A popular Japanese mobile game gets a three-dimensional upgrade with help from a few familiar plumbers in the long title Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition (Nintendo, reviewed with New Nintendo 3DS XL, Rated: Everyone, $29.99).
The addictive orb-matching maelstrom arrives for the premiere, and only, 3D handheld gaming system and bundled with a new adventure starring the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom.
The two content-rich games in the one title offer essentially the same type of core challenge.
Specifically, the puzzling premise is simple enough for nearly any member of the family. On the bottom of the 3DS touchscreen screen will appear a 6-by-5 gridded board packed with multicolored orbs.
During each turn, match at least three orbs of the same color vertically or horizontally by dragging one of them into a new position. Keep an eye out for potential secondary matches as the orb is moved around. Matches lead to characters tied to the same colors unleashing attacks on opponents.
Any additional matches, also possible as orbs disappear and are filled with new orbs cascading down the screen, unleash combinations of more powerful attacks.
That’s the idea, and when layered with building sets of customized teams with unique skills and throwing in fantasy elements, wild locations and wondrous characters, the puzzles lead to blurry-eyed, heavily addictive gaming sessions.
In the case of “Puzzle & Dragons Z,” a player gets sucked into the world of Dracomacia, where dragon tamers unleash their creatures against Lord Dogma’s evil group, Paradox, in their attempt to liberate the Skydragons.
The villain has also shattered Zed City into puzzle-shaped World Pieces that must be found to restore the locations.
That requires a dragon tamer to scour the lands and cool-looking dungeons to find fights while using customized teams he has assembled. They include a leader, four allies and a special assistant to combine might during skirmishes.
Tinged with role-playing elements throughout the action, the game has the player secure and hatch eggs and collect, evolve and unlock powerful skills of more than 250 creatures while also spending lots of time have fairly mundane conversation to progress the story.
Still, the Pokemon-style adventure is about the matching battles, and each fight looks spectacular played out in the top 3D-enhanced (no glasses required) screen with some fairly impressive, massive monsters challenging our dragon tamer’s team.
Next, younger players will appreciate a visit to the Mushroom Kingdom to help Mario, Luigi and their pals save Princess Peach (aren’t they always) in “Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition.”
With action more refined to team-building and completing puzzles to smite villains, and less role-playing, the matching is much quicker to accomplish.
The player moves Mario around eight, fairly massive world maps, one point at a time, to engage in battles with more than 80 classic Bowser bad guy minions such as Larry, Hammer Bro, Boom Boom and Flame Chomps.
Eventually, beaten enemies can become part of teams so that the likes of Koopa Troopas and Paragoombas will align with Yoshi, Toad, and Ice Mario to name just a few line-ups.
Throughout “Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle and Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition,” I can’t gush enough about how great the battles look in the large-screened, New Nintendo 3DS XL.
Explosions, fireworks, monsters chomping out from the screen and some great-looking, deep environments make for an eye-popping amount of fun.
Overall, this double dose of orb-matching action is easily one of better casual gaming bundles of the year.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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