Nintendo had a large presence at this year’s Wondercon, with numerous games on display. Some of which had yet to be released, offering gamers their first chance to try out these upcoming titles. One such game was Puzzle and Dragons, the mobile game turned 3DS crossover, featuring both an original game mode, and a Super Mario Bros. themed campaign that trades mystical monsters for Goombas and Koopa Troopas. We tried out both modes to get the scoop on whether or not the Big N’s latest collaboration is worth checking out, and so far, we see reason to be excited.
Starting off by jumping into what I’m familiar with, the Super Mario Bros. mode was fairly straightforward. In both versions, the player must create a party that consists of different elements, then tackle dungeons while trying to line up matching colored gems to trigger attacks. If you have a teammate who’s color matches the gems, then they fire off an attack. Fail to finish off your opponent, and they get a chance to drain your ally’s HP. The key to success was to trigger combos, that caused falling gems to line up after your move, helping multiply your damage while allowing multiple party members to attack at once! It was a sight to see classic Mario enemies get taken down with a swarm of magic, but I rarely felt like I was in control. I couldn’t see what gems were above my stack, so these combos often felt completely random, taking away from any skill involved.
Surprisingly, the Mario mode felt pretty plain. With the demo consisting of nothing but selecting a level, (based on classic Mario stages,) beating the enemies and eventually winning, it felt like nothing more than a bonus mode. The standard mode however, felt much more fleshed out. Treated as a full RPG, complete with towns to explore, NPC’s to bother, and dungeons to crawl through, I felt myself wanting to discover more about this world. Replacing the familiar Mushroom Kingdom enemies with more mythical based creatures breathed new life into the exploration aspect, leaving me with a need to get deeper into the story, and witness how this puzzle turned RPG experience would turn out.
But alas, it wasn’t to be. It was a demo, after all! Needless to say, while I wish I felt like I had more control over the outcome of my battles, I’m excited about what the final product will offer. Thinking about picking up Puzzle and Dragons Z/Super Mario Edition on May 22nd? Let us know in the comments!