Puzzle-and-Dragons
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Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition announced [update]
Do not adjust your monitors, do not wipe your glasses clean. You're 100 percent looking at a Super Mario-glossed entry in GungHo's incredibly popular Puzzle & Dragons series, and it's coming to 3DS in Japan this April. GungHo America also notes an "overseas release" of the thus-titled Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition through Nintendo. [Update: A Nintendo spokesperson told Digital Spy that currently Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition is a "Japanese-only announcement." So it's unclear what exactly GungHo America's referring to by "overseas release." We've reached out to GungHo for clarification.] Details are limited at the moment - according to Gematsu the match-3 game features both local multiplayer and StreetPass functionality. From another angle, the most important details lie in the numbers. GungHo just revealed that the original mobile Puzzle & Dragons surpassed 6 million downloads in North America, taking the free-to-play game's worldwide tally to more than a staggering 41 million. To put that in perspective, in April 2013 Puzzle & Dragons raked in $3.76 million per day. Furthermore, it's well established that Mario likes gold coins. If you still puzzled, check out GungHo's announcement trailer below the break.
DC superheroes team up with Puzzle & Dragons next week
A limited-time in-game event will introduce several DC Universe characters to the world of Puzzle & Dragons next week, mobile publisher GungHo announced. Starting on November 10, Puzzle & Dragons players can access a new dungeon populated by familiar faces from DC comics. Superman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, and others will appear both as combatants and as recruitable characters that players can win via an in-game rare egg machine. Next week's crossover follows up on previous GungHo partnerships that introduced guest characters from Batman: Arkham Origins, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Dragon Ball Z. At long last, universes will collide and fanfiction will become reality as Superman teams up with Asuka Langley and Goku in custom player parties. This is a thing that will happen. This is a thing that must happen. Puzzle & Dragons' DC Comics dungeon will be open through November 23. [Image: GungHo]
Puzzle & Dragons tops 30 million downloads in Japan
Publisher Gung Ho Entertainment has announced that its massively addictive puzzle-RPG Puzzle & Dragons has been downloaded over 30 million times in its native country of Japan, reports Siliconera. If one were attempting to design a game that could be described as "systemically addictive," it would be difficult to top the concepts found in Puzzle & Dragons. Players navigate a dungeon, taking part in battles, capturing monsters and using those monsters to battle other, more powerful monsters. In lieu of combat, all conflict in Puzzle & Dragons plays out on a grid full of icons which players must align to perform attacks. It's a simple system that's easy to learn but difficult to master, and Gung Ho is constantly adding new, free content to the game, including crossovers with other media properties like Batman, Hello Kitty (pictured above) and the stylized robots of the Evangelion anime. If you're suddenly intrigued by the mobile game that's taken Japan by storm, you can find Puzzle & Dragons available on both the Android and iOS app stores. It's free-to-play, but know that the temptation to spend real-world cash on Magic Stones grows pretty intense after the first handful of dungeons. [Image: Gung Ho Entertainment]
Fall under the spell of Spellfall
Spellfall (free with in-app purchases) is a puzzle game with RPG elements where you try to match three or more tiles to damage enemies. Players have a certain number of turns to defeat enemies. If they fail to do so, the enemies take their turn to attack. When you run out of health, the battle ends and you're awarded with coins and points. Of course, if you win you get more. Spellfall is compatible with iPhone 4S and up, iPad 3rd generation and up, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPod touch 4th generation and up. Spellfall requires iOS 5.0 or later. Spellfall is a puzzle game with gameplay reminiscent of Puzzle & Dragons, but with more RPG elements such as an item inventory system and spells instead of monsters. Players can use coins to purchase armor, weapons and spells. For example, if you purchase and equip the heal spell equipped, you need to match water tiles to power it up and use it to heal yourself. This spell was very helpful in a lot of the battles. You can equip multiple spells which means you will have to switch out which one is active in order for it to use it. Some spells can be used offensively and others are used defensively like the poison spell. The power of these spells felt appropriate for each level. The heal spell was the most helpful in a lot of cases but there were times where more offensive abilities would be best. After defeating enemies, items are unlocked in the store which you can purchase with virtual coins. After making a "purchase," you must equip that item to use it. Parts of the inventory's user interface are hard to understand because they are not very intuitive. The blue cross button on the right side of the screen is confusing as it is used to show you what items you have equipped, but we can also see this on the inventory page itself. The small box at the bottom of the screen is also a little confusing as its shape suggests you can spin the words to cycle through them, but instead it is a tap function. It can be difficult to progress in Spellfall when you are badly injured through battles with enemies. As your health is very low, you are even more susceptible to every enemies' attacks. It takes a lot of decisive actions and knowledge of each enemies weakness to progress further when injured. There is an option to use coins to heal yourself but this usually wasn't something I had a lot of when playing. You can also wait a certain amount of time to be healed, but these were very long waits of 30 minutes; it didn't seem like a fair amount of time to wait. Another option is to pay real money for coins to exchange for health and keep playing. I found it hard to keep going without a lot of health but this challenge was entertaining and kept me playing in hopes of getting further. This method is not recommended for those who don't have a lot of patience or don't like doing the same battles over and over again. Spellfall is a puzzle game that challenges players to take advantage of each enemies' weakness and utilize spells in order to be victorious in the demanding battles of this tile matching game. Spellfall is available on the App Store for free and is recommended for people who are looking for more challenges in their puzzle games.
Puzzles And Dragons' next collaboration taps the robots of Evangelion
Having already joined forces with Batman and Hello Kitty, hyper-addictive puzzle roleplaying game Puzzle And Dragons will next feature the giant robots and angsty teens of the Evangelion anime series. The event begins on February 24 in Japan, with the rest of world following suit in March. As with the previous crossover efforts, this event will see Evangelion characters appear in the game as party members with their own, unique sets of attacks and abilities. Puzzle And Dragons will also receive a new Rare Egg machine shaped like the EVA-01, as well as an unknown number of Evangelion-themed Ultimate Evolutions. Like all Puzzle And Dragons crossover events, this new content will be added to the game at no charge to players. That said, this is a promotional effort designed to highlight the ongoing Evangelion reboot, Rebuild of Evangelion, so don't be surprised if you find appropriate ads within the puzzle hit. [Image: GungHo Online Enertainment]
Iwata clarifies: Nintendo is not done with consoles
Last week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata mentioned that the company was rethinking its business strategy following poor sales of the Wii U console. Speculation that Nintendo would cease building consoles immediately followed, but Iwata assures fans and investors that this is not the case. "The spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles. It's not that simple," Iwata stated. "It doesn't mean that we should put Mario on smartphones." Instead, Iwata sees the new ubiquity of mobile devices as a platform that Nintendo could and should tap to promote its console releases. Here he cites GungHo Online Entertainment's Puzzle And Dragons as an example, pointing out that the 3DS incarnation of the game sold more than a million copies in its first month of existence, despite Puzzle And Dragons being available as a free-to-play offering on all manner of mobile devices. According to the Wall Street Journal, Iwata remains convinced that good games can sell consoles, regardless of how technologically impressive they might be - though modern customers need more convincing than earlier generations. To that end, Nintendo is reportedly pouring money into research and development, and "Mr. Iwata promises to surprise game players in the future."
'Puzzle and Dragons' pushes GungHo sales to $763 million through June
GungHo sales from January to June 2013 were $763 million, up 946 percent year-over-year, Dr. Serkan Toto translates from the company's financial report. Its net income during the period was $287 million, up 2,609 percent from 2012. Between April and June alone, GungHo brought in $4.9 million a day in sales, for a net income of $161 million. GungHo's main source of all this magical cash is Puzzle & Dragons, a mobile RPG puzzler. Sales from Puzzle & Dragons tallied $113 million in April, earning $3.76 million daily. The game currently has 17 million players in Japan. GungHo operates other games, too, and it expects overall July sales to hit "just" $138 million, bringing the daily average to $4.5 million per day, down from the April - June average of $4.9 million. Puzzle & Dragons is on its way to 3DS in Japan this winter, and it should hit the UK and Australia this year for mobile platforms.
Hit mobile RPG Puzzle & Dragons earned $113 million in April
In its latest financial report (translated here by Dr. Serkan Toto) Osaka-based publisher GungHo Entertainment announced that its mobile puzzle-RPG Puzzle & Dragons grossed over $113 million in April. To put that in perspective, GungHo's catalog-wide earnings for April totaled ¥12 billion ($119 million) – a 1,142.8 percent increase over its performance in April 2012. Puzzle & Dragons currently generates $3.76 million in daily revenue, and boasts 13 million players in Japan. Puzzle & Dragons originally launched for iOS and Android devices last year. A Nintendo 3DS adaptation is slated for release in Japan this winter.
