Post by nocturnal YL on Sept 22, 2018 16:40:00 GMT -5
Very long post below.
I don't know about you guys, but with the September 2018 Nintendo Direct, I can say quite confidently that I'm done with buying new games for my Nintendo 3DS. And it's a great system! So great, that I consider it my favourite game system of all time.
As of today (22 Sep 2018), I have 18 games on 3DS, plus 3 (5 if free downloads count) downloadable games, making it the most games on a single system. The Switch is catching up very quickly (due to increased interests in other publishers), but I'll save that story for later.
Nintendo 3DS system
I actually have two 3DS units, one NA and one JP. My NA 3DS doesn't work anymore, reportedly having a dead CPU. Could be a result of me trying to enter sleep mode and cut off power at the same time (unintentionally). As a result, I cannot play my NA 3DS games unless I hack my 3DS, which I don't think is safe to do right now. It also means my early bonus downloads (eShop movies, Ambassador games, Excitebike 3D) are history.
I like my 3DS system for the most part. The 3D looked like magic from the beginning, and even now I still play it with 3D set to maximum. It's also powerful enough for most scenarios a 2011 handheld would need to face. But my favourite part is that I can and listen to the music in 3DS Sound and the games' sound tests with the system closed.
I also like the built-in games, if only just for a brief period. It certainly helped making the boring early days of the system slightly more interesting.
There are places I don't like about the 3DS, though. One, the main system UI with junk icons that cannot be fully removed, a fault shared with Wii and Wii U. Two, region lock. (The UI acts as if there's nothing in the card slot if you put in a game from a different region, by the way.)
Now, let's talk about the games. All 23 of them, in the order of my purchase. Grades are similar to my Wii U video. Videos included to give an idea what the games are like, these videos aren't mine, nor do I have means to capture 3DS video.
Star Fox 64 3D (NA)
Overall — C / Presentation — C / Gameplay — D / Sound — D / Story — B
I both don't like Star Fox games and have multiple Star Fox games, because I want to give the series a chance. Anyway, Star Fox 64 3D is my favourite game in the series. It's Star Fox 64, but less frustrating. I can barely complete 3DS Mode, though, and never tried N64 Mode.
One complaint I have is that the 3DS's 3D doesn't sit well with pitch black backgrounds, since you'll end up seeing ghost images.
Super Mario 3D Land (NA)
Overall — D / Presentation — C / Gameplay — E / Sound — C / Story — B
My 6th favourite 3D Mario game! And there are only 8 3D Mario games, counting 64 DS separately. My biggest problem is that the game is reliant of stereoscopic 3D, even though it doesn't really provide anything useful besides visual flair, especially since the screen's resolution is so low.
Mario Kart 7 (NA)
Overall — C / Presentation — C / Gameplay — C / Sound — C / Story — N/A
This game is meh. It does what it's designed to, being a decent Mario Kart game and boosting the 3DS's sales. But it looks like it's just Mario Kart Wii, Lite Edition.
Fire Emblem Awakening (JP)
Overall — S / Presentation — A / Gameplay — S / Sound — B / Story — B
Out of the three Fire Emblem titles on 3DS, Awakening is actually my favourite. Besides the "oh, finally a new game!" factor, it's also filled with tons of contents. Tons of characters, 50 maps, getting to fight friendly enemies based on the past games, and we finally got to see some more complex mechanics, unlike the simpler DS games.
Most mechanics and structures that are here are also present in Fates, but this one wins by not asking you to see your allies die. As someone who likes to "collect" all characters, I prefer games where this is possible in a single save file.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (NA)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — B
Luigi Mansion that you can enjoy in small chunks, without having to permanently miss the bosses you've already defeated or lose money that you'll never collect again! It's also fairly challenging; there are missions that I can't get anything more than a bronze medal no matter how hard I try.
But above all, I'm just glad to see Luigi's Mansion coming back, this time as a somewhat regular series, with an arcade game and a 3rd main game coming after Dark Moon.
