So I’m guilty of playing Puzzle and Dragon

If you don’t know what it is, its just a battle monster/ puzzle game in which you line up elements to attack. Its kind of like Tetris attack minus the time limit. It’s pretty addicting and I have to admit, the only reason I gave it a second try was because I heard how popular it was in Japan. 

In my app store travels, noticed this game is actually a format. There are several other games exactly like this. Play everyday to get bonuses, power up and evolve your monsters, befriend people you don’t even know for points to roll for rare powerful fighters..you get it. But in my exploration, I learned why P and D was the most popular of them all. It has a very distinct style. Its art and gameplay just beats the competition. You can keep making the same type of game but only one will get the formula right.

This isn’t about this genre though. Turns out another Japanese IOS game caught my attention. Bound Monsters

Unlike P and D, this game however is only in japanese. My curiosity got the better of me so I just had to find a way to try it out. What I found was both awesome and annoying to me.

Its the exact same game as P and D. Given, this time to battle you play in a pinball style to knock out the enemies (It starts off really easy but gets harder as you move along), but the format is the exact same. Hell I don’t even have to know japanese to know what all the menu options do and finding abilities isn’t hard either. Everything is laid out exactly the same.

As fate would have it I stumbled upon yet ANOTHER japanese game

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Now of course you’re expecting me to say that this is the exact same game too. Well I won’t. This game is completely different. This time, you play a Guitar Hero/Rockband like game to win.

That’s it. That’s the only change. Even in THIS game the format is exactly the same.

What the actual fuck, is this what is passing for video games nowadays? I mean even with RPGs out on normal consoles, there are similarities but these just seem like completely reskinned games.

What is up with this? (I still find them all addicting as hell but it just kind of annoyed me)