GungHo reports Puzzle and Dragons is earning $3.75 million a day
GungHo Entertainment is a game publisher based in Japan, and the company has just released some really wild financial numbers. According to the latest numbers, GungHo made US$118 million this past April alone, most of it from one game: Puzzle and Dragons, currently available on iOS. Puzzle and Dragons is pulling in so much money (from audiences in both Japan and around the world) that GungHo says it's making $3.75 million a day. In Japan alone, Puzzle and Dragons is claiming 13 million players -- which is over 10 percent of the population there. That is a phenomenal success story, and it gives GungHo a higher market cap than even the legendary game publisher Nintendo. As a result, the company's stock has skyrocketed, and it's even challenging current megapublisher Activision Blizzard for market cap. I liked Puzzle and Dragons, but I think this is a game more targeted at Japan and its vast audience of mid- to hardcore-level gamers. In addition to the addictive puzzle and pet-leveling gameplay, Puzzle and Dragons is also very well structured to keep in-app purchases high, which goes a long way towards explaining how this game has gotten so big so quickly. GungHo's definitely seen some success in North America, as the app has made a few appearances on the top grossing list. But as far as I know, the success in Japan has been much more incredible.
Puzzle & Dragons coming to 3DS in Japan
Mobile puzzle hit Puzzle & Dragons, in which players build teams of monsters and explore dungeons, leading them into combat through color-matching puzzles, is coming to 3DS this winter, according to scans of CoroCoro Magazine found by Siliconera.The 3DS version, called Puzzle & Dragons Z, features 200 different monsters to battle with. The nature of the release is as yet unknown – the mobile versions are free-to-play, but that is exceptionally rare on 3DS (approximately zero games ever have used the model on the platform).
Daily iPhone App: Puzzle & Dragons combines a grindy RPG with puzzle-y goodness
You'd probably be forgiven for dismissing Puzzle & Dragons on first glance -- I certainly did when I first played the game a little while ago. It's not exactly accessible for those of us who appreciate well-designed software, requiring an Internet connection and using some of the worst features of online social games, including a really grindy progression system and a fairly insistent friends list. But I gave the game another look when I saw it pop up on the charts this last week, and I'm glad I did: There is indeed a good game here, hidden in among the trappings of online social nonsense. The core game is a match-3 puzzle game, which I've already expressed my fondness for a few times. And that match-3 game powers a role-playing system that's actually very complex when you dive into exactly how it all works. There is a tutorial to walk you through the game's mechanics, but the real complexity doesn't appear until after you've finished it. Each monster you collect (and include in your party) is matched up to a certain color, and when you match that color on the puzzle field, that monster attacks. So putting your party together becomes very complicated: Do you want to focus on one color, making it more powerful than the others, but leaving you without attacks when you don't have orbs of that color to match? Or do you want to spread your party out, giving you a few options but not as many monsters attacking on each turn? There are other wrinkles as well, including monster skills that slowly regenerate over your turns, and even color alignments, which cause some colors to do more or less damage to monsters of other colors. And all of the monsters you collect can be upgraded and evolved into more powerful creatures, assuming you've got the right pieces to build them with. The game is actually very satisfying, once you figure out how it all fits together. It's just too bad that the really rewarding stuff is buried underneath all of the social nonsense. App company execs: The reason this game is so successful isn't because it pushes people to connect friends and rewards with stupid daily bonuses. It's successful because, even despite those things, it's a fun game to play. Puzzle & Dragons is a free download.
Puzzle & Dragons now available on Android
You guys are never going to guess what Puzzle & Dragons is about. Not in a million years. Want a hint? Well it's got something to do with ... Oh, no that's totally right, yeah. Puzzles and dragons. Good guess.Originally released for iOS back in November, Puzzle & Dragon is now available on the Google Play store for Android devices in South Korea and North America. The free-to-play puzzle/RPG is an equal parts Bejeweled, Puzzle Fighter and Pokemon cocktail, with players capturing (and evolving) teams of monsters in order to do battle against other monsters. Damage is done by successfully matching groups of colored gems, as seen in the trailer above.Puzzle & Dragon's microtransactional hook comes in the form of Magic Stones, which, once purchased, can be used to restore health, obtain rare monsters and restart failed dungeons, among other uses.%Gallery-173499%
