Back in February Pokémon Shuffle was released for the 3DS and 2DS as part of Nintendo's free to play catalogue. It's a match three game in the same vein as Candy Crush, but with much less bothering other people over facebook. The game got a lot of criticism because of microtransactions and how you only have 5 hearts when you start and that they take 30 minutes to regenerate each.

Criticism aside, Pokemon Shuffle has been downloaded more than 4.5 million times as of June 2015 and now it's available for iOS and Android. The game is also very successful in my household where it is my son's favorite game and its time restrictions are helping me teach him about patience. I haven't spent a dime on it and he's already cought over 100 "kopemons" like he calls them.

It's a pretty good time waster, just like Candy Crush was years ago. The Pokémon license helps the game in heaps. You get a chance to catch the creature you defeat and the better you do in the puzzle, the higher the chances you have of catching it. You also select up to 4 Pókemon from the ones you've cought before each "battle", giving you plenty of different choices and strategies to choose. Each Pókemon has different attack power and abilities and they level up the more you use them, just like in regular Pokémon games.

I must admit this game is a guilty pleasure of mine. I have played it for over fifty hours, according to my 3DS log, and that number will keep going up since Nintendo is constantly updating the game adding more Pokémons to catch, contests and mega-evolution stones.