Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition

Genre: Compilation / Match-3 Puzzle / RPG

Players: 1, StreetPass Compatible

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Review:

Puzzle & Dragons is a Match-3 Puzzle franchise with RPG elements that started out on mobile devices in 2012 and was for a time the highest-grossing mobile app of all time. When the game made the trip to the Nintendo 3DS in Japan, it did so in two separate entries: 2013’s Puzzle & Dragons Z, a JRPG-style game that held fairly close to the series’ norms, and 2015’s Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, which reimagined the series’ formula with Mario characters and locales. However, while Western audiences had to wait until later in 2015 to get this series on Nintendo 3DS, they were rewarded for their patience by getting both games bundled into one package.

Both games play largely the same way, with players using the touchscreen to move around colored orbs to make horizontal and vertical lines of 3 or greater, with these matches fueling attacks made by your similarly color-coded team of monsters. As I’ve noted elsewhere, I find the mechanics of the Puzzle gameplay here to be somewhat mediocre, but it largely works. However, I have to respect the lengths that these games go to in order to try to inject depth into the simple gameplay, giving players multiple ways to manage and edit their teams of monsters.

For this release specifically, it’s also hard to deny the value present here – each of these games could have easily been released separately as its own title, so it’s a pretty good value to get both in one package. And while the core gameplay may be similar, there are differences in the way some of the surrounding mechanics are executed, and then of course there’s the difference in the presentation.

Puzzle & Dragons Z uses some simple 3D visuals for its background locations, with some nice 2D artwork for its various monsters. This is nothing impressive, but it’s appealing enough. This is backed by a decent but forgettable JRPG-style soundtrack. Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, on the other hand, uses some quite excellent 3D for its backgrounds and cel-shaded 3D for its characters, which is all well above and beyond what this game would need for what is basically a re-skin of a Puzzle game. This is backed by some solid remixes of classic Mario themes, with the overall presentation feeling like the game is specifically giving us a take on Super Mario 3D Land. It’s all polished, and works quite well.

Beyond my lack of enthusiasm for the core gameplay here, I will also say I’m disappointed at the lack of multiplayer support in either of the two games. You can get passive help from others via SpotPass, but the game doesn’t give players any way to team up with or fight against other players.

Still, despite my complaints, it’s hard to argue with the sheer value present in this package. Puzzle + Dragons may still feel a bit too shallow and casual for my tastes, but the amount of work that has gone into polishing this game up and fitting as much content as possible here is admirable, and the result is a package I think Puzzle game fans with a Nintendo 3DS should absolutely want to get ahold of.

tl;dr – Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition is a Compilation of two versions of the long-running Match-3 Puzzle game with RPG elements – one with a more traditional JRPG presentation, and one set in Mario’s world and featuring that franchise’s characters. I’m not especially enamored with the core gameplay of this franchise, and the lack of multiplayer here is disappointing, but the sheer amount of value and content in this package makes it a game that still well worth a look for Puzzle fans.

Grade: B-

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