That’s good, is there any risk of getting banned by Nintendo? My European 3DS has almost a decade’s worth of data against it starting on launch day, only reason I put CFW on ‘fresh’ 3DSes is because there’s nothing to lose.
I don’t believe there any risk on 3DS, the way it and its services were built doesn’t allow them to do anything. Compare that to Switch where the have the ability to ban the console from accessing online services.
Anyway, I turned on my N3DS for the first time this year and it still had 80% bettery as I left it last time! Amazing.
Running Crash City Mayhem at N3DS speeds and it’s noticably smoother to load and play. We’re not talking a jukonto 60fps or anything, but definitely a more steady faster frame rate than O3DS.
It’s crazy, when I dug out my Game Boy Advance SP a few years ago, it still had a charge! (albeit on low battery). I hadn’t used the thing since 2005. My original DS fat, unused since 2008, also switched on.
Thanks for the update on Runabout 3D - I sorely regret not buying it when it was on sale numerous times at the eShop. It’s been delisted, presumably Ghostlight lost the rights to the game. Japanese game card version is surprisingly expensive…
Didn’t realise it was a sequel, thought it was the original ported.
Do we know who’s developing it?
Been playing a lot of 3DS stuff (and DSiWare on the 3DS) over the past week, I’ll try and post something every day here and at the DS/DSiWare thread while my thoughts are still fresh…
Steel Diver
Went back to this after only briefly trying it before. The controls are still exciting today, it really does capture the feel of manoeuvring a hulking great submarine around increasingly demanding situations. And the more you play the more daring you get - lots of fun close shave moments where you almost collide with something but manage to salvage things at the last microsecond.
The game also has a surprisingly huge amount of content - there’s an expert main game and unique time trial/race missions, and each level has three medals to earn from three levels of staff ghost to take on.
Unlike Pilotwings Resort I can’t see myself getting so involved with this that I’d master every level with every medal, though. It’s great that this game also carries the arcade spirit of games past, but the emphasis on staff ghosts isn’t a great match for this type of gameplay. Simply put, beating even the worst staff ghost is an extremely exacting exercise, since for the vast majority of each level the AI is already taking the optimal route, and you have to match them exactly or risk losing pace. Expert campaign is fun, however.
I haven’t played this one or Pilotwings Resort.
In fact, I still need to try Pilotwings 64 sometime. I got the cart years ago but never actually put it in my system. I’m still stuck trying to advance in the SNES installment 
Come to think of it, I also own the Steel Diver cart for 3DS. Maybe I’ll finally try it.
Pilotwings 64 is one of those games I really want to play as well. Now I’ve got a suitable display for N64, I really need to pick up a cheap NTSC console so I can play it - so many N64 games received bad PAL conversions.
Let us know how you get on with both 3DS games, @matt is a huge fan of Pilotwings Resort and I’ve got fond memories spending a good 30 hours on it during the launch window. Really has that one more go appeal for bettering high scores.
Pilotwings Resort is another case of the press marking a game as “not much content” unfairly.
Really to 100% it takes a phenomenal amount of effort and skill. One of my crowning gaming achievements.
It runs better on N3DS if you enable the faster CPU via Luma CFW.
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Pilotwings 64 I also enjoyed, more recently, but I didn’t find it as memorable.
N64 is the system them benefits most from playing on a crt. That particular soft video output just doesn’t look right to my eyes in any other way.
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Exactly. I remember getting an RGB Scart cable a few years back to go with a new copy of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon 2, and being disappointed by the crisp clear image because it just looked so wrong. I can see why some folk want to turn off the hardware antialiasing because it doesn’t add much on a modern display but it’s integral to the visuals otherwise.
Tank Troopers
Bought this Vitei and Nintendo developed title back in 2017 but never really played it, tried it in anger last weekend and thought it was really fun, if a bit throwaway.
