The much beloved mobile game, Puzzle & Dragons, which combines elements of a tile matching, Bejeweled-like puzzle game with the dungeon delving delights and RPG elements of a Square Enix keynote title, has announced plans for a Super Mario Edition to be released on 3DS for Japan in April 2015.
Puzzle and Dragons made the transition onto handheld with Puzzle & Dragon Z for 3DS, and it stands to further its success in the West with the infusion of Mario and Co.; an assertion ramified by dent of the wide-spread press this announcement has been getting from Western media outlets.
While details of a US release are still hazy at this point, news having just broken, players may expect to see it coming to US shelves to bolster their catalog of early releases. It represents a highly successful third party developer (raking in nearly a billion dollars a year) taking on board a Nintendo franchise and developing for Nintendo firmware. With Nintendo’s uncertain future regarding third parties, this is an important step and possibly the emergence of a new paradigm in Nintendo releases – piggy-backing on popular names and locations from the Nintendo universe. Instead of dragons, goombas. Instead of monsters, it’s bloopers and chain chomps. Instead of non-descript fantasy heroes and heroines, Mario and Luigi.
Check out the trailer (in Japanese) here: