3DS eShop Game Reviews
Review Petit Novel series - Harvest December (3DS eShop)
A novel experience
The visual novel is without a doubt the most niche game genre in the West. While some visual novels that combine more traditional game elements have found success — Ace Attorney and Zero Escape come to mind — the vast majority of visual novels are not considered for western audiences. CIRCLE Entertainment's eShop release Petit...
Review Rytmik Ultimate (3DS eShop)
A Major success? Or does it fall Flat?
Music production is gradually becoming more and more accessible and is now much more affordable than ever before. In years gone by top quality records could only be created with a huge amount of technical knowhow and financial backing in fancy recording studios. Now it's pretty commonplace to have people making...
Review Radiohammer (3DS eShop)
Hammer time
Between retail full-lengths like Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, and Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure, and eShop singles like HarmoKnight and Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe, the 3DS has put on quite a sh
BASIC Beast
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: The general-purpose, relatively simple programming environments of the BASIC family are a great place to get started with coding. Developer SmileBoom first brought its own variant of BASIC to DSiWare in 2012 with the charming Petit Computer, and now is back and stronger than ever with...
Review SteamWorld Heist (3DS eShop)
You feelin' lucky, steampunk?
When a studio has a surprise hit such as SteamWorld Dig, it would likely be forgiven if a straightforward sequel rapidly followed. That doesn't seem to be the norm on the eShop, however, and Image & Form has produced an ambitious follow-up in the form of a turn-based strategy game with a twist, placing trick shots...
Review Family Fishing (3DS eShop)
Fins with Kin
As the house of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, Arc System Works is perhaps best known for its fighting games, but over the past few years it's also been quietly churning out a series of arcadey eShop sports games starring a multitalented Japanese family. Billy and his hyper-competitive clan have already brought charming, thoroughly decent...
Review Johnny's Payday Panic (3DS eShop)
Minimum wage, maximum fun
Taking a look at the Cooking and Gardening Mama games, it's obvious that developer Office Create knows how to take menial tasks and turn them into surprisingly engaging video games. Though North America hasn't seen a new title featuring Mama on a Nintendo platform in the past year (the latest release was a little more...
Review Pokémon Picross (3DS eShop)
Pika-p and play
During the Nintendo Direct in November one of the surprise announcements was Pokémon Picross. It seemed like a bizarre idea, but crossing over the Pokémon franchise with the quirky Picross series is precisely what the somewhat stagnant puzzle series needed, adding a considerable amount of replayability and strategy onto the...
Review Dementium Remastered (3DS eShop)
A new horror with some old scares
Why are you in this abandoned hospital? Why are these monsters attacking you? Where did they come from? Is it really safe to down 38 bottles of pain killers? Dementium Remastered has few answers for you, but the mystery only enhances its eerie, lonely atmosphere. This new version completely rebuilds the original DS...
Review Toki Tori 3D (3DS eShop)
A good egg
Toki Tori has been ported, tweaked and re-released a lot, with its blend of accessible but increasingly challenging puzzling appealing to gamers of various types on almost any platform you can name. Suitable for touch inputs or physical controls, it's playable on just about any system you want, though sadly we couldn't find a version for...
A magical concoction
What do you get when you cross Cooking Mama with a match-three puzzle game? Something arguably more fun than either of those, actually. Wizdom is the latest title from publisher Moving Player, and it benefits from a similar presentational charm its last title - Rakoo and Friends - is known for. The premise of Wizdom is simple:...
Review The Magic Hammer (3DS eShop)
It sure isn't Mjölnir
Setting off on an adventure which transcends various realms beyond your own. Taking a magic, talking hammer in hand by which to slay the undead, and rebuild a broken mess of a world. Doing all of this with a grandiose soundtrack tracking every step on an epic journey sounds like the best experience any gamer can have...
Get to the chopper!
Gunslugs 2 goes right for your sense of nostalgia for dumb '80s action movies; we mean dumb in the best possible sense, in terms of those movies with muscle-bound heroes shooting everything and causing enormous explosions. If you're too young to remember that era then, our sympathies, but you can watch The Expendables and imagine...
Review 3D Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (3DS eShop)
Hogging the limelight
It's difficult to believe now, but there was a time when Sonic the Hedgehog games were good. Like, really good. Sega's recent efforts have been average at best, tragically bad at their worst (with a few exceptions here and there, mostly on handheld formats). Sonic the Hedgehog 2 falls into the series 'really good' period and so...
Review Chronus Arc (3DS eShop)
Could have used more time
Chronus Arc hearkens back to the JRPGs of the Super Nintendo era, or at least it tries to. Kemco's 3DS port of its 2013 RPG has some interesting ideas but, sadly, they don't fit the overall experience particularly well. The story of Chronus Arc starts off interestingly enough: as the Time Rewinding approaches, a ritual...
Review Gotcha Racing (3DS eShop)
A delight at every turn
Gotcha Racing is about as simple as racing games come, but it's far more addictive than most. The concept is derived from Japan's Gachapon capsule toys — small, highly collectible toys that usually go for about 100 yen apiece. It's this concept that drives the heart of the game. When you first start Gotcha Racing you'll be...
