O, not a top 10 list? Thank goodness, because I despise
those.
How about a RETROSPECTIVE???????
Yes, so I have had a 3DS ever since launch. In fact it was
my plain Cosmos Black model up until this past Christmas. That’s when I
received one of the most amazing gifts of all time, an upgrade, the silver
Mario and Luigi Dream Team 3DS. The 3DS is BY FAR my favorite system I have
ever owned. There are many consoles I have owned that I have really liked, but
only the SNES comes anywhere close to the 3DS. To understand my weird brain
Let’s Go Back.
To the beginning.
The first console I ever had was an NES….like 2 years after
the SNES came out. Within a year (And many Mario levels and Zelda dungeons
later) I was upgraded to the SNES. I LOVED that thing! I remember playing Super
Metroid, Super Star Wars, Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures, NBA Jam, Kirby
Super Star, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Goof Troop, Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts, Killer
Instinct, Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Earthworm Jim, Mortal Kombat, Street
Fighter 2, Turtles in Time, Super Mario World, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link
to the Past.
I’m sure there were others, but I remember all of these
games. It’s what made the SNES my favorite system (Along with many memories
tied to it) No system after that got as much play time as the SNES after that,
even though I loved my N64, PS2, Gamecube, Wii, and others.
The SNES was huge and had many great games, especially first
party ones. Nintendo was the big name in the industry and they lead the video
game market with their own first party titles. This was largely because of
competition from Sega and their incredible Blue Hedgehog.
Nintendo was branded as more a kiddie system. A lot of games
for the system looked and played better on Sega’s machine (if it was
multiplatform) Most people were more impressed by the Sega Genesis even though
the Super NES sold almost twice as many units. Also, the top selling game on
the Genesis was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with 6 million sold….Super Mario World
sold over 20 Million…
Yet Nintendo’s SNES was still called the inferior system and
excuses for them beating Sega usually circle around gaming not being
“Mainstream” yet….even with 80 Million consoles sold between Genesis and SNES.
And Nintendo’s top ten games from their system accounted for
almost 80 millions sales alone.
Sure, Gaming wasn’t mainstream. Because the media hates
Nintendo. Always have, always will.
RANT OVER
Back to the 3ds….that all served a point I swear.
All of these things hold a strong parallel with the 3DS. The
3DS was not expected to be able to carry the weight that the DS did. The DS was
a phenomenon. The PSP was very close to those sales. The 3DS was called
gimmicky. People said it was only trying to capitalize on the success of the
DS. It wasn’t as powerful as the coveted sequel to the PSP, the Vita. Mobile
gaming was now meant for phones and tablets, not dedicated gaming hardware. The
E3 demo wasn’t anything special. 3D is a fad that won’t sell the system. The
Wii’s blue ocean crowd weren’t going to be able to support Nintendo anymore.
To the average anti-Nintendo person or Sony/Microsoft
fanboy, this seemed correct. And for a few months.....they were right....
THE LAUNCH
On March 27th, 2011 the Nintendo 3DS launched in North America for $249.99. The Launch of the 3DS wasn't terrible as far as a line up of games go. But There wasn't anything from the Big N except Nintendogs, Steel Diver, and Pilot Wings. The 3rd party support was there, in the form of uninspired ports. Lets not forget that when the 3DS launched there was no eShop full of great indie titles. There was no Netflix or Hulu or Youtube apps. There was the built in AR games and that was it. Which is probably why original owners have wayyyy more time in Face Raiders than people after the drop. Face Raiders was really neat because you just took pictures of peoples faces and it would take those faces and make them into invading enemies in the actual world, which was a great use of augmented reality. An even better use of the augmented reality was something simply called AR Games. This used a pack of cards that comes packaged laid out in the real world to take AR pictures and play AR games featuring puzzles and some of Nintendo's beloved characters. They did throw us some freebies, like Excitebike 3D. BUT the only good games Nintendo had coming down the pipeline were Star Fox 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (From the N64) remade in 3D and updated graphics. Yep. 2 ported games for the future. 250 Dollar price tag for the Portable System. And Nintendo knew this, they were okay with it or else the plan would have been different.
The sales were slow....slower than the Wii U slow! The 3DS didn't even have ANY REAL competition at launch and it was super slow! There was very little support from the start and any real support for the future was being dropped. Everyone was writing up the 3DS as the next Virtual Boy. Then Nintendo made needed changes and made a strong move.
