Free to play Pokemon Shuffle is now available on the 3DS eShop in Europe
Match, catch, monetise
Free to play 3DS game Pokemon Shuffle is now available in the European eShop. It's a lot like Pokemon Trozei, but with an energy system and boosters and microtransactions.
The idea is to make matches to lower a wild Pokemon's HP, in the hope of knocking it out before you run out moves. If you manage to do it, you can attempt to catch the critter for your team.
Here's where things get interesting. You're given a probability of how likely it is that you'll catch the Pokemon, but you can boost that to 100 percent if you just hand over some coins to buy a great ball.
Coins are earned little by little in game, or can be purchased with real money. You can also use coins to buy boosters (to get extra moves, for example) and to replenish hearts when you run out of energy.
You use a heart to enter a battle, and once all five are gone you'll either have to wait half an hour, get some StreetPsss hits (we haven't had a chance to test this one ourselves), or spend cash.
Anyway. Questionable monetisation strategies aside, it's a fun little puzzle game. It's available to download now on the eShop for nothing. It should appear on the US store soon.