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (NA)
Overall — B / Presentation — C / Gameplay — B / Sound — A / Story — A
I'm not really a big fan of Mario & Luigi overall, but I do like this and Bowser's Inside Story. Of course, Mario & Luigi's main strength is in its humourous writing (even more so in English), and it has great music to boot. It's also great to see ALPHADREAM overcoming their own lack of 3D experience with excellent sprite work for the characters.
Kirby Triple Deluxe (JP)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — A / Sound — S / Story — S
We've had a glimpse in the previous modern Kirby games — Kirby Super Star Ultra and Kirby's Return to Dream Land, but Triple Deluxe is where we're really seeing dark stories in Kirby. No longer content in just giving characters scary transformations, we're now reading more complex backstories through the pause menu descriptions. The evil queen we're fighting is actually the result of her being corrupted. It's obviously not horror game-level of dark, but having such story in Kirby's world does make it far more interesting.
And here's the other reason to like this game: King Dedede has returned to glory! After the anime, Squeak Squad and even Brawl put Meta Knight in a better light, Triple Deluxe… simply doesn't have Meta Knight.
The sub-games are excellent too. So great, deluxe versions of those games were independently purchasable from the eShop.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (NA)
Overall — B / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — C
2D Zelda finally returned, 9 years after Minish Cap! A Link Between Worlds is easily the best 2D Zelda. 12 themed dungeons that don't look the same thanks to being on a better system, and quite a bit of other stuff to do. My biggest gripe is that the story is still very barebone, being the orthodox Nintendo game it is.
Sayonara Umihara Kawase (JP)
Overall — E / Presentation — E / Gameplay — D / Sound — B / Story — N/A
I got this because the Super Famicom version seemed fun, but it ended up being not quite like what I've wanted. My biggest problem is that the UI looks like a primary school project. The "Hey look, I can use Microsoft FrontPage!" kind. I also don't like the impossible-to-circumvent death count, but being difficult is the point of this game, so I'm not complaining. At least it's got stereoscopic 3D, and it's not "let's use B for accept and A for cancel"-level of bad.
Fire Emblem Fates (JP Special Edition)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — S / Sound — A / Story — D
It's supposed to be everything from Fire Emblem Awakening, but tripled. And for the most part, it is a great game. I'm not impressed by the characters and story compared to Awakening (or to the older Fire Emblem games), but it still has excellent music, challenging map design (every single time you face Takumi in Nohr's route!) I can barely beat (at Nohr Lunatic DLC-less, so it's still not the hardest in the series), and a great game overall.
The biggest issue I have is the fact that you can't recruit all units in a single run. If the game provides three routes — side with Hoshido, side with Nohr, and side with neither to find other ways — you'd expect that third route to be the one where you get everything. Nope. Spoiler: you end up having to see two NPCs die and another two not joining because reasons.
One other problem I have is the absurd requirement to get enough renown for all bonus items. In essence, you need to visit other player's castles online 3333 times.
Daigasso! Band Brothers P: Debut (JP / DL)
Overall — C / Presentation — C / Gameplay — D / Sound — D / Story — N/A
The cheap (and later, free) version of Band Brothers P, which has everything except Live Artist (which allows lyrics to be actually sung, using the VOCALOID3 engine) and edit mode. Live Artist can be purchased, however, making this version good enough if you don't intend to create or modify music.
This is a user submission-type game, where the songs you play are the songs other people have made. I got this game at first because Nintendo announced that they'd allow Fire Emblem music to be uploaded (besides that, only a very small portion of Nintendo game music was allowed), and it eventually led me to the VOCALOID fandom.
But as far as being a music game goes? Meeeeeeh. Problem number one, most music games have you play the vocal and melody for the most part, but Band Brothers restrict you to one instrument. Makes sense based on the game's name, but you can run into songs that use an instrument only for a small part, and you'll end up sitting for two minutes doing nothing.
Problem number two, the game doesn't allow alternating between the D-pad and the face buttons. This makes playing successive 16th notes next to impossible. Getting full combo is incredibly hard even for the slower songs, although it's never expected in the first place.
Kirby Planet Robobot (JP)
Overall — S / Presentation — S / Gameplay — S / Sound — S / Story — S
The closest thing to a "perfect" game I've seen.
Planet Robobot took the general format of Triple Deluxe, gave it a cool mecha theme, some sick music, and acknowledged every single Kirby game ever released with the stickers. (Well, it did miss BS Kirby's Toy Box.)
Sure, it's not the first game in this list to have looked back in its own history (Fire Emblem Awakening did it too), but it's very reassuring to see this in Kirby. In the previous games that do look at Kirby history, Kirby's Dream Land 3 tends to get the short stick half of the time, and Kirby 64 gets ignored the other half. But not here. All Kirby games have stickers; even forgotten ones like Kirby's Block Ball and Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble.
And then there's the story. It's a sci-fi themed story about a "perfect" computer going berserk, and it connected even more of the lore of the past Kirby games without "breaking" the series' story in any way. It's the strongest story I've seen in the whole Kirby series, and it's better than even most of the more story-oriented RPGs and adventure games out there.
It also has two excellent sub-games, much like Triple Deluxe.
Picross 3D Round 2 (JP)
Overall — B / Presentation — C / Gameplay — A / Sound — A / Story — N/A
Take Picross, make it 3D, give it some HAL Laboratory flair, and voila. Too bad it's unlikely to return with the DS series of systems ending.
Puzzles in Picross 3D Round 2 are basically two original Picross 3D puzzles overlapped on the same cuboid. It's a bit hard to tell whether the numbers on the cuboid are faded out, and since you have to paint the cubes correctly rather than simply using it to prevent accidental chiseling, it's actually a far harder game than the original. I actually have trouble finishing the later ones on the first try.
Hatsune Miku: Project mirai DX (JP)
Overall — S / Presentation — S / Gameplay — S / Sound — S / Story — N/A
Best game ever in terms of music. Also, the Nendoroid characters are sooooo cute.
Despite appearance, it's actually a far better game than the Project DIVA series. It uses full-length songs rather than cutting them to about 3 minutes, has technically inferior but thematically better PVs than DIVA, and the Puyo Puyo 39! and Mikuversi minigames are certainly better than the rather corny DIVA Room events.
I'll put it this way: the Project DIVA and Project DIVA Arcade series are better music games, but Project mirai is a better Hatsune Miku tribute.
As far as complaints go, I have two: I do agree it's too easy for the most part (the hardest songs are still too hard, though), and its use of the clock means the characters will be out of money and angry at you if you don't return in a long period, though this is purely cosmetic and have no real drawbacks.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia (JP)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — B / Sound — S / Story — A
A rather polished game, despite it being a budget title made as an intermediate step before Three Houses. The UI looks more modern (which looks rather out of place on a low-res 3DS screen), they've got Hidari as illustrator (and I like his style better than Kozaki's), and the music is among the best in the main Fire Emblem series. And I had a lot of fun putting Cleric Faye and Alm together (to boost hit rate), then let Faye Nosferatu her way to victory.
The problem? It's still Fire Emblem Gaiden. Everything about this game is still weird. Low movement range, next to no resistance growth, hit rates are low, archers are OP… the list goes on. And I don't like its class system giving magic units one tier fewer of classes. Echoes' better and more manipulable growths and the DLC classes have mostly solved the problem, but I'd prefer just giving them an extra class tier exclusively and have the physical units stay the same.
Also, Mila's Turnwheel can sometimes crash the game.
