Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition
Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition is a 2015 role-playing puzzle video game for Nintendo 3DS developed by GungHo Online Entertainment. It is a compilation of Puzzle & Dragons Z and Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition from the Puzzle & Dragons series for North America and Europe. Before the bundled game was announced, the first game was released in Japan on December 12, 2013, and was released in Japan on April 29, 2015. The bundled game was released in May 2015 for North America, Europe, Australia and South Korea.
Development
On May 3, 2013, GungHo revealed a spin-off for the Nintendo 3DS named Puzzle & Dragons Z during the Puzzle & Dragons Fan Appreciation Festival 2013. The game was released in Japan on December 12, 2013. Gameplay is identical to the mobile game, but it adds role-playing elements such as towns and non-player characters.Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition for the Nintendo 3DS features characters from the Super Mario series in gameplay similar to that from Puzzle & Dragons Z, including an overworld and story. It was released on April 29, 2015, in Japan as a standalone title.
The bundled game for North America, Europe, Australia, and South Korea was first announced on January 14, 2015 and was released on May 22, 2015.
Plot
The player character is set to take an exam to become a Dragon Tamer, and follows two of their friends — another prospective Dragon Tamer, Nick, and established Dragon Tamer Sara — to Zed City's Ranger HQ, where Dragon Tamers are issued commands and study monsters, and where the Dragon Tamer test is administered. The player, alongside Nick, receives a "D-Gear", an item which allows them to digitally store monsters.In the training area, the player finds the hidden temple of life, and meets a dragon named Syrup. An evil organization named Paradox arrives and their leader Dogma claims he is attempting to rework the world itself. The player is tasked with defeating the five Skydragons to stop Dogma. It is later revealed that Paradox intends to use the Divine Death Dragon Arkvelza to separate the dracomacian continents. Dogma's servant Enigma takes control of him and turns into the ultimate entity Enigma with Arkvelza's power. Syrup reveals himself as the life Skydragon Zerclea and defeats Enigma, leaving Dogma to reflect on his actions.
After the main game's events, the player is tasked with exploring a new continent with a connection to the legendary Earth Dragon King Avalon. It is revealed that dark versions of all five Skydragons have been created, who are capable of splitting the continents. The player is tasked with stopping them.
15,000 years prior, Enigma landed on the continent of Dystopia and decided to build towers to reach the floating islands that the Skydragons lived on. The villagers of his hometown, Eden, pleaded with the Skydragons to help them stop Enigma. Enigma then met a dragonoid named Avalon, who taught him how to transfer souls and create dark duplicates of the Skydragons. With the dragons under his command, Enigma destroyed Eden. The Skydragons sent their protector dragon Avalon Drake to stop Enigma, but Avalon Drake was easily defeated. The Prime Dragon Eidos, working with the Skydragons, separated Enigma's soul from his body and took his body to Avalon to be laid down. Enigma eventually managed to regain his body using his soul transfer technique. In the present day, the player arrives in Eden and finds that Avalon is still alive and plans to continue Enigma's work. After a fight, Avalon retreats.
Reception
The game received "mixed or average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. IGNAs of July 30, 2014, the game had shipped over 1.5 million copies.