Nintendo 3DS

[tegan]

There's more Streetpass games coming you guys!

 

Streetpass Mansion sounds spectacular.

[Roderick]

Yeah, it's a veritable deluge of Streetpass content. Though Nintendo has so far perfectly sated me with their dripfeed of new puzzles and quests, more is always welcome. I do wonder if it'll hit a point now where there's just too much to do. If I get a new Mii on my system, do I really want to take them through six systems/games to maximize their use? Yikes! Of all the titles, Mansion sounds most promising indeed.

[Sno]

I've been seeing a lot of reports of the new firmware update causing problems for people, so maybe be wary of that update until there's a clearer picture of what's going on. (The 3DS will try to pull down firmware updates automatically if it is allowed to talk with an open or authorized wi-fi point, so be careful about that if you want to hold off a bit for safety's sake.)

[tegan]

If anyone here is still not playing Animal Crossing, you need to get right on that. It might be the 3DS' killer app right now. Even speaking as someone who really didn't care about the previous Animal Crossing games at all, it's hands-down my favourite game on the platform.

 

(at least until Pokémon comes out)

[Sno]

I have played most of the Animal Crossing games, and while it's hard to make early judgements with these games, i think New Leaf shows some pretty clear signs of being probably the best game in its series. They've built in tons of weird new ways to interact with friends and expanded on the core systems and simulation in a lot of clearly beneficial ways. It's pretty good.

Speaking just in general, i firmly believe that the 3DS is the most exciting platform for gaming this year.

The new consoles are going to start slow, and everything else is kind of in that post-gen lull, but the 3DS is just killing it. There's too much cool stuff, it's fabulous.

[Roderick]

All right, Capcom has been going very strong with releasing the NES Mega Man titles on the 3DS eShop. I'm not particularly interested in those, but I'm reallllyyyy hoping they're going to truck on and also release the GBA Mega Man Zero games on there. I played those and had a lot of fun with them. So far I believe they're only planning on releasing them on the Wii U, but I hope 3DS will get 'em too. That would be super sweet.

 

Alternatively, I could also get the DS bundling of them, but I'd rather download.

[Sno]

Even as a huge Megaman fan, I could never get into the MM Zero games. Just the way the elf system worked, and the way scoring poorly against arbitrary guidelines would restrict your upgrades, it all really bugged me. Made me crazy that i found all that peripheral stuff so off-putting, because the core gameplay rocks. As such, the successor to the Zero series, the ZX games, i thought those were pretty awesome. (Advent less so, which i think is just too bloated.)

Speakin` o tha Megamans!: Keiji Inafune's silly top-down "Tanks VS Bugs" is on the eShop. I have really heard much about it yet though.

 

[Roderick]

Whoops, you're right. I meant I played Mega Man ZX, and would like to see that on the eShop. Honestly, this series has way too many weird spin-offs and suffixes. ZX and ZX Advent, those are the ones I wanna play.

[Sno]

Well the ZX games haven't been collected in any compilations, and who knows how long it'll be before Nintendo starts folding DS games into the Virtual Console library.

However, as DS games, they'll play just fine on the 3DS.

Track down some used copies!

[Roderick]

I guess. For some reason though, it feels like something I'd like out of the eShop. Maybe because it has that 'old school platformer' vibe to it?

 

Second hand Mega Man ZX cartridges run for preposterous prices. 60 to 80 European Union Dollars! This is another reason why downloadable games are a good thing: no more artifical scarcity and no more scalping.

 

ADDED: okay, not everywhere are prices so high. Nevertheless. eShoppe.

[Sno]

Ack, that's too bad.

As for that old-school feel, the ZX games are more or less prettier GBA games, not a whole lot changed between the Zero and ZX series, except for the surrounding systems being swapped out. Visually, the ZX games have a few additional special effects and more debris off of explosions, but that's pretty much it. (ZX Advent also has a fully voiced script! It is painful to behold.)

Compare MMZ4 with

. (The games actually only being released a year apart is another factor to consider. The Zero games concluded late in the GBA's life, while the ZX games were early DS games.)

[Roderick]

Actually, the leap in visuel quality is pretty huge there. ZX features elaborate backgrounds, where Zero 4 contents itself with a stark blue sky. I am totally itching for some Mega Man Z(something) action now, though. Thanks a lot, Sno!

[Justin Leego]

Is it a little strange that, in StreetPass, the Explanation Rabbit's "tablet" is not only a gold picture frame but also *not a Wii U GamePad* ?

[Roderick]

I dreamed about finding a new 'slim' DS case of Mega Man ZX in stores. If you build it, it will come

[Sno]

I got seven different street pass hits yesterday! Woo! That's the most i've ever had!

Edit: And now i guess i'm playing Megaman ZX again.

[Roderick]

Wow, I stumbled upon a really good deal for an SD card today: 32 Gb for 25 euros. Other stores offer the same for a whopping 45, so this is a steal. Copying the 3DS data right now.

 

Soooo... what do I do with a next-to-useless 2 Gb SD card now?

[Sno]

Soooo... what do I do with a next-to-useless 2 Gb SD card now?

Hang on to it until you collect more obsolete SD cards, and then turn them into folk art.

Obviously.

[Roderick]

The Dutch branch of Nintendo are a bunch of idiots. They refused to give the magazine I work for a copy of Animal Crossing for review, on the basis that we don't have enough readers (we have tens of thousands). This argument might be valid - if a little strange - if they didn't have the option of giving us a download code for the eShop. This costs them literally no amount of EU Coins. There is no reason at all not to distribute this gratis, free code to a legitimate magazine that's been around for a decade.

 

It's infuriating to deal with these people sometimes.

[Lu]

Why doesn't this surprise me?

[Sno]

G.Rev's 3DS game, Kokuga, has been released outside of Japan as a digital download.

I was really looking forward to this, G.Rev makes excellent games.

Oh shit, apparently it's randomly not available in Canada.

Doh.

This never happens, that something will come to the US and not Canada.

 

[syntheticgerbil]

I figure tens of thousands audience members should be more than enough for a review copy. I feel like much smaller publications tend to get review copies all the time.

[Roderick]

Please, try telling Nintendo that. I might just call them up for clarification, I just find it such a bizarre reasoning.

[Roderick]

Nintendo-review-copy-gate continues: after inquiry it transpires that... I can't even write this down without being blown away _^ign.com... the EU Nintendo HQ is limiting the amount of eShop copies for distribution to magazines. That's right. They're being picky for no reason at all. They're still living in the 20th century where a review copy meant that you lost a little money. This is unimaginably backwards.

 

The cut-off point for review copies is also known: a publication needs an audience of 50.000 readers before they are worthy to be bestowed with this most glorious, splendiferous, free download code for the eShop.

 

Frankl, at this point it's clear: Nintendo still doesn't, and might just never, understand the concept of 'online', of 'digital'. They are an old company clinging to old, old ideas that ran their course and retired long ago. At the head there are a view visionary people pulling the thing along, but there's this swarming body of bureaucrats underneath that drags it down.

[Dewar]

So, my wife bought a 3DS XL last week for Animal Crossing. I've been playing it a little, but being second fiddle in town just isn't very fun. I was thinking about buying myself the Harvest Moon game that came out a few months ago. Any opinions?

[Sno]

Exactly how much do you miss out on not being the Mayor in an ACNL town? It shouldn't be too much, right?

Also, there's a Harvest Moon game already out on the 3DS? Are you sure about that?

Rune Factory 4 comes out in a couple weeks, maybe you are thinking about that? (Rune Factory being the fantasy-themed Harvest Moon spin-off.)