Review Brave Tank Hero (3DS eShop)
As Salvatore from Wind Waker would say… "Splish!"
In Conker's Bad Fur Day, there is a chapter towards the end of the game called War. In that chapter there is one small section in which the protagonist squirrel has to get inside a tank and storm the Tediz's base. Brave Tank Hero is somewhat similar to that section of Conker's BFD, in the sense...
Review I Love my Cats (3DS eShop)
Weak as a kitten
Pet simulators have certainly come a long way since the days of Tamagotchi. Where once we raised an LCD dinosaur on a screen the size of a digital watch, now we're treated to 3D renditions of cute, fluffy puppies and kittens, so realistically rendered you half expect them to leap from the screen and naively urinate on your lap. The...
Review 3D Gunstar Heroes (3DS eShop)
Holding out for a hero
Gunstar Heroes charged onto the Sega Mega Drive in 1993, significantly marking the début of quirky developer Treasure - having been formed from ex-Konami staff wanting to go it their own way. Often seen floating near to the top of many 'best game ever' lists, Gunstar Heroes is a bona-fide classic of the 16-bit era that's now...
Review Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey to Kyoto (3DS eShop)
This train has gone off the rails
Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey to Kyoto is the sequel to Journey in Suburbs #1, which was released in June of this same year. Just like its predecessor the title centres around the idea of playing the role of a train conductor in Japan, in this case the city of Kyoto; unfortunately this title fails to change the...
Continued conundrums
The Picross e series seems to have settled in its ways now, not choosing to add any more additional features and simply having new sets of puzzles with each release. Picross e6 is no exception, once again playing it very safe and just giving you more pictures to unveil. Again, the three available modes are Picross, Micross and...
Review Ninja Usagimaru - The Gem of Blessings (3DS eShop)
Block Ninjutsu
If there's anything that movies, television and games have taught us, it's that ninja are deadly. Give them knives, blow darts, ninja stars and swords and they're virtually unstoppable. Ninja Usagimaru - The Gem of Blessings proves that they don't need any of those things to be vicious. Give a ninja a simple addition of a block to...
Review Swords & Darkness (3DS eShop)
Alone in the darkness
Side-scrolling hack and slash games fall into a tricky genre. It's such a simple concept at its core, but it can easily be ruined by something as basic as poor controls or lack of originality. Swords & Darkness, the latest in the genre to make its way to the 3DS eShop, is an unfortunate example of what happens when little...
Review Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria (3DS eShop)
No longer a fantasy
As some of you are likely aware, Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria has been made available on the 3DS eShop in addition to the Wii U eShop. If you'd like a more in-depth analysis of why we love this excellent JRPG, you can find all the details here. So, how does Dragon Fantasy play on the 3DS? Extremely well, easily...
Review Flick Golf 3D (3DS eShop)
Flicked from smartphones to the 3DS
Flick Golf 3D is yet another touch-based mobile game to receive a port onto Nintendo's handheld, having previously been launched in its original incarnation around five years ago on iOS. The title is both accurate and misleading at the same time; there's plenty of flicking to be had, but not too much golf. Flick...
Review Mercenaries Saga 2: Order Of The Silver Eagle (3DS eShop)
It’s just like Final Fantasy Tactics, but with a cheaper hairstylist
In a time where titles such as Project X Zone, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and the upcoming Fire Emblem Fates are renowned for spicing up the turn-based strategy genre, Mercenaries Saga 2: Order of the Silver Eagle opts for keeping the original recipe intact. The result is a game that...
Review I am an Air Traffic Controller Airport Hero Narita (3DS eShop)
Not clear for takeoff
Usually the world of video games takes players to far off fictional lands filled with magic and wonder. I am an Air Traffic Controller Airport Hero Narita (yes, that's its actual name) does not take place in such a location. If one couldn't tell from it's exceedingly long and descriptive title (which is going to be referred to...
Review I Love My Dogs (3DS eShop)
A Man's Bog-Standard Friend
Pet simulators have certainly come a long way since the days of Tamagotchi. Where once we raised an LCD dinosaur on a screen the size of a digital watch, now we're treated to 3D renditions of cute, fluffy puppies and kittens, so realistically rendered you half expect them to leap from the screen and naively urinate on...
Review Epic Word Search Collection (3DS eShop)
Searching for Simpsons, Sausages, Slayer and Skateboarding
The word "epic" sure gets thrown around a lot these days. The vast cosmos is epic, the unfathomable depths of the ocean are epic, but so is this sandwich I just ate, you guys! SO EPIC! Perhaps some of the meaning has been lost, but even the crankiest purists would have to admit that Epic...
Review Fantasy Pirates (3DS eShop)
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Let's welcome Fantasy Pirates to the Nintendo eShop – yet another pick-up-and-play, bite-sized title from EnjoyUp Games. Arguably best known for 99Seconds and 99Bullets, EnjoyUp Games is slowly gaining a reputation as a go-to company for budget titles on the Nintendo 3DS. Its latest title to appear on the shores of...
