''Dragon Coins'' is a mobile video game developed and published by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

devices. It was released in Japan in 2012 and North America and Europe in May 2014. The game was successful in Japan, but was not as well received in Western regions, with the game shutting down in August 2015 due to financial difficulties.

Gameplay

The game plays as a combination of '' Puzzle and Dragons'' and coin-collecting games found in arcades. The game is free to play with in-app purchases available for the player to purchases the in-game currency, along with other items, using real world currency. The player has to drop coins on to the dragons, which then the dragon charges up its attacks to battle computer-controlled opponents. Sometimes the player will find the dragon with "Special Attacks". If the player loses a round, they will lose small amounts of money earned by previous rounds.

Development

The game was developed by

and first released in Japan in 2012. Its initial release featured a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

with

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

's ''

Mega Man ''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...

'' franchise. The game was later released in North America and Europe on 8 May 2014. In all regions, it was released on the

and

mobile platforms. The game was shut down on 21 August 2015 in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and on the 24 August 2015 in the rest of the world, just a little more than a year after its English release. A Sega representative explained it was due to the game not bringing in an audience sufficient to support running the games servers and updates.

Reception

The game's release was considered a success in Japan, where it was seen as part of a wave of games that used gameplay elements typically found in

arcade games An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

and translated them into popular mobile phone games. Serkan Toto,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Kantan Games Inc. - a

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

-based video game industry consultancy focused on the Japanese market - cited it as a game that found success in combining elements from

Casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

games in mobile games as a method of getting around Japan's legal order to stop all

kompu gacha A is a video game that implements the (toy vending machine) mechanic. Similar to loot boxes, gacha games entice players to spend in-game currency to receive a random in-game item. Some in-game currency generally can be gained through game pl ...

-based games at the time. Western reception was less positive, with the game being forced to shut down just over a year after its release. Peter Willington of Pocketgamer gave the game a 6/10 score, stating that the core gameplay was technically proficient, but that it lacked anything to keep players along for the long-term, concluding that it was "a slick-looking, technically sound digital representation of a penny-pusher, with some very light RPG elements thrown in, but its lack of interaction with others ensures that its simple gameplay tires all the more quickly." Nadia Oxford of Gamezebo gave the game a higher 8/10, referring to it as a good '' Puzzle & Dragons'' clone, but as such, lacked originality, and suffered from steep and expensive in-app purchases, hurting its long-term appeal.

References

{{Sega, Category=Games 2012 video games Android (operating system) games IOS games Puzzle video games Role-playing video games Sega video games Video games developed in Japan