Pokémon Shuffle

Pokémon Shuffle (ポケとる Pokétoru) is a 2015 freemium puzzle game developed by Genius Sonority and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game, which is a spin-off of the Pokémon franchise and is similar in gameplay to Pokémon Battle Trozei, was released on the Nintendo eShop internationally on February 18, 2015.

Pokémon Shuffle Mobile, a version for Android and iOS, was released on August 24, 2015, in Japan, on August 31, 2015, in most English-speaking countries and on January 20, 2016, in Germany.

Gameplay
Similar to Pokémon Battle Trozei, the gameplay involves matching 3 or more Pokémon icons to defeat and capture wild Pokémon.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Much like Rusty's Real Deal Baseball and Nintendo Badge Arcade (Nintendo's other free-to-play 3DS titles), the game uses the freemium model (often called "pay-to-win" by gamers), and it shows.
 * 2) A lot of the sprites are ripped from Battle Trozei, which is lazy, as the only thing original was the shading style of the sprites, which makes them look more shiny.
 * 3) It costs one heart to play; even after winning the level, you lose your hearts anyways.
 * 4) Some capture rates are way too difficult for some of the Pokémon.
 * 5) * If you fail to capture the Pokémon for the first time, you might have a better chance to try to capture them by a Great Ball, but you have to pay 2500 coins to do so, which is a lot.
 * 6) It takes one hour and 40 minutes (two hours and 30 minutes on mobile) to get your five hearts back.
 * 7) Mega Gengar and Mega Glalie force you to use items to even beat them.
 * 8) The Mega Evolution music is annoying to listen to and has no way to skip it or turn it off.
 * 9) You even lose your five hearts after the first few stages of the game.
 * 10) It is a rip-off of Bejeweled, much like many other games that use the freemium model (such as Candy Crush Saga and its many spin-offs).
 * 11) For a Bejeweled rip-off, it requires a lot of grinding, which gets tedious after a while.
 * 12) Some of the music (Wacky Workshop especially) can be a pain to listen to.
 * 13) A lot of the special stages aren't beginner-friendly, and require items to beat consistently without certain Pokémon.
 * 14) The mobile version always requires an internet connection.
 * 15) On the mobile version, players who use older devices may experience severe lag and audio muffling. However, the 3DS version is perfectly fine, so how did this become so glitchy?
 * 16) As the game stopped updating on February 14, 2018, there are no Pokémon from Generation 8.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Until the above date, the game got regular updates and added new Pokemon to catch up with the latest Pokemon games.
 * 2) There are regular events that allow you to earn new power-ups, more coins and rare items.
 * 3) Unlike most pay-to-win games, this game is quite generous with it's rewards, giving them out frequently, and even having a way to farm the currency in the game.
 * 4) The rest of the soundtrack is decent, albeit repetitive.
 * 5) Has some very unique additions for a Bejeweled clone (Skills, Levels, and even Mega Effects).
 * 6) All Pokémon (except those from Generation 8) do make an appearance in the game.
 * 7) The Mega Competitions are a very neat addition.
 * 8) The Mission Cards grant generous rewards, though some of the Missions can be unfair.