Puyo Puyo Chronicle (JP only)
Overall — D / Presentation — D / Gameplay — B / Sound — C / Story — D
Forget its flagship RPG mode, and just treat it like any other Puyo Puyo anniversary collection. You can play in most of the rules seen in the previous games, which is great if the only other game you have are Puyo Puyo Tetris and/or Puyo Puyo 7. The usual Puyo Puyo humour is also still in the story, but the overall plot just isn't very good at all, and the RPG mode gameplay is very tedious.
Team Kirby Clash Deluxe (JP DL)
Overall — D / Presentation — C / Gameplay — D / Sound — B / Story — N/A
I can't really speak for everyone, since I've only completed half of the game. The reason? They managed to turn a single-player battle game into a pay-to-win title. With this in mind, this game really costs $30 (to max out the Gem Apple tree, after which no further purchase is possible). For reference, the other deluxe Kirby sub-games cost $7 each and may be discounted via My Nintendo. I didn't pay for Team Kirby Clash.
Kirby Battle Royale (JP)
Overall — D / Presentation — D / Gameplay — D / Sound — C / Story — C
A Kirby action game in 3D space, but 2D display. It also messes with the control scheme by spreading action between the Y and B buttons instead of just combining direction and a single button. And it lags severely.
It's not bad; it's still Kirby, after all. But it's certainly lackluster compared to other Kirby games.
Metroid: Samus Returns (JP)
Overall — C / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — C / Story — N/A
It's a remake of the Game Boy title, but it's for the most part a new game, with new action, new maps and new enemy types. It's a linear 2D Metroid game that feels like a good reintroduction to the series, though it doesn't do much beyond that. I finished Normal Mode with 100% completion.
And then there's 2d/10. I didn't expect Metroid, an already grittier series, to jumpscare me.
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (JP DL)
Overall — C / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — N/A
This is the most creative rhythm game I've seen. It's a rhythm platformer, and unlike HarmoKnight, it doesn't just look like a platformer; you actually need to manually move and apply platforming skills. (The music loops, making it possible to not end stages after a specific amount of time.)
My Nintendo Picross (JP DL)
Overall — D / Presentation — D / Gameplay — B / Sound — C / Story — N/A
A nice little free download thanks to My Nintendo. (Seriously guys, check your account regularly and don't let those points expire.) Besides standard Picross, it also has Mega Picross, which has numbers spanning across two columns. These indicate a single continuous section of that many blocks across both columns needing to be marked.
The thing is, standard Picross and Mega Picross share the same images. As a result, the whole game runs out very quickly. I guess I shouldn't expect much out of a free eShop download.
Kirby's Blowout Blast (JP DL)
Overall — B / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — A / Story — N/A
It's essentially Kirby's Dream Land 1 Lite Edition 3D. A nice little adventure, though it's rather difficult if you're aiming for perfects. Oh, and it's introduced quite a lot of new songs to the series, which is always welcome.
WarioWare Gold (JP)
Overall — B / Presentation — C / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — B
WarioWare — not any of the irregular spinoffs, but core, microgame-centric WarioWare — is back! It's been 12 years since Smooth Moves! Now with more microgames than ever! Some may complain about the lack of new microgames, but I'd rather see the old ones first. The two boss games that aren't old (Top Notch and Sneaky Snatcher) are way too difficult to be suitable WarioWare games. Besides, Nintendo — the category most people are here for anyway — still has a lot of new microgames.
There's also a souvenir collection, with a few minigames, a Nintendo catalog (not exhaustive) showing their old toys, a collection of past WarioWare songs, a new Love Tester 2.0, and more. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say this is the best WarioWare, even though it's a short game, as all WarioWare games are.
My favourite part is, of course, the introduction of microgames based on INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS titles. Though DIY had microgames themed after Famicom Wars and Card Hero, this is the first time we see games IS actually hold rights of.
With all these games, I think it's quite hard to dethrone the 3DS as my favourite system. Multiple Kirby games with the best of the series among it? Three Fire Emblem titles each lasting hundreds of hours? The best SEGA feat. HATSUNE MIKU Project entry? I don't think I'll come across a system this good anytime soon.