THE NINTENDO ESCAPE PLAN
On July 28th, 2011 Nintendo announced a Price drop to the Nintendo 3DS down to a low price of $169.99. This would have normally shocked and angered existing owners (Even though price drops happen all the time). However, Nintendo acted with incredible wisdom and loyalty to it's hardcore fan base. It developed the Ambassador Program!
This is the single best thank you to gaming fans ever. A price drop that would help bring sales and more games, but also the existing owners weren't getting screwed? This made me jump on Nintendo's ship for the rest of my gaming days. Basically the Ambassador program gave me and millions of others 10 NES games and 10 GBA games for free. With the knowledge that those 10 NES games would release to the public much later at the price of $5 bucks a pop. And the Promise that the 10 Gameboy Advanced titles would never release to 3DS owners.
It is March 26th right now as I write this, and that promise holds true. A big time company saw a pile of money that could be made just by breaking a promise, and they took the high road and stayed loyal and truthful.
Those games by the way included many gems. Including Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Metroid Fusion, Yoshi's Island, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Wario Land 4, F-Zero Maximum Velocity, Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$, Mario v.s. Donkey Kong, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Donkey Kong J.R., Ice Climber, Legend of Zelda 1, 2, and Minish Cap (coupled with four swords which everyone got free...that's 4 free Zelda games on 3DS total) There were 20 games...I just didn't feel like listing more than 16.
The price drop also meant that many more people could finally upgrade and they were already in position to still make a profit while sniping the over priced Vita from afar. But a price drop as we know is never enough. Most people didn't want to buy a 3DS just to play old N64 ports (albeit great games) and games like Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D. (Games I was excited to own and bought as they launched) Nintendo didn't have much of a presence on their own system. SO the flood of games came just a few months later.
Star Fox finally released a couple of months after the price drop. It was followed by Pokémon Rumble Blast. Then the marvelous Super Mario 3D Land which implemented some great uses for the built in features of the 3DS. Then the spectacular Mario Kart 7. Which was half and half developed by the normal Mario Kart team and the near-damn-legendary Retro Studios. (The Retro half was my favorite btw because it was the best courses from previous tracks ever assembled...wait...Retro Studios chose the retro tracks....omg...HAHAHA...just realized this...I'm slow)
There were other multiplatform games that came to the 3DS during 2011 to entice buyers as well like Sonic Generations, Sims 3, FIFA 12, and many more. Following that Christmas, the 3DS was crowned "The Comeback King" and it continued to send out many amazing exclusives. They brought the eShop which brought the Virtual console with it, as well as a new revolution for the Indie gamer scene. Nintendo started laying the ground work to be the home for indie gaming on a console. New features and apps seemed to release weekly. The 3DS grew stronger and stronger. This was built on the foundation of every Nintendo system, strong first party titles.
THE HEART AND SOUL OF NINTENDO: GAMES
The 3DS has a huge list of great games. Following strong outings by Ocarina of Time 3D, Starfox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, and Mario Kart 7 the 3DS strived for more. The first exclusive to follow was the return to true survival horror from Capcom's Resident Evil: Revelations. This Game looked HD on the 3DS, had great 3D, did really interesting Streetpass item transfers, and truly felt like the first REAL resident Evil since Resident Evil 4 on he Gamecube. This game was so good in fact that Capcom remastered it in HD to release among all consoles over a year later after Resident Evil 6 (Xbox360 and PS3) bombed and threatened Capcom's stability.
Resident Evil also started a domino affect for the attachment called the Circle Pad Pro. This game used the circle pad pro to give the 3DS dual analog sticks (something the PS Vita has built in). Other games in the next few months used the pad as well. Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D also used dual analog sticks and the remake being a 3DS exclusive used the camera feature on the 3DS to create your own camouflage. Kid Icarus: Uprising was the first Kid Icarus game since the Gameboy and his rise of popularity (most likely caused by Super Smash Bros. Brawl) brought a ton of spotlight. They went with a cool circle pad pro use, to allow easy access for left handed people, but also used AR cards (which you could never find in stores) to create AR fights. It also featured some of the best dialogue and on rails shooting in any game period. It was a nice bonus to see what Sakurai could do with his online multiplayer in a 3d arena.
Soon after Kid Icarus was a cool game I beat in about 3 hours called Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir. This game really felt like the movie "Stay Alive" to me because of how well the augmented reality was implemented. It was a cool way to make the player feel haunted while using the camera and augmented reality to interact with their surroundings and the included memoir book.
