Nintendo has announced that it has partnered with Japanese game developer GungHo Online Entertainment to develop a mashup of the popular mobile game Puzzle & Dragons and the legendary Super Mario Bros. franchise.
Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition will be released for the Nintendo 3DS on April 29 in Japan, where more than 10 percent of people who have smartphones actively play the match-three game Puzzle & Dragons every day, just as many people in the United States play Candy Crush Saga regularly.
Puzzle & Dragons is actually a mashup game in itself, combining the gameplay used in the match-three puzzle and role-playing game genres. Gamers need to collect dragons to explore dungeons, attack enemies and collect treasures. To do this, they must match three items on the puzzle board so that their dragons receive more power to carry out their actions.
In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, the gameplay will be the same. However, instead of collecting dragons to launch attacks, gamers will need to collect goomba mushrooms, bloopers and flame chomps.
Gamers can grab a copy of the new game when it becomes available in April for 4,000 yen, or approximately $33. For this price, Nintendo will make all the in-app purchases available in the Puzzle & Dragons game free for all gamers, which should be a good incentive for fans to pick up the Nintendo version of the game.
This isn't the first time Nintendo partnered with GungHo. In 2013, the game developer created a version of Puzzle & Dragons for the 3DS. Named Puzzle & Dragons Z, the game went on to become one of the bestsellers for the handheld player that year.
It is unclear whether Nintendo plans to make the game available in the United States or whether it hopes to make a mobile version for iOS and Android devices in the future. The company, which is known for developing legendary titles such as Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda, has long held off creating games for mobile, opting instead to focus on Nintendo Wii and its other gaming systems.
SoftBank-owned GungHo, however, will be releasing the original Puzzle & Dragons game in China through its partnership with Tencent Holdings. This will make GungHo's first foray in the biggest smartphone market in the world.
Meanwhile, Nintendo shares rose by 2.3 percent on Tokyo's trading floor at the end of Wednesday's trading, after peaking as much as 8.3 percent earlier. GungHo's shares also saw an increase, surging as high as 13 percent before settling 4.1 percent higher than the previous day.
