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JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

Surprised this isn't a thread yet

Official Japanese site gave out some details on Pokémon Shuffle.

First is the release date: February 18th 2015, which matches what the US Newsletter gave. Hopefully we'll get clarification for the US and announcement for Europe on Monday.

Now, here's the nitty gritty.

This game is free to play, as announced in the Direct. It uses a stamina system where you get 5 hearts and use a heart every time you play a stage (win or lose), and the hearts take time to recover. We first thought it was 15 minutes, but now some imagery appears to show it being 30 minutes.

You can expedite this by buying hearts in the store using the in-game currency, gems. Gems can be obtained through StreetPass but can also be purchased with in-app purchases:

1 Gem = 100 Yen ($0.84 so will probably be $1 in the US)

With this, you can then purchase either hearts or coins. Coins can be used to buy items to make stages easier, or Great Balls to make capture of Pokémon more likely.

Due to the Nintendo Direct trailer, we have the shop pricing scheme:

Hearts
5 Hearts = 1 Gem
20 Hearts = 3 Gems
45 Hearts = 6 Gems
75 Hearts = 10 Gems

Coins
5000 Coins = 1 Gem
20000 Coins = 3 Gems
45000 Coins = 6 Gems
75000 Coins = 10 Gems

Now, this means to get 75 hearts would be 1000 Yen, or approx. $8

Based on new screenshots, there are around 160 Pokémon/stages (1 Pokémon per stage - Charizard and Mewtwo having two entries due to two Mega Evolutions. Could be other forms though) in the game.

If you were to plough through it, without using the stamina feature and without losing a single match, just paying for hearts, you'd need to spend 2300 Yen (assuming there aren't any extra stages with duplicates etc.). It's a little brutal. Though the idea is to play it over time and not 100% it as fast as possible, it could be worse but I'm not jumping for joy over this.

HawthorneKitty · Feb 14, 2015

I like that it's free.

Gonzo The Great · Feb 14, 2015

Why would I buy this when the fantastic Battle Trozei already exists? This is the type of game they should be releasing on the App Store. 3DS users won't settle for F2P trash.

Boba2007 · Feb 14, 2015

I still don't understand why this exists when there's already Pokemon Battle Trozei (which is great by the way) for $8.

I'll still try it, but there's no way I'm going to pay for anything.

kurahador · Feb 14, 2015

This sounds something that mobile users will eat up.

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

Do note that the game mechanics are different to Battle Trozei, substantially so (outside of it being Match-3). Plus, they have said outright that you can 100% the game without paying a penny.

Palette Swap · Feb 14, 2015

Looks like your average F2P pricing scheme.

It wasn't so long ago that people thought Nintendo wouldn't lower themselves to microtransactions, which seemed a bit myopic at the time.

JoeM86 said:
Do note that the game mechanics are different to Battle Trozei, substantially so (outside of it being Match-3). Plus, they have said outright that you can 100% the game without paying a penny.

Most mobile games claim that, what really matters in the end is how the time/currency balance turns out to be.

gerudoman · Feb 14, 2015

I'm oddly excited for this. Candy Crush with a Pokémon skin and unobtrusive payments? Count me in.

oti · Feb 14, 2015

gerudoman said:
I'm oddly excited for this. Candy Crush with a Pokémon skin and unobtrusive payments? Count me in.

Same. Really looking forward to it.

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

I would have accepted a single payment of say $15 that removed the stamina aspect. Keep the microtransactions for the easy way to get items, but remove that. I'd have been happy with that.

Tizoc · Feb 14, 2015

How about offering unlimited play 'hearts' or whatever for like $10 or $15? Cuz I don't think I see that in the list @_@
Cuz at least one game I got on Vita had such a pricing and now I can play stages with no restrictions.

Qurupeke · Feb 14, 2015

JoeM86 said:
I would have accepted a single payment of say $15 that removed the stamina aspect. Keep the microtransactions for the easy way to get items, but remove that. I'd have been happy with that.

Haha, you want to beat it in one sitting, aren't you?

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

Qurupeke said:
Haha, you want to beat it in one sitting, aren't you?

I don't want to. I have to

It's what I do for my site, and people rely on me

cw_sasuke · Feb 14, 2015

Gonzo The Great said:
Why would I buy this when the fantastic Battle Trozei already exists? This is the type of game they should be releasing on the App Store. 3DS users won't settle for F2P trash.

Boba2007 said:
I still don't understand why this exists when there's already Pokemon Battle Trozei (which is great by the way) for $8.

I'll still try it, but there's no way I'm going to pay for anything.

Options...thats why. It might be difficult to understand but there are people that would give a F2P Pokemon puzzler a try but wouldnt think of spending 8-10USD for a regular game.

Im fine with both....especially when i havent tried the F2P variant yet.

Neku89 · Feb 14, 2015

This is the kind of game that Nintendo/PokéCom/whoever should put on iOS and Android. Strong brand, F2P, just add advertisements for the actual games on Nintendo platforms and you're gold.