The appeal in its single player really comes from the large variety of mission types, since this game doesn’t have any story the designers have no limitations on what they can throw in without having to justify it narratively. So amidst the usual tank combat you’ll be doing stuff like rolling spiked balls into gates, to shooting targets out the sky for points, to blasting bouncy balls into warp holes. The less esoteric missions are fine, too - stuff like seeking out and destroying missile towers in fog.
It’s not something I’d come back to replay though, and Nintendo nixing the online mode the developers were working on doesn’t do it any favours either. Would have been a fantastic online multiplayer game, the gyro aiming is spot on and the maps all seem like suitable enough battlegrounds.
Hana Samurai/Sakura Samurai
Interesting game. Its entire conceit lies around rewarding restraint in combat. You play a sword-wielding samurai, and there’s a combo counter at the bottom right of the screen. But the catch is it only goes up if you land a counter-attack on any enemy.
Button mash, flail mindlessly, or take damage and it resets. You can play sloppily but you’ll be punished for it - enemies will deflect your attacks with nigh-on precision, and besides, you can trade in your current combo counter at the village shop for spoils. It’s how the game’s set up.
As you’ve probably guessed then, it’s a game wholly based around combat. Each area on the world map transports you to a little arena with different enemy formations, and that’s where the long-term appeal of the game lies. While the enemies themselves can be dispatched just fine with practice, taking several enemies on at once, and several enemy types on at once, is a different story altogether.
The game’s short enough to never outstay its welcome, which is a good thing because it never stops being a game about waiting for an enemy’s attack, dodging it at the last moment, and then striking back. Unfortunately I did find some levels and enemies to be memorisation heavy at times which exposes the limitation of a combat system built solely around last-moment counterattacks - there isn’t much room to express yourself outside of one or two specific ways of counterattacking each enemy.
Looking at the staff list, the developers largely worked on games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Meteos before this - the game designers were mostly Panzer Dragoon alumni by the looks of it.
While it’s certainly flawed I find it hard not to recommend this one, there’s nothing else quite like it, the 3D effects are superb, and Nintendo just doesn’t work with small developers on games like this anymore.
Unlocked Expert Campaign on Steel Diver today! Piloting all three subs remains very fun and novel, though I’ve lost interest in beating even the slowest dev ghosts for medals - still very little room to try anything but the best route. More of a test of how well you can precisely pull off a series of inputs than anything else.
Would Pilotwings Resort play OK on a 2DS XL or do you really need the 3D to enjoy it? Normally I don’t think it would matter but I feel like it probably makes a difference in this one.
Jet pack is much more difficult without 3D.
So it depends if you’re going to try to 100% (3D makes it easier) it or just pay it to a more normal degree (2D fine).
Enjoy!
As Matt mentioned you’ll probably need 3D if you want to master it 100%, some of the precision you’ll need will require trial and error without the direct information seeing stuff in 3D space gives you.
Talking about these games really makes me miss the 3DS. I was so certain that I was ready to move on from the 3DS before the Switch came out, but Nintendo’s first party lineup has never been so safe and predictable these days, and 99% of third party games are ports. Be careful what you wish for, I guess…
On @DaveLong’s many recommendations here and on Era, I finally picked up Ridge Racer 3D. Have only played just a bit of it but hoo-boy does my hand cramp. I don’t really play much 3DS and when I do it’s never been a racing game. Need to get a grip I suppose. I’ve thought about maybe a N3DSXL but … I don’t play this system that much and I don’t think I need three of them! (I have a N3DS and a N2DSXL).
Yes!
I had a grip for my original 3DS and later a Mario Kart wheel, which is excellent. You might want to look into that if it fits your model.
But I couldn’t find anything similar to fit my regular size New 3DS.
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The monster hunter “hunting gear” and “hunting gear XX” are great grips for the bigger new 3ds, but don’t know anything that fits the normal. Also after just checking it makes me wish I got more of them when I could since they are going for all the moneys now.