Puzzle & Dragons Z is not a port of the massively successful smartphone game. GungHo Online Entertainment designed the Nintendo 3DS game to be feel more like a role playing game. You play as a dragon tamer and use Monster Chips to evolve monsters. Battles use the same drop matching system where grouping three or more drops of the same color activates monsters with the same attribute. So, connecting three fire drops makes fire elemental monsters attack.
New for Puzzle & Dragons Z is the "Z Drop" which you can trigger by connecting a sparkly drop during a combo. This increases the damage of the entire combo. Just like Puzzle & Dragons, dragons have skills and in Z the game presents special skills with cut-in animations. There is a skill option on the touch screen which you can use when a "S" is on top of one of your dragons.
Puzzle & Dragons Z will be released in Japan later this year.