I don't know about you guys, but with the September 2018 Nintendo Direct, I can say quite confidently that I'm done with buying new games for my Nintendo 3DS. And it's a great system! So great, that I consider it my favourite game system of all time.
As of today (22 Sep 2018), I have 18 games on 3DS, plus 3 (5 if free downloads count) downloadable games, making it the most games on a single system. The Switch is catching up very quickly (due to increased interests in other publishers), but I'll save that story for later.
Nintendo 3DS system
I actually have two 3DS units, one NA and one JP. My NA 3DS doesn't work anymore, reportedly having a dead CPU. Could be a result of me trying to enter sleep mode and cut off power at the same time (unintentionally). As a result, I cannot play my NA 3DS games unless I hack my 3DS, which I don't think is safe to do right now. It also means my early bonus downloads (eShop movies, Ambassador games, Excitebike 3D) are history.
I like my 3DS system for the most part. The 3D looked like magic from the beginning, and even now I still play it with 3D set to maximum. It's also powerful enough for most scenarios a 2011 handheld would need to face. But my favourite part is that I can and listen to the music in 3DS Sound and the games' sound tests with the system closed.
I also like the built-in games, if only just for a brief period. It certainly helped making the boring early days of the system slightly more interesting.
There are places I don't like about the 3DS, though. One, the main system UI with junk icons that cannot be fully removed, a fault shared with Wii and Wii U. Two, region lock. (The UI acts as if there's nothing in the card slot if you put in a game from a different region, by the way.)
Now, let's talk about the games. All 23 of them, in the order of my purchase. Grades are similar to my Wii U video. Videos included to give an idea what the games are like, these videos aren't mine, nor do I have means to capture 3DS video.
Star Fox 64 3D (NA)
Overall — C / Presentation — C / Gameplay — D / Sound — D / Story — B
I both don't like Star Fox games and have multiple Star Fox games, because I want to give the series a chance. Anyway, Star Fox 64 3D is my favourite game in the series. It's Star Fox 64, but less frustrating. I can barely complete 3DS Mode, though, and never tried N64 Mode.
One complaint I have is that the 3DS's 3D doesn't sit well with pitch black backgrounds, since you'll end up seeing ghost images.
Super Mario 3D Land (NA)
Overall — D / Presentation — C / Gameplay — E / Sound — C / Story — B
My 6th favourite 3D Mario game! And there are only 8 3D Mario games, counting 64 DS separately. My biggest problem is that the game is reliant of stereoscopic 3D, even though it doesn't really provide anything useful besides visual flair, especially since the screen's resolution is so low.
Mario Kart 7 (NA)
Overall — C / Presentation — C / Gameplay — C / Sound — C / Story — N/A
This game is meh. It does what it's designed to, being a decent Mario Kart game and boosting the 3DS's sales. But it looks like it's just Mario Kart Wii, Lite Edition.
Fire Emblem Awakening (JP)
Overall — S / Presentation — A / Gameplay — S / Sound — B / Story — B
Out of the three Fire Emblem titles on 3DS, Awakening is actually my favourite. Besides the "oh, finally a new game!" factor, it's also filled with tons of contents. Tons of characters, 50 maps, getting to fight friendly enemies based on the past games, and we finally got to see some more complex mechanics, unlike the simpler DS games.
Most mechanics and structures that are here are also present in Fates, but this one wins by not asking you to see your allies die. As someone who likes to "collect" all characters, I prefer games where this is possible in a single save file.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (NA)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — B
Luigi Mansion that you can enjoy in small chunks, without having to permanently miss the bosses you've already defeated or lose money that you'll never collect again! It's also fairly challenging; there are missions that I can't get anything more than a bronze medal no matter how hard I try.
But above all, I'm just glad to see Luigi's Mansion coming back, this time as a somewhat regular series, with an arcade game and a 3rd main game coming after Dark Moon.