Following the oddly strong start to 2012, the 3DS hit it's first birthday and still seemed like it was out to prove something. Rumors were that the 3DS was getting a redesign to include a built in 2nd analog stick. The truth was much more believable. The 3DS was getting the eventual big brother (the 3DS XL). News was breaking about Nintendo and their news game and hardware at a faster and more comprehensive rate. this was thanks to Nintendo's video messages. Nintendo Directs started becoming Nintendo's main way to distribute news. Along with Swapnote, Nintendo Video, and Spotpass updates. The news came pouring in. All the games.
How About
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure
Heroes of Ruin (Four player online Co op)
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
New Super Mario Bros 2!!!! (Which let the younger Mario Devs take a crack at the game and came up with some very interesting ideas)
Code of Princess
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Epic Mickey 2: Power of Illusion (A GREAT SNES sequel not to be confused with the terrible Epic Mickey console game for Wii U, Xbox 360, and PS3)
and Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!
And that was just the games I bought at retail in 2012....2013 was even bigger. 2013 was odd because Nintendo seemed to be trying really hard to keep Wii U momentum climbing after launch. It wasn't. The 3DS however may have had their best year in 2013. At 2 years old now the console had seen 2 very different years. One rough, One spectacular. How could 2012 be topped in retail games? 2 words. Animal Crossing
or try Fire Emblem.
or Luigi's Mansion.
or Monster Hunter
what about Lego City.
even Mario Party.
Pokémon X
Pokémon Y
Mario & Luigi
Legend Of.
Zelda: Link
Between Worlds
Ok so the last one was quite a stretch. but it's no coincidence...well yes it is. 2013 was a great year for the 3DS and there were many more games besides these to come out. but just this group alone accounted for over 30 million sales in 2012. And lets not forget that the 3DS was the top selling console of the year. For more info on these games you can check out my article for my favorite 3DS titles of 2013.
Please read it if you don't own any of the games I mentioned
Also let's look at Fire Emblem: Awakening. this game was over shadowed perhaps by brand names like Luigi's Mansion or Animal Crossing or Pokémon or Zelda. But what Fire Emblem accomplished was far more important. Because Fire Emblem was never a major hit outside the U.S. or at all. Fire Emblem was supposed to be given this one last game, and it wasn't even going to be shipped outside of Japan. I truly think that the only reason it was localized for outside regions was due to the voice of the American fans of the series. That voice was represented by former IGN Nintendo team member Audrey Drake. Her favorite game series were Zelda and Fire Emblem. She always bugged Reggie Fils-Aime and anyone she could get to listen about how much she needed the newest Fire Emblem to be localized for America. It wasn't the only reason but I believe it was a big one. The important thing is that it came to both North America and Europe. It also went on to sell more than any other Fire Emblem. AND North American sales and European sales were their highest since the original. This along with Operation Rainfall is a big reason why JRPGs are getting better traction in America than they have had in recent years. Oh, and also, Audrey Drake left IGN and now is on Nintendo's Localization team. Super-Win!
We are now in 2013 so there haven't been a super sized amount of retail games released since it's only 3 months in. But what has come out is amazing. How do you top a Christmas season starring a sequel to Link to the Past, Sonic's return to glory, Scribblenauts with a full DC makeover, and a Mario Party which features AR technology to change the game completely? You slow things down and beat people up and give them free stuff. Bravely Default had a Demo hit the eShop before it hit retail. That demo also serves as a Prequel to the game and gives a full games worth of content just to make sure you will be into the game.
AMAZING IDEAS ARE AMAZING
Nintendo wasn't done. Professor Layton came back, with his 100 hours of extras and 30 hour main story. His final puzzle would be his most amazing. You will only see Layton one more time, in his cross over game with Phoenix Wright. His reign has ended and it was an amazing 6 games with a great finale. To end their 3rd year Nintendo didn't allow things to be sad however, because they used a fantastic art style, interesting platform design, and an adorable 3DS XL special edition to bring Yoshi back to his own Island. The game plays like the original, but better. It looks great and is a nice cap off to the 3DS' third year. I couldn't have been happier with the game. Now we have the next year to look forward to Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Mario World Golf, Sonic Boom, Super Smash Bros, Monster Hunter 4 AND Professor Layton v.s. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney.
