Tag: 3DS

The Legend of Midna: Twilight Picross

Exclusive to the My Nintendo rewards program comes a new chapter in the Zelda series. For hardcore Nintendo fans only, this game takes place in a dark timeline where Link dies and the player never continues the game. Midna gets bored of waiting, and starts carving out numbers on the spines of soldiers. “Hold still!” Midna insists, as the frightened guard screams in agony from the Twilight Realm. He can’t even see what Midna is doing, as she chuckles from the realm of light. Convinced he’s gone crazy, the guard kills himself with his spear, plunging it straight through his heart.

“Aw, you ruined my puzzle!” laments Midna. The spear went right though some of the numbers, but it gave Midna an idea. “I could combine numbers and lines to make interesting pictures!” Hooray! Welcome to My Nintendo Picross.

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Super Metroid – Sub-Hour Speedrun

I’ve been getting into Super Metroid more after the 3DS release and set myself a personal goal of beating the game in under an hour. I’ve already done this with Metroid: Zero Mission and had a great time finding the fastest route. With Super Metroid I had done what “felt” like a speedrun, but it’s a different kind of speedrun to Zero Mission. A lot of tricks and skips in this game are very difficult and non-traditional. This is due to Samus’s movement being more complex, and a lot of open environments that don’t stop you from doing crazy things. My current best time was 1 hour 19 minutes, and on 3DS I managed to get 1 hour 27 minutes on a refresher course through the game. My main motivation came when I realised there was still a lot about the game I didn’t know. How do you shortcharge? What other items can I skip? Are there better ways to fight the bosses? Can I do the Zebetite Skip?

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Super Metroid – New for 3DS

In the recent Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced SNES games for the N3DS would be available immediately with Super Mario World launching the service on the same day, and more to follow. In Australia, one of those early games was Super Metroid and I grabbed it ASAP with the dream of finally being able to play the US NTSC version of the game. That’s right, all SNES games on the EU / AU 3DS eShop are the 60hz American versions, making it the first time Super Metroid and Link to the Past have been available here in 60hz. Even though I’m pretty happy with the Wii U Virtual Console, for some reason we’re still stuck with the PAL versions of a few games. In my experience it’s not that big a deal for Zelda, but Super Metroid is a much more action-focused game, loaded with tons of precise tricks and wall jumps you can not afford to miss. So not only was I keen to experience SNES games on 3DS for the first time, but also discover Super Metroid in its original 60hz form.

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Code Name S.T.E.A.M. – The President Needs You

Abraham Lincoln has assigned me a special mission, to tell the world about Code Name S.T.E.A.M. and recruit world class soldiers to fight the alien menace. I’ve been deployed to the internet and there are aliens everywhere, destroying objects and devouring information before they can process it. It’s quite clear they aren’t here to talk. I can’t take them on alone so I’ve taken cover in the Pietriots Bunker to refill my STEAM tank. My health is low, I’ve got no coins and there’s no restore point here. It’s just me and this STEAM powered Typewriter, so I better get to work.

codenameageofsteam

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Snow Moto Racing 3D – Defrost Your Engines

Over the holidays I impulse-bought this game just to have a new racing game to play on 3DS while I was out. I wasn’t expecting too much but I’m very happy with it and I think it deserves some recognition. Zordix are not the biggest development team in the world but I really like their approach. Snow Moto Racing 3D is an enjoyable game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s fun to play and features a solid amount of content.

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Yo-Kai Watch – Demo Impressions

That’s right, you’ve stumbled into a writeup of impressions of a free demo. It might seem a bit redundant but this game has a special charm to it I wanted to share, and a lot of people still don’t play free demos because being active is hard. If you have a 3DS and live in Australia or America (EU release date 2016), just close this now and download the demo yourself. It’s a comfy 858 blocks and gives you 15 plays which is more than enough to decide if you like it. It’s a good 20-30 minutes of walking around town looking for Yo-Kai.

The game’s awesome production values become apparent right away with a really cool cutscene of a boy uncovering something in a dark forest. The animation is well-done and it creates a sense of wonder right off the bat. This picture is the exact quality on the 3DS screen.

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Tri Force Heroes – Demo Impressions!!