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (NA)
Overall — B / Presentation — C / Gameplay — B / Sound — A / Story — A
I'm not really a big fan of Mario & Luigi overall, but I do like this and Bowser's Inside Story. Of course, Mario & Luigi's main strength is in its humourous writing (even more so in English), and it has great music to boot. It's also great to see ALPHADREAM overcoming their own lack of 3D experience with excellent sprite work for the characters.
Kirby Triple Deluxe (JP)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — A / Sound — S / Story — S
We've had a glimpse in the previous modern Kirby games — Kirby Super Star Ultra and Kirby's Return to Dream Land, but Triple Deluxe is where we're really seeing dark stories in Kirby. No longer content in just giving characters scary transformations, we're now reading more complex backstories through the pause menu descriptions. The evil queen we're fighting is actually the result of her being corrupted. It's obviously not horror game-level of dark, but having such story in Kirby's world does make it far more interesting.
And here's the other reason to like this game: King Dedede has returned to glory! After the anime, Squeak Squad and even Brawl put Meta Knight in a better light, Triple Deluxe… simply doesn't have Meta Knight.
The sub-games are excellent too. So great, deluxe versions of those games were independently purchasable from the eShop.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (NA)
Overall — B / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — C
2D Zelda finally returned, 9 years after Minish Cap! A Link Between Worlds is easily the best 2D Zelda. 12 themed dungeons that don't look the same thanks to being on a better system, and quite a bit of other stuff to do. My biggest gripe is that the story is still very barebone, being the orthodox Nintendo game it is.
Sayonara Umihara Kawase (JP)
Overall — E / Presentation — E / Gameplay — D / Sound — B / Story — N/A
I got this because the Super Famicom version seemed fun, but it ended up being not quite like what I've wanted. My biggest problem is that the UI looks like a primary school project. The "Hey look, I can use Microsoft FrontPage!" kind. I also don't like the impossible-to-circumvent death count, but being difficult is the point of this game, so I'm not complaining. At least it's got stereoscopic 3D, and it's not "let's use B for accept and A for cancel"-level of bad.
Fire Emblem Fates (JP Special Edition)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — S / Sound — A / Story — D
It's supposed to be everything from Fire Emblem Awakening, but tripled. And for the most part, it is a great game. I'm not impressed by the characters and story compared to Awakening (or to the older Fire Emblem games), but it still has excellent music, challenging map design (every single time you face Takumi in Nohr's route!) I can barely beat (at Nohr Lunatic DLC-less, so it's still not the hardest in the series), and a great game overall.
The biggest issue I have is the fact that you can't recruit all units in a single run. If the game provides three routes — side with Hoshido, side with Nohr, and side with neither to find other ways — you'd expect that third route to be the one where you get everything. Nope. Spoiler: you end up having to see two NPCs die and another two not joining because reasons.
One other problem I have is the absurd requirement to get enough renown for all bonus items. In essence, you need to visit other player's castles online 3333 times.
Daigasso! Band Brothers P: Debut (JP / DL)
Overall — C / Presentation — C / Gameplay — D / Sound — D / Story — N/A
The cheap (and later, free) version of Band Brothers P, which has everything except Live Artist (which allows lyrics to be actually sung, using the VOCALOID3 engine) and edit mode. Live Artist can be purchased, however, making this version good enough if you don't intend to create or modify music.
This is a user submission-type game, where the songs you play are the songs other people have made. I got this game at first because Nintendo announced that they'd allow Fire Emblem music to be uploaded (besides that, only a very small portion of Nintendo game music was allowed), and it eventually led me to the VOCALOID fandom.
But as far as being a music game goes? Meeeeeeh. Problem number one, most music games have you play the vocal and melody for the most part, but Band Brothers restrict you to one instrument. Makes sense based on the game's name, but you can run into songs that use an instrument only for a small part, and you'll end up sitting for two minutes doing nothing.
Problem number two, the game doesn't allow alternating between the D-pad and the face buttons. This makes playing successive 16th notes next to impossible. Getting full combo is incredibly hard even for the slower songs, although it's never expected in the first place.