THE ESHOP AND THE INDIE REVOLUTION
A Lot of people have been making a big deal about the Wii U and how indie firnedly they are with the Unity 3D program they have. As great and revolutionary as that is, home or portable consoles have never seen the indie catalog quite like the 3DS. And no other system has ever relied on it as much as Nintendo. The Eshop had a few apps like Netflix, Pokedex 3D, and Nintendo Video on the app store before the price drop. but after the drop is when the Virtual Console and the Indie scene started growing. It started with a weird game about creating Ungodly Abominations in the game Freaky Forms: Your Creations Alive! A lot of people got that game but because of lack of competition.
That would change soon. Following that there were borderline instant classics like Pushmo, Mighty Switch Force, VVVVVV, Mutant Mudds, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword, and Dillon's Rolling Western. These game became the back bone for great downloadable titles. The list over the next couple of years went on to add Marvel Pinball 3D, Johnny Kung Fu, Planet Crashers, Fractured Soul, the Heavy Fire series and the Denpa Men series, Night Sky, Crashmo, and Fluidity: Spin Cycle (sequel to the Wii Ware hit). Level 5 (of Professor Layton fame) even joined the mix with the release of vastly different games in Aeroporter, Crimson Shroud and Liberation Maiden. Later followed some amazing releases like Gunman Clive (which actually sold more on 3DS than IOS, Android, and other gaming consoles combined!), Ikachan, ATV Wild Ride 3D, and Coaster Creator 3D. Then Nintendo decided to wake up and smell the coffee. And the money.
The big time support outside of Nintendo had left the building and was already leaving their Wii U. It was time to make a change and support the indie developers. By way of either just publishing the game for them or at the very least advertising the indie games releasing by way of eshop banners and Nintendo Direct shout outs. If Nintendo didn't embrace themselves as the new home for Indie....then..
So they started bringing their own gear in. With games like Kersploosh, a sequel to Dillon's Rolling Western, Mario and Donkey Kong Minis on the Move, and Harmoknight (from Pokémon devs GAEMFREAK) Nintendo was helping bring more people into the digital download world. Which in part helped their digital sales. So Nintendo continued. Starship Damrey, Bugs vs Tanks, and Attack of the Friday Monsters were brought out by Level 5 who became a big player in the eShop.
But the eShop hit an All time high over the next half year with the releases of Steamworld Dig (which was a Gigantic hit), Retro City Rampage DX (The ultimate edition of the game), Steel Divers Sub Wars (First big N free to play model game), Chibi-Robo Poto Finder (A Nintendo Published sequel to the Gamecube title which was enhanced for AR camera use), Pokémon Battle Trozei (the second game from GAMEFREAK for the eShop) and Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (an import of a Japanese retail game exclusive to the Eshop in NA and EU). There are no signs of the eShop releases slowing down as we see more and more Nintendo support by Indie developers. The 3DS needed the eShop to become what it is.
O wait....I forgot 2 very important (Semi important at best) things from the Eshop. Apps and the slow to start but eventually great Virtual Console service.
Well to start, the Apps exclusive to the 3DS are slim but amazing....sometimes. Netflix, Hulu, youtube....my toilet seat has those. But Nintendo Video could send you 3D trailers of 3D movies that you could watch with ease, very nice. Swapnote was a great way of getting news and occasionally sending messages....until Miiverse arrived and rendered it obsolete and unmanageable. there are the Pokémon transfer apps which do a job very needed but not glorified. COLORS 3D is the most amazing showcase of talent on the 3DS! I cant even draw...almost finished one painting, but I am so glad I spent the money...just to see other peoples art work! Pokémon actually have 2 apps that are tremendous. Anyone else get the PokeRadar app when they got Pokémon Black/White 2? I did, 3 dollars and I got tons of rare and amazing Pokémon and alternate forms of legendaries. Pretty Fantastic. And finally the Pokedex 3D Pro. which has ALL the Pokémon up to Black/White 2 in full 3d with sounds and move sets and it's just like a Pokedex really.
AND the Virtual Console, finally. Well the Virtual Console works a lot like the Wii version with many games from multiple systems spanning the NES and the Gameboy, Sega Game Gear, and Gameboy Color. All but the NES games weren't available on the Virtual Console until the 3DS. Which is pretty cool. I had personally never played any Game Gear games until they were released onto the 3DS virtual console. The really cool releases onto the eShop are the 3D Classics. These are games from the past that have been remastered with a very well done 3D effect. Games like Altered Beast, ExciteBike, Kirby's Adventure, Kid Icarus, Xevious, and even Sonic the Hedgehog were completely redone very well with great frame rates and really beautiful 3D. These are the Virtual Console games I truly wait for and buy as soon as they release.
