It’s not something you can play mindlessly. Bosses are hard to beat, and I had to be really engaged with what I was doing.
It’s a deep, complex system, and the Mario version turned out to be decently challenging. It differs from a typical match-three in that you can freely move one orb around the puzzle area for a limited amount of time, which makes the puzzles more involved and real-time than they seem at first glance. You start with a few allies, build a team, and fight your way through dungeons, clearing elemental orbs in the puzzle portion to attack.
The start screen says that Mario Edition is better for beginners, and it is indeed faithful to the original P&D gameplay.