Pokémon Shuffle

Pokémon Shuffle is a “free to play” puzzle game which has a similar look to the Nintendo DS game Pokémon Link (aka Trozei). However, the gameplay mechanic is different. You have a grid of Pokémon heads, and you must switch two heads anywhere in the grid, with the aim of lining up three (or more) of the same type. Once this happens, they are removed from play, and the heads above drop down, and more heads are dropped in to fill the gaps. Also, damage is done to the Pokémon you are “battling” against. Once their health points are reduced to zero, you have a chance of catching them. The percentage is determined by a preset amount, then an additional bonus based on how many turns you had left. This randomness is a way of getting you to replay the levels which is a bit annoying.

Before you start a level, you can choose which Pokémon to bring in with you. These are the heads that populate the grid. The weakness/resistance system is used so if you are battling against a grass type, then you will bring in fire types to do extra damage. You can just tap the Auto button to quickly select an appropriate set.

Some levels throw in extra complications like blocks that you can get rid of by clearing blocks around them, blocks you cannot get rid of, or frozen Pokémon that you cannot move.

There are loads of levels, and you can catch Legendary Pokémon in the special stages. These are tough to complete and you usually have a tiny percentage of catching them. As it is “free to play”, you can only play so many levels per day, and there's items you can purchase to make the game easier.

It's quite a basic game, but is a decent game to pass the time with. You can play quite a lot of levels without feeling restricted. I would still prefer it if it was a low budget game, rather than having these “free to play” elements.

On paper, it sounds great.
Take Bejeweled, and swap out the jewels for Pokemon. As you progress, you catch more and more Pokemon and can use their unique abilities to make stages easier. The types of each Pokemon have been reduced to one, but the type chart remains the same as ever.
For example, Gengar is just a ghost-type now, so on its stage, it is only weak to dark and ghost.

This was a really fun game with a decent enough difficulty curve, but then they decided to add more stages.
The new stages ranged from easy to "grind forever, buy all items, and pray". Grinding in a puzzle game is an extremely silly concept. I get that they want to make you spend real money, but this system is more likely to make players just plain give up.