Development was done by Intelligent Systems, with subsidiary Nintendo Software Technology assisting with the Panel de Pon portion of the game.

Import reviews of Nintendo Puzzle Collection were favorable, being praised for its multiplayer and presentation, with several labeling Yoshi's Cookie and Panel de Pon as the best titles.

Dr. Mario was directed by Hitoshi Yamagami and Yoshiyuki Kato and the music was composed by Manabu Fujiki and Seiichi Tokunaga.

Gameplay focuses on swapping horizontally adjacent colored blocks to create lines of three or more and remove them from the play field.

[3] Panel de Pon was directed by Hitoshi Yamagami and Yukimi Shimura and the music (based on the original soundtrack) was arranged by Masaru Tajima.

[6] The collection itself was made to re-release the included titles due to most not being available to consumers anymore at the time, and to take advantage of the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable peripheral.

Cole felt that Dr. Mario was the weakest selection of the three games available, with "uninspired" graphics and "unforgiving and honestly quite frustrating" gameplay.