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Nintendo's characters show up in someone else's handheld game
Nintendo's iconic characters have appeared more than once in third-party console games (hello Soul Calibur fans), but mobile games have largely been off-limits. However, there are new signs that the gaming giant is taking a more relaxed approach to the handheld world. GungHo has unveiled Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, a take on the popular puzzle battler that includes many of the characters from Nintendo's most sacred cash cow. It's not surprising that there's only a 3DS version so far given Nintendo's usual disdain for smartphone games, but the regular Puzzle & Dragons is also available (and successful) on both Android and iOS -- it wouldn't take much to get the Mario variant on non-3DS systems. Will that happen? Probably not. Even so, GungHo's game is further proof that Nintendo isn't as protective of its franchises as it used to be.
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.
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.
