Happy 5th Birthday to The 3DS

Last year was an awful year for 3DS for me...

Balladeer wrote:

I just read through that entire thread that Cappa linked to.  Good times, mostly.  Anyone remember when Dusty Knackers posted relatively frequently outside the wrestling thread?  Anyway.


...


2014 looks like another 2012, sadly.  Not every year can be a 2013, nor should it be expected to be; but based on its current line-up, the 3DS will still be some way behind the DS in my estimation.  I guess it's because the DS had JRPGs, my favourite genre, in abundance, not to mention puzzlers and weird games that defied all expectation.  While Bravely Default nips at the heels of the DS' elite, no other RPG on the console (not even Pokémon X/Y) has gripped me in the way TWEWY or HGSS did.  Several nice-enough eShop puzzlers haven't been able to measure up to Meteos or Picross DS, while nothing apart from maybe KIU has wowed me with its boldness and innovation like Ghost Trick, TWEWY, or even Henry Hatsworth.  (Had I played the Phoenix Wright games when they were released, they'd probably fall in the same bucket.)

Wow, me bump you long time.  CVG has vanished off the face of the earth, as has Dusty.  Anyway.


I was right about 2014, wasn't I?  It did have Smash, and Pokémon, but neither set my world on fire exactly, and after that there was a yawning chasm in quality until the next game (for me, I should emphasise).  2015 wasn't another 2012, it was lower than that even (as Drunka has just said), with PM3DS (a low 8/10 in my book) being the stand-out and not much else (again, for me).  And the Wii U's schedule was pretty empty as well, emphasising the problem.

We had the New 3DS, of course.  Which had a port of an N64 game, a port of a Wii game, and (now) an expansion of a Wii U game to recommend it.  Bleah.


Interesting to look back at my breakdown of the 3DS by genre (if "weird" counts as a genre).  2016 looks set to be the year of the JRPG for the 3DS, starting with Bravely Second, and also featuring (among others) FE Fates, Yo-Kai Watch, and Pokémon Sadomasochism.  

However, we've still not had anything really top on the puzzling front, have we?  Not without microtransactions anyway.  Is there a big Picross game on the way for 2016?  I vaguely recall there being something like that.  Innovation, meanwhile, has been mostly relegated to the eShop, meaning I've missed a fair bit of it.  I'm sure some will count the Steamworld games under that vague umbrella, but I've not experienced my Ghost Trick moment on the 3DS.

Just to clarify, 3DS had a bad 2015 for me because I killed it with gravy.

There's Picross 3D 2 in Japan and I will stand up for the charms of BoxBoy! on the puzzle game front.

The 3DS very much has on/off years, doesn't it? It looks like an 'on' year this year, about which I am very glad. New Kirby, new Pokémon, new Dragon Quest. S, even! Dat 2015, though... and the Wii U is accused of having big gaps between good releases!

Picross 3D 2 sounds like what I was thinking about. And while you're entitled to your stance, Zero, my own is that BoxBoy suffered atrociously from a beginning slower than a paraplegic sloth in heavy traffic. Agreed, though, that this year's looking better!

Drunkalilly wrote:

Just to clarify, 3DS had a bad 2015 for me because I killed it with gravy.

From what I can gather, the biggest boost to 3DS at the beginning of this year is the Gen 1. Pokémon re-releases! If so, we all have ourselves to blame.
Oh and BoxBoy was awesome

I'm not to blame, I wouldn't have touched those relics with an Old Rod.

We may have not had a vote yet but NLife did, I did vote in it and some of you may have any way there Top 10's were

eShop

10 3D Sonic the Hedgehog
9 Pullbox
8 Mighty Switch Force!
7 Azure Striker Gunvolt
6 BOXBOY!
5 SteamWorld Dig
4 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
3 SteamWorld Heist
2 Shovel Knight
1 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

It's not a bad list, some I have played and some like Heist I do want to download at some-point.

Retail
10 Super Mario 3D Land
9 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
8 Animal Crossing: New Leaf
7 Xenoblade Chronicles 3D
6 Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
5 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D
4 Fire Emblem Fates
3 Fire Emblem: Awakening
2 The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
1 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

That's a decent list which was always going to be won by arguably one of the best games ever made.

No Kid Icarus: Uprising. 0/10.

Shovel Knight & MH4U not being number 1 on their respective lists?

0/10

Also when did the ace attorney trilogy come to the 3ds e shop?

No Luigi mansion 2

0/10

Ace attorney trilogy came out mid to late last year?

Agreed with Shanks and Zero (sorry Jas). Also: two ports in the top five? And I don't think Fates is even out here yet, is it?

Think it's only Japan and the US. I know we don't have it or will get it until May

Yeah May here is as well, but if Fates is a good game and enough people on NLife voted for it as they life in the states or imported it then no reason why it couldn't be there.

