Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Edition Was The Result Of A Speculative Pitch From GungHo Online

I've never seen a game like this before it looks pretty good

I totally didn't expect that it was GungHo's idea to make such spin-off O.O

So it's Hyrule Warriors all over again, with an external company pitching a crossover idea about a game a big Nintendo name is liking right in the same period... These coincidences are getting a bit too hard to believe, but given the results I won't complain XD

I wonder what exactly he means by "more Nintendo characters". Obviously it would be odd to feature Link or Pikachu when the title is Super Mario Edition.

Maybe by that he could mean characters that have their own separate series and fit under the catch-all 'Nintendo' umbrella, but are still prominent Mario characters. I'm thinking Donkey Kong, Wario, and Yoshi (obviously as he's on the box art).

A double pack including both Z & Super Mario Edition would be good for the West,

Interesting, another exclusive relying on Nintendo's franchises to sell to the audience. In an obvious attempt to gain their attention which otherwise wouldn't be there.

@Punished_Boss_84 - "another exclusive relying on Nintendo's franchises to sell to the audience."

um, you do realize this game is HUGE in Japan and at 1 point was making them millions of $ PER DAY. It's not exactly an unknown entity relying soley on Mario. Heck they said PADZ sold over 1 million copies.

I know that was probably just a joke, but the game has been huge for years.

@Squid

The SNES game features Link and Samus even if it is called Super Mario RPG.

Mario or not, I want to try these games so I welcome this. Maybe someday Level 5 will localize any of the Yokai games.

@sinalefa - Hopefully after we get Wonderflick. I may need to chane my avatar again for this article.

"currently no plans"

Iwata should wear that on a t-shirt around the office. Maybe a plaque on his desk.

@rjejr
Insert "why so serious" meme here... But funnily enough its a joke based on true events.
But since it wasn't taken as a joke, i shall take it seriously. Puzzle and Dragons Z on 3DS sold 1.5 million, Puzzle and Dragons sold over 40m and Puzzle and Dragons SME has the added luxury of characters from Nintendo franchises which, will no doubt add to sales. So yes game is huge, just not on 3ds.

@Tsurii897 Huge on mobile platforms? Yes. Huge on 3DS? No, by comparison. Thats the distinction you fail to see i was making.

@Punished_Boss_84 - Factor in install base and that 40-1 ratio doesn't look so 40-1. And free on smartphone vs $30 (or whatever it is on 3DS) and I'd say it's probably closer than it first appears.

Oh, if anybody has enjoyed playing PAD on smart devices my kid says the Big Hero 6 clone is even better. Haven't played it myself but that seems to be the online consensus as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.disney.bighero6botfight_goo&hl=en

@rjejr
So, err, what you're saying is i shouldn't be making direct comparisons?

Well, I didn't. I knew the 3DS version wouldn't be huge in comparison, which is why I didn't make that comparison until... The 3DS version is a different beast than its counterpart.

@Punished_Boss_84
Puzzle and Dragons did not sell 40million units, it has 40 million downloads (considering it it is free to play on mobile). They make their money on in-app purchases so their are quite a few of those downloads that made no money whats so ever.
On the 3ds it has sold 1.5 million units which is straight up cash with no freebies.
two different business models that were lucrative in their own right.

@megamanlink
Then you can replace "sold" with "downloaded", but should add I never said either effort wasn't lucrative.

@Punished_Boss_84
Just to clarify, the lucrative statement wasn't an attack on you in any form and was never meant to infer that you thought less of either model.
I just wanted to point out to others that when you have 40+ million downloads on a free app, the main benefit for developers is product awareness, as it doesn't always translate in to loads of cash sales (hence why we have the freemium model). But, when you sell 1.5 million units at a premium price, you actually have a larger audience of people who actually spend money and as a developer that gives you a real indication of the size of your audience.

I remember either Reggie or someone from Nintendo saying expect to see a lot of crossovers this year. We already have so many and I think it's an excellent idea. Now if we could only get info on SMT X Fire Embelm if it's been canned or still on and some screen shots at the very least.