A 3DS release is good (I'll try it), but things like these are made for Nintendo's (wannabe) strategy on smartphones.

Rosur · Feb 14, 2015

Neku89 said:
This is the kind of game that Nintendo/PokéCom/whoever should put on iOS and Android. Strong brand, F2P, just add advertisements for the actual games on Nintendo platforms and you're gold.

A 3DS release is good (I'll try it), but things like these are made for Nintendo's (wannabe) strategy on smartphones.

Yea this what I don't get... Maybe it will work for the Japanese market but doubt it for the EU/ US ones.

cw_sasuke · Feb 14, 2015

Neku89 said:
This is the kind of game that Nintendo/PokéCom/whoever should put on iOS and Android. Strong brand, F2P, just add advertisements for the actual games on Nintendo platforms and you're gold.

A 3DS release is good (I'll try it), but things like these are made for Nintendo's (wannabe) strategy on smartphones.

Sure, giving people the game for free on devices they already own will make them want to purchase extra hardware to play a more expensive version of said game.

Nintendo doesnt have to put their games on other systems and they have a bunch of steps and actions they can take before that.

Mpl90 · Feb 14, 2015

Gonzo The Great said:
Why would I buy this when the fantastic Battle Trozei already exists? This is the type of game they should be releasing on the App Store. 3DS users won't settle for F2P trash.

I don't know how many of these examples are "trash" (probably, just InitialD, considering it's a crappy game from what I've seen), but Initial D (over 600k downloads), Denpa Men Free (1,8 millions downloads), the Badge center (over 1 million downloads in one month) kind of negates the supposition that 3DS users won't settle for F2P titles.

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

cw_sasuke said:
Sure, giving people the game for free on devices they already own will make them want to purchase extra hardware to play a more expensive version of said game.

Nintendo doesnt have to put their games on other systems and they have a bunch of steps and actions they can take before that.

Exactly. The moment Nintendo start putting games, even ones like this, on other platforms is when people start stopping buying their hardware altogether because it sets a dangerous precedent.

Pancakes R Us · Feb 14, 2015

Neku89 said:
This is the kind of game that Nintendo/PokéCom/whoever should put on iOS and Android. Strong brand, F2P, just add advertisements for the actual games on Nintendo platforms and you're gold.

A 3DS release is good (I'll try it), but things like these are made for Nintendo's (wannabe) strategy on smartphones.

Seriously. This is just screaming to be on smartphones. As usual, Nintendo is behind on some of the key, big trends in the industry (online gaming, amiibo etc.).

Mytherin · Feb 14, 2015

Gonzo The Great said:
Why would I buy this when the fantastic Battle Trozei already exists? This is the type of game they should be releasing on the App Store. 3DS users won't settle for F2P trash.

It's likely a bit trickier for them to make a Pokémon game for non-Nintendo platforms given that they have a lot of say over the IP, and Nintendo want to keep Pokémon exclusive on their platforms at any cost because it's selling tons and tons of consoles for them. I doubt Gamefreak or Creatures Inc. want to piss off Nintendo either.

It will still be very successful on the 3DS anyway, don't underestimate the selling power of Pokémon.

Pandy · Feb 14, 2015

Palette Swap said:
Looks like your average F2P pricing scheme.

It wasn't so long ago that people thought Nintendo wouldn't lower themselves to microtransactions, which seemed a bit myopic at the time.

Most mobile games claim that, what really matters in the end is how the time/currency balance turns out to be.

In fairness, I'd say that it's a bit more generous than your average F2P pricing scheme. No $40 option here.

Even so, once the pricing scheme is unvieled for Europe, I'll be writing a strongly worded e-mail to NoE explaining how shitty these practises makes Nintendo look. If these games proliferate the e-shop, then I'd find it much more difficult to recommend Nintendo's next-gen to my younger siblings.

Neku89 · Feb 14, 2015

cw_sasuke said:
Sure, giving people the game for free on devices they already own will make them want to purchase extra hardware to play a more expensive version of said game.

Nintendo doesnt have to put their games on other systems and they have a bunch of steps and actions they can take before that.

In which world are XYORAS a "more expensive version" of this F2P crap? If the kid wants the real Pokémon experience - catch, trade, battle - he/she has to buy Nintendo stuff. The concept is simple enough.

They have developed a F2P Candy Crush clone. It's alright to release it on Nintendo's primary platform, but it'd be smart of them to put it on smartphones since 1) people crave for Nintendo things on other platforms 2) a F2P game benefits from the ginormous audience on smartphones. This will bring more money without devaluing Nintendo's brand. It's a game different enough from the central concept of main Pokémon games, it doesn't scratch the same itch. I don't see people refusing to buy a 3DS because they've played Pokémon Match-3 (except, maybe, if they were only interested in Battle Trozei... I think).

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

Neku89 said:
In which world are XYORAS a "more expensive version" of this F2P crap? If the kid wants the real Pokémon experience - catch, trade, battle - he/she has to buy Nintendo stuff. The concept is simple enough.