I was a bit iffy of the ports as well Balla but good games are good games especially when one it's one of the best ever made. I believe LM2 & KI:U were Number 11 & 12 as they were the two honorable mentions.

Balladeer wrote:

Agreed with Shanks and Zero (sorry Jas).  Also: two ports in the top five?  And I don't think Fates is even out here yet, is it?

That's a good point from shanks on Luigi's mansion 2, that was my favourite 3ds game until ALBW came along then MH4U arrived and swept both of them aside to positions number 2 & 3.

No arguments about two of those games, FootballSlur Hunter just isn't for me but I understand its appeal.  

masofdas wrote:

Yeah May here is as well, but if Fates is a good game and enough people on NLife voted for it as they life in the states or imported it then no reason why it couldn't be there.

I was a bit iffy of the ports as well Balla but good games are good games especially when one it's one of the best ever made. I believe LM2 & KI:U were Number 11 & 12 as they were the two honorable mentions.

Yup, NL has a much bigger USA presence than us (don't have one, I don't think - apart from the one user who launched a takeover bid ).  Just saying that'd be one reason for a difference.

OoT is one of my top ten ever, but I'd still vote the 3DS port slightly lower because it's a port.  I think we've already had this debate though.  Good to hear that there are a fair amount of sane NL votes, at least.

Top five games on the system imo are

5 ~ Bravely Default
4 ~ Pokemon X and Y
3 ~ Fire Emblem Awakening
2 ~ Pokemon ORAS
1 ~ Bravely Second: Gravy Layer

Omissions include Tales of the Abyss which, after playing Xillia and some of Zestiria I cannot include it on such a list. The franchise just gets so much better than Abyss. Smash was also excluded because lets be real here, it's a port of a Wii U game and belongs on those lists.

I have high hopes fe Fates will make it on to this list in a couple of months, if only because the level design in Conquest gets back to actually testing the player rather than just asking for them to route the enemy.

I'm a big JRPG fan, but - blimey Athrun, that's a variety of interesting genres in there isn't it?

Hmm... my top 5 3DS games:

5: Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate
4: Fire Emblem: Awakening
3: Pokémon X & Y
2: Animal Crossing: New Leaf
1: Dark Souls The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Xenoblade would be on there but I didn't play it on 3DS, I played it on Wii.

Well, then!

5: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
4: Bravely Default
3: Super Mario 3D Land
2: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
1: Kid Icarus: Uprising

Wish I could have put a Pokémon game in there but the one I've enjoyed the most is Blue.

I'm not going to give my top five yet. I think that before too long we'll have a big "everything the 3DS has ever had" vote, and anyway only BSEL would enter my list since the third birthday vote (what with XC being best experienced on the Wii and all).

Balladeer wrote:

I'm a big JRPG fan, but - blimey Athrun, that's a variety of interesting genres in there isn't it?

Can't help it if the genre is the best genre out there!

Athrun888 wrote:

Omissions include Tales of the Abyss which, after playing Xillia and some of Zestiria I cannot include it on such a list.  The franchise just gets so much better than Abyss.  .

Sort of surprised about this as I own Zestiria which I've not played after a few have said it's just okay and I've got other RPG's to play over it ala BS:EL. Also from what I hear from fans of the series it's got a little bit worse with each game, seeing there now yearly but Berseria does look decent.

What's your thoughts on Symphonia & Vesperia which are my favs in the series.

Also not posting a Top 5 for the same reason as Balla and we have brought about ports and most times with votes or classics we went for them and place high, thankfully Dark Souls hasn't been ported over to anything Nintendo to end up high in any vote.

That's the Tales Of cycle, nostalgia mixed with silly high expectations.  It's the same nonesense people spout about how Pokemon supposedly gets worse every single generation when the reality is people simply don't recognize they just get more attached to their first game, like Tales Of.  

Abyss had a cast filled with gigantic pricks, was about being a messenger boy for over half the game, was backtracking most of the time, and the battle system spent more time with that stupid field of fonons mechanic and not even close to the amount of time it should have spent being about combos.

Every other game I've played was vastly better than that.  The cast spent most of the games doing something meaningful, weren't gigantic pricks, the battle systems made Abyss look like amatuer hour, and there wasn't even close to the amount of atrocious backtracking.  

Zestiria just reaffirms my views of fanbases, I was expecting Final Fantasy XIII levels of atrociousness, instead what I've got is a game with a few flaws but is still very solid.  Honestly I just think they're probably pissed because the promotional waifu leaves early on (and is replaced by a FAR better character).  



Never played Symphonia or Vesperia, I do have the hd edition of the former though and plan on playing it at some point.  Can't play the latter though since it's 360 exclusive in the west.

Didn't they do a english sub version for Asia of Vesperia on PS3 in the end? If not I hope rumors of a Tales of Collection for PS4 is true and has Vesperia which I do think is the best Tales of game.