MISSED OPPURTUNITIES
Oh my. Where do I start? If there is one company who is picked apart for their missed opportunities, it's Nintendo. They have made tons of money and have been successful for a long time. The 3DS is super successful and may outsell the PS2 or original DS before it's all said and done. but there are always areas for improvement. Let's start with unused features. Some users of the 3DS may have never used the camera in game before. Or used the gyroscope in a game. How about the microphone? Yeah, I didn't think so.
So the 3DS has all these features. If you play Heroes of Ruin online with friends, you can actually just speak at the 3DS and it will pick up your voice from the built in Mic. It's actually pretty nice. the gyroscope was put to decent use in the beginning with Zelda with the ability to use it to aim weapons and Starfox allowed you to fly the Arwing with the gyroscope if you wanted to. Super Mario 3D Land also used it to look forward in the level to see what's ahead. Overall the gyroscope and microphone have been forgotten about, except in Mario Party where all the 3DS features were used. Nintendo went so far as to say at one point that 3D wasn't going to be a big focus for their future games.
Umm....it's called the 3DS. Am I the only person who plays 90% of the time with 3D on? when it's done right it is amazing. And even not done right it is an experience that you cant get anywhere else!
And the camera, barely ever used. You may have used it to interact with your Pokémon while playing with them in X and Y. You may be using it in Chibi-Robo as you fail at their challenges. But We can all agree on two things.
1.) The camera is very rarely used and would be a welcome focus for some games
2.) The camera was made toooooo weak even for 2011 when it launched.
Thanks Nintendo for that camera circa 2002.
More misses? Well let's look at their 3rd party support. After the first year. Besides Capcom (who needs Nintendo more than Nintendo needs them.) What happened to the 3rd parties?
Yep. Low sales compared to 1st party, lack of engagement by Nintendo, and a bleak future basically shot them in the face. Almost no 3rd party support since that first year. I don't know what else to say. And I'm really friggin good at talking a lot. this needs to change on both of Nintendo's systems. Something that might have hurt the 3DS and their outside support is the GPU power. Indie games and first party games work with it just fine. but 3rd party companies hate work, they are kind of lazy and want everything to just fall in place for them....which is why they aren't the future. But that's a different rant for a different time. Here and Now we can just hope that 3rd party support gets better for the Big N. Because I'm not wasting my money on a Vita, PS4, or Xbox One when I have a Wii U, 3DS, and ultra awesome gaming PC.
Let's not forget the lack of online support and drop off of download play support. While there are games that have great support of these things, ANY Nintendo published multiplayer game should have download play. And in NO way is it cool for both users to have to have the game and only the person who plays as Player 1 to keep the progress. You can see this abuse in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and New Super Mario Bros. 2. And Online should have been on those games along with Starfox 64 3D.
What else has Nintendo missed out on? lots. But I'll end on my biggest pet peeve. That is the lack of Advertising from Nintendo. Remember the Wii and those commercials for Mario Kart Wii or New Super Mario Bros? Well that was about the only commercials for the Wii, even though those games sold well over 25 million copies...Grand Theft Auto would kill a million hookers for those numbers.
Well Nintendo has ALWAYS been bad about advertising. But it seems to be more apparent when you have systems in as much trouble as the 3DS was and the Wii U is. Nintendo makes ads but they just keep them on their YouTube, instead of actually using those ads to ADVERTISE. I especially enjoyed this one featuring Joel McHale from Community and The Soup.
I did enjoy the commercials for Fire Emblem which made it to TV. Also the amazing stunt in New York City's Times Square for the release of Super Mario 3D Land which got millions of people's attention.
But what about advertising for the few 3rd Party games that were out then? Luckily Luigi's Mansion 2, Pokémon X/Y, Zelda: Link Between Worlds, and New Super Mario Bros. 2 all got advertisements on television and all of their sales were great. What if Kid Icarus Uprising, Resident Evil: Revelations, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Mario Party: Island Tour, or heck even Animal Crossing: New Leaf all were advertised? Imagine the boosted sales. Even though most of them sold great, they could have sold better. Speaking of Animal Crossing. There was a certain Amazing, Cool, Legendary punk musician whom all of my age group grew up loving that has a total addiction to Animal Crossing. His Name is Mark Hoppus and he has a problem.....
He spent Christmas in his town! Nintendo could have made a quick advertisement last summer about him admitting his addiction and warning about the game for adults. Which would have been a cool reverse psychology ad to help promote the game. And might have even moved a significant number of systems.
