So, I picked this game up yesterday and ended up playing while I was staying in the bedroom with our cat while repair guy was here for the kitchen.
At first I was surprised at how difficult the game was until I learned 1) you can move Pokémon to a different spot, even if they don't make a match right away, and B) you can move Pokémon around during a Link Combo cascade, too. Once I discovered that, earlier levels became stupidly easy and I was suddenly doing much better. I kind of wish they had touched upon that in the tutorials, since that was the only way I had to learn how to play the game at the time. It's also the only I'm finding to do any kind of serious damage: pull together to match 4 (if a single Pokémon) or 5 (if it's a Horde battle) of a Pokémon, preferably of a super effective type, then match 3 of something else immediately after to make a Link Chance, then consistently swapping to try and get rid of everyone on the screen, hoping to get rid of a full box. Considering that one of the "stats" displayed at the end of a level is how many boxes you've managed to clear, I have a feeling I'm on track with how strategy goes in this game. Of course, this also serves to make the game much more frantic and somewhat tiring, since there's a heavy real-world time aspect, but I'm still having fun with it.
I've found that the biggest thing I'm having troubles with is recognizing Pokémon on sight to make matches quickly. I'm at the point now where I can have 2 Pokémon buddies that always show up in levels with me, and I've taken to using Kyogre and Rayquaza because they're so brightly colours that I can spot and match them easily. I've taken Heatran a couple times, since he's my strongest Fire-type, though I end up regretting it usually because his dull colouring makes me have to spend more time looking for him. I guess it doesn't help that the other Pokémon keep changing with each new level, so I never spend enough time with them to get used to them. The level I'm currently on is particularly frustrating in this respect because it has a lot of pale, pastel-coloured Pokémon (Deerling, Lickitung, Persian, a couple more I can't remember off the top of my head), so I spend a lot of concentration on which Pokémon is what and it slows me down considerably, especially since its a long level so I wanted to bring along my Chansey for healing, but that also is hard to pick out at a glance.
Overall, though, I think it's a lot of fun, and would be well-suited to a mobile game or something, if Nintendo ever goes that route. I don't think I would have ever played full 3DS game price for this, but for €8, I feel my money has been well spent and I'm enjoying playing through and trying to fill my Pokédex (16% so far!).
Question for people who have played the earlier one, since it may be similar in this version: are there ever any hints or anything what you need to do to unlock the "secret" Pokémon for each level? I know for some I've managed to unlock them without even knowing what I did, but others elude me. It would also be nice to know exactly what "triggered" a secret Pokémon I *did* find so I can maybe turn that off once I have the Pokémon, especially if it's a longer level where I don't want to waste health against someone I don't need to get anymore. If there's nothing like that, I guess I'll be waiting until the FAQs start dropping down.