What did we think? Check after the bump!
Puzzle and Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition is a
Mario-themed adventure making use of Puzzle and Dragons gameplay
mechanics. Puzzle and Dragons is a
puzzle adventure game in which players move tiles in order to match three or
more of the same tiles. Unlike other
match-three games, however, the game has Role-Playing Game elements in the
mix. The player has a party of six
characters to help them progress through each stage and battle enemies. Each character and enemy has at least one element
assigned to them, and each element has a weakness. Fire goes to wood which goes to water and
then goes back to fire, whereas light and dark are weak and strong against each
other. The point of each battle is to
match the colors necessary to have those characters attack the enemies weak
against the specific element for the most damage.
Moving the tiles from one place to another is not simply a
movement of two tiles between each other; with each movement along the screen,
the tiles touched shift along the path, allowing players to setup combos all
while making one match of tiles. This is
particularly necessary if you want to defeat enemies in swift succession. After a number of moves, the enemies attack
as well, doing damage and occasionally causing other effects to the characters
in your party. In the two-stage demo, I
encountered Dark enemies which immediately froze my only Light character, which
only proceeded to start my downfall rather quickly. Initially there are only the basic three
elements, but the other two come into play later in the game. Besides tiles of each element, heart tiles
can be used to heal oneself, but be sure to match up an attack together, as
well, if you want to cause the greatest effect.
The game feels rather unique, particularly with the RPG
elements and tile-shifting gameplay mechanic.
Everything moves very smoothly, which is great for a puzzle game like
this, and the aesthetic matches quite well with Mario’s world. However, I cannot judge how the game’s
difficulty will be. I found the first
stage to be a breeze, taking out all the enemies in very little moves, but on
the flip-side, I was trounced by the second stage. I suspect it will take some learning for the
levels further in the game, but I found the game to be rather rewarding if not
a little easy in its first stage.
Overall, I found the demo to be a solid introduction to
Puzzle and Dragons gameplay mechanics, and with Mario involved, it will likely
appeal to a fair amount of gamers when it comes out over here this May.
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