@megamanlink I think you missed the article a while back that stated that they were making about 4 million a day off the free dl version so a great deal of those people were spend quite a bit of money.

First day buy! (Fanish comment — I am way too old to be a fanboy).

Seriously, I like the gameplay of P&D-Z on my iPad. I am looking forward to the original and the cross-over.

@Punished_Boss_84 -

First comment - "Huge on mobile platforms? Yes. Huge on 3DS? No, by comparison."
Second comment - "what you're saying is i shouldn't be making direct comparisons? Well, I didn't."

So what did you make, an indirect comparison? Or do you only use the word comparison when you aren't making a comparison?

As for you're original comment, I realized while I was posting that you were probably talking about selling it on 3DS - you meant the Nintendo 3DS audience when myself and others probably mistook your use of "audience" for a more general audience - but I was too far along in my post to stop typing.

@Spoony_Tech - for you - and the others. $4.9m per day BTW.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-29-gungho-sales-up-945-percent-in-first-half

@rjejr That just makes me sick lol. Just goes to show that if you have the next big idea in gaming you could make yourself a billionaire just like that.

While this is not a total answer to the lack of third-party on Nintendo's platforms, I like the idea of these partnerships with third-parties. It does nothing but help Nintendo.

It allows them to put out more games without having to put additional pressure on their own development teams, third parties can take a risk on games on Nintendo's platforms while having the safety net of both having access to Nintendo's characters and Nintendo being in charge of promotion and publishing, and of course, it helps gives closer relationships to third-parties, something Nintendo really needs right now.

Plus, third-parties give a new spin on franchises that we would have never seen from Nintendo themselves. Hyrule Warriors gave us a unique take on the Zelda Universe, Pokken Fighters will give Pokemon it first fighting game, and this game will allow Nintendo to sell another Mario puzzle game without having to dip back into the "Dr. Mario" style of gameplay.

I love seeing these partnerships and I hope they keep on. Between Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games, Pokemon Conquest, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonnetta 2, and the Zelda games that Capcom worked on, these partnerships have been very successful for both NIntendo and third-parties over the years.

@rjejr

I still see any of the Yokai games before WF. There are more games and they seem more marketable to me.

@rjejr
You and others compared it in response to me, so I played along in my replies, never made mention of its success on mobile platforms/comparisons at 5. I could have added Nintendo audience but the usage of "Nintendo's franchises" coupled with comment on said game on 3DS, in a word, overkill.

@Spoony_Tech - Give a million monkeys a million typewriters...

@sinalefa - But I don't want any of the YW games, I want Wonder Flick. It's been 1 1/2 years since the announcement in Aug 2013.

http://gematsu.com/2013/08/level-5-announces-cross-platform-rpg-wonder-flick

@Punished_Boss_84 - One man's "overkill" is another man's "clarity".

OK, guess we've beaten this horse beyond recognition. Always a pleasure though Boss man.

@rjejr

I know, your avatar told me.

As for me, you lost me at 1,000 hours RPG. Dev team sounds impressive, though.

@Punished_Boss_84 Except we don't call those "sales" on the cellphone as the game itself is free. Those are download numbers.

@Caryslan They do need to be careful that they don't dilute the brand though. Releasing too many games in a short period (especially if they are average to bad games) could be quite damaging to their image.

Is this game gonna be a New 3DS exclusive?

@sinalefa - I think the type of game its designed to be - smartapp Facebook casual - 1000 hours is nothing. Can you imagine how many hours people must have been playing PAD for it to be making $4.9 million per day? If Facebook kept a log like the Wii U and 3DS people would probably commit suicide when they saw how many hours of their life have been spent playing Farmville and Candy Crush.

I wonder how many hours Ive spent on NL and PS the past 4 years? Gotta be in the millions (I type reeeeeeaaaaaaallllllleeeeeee ssssssllllllllloooooowwwwwwwlllllllyyyyyy) and my horrific typing means it takes twice as long to edit.

Edit - did the math and its more like 4 thousand hours, not 1 million.(probably feels like a million to poor Damo though) so it would take me 1 year to play all of Wonder Flick.