Nintendo’s Free to Play Pokemon Shuffle Is Now Available

Nintendo has gone ahead and given us a taste of what we could expect from them if they did answer the calls of all these analysts and investors, and released a free to play Pokemon game for the Nintendo 3DS on the Nintendo eShop.

Now, Nintendo has done free to play games before, and they have been largely innocuous, and designed so it is possible to play them without having to pay. Not Pokemon Shuffle though. Though it is not as obnoxious and in your face about it as the worst free to play mobile games can often be, it is still designed to extract every last possible penny from you, and that is offensive.

Nintendo is one of the world’s best developer of games, so to see them being reduced to making games like this is sad. Yes, I understand this is a small side project that is not indicative of their output as a whole, but still, I would rather Nintendo keep itself distanced from this kind of a product to begin with. And especially the Pokemon brand needs to be unsullied, it’s one of the few sure hits they have anymore.

Anyway, if you want the game, it’s available on the Nintendo eShop on all Nintendo 3DS devices now.