Kirby Planet Robobot (JP)
Overall — S / Presentation — S / Gameplay — S / Sound — S / Story — S
The closest thing to a "perfect" game I've seen.
Planet Robobot took the general format of Triple Deluxe, gave it a cool mecha theme, some sick music, and acknowledged every single Kirby game ever released with the stickers. (Well, it did miss BS Kirby's Toy Box.)
Sure, it's not the first game in this list to have looked back in its own history (Fire Emblem Awakening did it too), but it's very reassuring to see this in Kirby. In the previous games that do look at Kirby history, Kirby's Dream Land 3 tends to get the short stick half of the time, and Kirby 64 gets ignored the other half. But not here. All Kirby games have stickers; even forgotten ones like Kirby's Block Ball and Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble.
And then there's the story. It's a sci-fi themed story about a "perfect" computer going berserk, and it connected even more of the lore of the past Kirby games without "breaking" the series' story in any way. It's the strongest story I've seen in the whole Kirby series, and it's better than even most of the more story-oriented RPGs and adventure games out there.
It also has two excellent sub-games, much like Triple Deluxe.
Picross 3D Round 2 (JP)
Overall — B / Presentation — C / Gameplay — A / Sound — A / Story — N/A
Take Picross, make it 3D, give it some HAL Laboratory flair, and voila. Too bad it's unlikely to return with the DS series of systems ending.
Puzzles in Picross 3D Round 2 are basically two original Picross 3D puzzles overlapped on the same cuboid. It's a bit hard to tell whether the numbers on the cuboid are faded out, and since you have to paint the cubes correctly rather than simply using it to prevent accidental chiseling, it's actually a far harder game than the original. I actually have trouble finishing the later ones on the first try.
Hatsune Miku: Project mirai DX (JP)
Overall — S / Presentation — S / Gameplay — S / Sound — S / Story — N/A
Best game ever in terms of music. Also, the Nendoroid characters are sooooo cute.
Despite appearance, it's actually a far better game than the Project DIVA series. It uses full-length songs rather than cutting them to about 3 minutes, has technically inferior but thematically better PVs than DIVA, and the Puyo Puyo 39! and Mikuversi minigames are certainly better than the rather corny DIVA Room events.
I'll put it this way: the Project DIVA and Project DIVA Arcade series are better music games, but Project mirai is a better Hatsune Miku tribute.
As far as complaints go, I have two: I do agree it's too easy for the most part (the hardest songs are still too hard, though), and its use of the clock means the characters will be out of money and angry at you if you don't return in a long period, though this is purely cosmetic and have no real drawbacks.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia (JP)
Overall — A / Presentation — A / Gameplay — B / Sound — S / Story — A
A rather polished game, despite it being a budget title made as an intermediate step before Three Houses. The UI looks more modern (which looks rather out of place on a low-res 3DS screen), they've got Hidari as illustrator (and I like his style better than Kozaki's), and the music is among the best in the main Fire Emblem series. And I had a lot of fun putting Cleric Faye and Alm together (to boost hit rate), then let Faye Nosferatu her way to victory.
The problem? It's still Fire Emblem Gaiden. Everything about this game is still weird. Low movement range, next to no resistance growth, hit rates are low, archers are OP… the list goes on. And I don't like its class system giving magic units one tier fewer of classes. Echoes' better and more manipulable growths and the DLC classes have mostly solved the problem, but I'd prefer just giving them an extra class tier exclusively and have the physical units stay the same.
Also, Mila's Turnwheel can sometimes crash the game.
Puyo Puyo Chronicle (JP only)
Overall — D / Presentation — D / Gameplay — B / Sound — C / Story — D
Forget its flagship RPG mode, and just treat it like any other Puyo Puyo anniversary collection. You can play in most of the rules seen in the previous games, which is great if the only other game you have are Puyo Puyo Tetris and/or Puyo Puyo 7. The usual Puyo Puyo humour is also still in the story, but the overall plot just isn't very good at all, and the RPG mode gameplay is very tedious.
