The 3DS/eShop Thread (with Friend Codes)

I did some searching and didn't come up with one so I figured I'd start one as I just recently picked up an XL. Any suggestions for 3DS or even DSiWare games that are great? So far, I've been playing Pushmo (fantastic) and Gunman Clive (totally worth $2).

Also, friend codes:

Code (text):

1. Ryan Markel...1778-9855-1421
2. BobJustBob....2535-3649-8915
3. Afti..........0946-2520-3623
4. balut.........2208-4829-9717
5. Jacquelle.....2621-3268-7889
6. Kohei.........4227-1142-4674
7. Metta.........2337-3404-8697

If you want to post yours I'll add it to the OP. (Wish they'd patch in Nintendo Network IDs but that's probably a pipe dream.)

All I have is Pushmo and some Slitherlink game that's a pale shadow of the import DS game. I'll pick up Crashmo at some point. This is a good idea for a thread because Nintendo wants to make it as difficult as possible for you to find anything in the eShop. But I doubt there's anything special in there.

2535-3649-8915

Pick up Mutant Mudds and the Mighty stuff (Mighty Flip Champs/Mighty Milky Way/Mighty Switch Force.)

Those are non-negotiable.

Liberation Maiden is a really cool score-attack game, but it's rather short for its price and ends right when it's getting ambitious. If you like more arcade-styled experiences, go for it, but don't expect a lengthy campaign.

0946-2520-3623

It's a trap! Mighty Switch Force looked fun for a while in the quick look, but then it started to look really punishing and tedious. They pulled the same thing with Shantae. You have to watch out for that sort of thing a lot on Nintendo platforms, because even Nintendo hasn't yet figured out that you can make a retro game without ignoring advances in game design over the past twenty years. Say hello, NSMB save system.

You have levels of, what, maybe two minutes tops, and autosaving between each one. You can freely select them from a menu. The only thing that you might be able to call punishing is the level design, and that's a good thing; the worst trend in current 2D platformers is how much they tend to hold your hand. Fuck off, I know how this works, start trying to murder me already.

Also, the soundtrack is fantastic.

I picked up the demo for Mutant Mudds and thought it was a pretty clever use of 3D, even if the game itself felt somewhat simple. I'll probably pick it up at some point. I have heard some good things about The Denpa Men, Crimson Shroud, and Unchained Blades (which was a retail game in Japan).

balut: 2208-4829-9717

Crimson Shroud is pretty great, yeah, eventhough I sort of forgot to finish it because it becomes grindy pretty fast. But if you like Matsuno, it's a no brainer.

I'm more reserved about the Denpa Men. Sure, it's not expensive and rather charming but I find it very light on strategy so far... It's a sort of streamlined to death Pokémon / dungeon RPG, and it bored me rather quick. Maybe there are latter more interesting dungeons though.

Are we allowed to talk about retail ? Because I'm having a blast with Ghost Recon. It's ugly and silly but the tactical combat is great. It was produced by Julian Gollop of X-Com fame. You control a group of six commandos, and it plays a bit like a more basic Fire Emblem. It's rather simple but the campaign is long and pretty varied, if a bit too simple (I'm playing on medium difficulty though). What makes it special is the way each commando is defined with a few powers that mesh pretty well together, and that gives each of them a real personality on the battlefield. There are also challenges, the cart is packed up with content. It might not be as good as a proper FE or an Advance Wars, but it's a very solid game if you like tactical combat and don't mind the low difficulty.

I have a feeling that Ghost Recon is going to be unseated by Fire Emblem next week. Early reviews on it are really good.

Denpa Men gets really good after the credits roll; enemy sets in those dungeons are much more complex, and you can't steamroll them by bringing in a team of the right color.

In Europe it's not released until april. Fuck zoning.

Afti : alright, I'm going to give Denpa Men another try then.

Go for it. If you like grindy dungeon crawlers, this should be up your alley.

Link's Awakening DX, if you don't have it already. One of the best Zelda games. I also like PiCTOBiTS as far as clever puzzle games go. 2 fast 4 Gnomz, despite the horrendous title, is also a great time-killer and has a demo.

2621-3268-7889

I don't have my 3DS to hand, so I can't post my friend code right now -- not that I ever really use Nintendo's horrible abortion of an online system, last time I did was Custom Robo Arena -- but I can speak to a bit of the eShop stuff.

Mutant Mudds - yes, it's simple, but it's quite good, it's a fair bit of game for the money, and it's one of very few games that makes good use of the 3D. It's probably my best eShop purchase since the 3DS came out.

Mighty Switch Force - This is... okay. It's too short and just not that fun. if I had a do-over I probably wouldn't buy it again. I didn't really enjoy Mighty Flip Champs (the DSiWare game) either.

Pushmo - Everyone but me loves this game.

Crashmo - The same, I'm told, I didn't buy it. Try Pushmo first, this one is supposed to be harder.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - This one dates back to DSiWare. I really liked it, it's a Metroidvania kind of game. Unlike BobJustBob I didn't think it got tedious; my main complaint is that it's too short. I'd buy it again though.

Also, we have a 3DS thread here: http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/the-3ds-thread.3308/ It might make sense to split eShop vs everything else, but unless we are just abandoning the old thread (which would be fine, I guess), retail stuff should probably go there.

