, 2P Versus

Well, I'll confess something...I had set up the console to accept this disc before we started playing Puyo Pop Fever, because I had originally interpreted "Let's play that crazy Japanese puzzle game" for Panel de Pon, when I stopped myself to consider what Puyo Pop Fever must seem like to any casual eye and passing observer.
Slightly crushed, but not really that disappointed, because they're both wonderful changes of pace from only ever seeming to play fighting games, we settled in to pop some Puyo, and I made sure to inquire as to whether or not the Puzzle Collection could be added to the end of the queue of things to do before the end of the festivities arrived.
Then upon loading up the title screen, I was met with something along the lines of "Ooh, Yoshi's Cookie! Can we play that?"...and thinking for a moment, I decided that it was far harder to get humans to offer to play that one, particularly since there hasn't rightly been a release outside of Japan of this fine game since the days of the SNES, not counting the Virtual Console, of course.
So the course was set and we made off to do some baking and shaking of those colorful confections and I set out to give my companion a brief refresher as to the complexities of the cookie craft.
Fortunately the game itself is rather simple, it's just that the act of pulling ahead of your opponents in all due haste can be something of a challenge.
I hope you will recall, at any rate that the object is to fill up all the notches on the many-ticked meter while avoiding the fate of letting your fuse run all the way down without any rows of cookie clears. Clearing a row of Yoshi cookies will enact whichever of the status changes is listed under your character as applied to whichever of the two targets is indicated. If you're unsure, your player character will be kind enough to point out whether or not the current condition change would prove favorable or unfavorable to you.