Puzzle and Dragons

Do you think that Candy Crush Saga is all that? Well, meet it's daddy, Puzzle and Dragons. This game combines the gameplay of Bejeweled with the monster-collecting of Pokemon and was released in Japan in February 2012, two months before Candy Crush and since then it has dominated the mobile gaming spotlight here in Japan.

Prior to moving to Japan, I had never even known that this game existed, but once off the plane, I was bombarded with Pazzudora (the contraction of Puzzle and Dragons). Everyone was playing it everywhere I turned and the merchandising of the game here in Japan is out of control; from stuffed animals to phone straps. It became so popular that the maker of the game, GungHo, made a version for the Nintendo 3DS gaming system called Puzzle and Dragons Z...and yes, they are planning on releasing the game in America. The 3DS game went on to sell over one million copies in its first month.

The mobile game is so popular that other games have even collaborated with GungHo to release special dungeons where you can collect monsters based on other games and franchises. Some examples are Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Batman Arkham Asylum and even Hello Kitty can be fought, defeated, collected and added to your team roster.

The game has a estimated daily revenue of just under $4 million dollars a day and it has about 30 million downloads worldwide. I, myself, have been playing this game since mid-October 2013. My favorite leading monsters are Voice of God, Metatron and Dancing Light Amaterasu Ohkami. I only need to collect an angelit in order to evolve my Metatron into her ultimate evolution: Keeper of the Sacred Texts, Metatron!

Don't judge me.