If you grew up in the age of the Nintendo GameBoy, you had probably played Pokemon a time or two, or you knew someone who did. Enter Pokemon Shuffle which launched on Android back in August. Earlier this year Nintendo announced they would finally be bringing some games to mobile with the help of DeNA, and while this isn’t one of those games it’s still the first official title to hit Android that sports a popular game set of characters that you can only find on Nintendo consoles. Pokemon Shuffle is a puzzle game, or perhaps better described as a puzzle/battler of sorts.
Essentially you’ll be on your way to becoming a Pokemon Master but to do that you’ll have to catch Pokemon. Instead of battling them like you would in the original games, each stage you come across has you presented with a puzzle board and to defeat the Pokemon you encounter you’ll have to match up 3 or more Pokemon on the board, and in doing this you cast an attack. Just like in the original games, each Pokemon will have a weakness to a certain element type, and matching up these Pokemon on the board can help you cast even stronger attacks to win more quickly. You can also create combos based on how many matches you string together, so choose wisely when you think about matching up Pokemon.
For each puzzle battle you only have a certain amount of moves to win, and the quicker you win the better your chances are of catching that Pokemon when you toss out the Pokeball. Sometimes you’ll need a special Pokeball to get the job done and you can collect those throughout the game. There’s also a little bit of a story involved and some context you’ll come across at various points, as well as a nice little tutorial to get you acquainted with how to play and what to do. Your Pokemon can evolve to become stronger as you play and once you catch them they get added to your collection which you can go back to and view at any point. If you’re in the mood for some casual and fun puzzle action and you’re a fan of the Pokemon series, Pokemon Shuffle is well worth your time.
