Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition

Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition is an unexpected crossover between the Japanese mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons and the Super Mario universe, bringing the proven mechanic of matching colored orbs by dragging your finger (or stylus) into a world full of mushrooms, Koopa turtles, and stars. The player slides pieces around a grid to form rows of the same color, triggering attacks on enemies in battles reminiscent of classic RPG systems. Instead of collecting monsters, though, the player assembles a team of Mario characters and power-ups, each with their own abilities and synergies matching the games they're known from, so building a team requires similar tactical thinking as in the original Japanese source material.

Unlike the original mobile game, built around microtransactions and a gacha system, the 3DS version offers a complete, one-time-purchase experience without any additional payments, which for many Puzzle & Dragons fans was a welcome change in many respects. The level design draws on Mario series iconography - worlds resemble classic platformer wallpapers, the music remixes familiar tunes, and even small animations reference the decades-old series, creating a pleasant sense of connection between two completely different genres in a single functional whole.

Reviews at the time praised especially how cleverly the crossover was executed and how well the puzzle mechanic works even without the mobile monetization model, though outside Japan and the narrow circle of Puzzle & Dragons fans the title remained a rather niche affair, and many players weren't even aware it existed. Today it stands as an interesting curiosity as well as a solid puzzle RPG in its own right, worth the attention of anyone who enjoys matching colored orbs as well as classic Mario settings, and as a whole it shows that crossover projects can work even without huge marketing campaigns, provided they respect the rules of both combined brands.