PAD Z and Super Mario Bros Edition, well worth the money

It’s not like me to be so in doubt about my opinion about a game. I often know right away if a game is for me, or not. But looking back I promised twice to put my thoughts about Puzzle & Dragons Z in a blog, and still I’m hesitant. Maybe because it doesn’t happen often that you get the riches of choices of three different versions of a game! But I guess I’ll give it a shot, here goes. First of all, I’m not a fan of match 3 games. It always feels to me as if it’s up to chance if you will succeed to gain another level or not. But in this game there seems to be more to it: when you master the art of “second orb movement” you can score lots of attack moves in one go. That’s because you can slide one orb freely over the screen for a certain amount of time. I like this: I carefully ponder my next move, trying to visualize which course my orb should take to have the maximum effect. My thoughts about the app game are here. Now for the Puzzle & Dragon Z Super Mario Bros. edition.

Two games in one package, all for a fair price. You certainly get your money’s worth there, as both games are full game experiences. Although the idea of moving orbs and that way attacking your enemies is the same, the two games couldn’t feel more different. First of all the PAD Z game: it looks most like the app game, the dragons look equally good and you have to overcome dungeon after dungeon. What’s different is that you can’t fuse monsters you get. You level your monsters up by fusing eggs you’ve acquired, but that can be a tough choice. When it’s an egg you haven’t had before, it’s hard to decide not to hatch it. After all, the game is about dragon collecting too. Another way to upgrade monsters is by adding skills, for which you need chippees. And they don’t come to you in abundance, so there‘s not much progress that way. Still, the dungeons are do-able, sometimes too easy. In the app game I’ve done fights that took me 10 minutes of carefully planning, there has been no need for that in this game. They added a storyline to the game that the app game lacks, and which isn’t really needed. But the dialogue can sometimes be silly and funny, so I’m okay with that. The game doesn’t require internet like the app game does, so this is a nice one to play on the go.

Now for the Super Mario Bros. edition. Again, it looks good, very familiar when you travel through the Mushroom Kingdom to save Peach. What else would Mario be doing, eh? The orb movement is the same, this edition does offer a little more in power fusion for your warriors. You don’t have to hatch eggs to get new allies, they decide to join you when they see how superbly you fight. You can use allies that you don’t need any more to power up your preferred fighters. The surroundings look good, as good as you’d expect from the Mushroom Kingdom. And though the first two worlds are relatively easy, the Desert world 3 is a lot harder. You will really have to think carefully about your team, who goes where and how you can add necessary skills.

Still, if I have to choose between the two I’d still choose PAD Z. It might be because of the fact that I’m no Mario fan, but it seems that all the allies that join you after a fight are so very familiar that it gets a bit tedious. There’s only so many goombas, paragoombas and the like that I can take.  It’s often the same one, and I know you can add abilities using p-wings and such, but still, I’d much rather look at the beautiful dragon creatures. But, you might feel different about the game, I’ve read reviews that said that the Mario addition was what made the game a must buy.

Anyway, give it a try for yourself. The game costs € 29,95 or $ 29,95, which is low considering you get two full games. Plus, yesterday free TLC was announced for both. The Mario game had 8 worlds to battle through, and now, after you finish those, you’ll get 8 more. And for the PAD Z part you will get new dungeons and some special dragons every week!