Nintendo’s been distributing *HELLO* demo codes for The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes on 3DS and *HELLO* I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on some from Nintendo Australia. I say lucky because their *HELLO* email system is shitty and unreliable, and these are seemingly distributed randomly. With the death of Club Nintendo it seems they’ve finally fixed their database and I got my first *HELLO* email from them in months. Anyway, I’m needed in the Drablands!! *LET’S GO!*

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Majora’s Mask 3D – The Legend of Clock Town

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Good morning everyone. Looks like we’re in for another lovely day as the sun spreads it’s colourful rays over the hills and under the clouds. Everyone’s up bright and early to make the most of it. Workers are preparing for the Carnival, shops are set up to rake in the rupees, dogs are barking, kids are playing, and the Postman trots along in a sweat, already struggling to keep up with the day’s letters. I’d expect nothing less in Clock Town, the busiest place in the world. With a staggering population of 26 there is always something going on here. The Mayor is being indecisive as always, while the soldiers and council workers go about their usual debate routine. I’m excited for the big fireworks in 3 days, but there’s a hint of doubt in the air. The soldiers are saying it’s too dangerous and there’s talk of workers slacking off, even leaving. Some even say the moon will fall. Pessimists, I say. Great excuse to get out of work. All the doom and gloom is mostly coming from the soldiers, all they do is stand there all day. The councilmen are determined to put on a good show, or all their hard work will have gone to waste. Just the usual bickering. The moon does look big and nasty, but it’s so far away right? Even though it’s harmless I can’t help but stare at it.

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Metroid II: Return of Samus – Exploring the 8-bit Abyss

Welcome to SR388, home planet of the Metroids. My desire to learn more about these creatures has thrust me into the dark depths of Metroid II on the Game Boy. It’s an ancient screen the Chozo used to replay historic moments over and over. On SR388, Metroids thrive in a monochrome habitat and keep themselves hidden in a dot matrix maze of grayscale caves. They are aggressive creatures when threatened but enjoy their privacy. This game stars Samus in her most faithful role as a Bounty Hunter, with the goal of hunting down 39 Metroids to eradicate the entire species. Set after Metroid 1 / Zero Mission and Metroid Prime 3, the Galactic Federation just randomly held a conference and decided the only way to stop further chaos is to drive Metroids to extinction. It might be the only way, or perhaps this is a classic overreaction to a threat they don’t understand. A sensation that might be familiar to Metroid fans. Could it be a cover up, a conspiracy, a trap, or just plain stupidity? What is going on behind the scenes? A bunch of Federation Troopers mysteriously disappear while “investigating” the Metroids here. Samus is sent to terminate the Metroids because “she can handle it” based on previous experience. This must be how Next Level Games feel right now. Metroid II is a hostile environment, with convoluted passageways forming a structure that takes advantage of the Game Boy’s limitations to provide a great sense of scale. Isn’t that contradictory? I would say it’s ambitious and necessary. Metroid II shoves an entire planet under the Game Boy screen and lets the player deal with the repercussions.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Danger of the Ooze

The talented (seriously, check out his comics) Josh Nickerson has been playing the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on 3DS, and blessed us with this guest review to tell us all about the game. Please enjoy.

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Booyakasha! The most recent TMNT game is the best one in ages… of course, it was a low bar to begin with…

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had a turbulent history with video games. One could argue that there hasn’t been a decent TMNT game since Tournament Fighters back in 1993, with the sole exception being the GBA game based on the 2007 animated movie, made by Ubisoft of all developers. That trend would seem to continue with Activision picking up the video game rights to the current Nickelodeon animated series. However, after dumping out a couple of turtles turds such as “Out of the Shadows”, Activision slipped up and hired a decent developer to produce the next game, namely the good folks at WayForward. Now, WayForward, while most of their original output has been at the very least solid, their licensed games have ranged from good (Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?) to terrible (Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit World). Still, I was optimistic that they could pull off a decent platformer. But by the time the game released in the game glut month known as November, I had forgotten about the game, distracted by sleeper hits such as Super Smash Bros.

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Let’s get HYPED for Metroid Prime: Federation Force!!

The build up to E3 this year saw the hype train going at full speed. With Nintendo’s show being a big secret, everybody had their own wild predictions. However we saw one name mentioned more than most: Metroid. It just felt like it was “time” with Retro Studios project being a secret, and no real Metroid being released in almost a decade. I was hyped for this too, because why else would Retro Studios open a Twitter account right before E3? The gaming media also helped set up the disappointment, with articles like “Why Metroid should be announced” and “Metroid Prime devs tease E3” right before E3. It wasn’t “Donkey Kong devs tease E3” despite that being their most popular, and most recent game. So when you deconstruct this hype, it didn’t follow much solid logic. Does it ever? Regardless, expectations were set to Metroid and hopes were high. Then we got this…

grantandcarolprime

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Super Smash Bro – Single Player Madness

I love the new Smash Bros on both 3DS and Wii U, let’s get that out of the way. The new characters and stages are great, movement and overall balance is fantastic and the gameplay is satisfying and refined. However, there’s one thing I need to get off my chest that has made much of the game unpleasant for me.

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All. This. Bullshit. In the way.

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