If you have an iOS device, Mutant Mudds is currently free.

HEY!

Whoops, sorry.

Does it support an external controller? Because I think I'd rather go at my penis with a nailgun than play that game without a d-pad and physical buttons.

I bought a 3DS to play Fire Emblem, and Amazon has just informed me that they are out of stock, even though I preordered.

Does the eShop allow redownloads? I seem to remember some complaining over the eShop or the Wii shop or some Nintendo shop that was just purely tied to the device, and didn't keep an online record/library of your purchases like Steam or Amazon. So if you deleted the game, you were out of luck and had to buy it again. Is that the case? If not, I'll just get the digital copy of Fire Emblem, which would be my preference anyway if not for this issue.

My understanding is that you can redownload, but it has to be to the same device.

Crimson Shroud is a fun little game and I've enjoyed it quite a lot. I'm impressed with the number of decent games that have been showing up in the e-shop and I hope that this trend continues. It's nice not having to buy a physical copy of a game and not having to swap out game cards all of the time.

I've recently replaced my launch 3DS with an XL and I find it much more comfortable to hold so I've been using it a lot more often. Now all I need is Animal Crossing New Leaf and I will be a happy camper.

You might want to upgrade your SD card if you haven't already. So far I've heard that Fire Emblem Awakening is the biggest eshop title coming in at 8500 or so blocks. (1 gig I think it works out to)

This is accurate. If you run out of room you can clean out your fridge and then redownload later, but all purchases are tied to the hardware.

That's stupid but I guess acceptable. I mean, it would suck if my 3DS broke or I lost it or whatever. I'll have to think about it.

I have seen the mention of Nintendo making their Nintendo ID system work with the 3DS in the future.

That being said I've heard you can sometimes get away with swapping from a broken 3DS with Nintendo support's help using Club Nintendo's registration setup to prove you have the machine and games for it. But your mileage may vary.

This is true, but let's remember that this is the company that is - hypothetically - giving us Pikmin 3.

Their schedules are, let's say, erratic.

The Nintendo Network ID doesn't do anything, though. The situation is exactly the same on the Wii U. You can't even use your NNID to log into another system. It is also locked to the hardware.

Worse than that, because as shitty as that is, it at least makes sense.

No, it's a fully functioning account.

If you get very lucky, you can call Nintendo, get them to unregister your Wii U and let you register a new one with the account. At which point, it does everything it should.

Why.

We discussed this recently at SA and I agree with the view that buying online from Nintendo doesn't make sense. I have a shitload of Steam games but they were often good deals and I have them forever no matter how many new computers I buy. Nintendo sucks too much at online accounts for it to be worth it. I'm not going to buy digital games from them if they can't even guarantee my ability to play on a new system next week.

The Fire Emblem shortage is Nintendo's fault, by the way, they fucked up the distribution. Almost no one has it anywhere. Gamestop says there are no non-preorder copies in my state. Preorders at least came in today, they hadn't as of yesterday. (I was not a preorder.)

Yeah kinda confused on what happened with this release. People were able to get the game last week from Gamestop/EB Games from quite a few stores. Yet now Gamestop is claiming the game hasn't even been shipped at all yet? Making me wonder whats going to happen with EO4 and MH3U in the coming months.

I got my Fire Emblem at Fry's on Tuesday night, when they got it in. They had 8 copies.

I have to wonder if in some small part Nintendo didn't prioritize physical distribution to see how digital distribution would be affected.

dun DUN DUNNNNNNNNN

Actually, I would not doubt this was the case. It was specifically mentioned in Iwata's report to investors last week that AC: New Leaf's shortages (which apparently were just that since it's sold 3m copies) caused an unexpected surge in digital purchases in Japan. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that this could have been a test.

In any case, it appears that they told retailers this might happen; Target's ads in this area said the game was releasing on Wednesday when it was really supposed to be Monday. I only have a physical copy because one had fallem down in the case at my local Target and I happened to see it when even the employees thought they were out of it.

Because, NINTENDO?

*shrug*

Their method of tying digital purchases to a single account and console combination is why I don't purchase anything that's available as a cart from the 3DS eShop; I have two kids who also play DS games and if I bought them as downloads we would not be able to share the games, which is lame as hell.

In unrelated news, does anyone know if the eShop version of Cave Story is significantly suckier than Cave Story 3D, which is only a physical cart and hard to find now? I have never played Cave Story and figure it might be time.

Just in case you haven't seen the news, the Etrian Odyssey 4 demo is up early on the eShop. I downloaded it last night.

Since Nintendo E-Shop downloads are stored on the SD Card, and you can literally just copy/paste the contents of one card to another, theoretically, wouldn't that allow you to play a downloaded game on another 3DS?

Maybe. I dunno. Is there a license key on the 3DS that's required?

Either way, I'm not risking losing my purchases if my console gets broken.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf. June.

Because let's face it; that's the reason you really bought a 3DS.

Nope, I bought mine for Fire Emblem and Monster Hunter. But I'll pick up Animal Crossing too because it looks like fun. Does anyone here play Mario Kart 7? I thought about picking it up again, but haven't had a reason to yet.

Friend Code: 4227-1142-4674

I don't have Mario Kart yet but once my kid has finished saving up to buy his 3DS that will probably change in short order.