Nintendo Reveals Candy Crush Clone, Pokemon Shuffle

Today was another Nintendo Direct day, which means there was a whole host of Nintendo-related news for journalists and gamers to gnaw on. While it was all fairly interesting (new Fire Emblem Game for 3DS announced, new 3DS announced, Tingle is going to join the cast of Hyrule Warriors in a future DLC, Wii games in the E-Shop) there was one bit of news that really stuck out to me. It was little more than a sidenote in the actual presentation, but I’d still like to take a moment to transfix on it.

It’s called Pokemon Shuffle: a free-to-play 3DS title you can get from the e-Shop later this February. Check out the video, if you feel so moved, which explains it with a little bit more detail.



Yeah, so, it’s Candy Crush with a Pokemon skin over it. All things considered, I’m not surprised Nintendo has backed down from its previous stance on free to play games to try something like this out… but I am disappointed. I kind of always hoped that Nintendo would be better than this, and while everyone else chased these kinds of games it would continue to broker to a more traditional crowd.

...still, it’s just one game. If it doesn’t do well, or Nintendo changes its mind, it doesn’t have to be the trendsetter. But I can still worry.