They have developed a F2P Candy Crush clone. It's alright to release it on Nintendo's primary platform, but it'd be smart of them to put it on smartphones since 1) people crave for Nintendo things on other platforms 2) a F2P game benefits from the ginormous audience on smartphones. This will bring more money without devaluing Nintendo's brand. It's a game different enough from the central concept of main Pokémon games, it doesn't scratch the same itch. I don't see people refusing to buy a 3DS because they've played Pokémon Match-3 (except, maybe, if they were only interested in Battle Trozei... I think).

To be fair, this series predates Candy Crush

Yes, this game is different to the main games but it is a very dangerous precedent to start. This isn't a gag game like the Playstation All Stars Island one, this is still a proper game and putting it on non-Nintendo formats, especially as its two predecessors are on the formats, is shooting themselves in the foot. I'm glad Nintendo aren't doing it.

Do I need to point out how Nintendo alone earns as much as around 25% of the smartphone gaming industry at the moment? The idea that they need to go mobile is laughable and really irrelevant to this topic. Let's not turn this topic into this.

cw_sasuke · Feb 14, 2015

Neku89 said:
In which world are XYORAS a "more expensive version" of this F2P crap? If the kid wants the real Pokémon experience - catch, trade, battle - he/she has to buy Nintendo stuff. The concept is simple enough.

The relevant comparison here is the "Full version" called Battle Trozei on 3DS. Everyone knows Pokemon and the userbase that gets offended when a game costs more that 99cent wont get out and buy a 3DS XL for 200USD and Pokemon ORAS for for 40USD just because they get a F2P puzzler for their phones.

No...what will happen is that users the fence about getting a dedicated system to play these exclusive games/IPs will assume that the more full fledged games for mobile cant be far off aka. further weakening Nintendo position in the console market.

There are plenty other ways of using their IPs in different media forms to promote their games. Putting their games on mobiles is not one of them. once you

Neku89 · Feb 14, 2015

To be clear, I'm not advocating for "Nintendo go mobile/3rd party". For example, a F2P endless runner Mario is a big no-no for me - for the same reason I gave before: an endless runner Mario scratches some of the itches that a normal Mario games does (as stupid as "seeing Mario jump and run" as they are). Average Jack will download F2P Mario and be done with it. It's a likely scenario, so I do think that this is detrimental for Nintendo.

On the other hand, Pokémon Shuffle has practically none of the gameplay of the real series; if it was, say, a Mystery Dungeon game, I would have agreed with you. I don't really think that putting this game on the app stores suddenly makes people convinced that full-fledged Nintendo games aren't far off, especially when Pokémon already has a handful of apps on the App Store.

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

Neku89 said:
To be clear, I'm not advocating for "Nintendo go mobile/3rd party". For example, a F2P endless runner Mario is a big no-no for me - for the same reason I gave before: an endless runner Mario scratches some of the itches that a normal Mario games does (as stupid as "seeing Mario jump and run" as they are). Average Jack will download F2P Mario and be done with it. It's a likely scenario, so I do think that this is detrimental for Nintendo.

On the other hand, Pokémon Shuffle has practically none of the gameplay of the real series; if it was, say, a Mystery Dungeon game, I would have agreed with you. I don't really think that putting this game on the app stores suddenly makes people convinced that full-fledged Nintendo games aren't far off, especially when Pokémon already has a handful of apps on the App Store.

But the Pokémon puzzle series exists on Nintendo platforms already and sell rather well. What makes puzzle suddenly eligible for having no real gameplay over Dungeon?

Neku89 · Feb 14, 2015

JoeM86 said:
But the Pokémon puzzle series exists on Nintendo platforms already and sell rather well. What makes puzzle suddenly eligible for having no real gameplay over Dungeon?

I mean that Dungeon is more similar to the main series, being a dungeon crawler RPG.

My point is, if they had to build a game from scratch in order to publish something on smartphones I'd be against it. Since they already made this game, which is quite tailored for smart devices, I think that it's a good thing to release it on them. I've already stated my reasoning, I guess we'll just agree to disagree.

Starwolf_UK · Feb 14, 2015

JoeM86 said:
You can expedite this by buying hearts in the store using the in-game currency, gems. Gems can be obtained through StreetPass but can also be purchased with in-app purchases:

Does that wording mean you can obtain non-gem items too. As otherwise it seems to me like homepass (or living in Japan) could very easily make the wait time a rare sight.

It is probably doing to turn into something like every 10 hits is 1 gem and given you can only pass a given Nintendo Zone/MAC address once every 8 hours you're going to need quite the series of MAC address to cycle. I suppose a daily limit of streetpassed gems could work too

JoeM86 · Feb 14, 2015

Starwolf_UK said:
Does that wording mean you can obtain non-gem items too. As otherwise it seems to me like homepass (or living in Japan) could very easily make the wait time a rare sight.

It is probably doing to turn into something like every 10 hits is 1 gem and given you can only pass a given Nintendo Zone/MAC address once every 8 hours you're going to need quite the series of MAC address to cycle. I suppose a daily limit of streetpassed gems could work too

I'm unsure right now. My Japanese translators are all offline.

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