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 (2013) and Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (2015) from the Puzzle & Dragons series for North America and Europe. Before the bundled game was announced, the first game Puzzle & Dragons Z (パズドラZ) was released in Japan on December 12, 2013, and Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (パズル&ドラゴンズ スーパーマリオブラザーズ エディション) 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.

Puzzle & Dragons Z
In Puzzle & Dragons Z, the player takes the role of a prospective young Dragon Tamer in Zed City of the Dracomacia continent. The game begins on the day the player is to take an exam in order to become a Dragon Tamer; the player follows two of their friends — another prospective Dragon Tamer, Nick, and an 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, and afterwards is allowed to hatch Eggs containing their first three monsters.

Reception
The game received mixed or average reviews according to the review aggregator Metacritic. IGN 's Kallie Plagge awarded the game a score of 7.9 out of 10, stating "Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition is the shining star alongside the less successful Z." PC Magazine's Jordan Minor also praised Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition while disliking the companion character TAMADRA [sic]. He states that "Whereas Super Mario Bros. Edition uses its RPG components to enrich a pick-up-and-play puzzle game, Z tries to be a full-blown RPG that happens to center around puzzles." He also states the artwork feels uninspired in Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition.

As of July 30, 2014, the game had shipped over 1.5 million copies.