During an otherwise upbeat Nintendo Direct, a moment of terror ensued when Pokémon Shuffle, a free-to-play match three game, was announced for the 3DS. My opinion of these games by and large is that they are poorly paced and even less fun. Still, as the minutes rolled by, that terror transformed into something else: curiosity. Nintendo has a pretty decent track record when it comes to making a concept work better than anyone else. That being said, I began to wonder if somehow Nintendo could apply their magical touch to the free-to-play formula and make it fun. When the game became available, I let my curiosity get there better of me and I tried it out at length. What I ended up with was an unsurprisingly mixed bag that met each of my expectations.
