Nintendo has already proven that the Pokémon franchise can be a true best seller for the 3DS handheld, as its numerous releases, like Pokémon X and Y, have sold millions of copies without breaking a sweat. Next month, it’ll introduce the popular brand to the handheld once again, but this time in a new format for the franchise – free-to-play.
Pokémon Shuffle is a new game that was announced during yesterday’s Nintendo Direct online presentation, a match-three style puzzle game that has some traits in common with King’s wildly popular Candy Crush Saga games. Players will match up Pokémon style characters as they do damage to enemies and move on, only having a certain number of lives before they’ll need to wait to refill – or pay a small fee to do it automatically.
The game’s arrival on the portable front is a push for not only the Pokémon franchise, but also for the company’s New Nintendo 3DS system, which will be making its debut on U.S. shores next month. Granted, the game will still work with older 3DS systems, so audiences that paid for previous Pokémon adventures won’t be unfairly shut out.
Nintendo has dabbled with free-to-play games before, but this is one of the first efforts from the company that revolves around such a popular franchise – and a match-three concept that directly butts heads with the likes of King’s mobile library.
This game isn’t the only one that Nintendo hopes will compete with the mobile market as far as the 3DS is concerned. Puzzle & Dragons Z has been confirmed for a U.S. release sometime this spring, combined with the previous announced Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Edition.
Pokémon Shuffle doesn’t have a release date yet, but Nintendo is expected to release it sometime this spring, in the midst of the new Nintendo 3DS’ arrival at retail. The game’s debut trailer is below.