Resident Evil: Revelations could have had a really cool ad featuring the actors who portray them in the movies.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate could have featured a giant CG dragon attacking a group of friends by a lake who were all playing 3DS and instantly are armored and have cool weapons! And 2 cats jump out to help!
Kid Icarus Uprising could have shown CG commercials or anime style commercials similar to their Nintendo Video series which shows him versus his many enemies and shows off the amazing humor and multiplayer features! Or maybe just show him and Link fighting from Smash Bros. and show him avoiding a bomb by flying up and going to do his own thing which turns into the game.
Lego City: The Chase Begins could have just shown an ad. Period. It's GTA Lego. That is literally all you need to sell units and games.
Ads aren't hard. unless you are Nintendo. It could be worse, some of Sony's best ads are for their worst games. (i.e. God of War Ascension, Killzone 3, Resistance, PlayStation All Stars Battle Royal, ect.)
WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER
We will end this article with the main feature that Nintendo has done right. Its so simple yet so fantastic.
Streetpass. Streetpass started as 2 games which included a single turn based RPG (Find Mii) and a puzzle collecting game (Puzzle Swap). These games were supported by coins which were earned by keeping the 3DS on you and simply taking 1,000 steps a day for 10 coins. They were mainly supported by other 3DS users who you walked pass. When that happened, data was transferred between the two systems. They came into your game and supported you with characters for the Street Pass games. Street Pass Plaza got a seriously needed DLC update in the summer of 2012 with the release of 4 new games. These games differed and were made by a few very talented groups within Nintendo. Warrior's Way, Monster Manor, Flower Town, and Mii Force all used Streetpass uniquely and were great additions to the built in software.
Streetpass is also used in almost EVERY game for the 3DS. It's uses range from sharing times of completion on levels and tracks in various games like Mario Kart 7, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, and Super Mario 3D Land to actually helping a friend out with some ammo to shoot zombies in Resident Evil. Fire Emblem actually uses Streetpass to send your chosen team to their 3DS to battle them and if they beat you, they can actually recruit your Streetpassed character. New Super Mario Bros 2 actually had a few sets of levels for you to complete with the goal to collect as many coins as possible. This coin total was streetpassed to others and they would have to try to beat the total you had to get coin bonuses. No one would have seen something like this coming, such a huge hit from such a simple concept of connecting us all together through personal contact.
Streetpass is the coolest function on the 3DS and adds a lot of depth not found or replicated anywhere else. It's a revolutionary and truly innovative feature.
AND MIIVERSE!!!!! Which is fairly new to the 3DS but has been on the Wii U. Miiverse allows us gamers to talk directly to other gamers playing the same games. There is nothing like it. Streetpass creates an actual community of gamers in the real world. Miiverse is the digital adoption of that. A digital community of gamers for each game. I love being able to post a screenshot if I'm stuck on a level and within 1 minute getting a response to it explaining how to do it. The internet only works for walkthroughs if you only want to use a walkthrough. I'm sorry but sometimes I want to just play the game and sometimes the game stumps me. Luckily we can now all rely on each other. Also Miiverse can give you an idea of what a game is like before you buy it. It also allows you to follow the developers of your favorite games directly for update news and sequel information. Miiverse is the Social Media that I have always longed for. And I am so thankful they made it safe for kids, cause creepers be creeping.
THANKS
Nintendo has proven that they can be completely family friendly and still connect with us. not just through Nostalgia trips but also with new ideas for games and how to connect with our everyday lives outside of video games and away from looking into a screen. Nintendo continues to care about the gamers, the fans over anything. Even if that means they will take some pretty serious hits on the stock market and from critics. The 3DS is an amazing blend of casual blue ocean and hardcore scary gamer.
It is for everyone and there is something for everyone. I truly believe the only people who would say they wouldn't ever want a 3DS are people who just love to hate. But Nintendo and their fans are used to it. They will continue to rise above it and do what is right. I appreciate all that Nintendo does. I am glad the 3DS is doing well enough to support the failings of the Wii U, because Nintendo is a company I really hope is making consoles if I decide to start a family.
The 3Ds is proof that the Wii U can make it back, they just need to try harder to find their way. This is all one person's very long opinion. I own all the system's so I don't hate. But Nintendo has given me the most joy so I tend to lean their way. I understand that gaming truly does need Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Steam to keep being competitive to keep quality up. Don't hate. Don't be a douche. And as always, this is my own view and not the view of Take This Studios. If you gotta hate...just hate Mii!!!!!!!!
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