Team Kirby Clash Deluxe (JP DL)
Overall — D / Presentation — C / Gameplay — D / Sound — B / Story — N/A
I can't really speak for everyone, since I've only completed half of the game. The reason? They managed to turn a single-player battle game into a pay-to-win title. With this in mind, this game really costs $30 (to max out the Gem Apple tree, after which no further purchase is possible). For reference, the other deluxe Kirby sub-games cost $7 each and may be discounted via My Nintendo. I didn't pay for Team Kirby Clash.
Kirby Battle Royale (JP)
Overall — D / Presentation — D / Gameplay — D / Sound — C / Story — C
A Kirby action game in 3D space, but 2D display. It also messes with the control scheme by spreading action between the Y and B buttons instead of just combining direction and a single button. And it lags severely.
It's not bad; it's still Kirby, after all. But it's certainly lackluster compared to other Kirby games.
Metroid: Samus Returns (JP)
Overall — C / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — C / Story — N/A
It's a remake of the Game Boy title, but it's for the most part a new game, with new action, new maps and new enemy types. It's a linear 2D Metroid game that feels like a good reintroduction to the series, though it doesn't do much beyond that. I finished Normal Mode with 100% completion.
And then there's 2d/10. I didn't expect Metroid, an already grittier series, to jumpscare me.
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (JP DL)
Overall — C / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — N/A
This is the most creative rhythm game I've seen. It's a rhythm platformer, and unlike HarmoKnight, it doesn't just look like a platformer; you actually need to manually move and apply platforming skills. (The music loops, making it possible to not end stages after a specific amount of time.)
My Nintendo Picross (JP DL)
Overall — D / Presentation — D / Gameplay — B / Sound — C / Story — N/A
A nice little free download thanks to My Nintendo. (Seriously guys, check your account regularly and don't let those points expire.) Besides standard Picross, it also has Mega Picross, which has numbers spanning across two columns. These indicate a single continuous section of that many blocks across both columns needing to be marked.
The thing is, standard Picross and Mega Picross share the same images. As a result, the whole game runs out very quickly. I guess I shouldn't expect much out of a free eShop download.
Kirby's Blowout Blast (JP DL)
Overall — B / Presentation — B / Gameplay — B / Sound — A / Story — N/A
It's essentially Kirby's Dream Land 1 Lite Edition 3D. A nice little adventure, though it's rather difficult if you're aiming for perfects. Oh, and it's introduced quite a lot of new songs to the series, which is always welcome.
WarioWare Gold (JP)
Overall — B / Presentation — C / Gameplay — B / Sound — B / Story — B
WarioWare — not any of the irregular spinoffs, but core, microgame-centric WarioWare — is back! It's been 12 years since Smooth Moves! Now with more microgames than ever! Some may complain about the lack of new microgames, but I'd rather see the old ones first. The two boss games that aren't old (Top Notch and Sneaky Snatcher) are way too difficult to be suitable WarioWare games. Besides, Nintendo — the category most people are here for anyway — still has a lot of new microgames.
There's also a souvenir collection, with a few minigames, a Nintendo catalog (not exhaustive) showing their old toys, a collection of past WarioWare songs, a new Love Tester 2.0, and more. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say this is the best WarioWare, even though it's a short game, as all WarioWare games are.
My favourite part is, of course, the introduction of microgames based on INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS titles. Though DIY had microgames themed after Famicom Wars and Card Hero, this is the first time we see games IS actually hold rights of.
With all these games, I think it's quite hard to dethrone the 3DS as my favourite system. Multiple Kirby games with the best of the series among it? Three Fire Emblem titles each lasting hundreds of hours? The best SEGA feat. HATSUNE MIKU Project entry? I don't think I'll come across a system this good anytime soon.