Pokemon Shuffle hits 1m downloads

Free-to-play 3DS puzzle game Pokemon has been downloaded over 1m times, Nintendo has said.

The game represents somewhat of a new direction for Nintendo. Although not the company’s first F2P game, it does more closely mirror some of the practices more common to smartphone titles such as pay-to-play time limiting mechanics.

The approach has drawn plenty of criticism, however, sitting at a lowly 56 per cent on Metacritic.

Regardless, it’s a decent number for an eShop exclusive and NintendoLife reports that to celebrate Nintendo is giving players a Complexity -1 which when used makes one battle a little easier. The item usually costs 9000 coins to purchase, too.