The 3DS may be coming to the end of its lifespan but games like Ice Station Z prove that it still has the capacity to surprise.
Developed by Wobbly Tooth Games and slated for release on November 3rd, Ice Station Z is a open world zombie survival game which boasts both single and multiplayer modes, with local and online support included.
The moody trailer above shows a great deal of gameplay, such as the ability to ride various vehicles, use different weapons and the need to find food to survive. Voice and text chat is apparently included as well.
Parallels will obviously be drawn to games like DayZ, but given the hardware it's perhaps wise to expect a somewhat simpler experience on Nintendo's handheld.
Are you interested in this promising-looking release? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 63
this has potential! I hope it's good!
Looks like another Unity cr*p game. I think making Unity compatible with 3DS was a mistake. There are so many awful Unity games on the eShop. Futuridium is the worst game I ever played on the 3DS. I don't know how Nintendo can let them sell these type of games?
Bad Zombie survival games are the best, If the price is right.
@Nintendian
Not sure Nintendo really had a choice. Once they realised the consequence of their actions in doing so, they must have surely concluded that there would be far less Unity based games making it through QC...
@eltomo
Lol. I like that...
This looks like it came right out of the PS1.
This looks awful, surly there should be some quality control around what can be released on the system.
The developer has also made a minecraft rip off, someone please stop this insanity!
Hahaha Pokémon is out that month, are they crazy?
It looks... empty, foggish and monocromatic to be fair, can't say I have my hopes high, but never judging before playing (or having someone else playing and reviewing XP).
@Nintendian Unity games only run on the New 3DS, say what you want about bad develloppers filling the eShop (definitly not denying the problem), but, on 3DS at least, Unity have pretty much no fault.
Obviously some compromises were made when it comes to visuals but otherwise I'm slightly interested if the price is right. 10 bucks max and I will check it out. Wish it had more The Thing vibe though. I got over the whole zombie thing somewhere around the third season of The Walking Dead.
Can't blame them for ambition!
The poor old 3DS wan't exactly built for open world. x)
Out on 3rd November in North America, with a European release following "shortly after".
Source: Nintendo Everything (a site that actually bothered to explain 3rd November is NA only)
@ToniK I contacted the developer over twitter and he said the price was going to be $3.99 in USA, €2.99 in EU.
I agree, it would've been awesome with more of a Thing vibe.
The game will launch November 3rd in NA and EU according to the dev. The price point was already posted in a previous comment.
Looks like a lot of doing nothing. We'll see
Looks fun and interesting
Looks dull to high hell.
Zombies doesn't work in an ice setting.
They would freeze, not being 'warm blooded' and all. So while I love zombie games, this one was broken before it began 🤔
And I thought 7 Days to Die looked awful, cool idea but the poor old 3DS isn't powerful enough to proper open world.
Look like it will either be terribly awsome or terribly terrible.
Whatever happened to "Back In 1995"?
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/faux-retro_survival_horror_back_in_1995_64_shuffles_menacingly_towards_the_nintendo_3ds
I thought that would have been the survival horror game in store for the 3DS. Glad there are alternatives, though!
Having played two of their other games, Battleminer and the almost exactly the same Magic Hammer, I am not very confident with this release.
It looks like it's got a lot of potential, but I have little faith at this point.
We'll see, though! I really hope it surprises me and turns out well as we need more games like this.
@AlexSora89 Oh yeah! I forgot about that game. I hope it hasn't been canned. I'm fairly sure it reviewed poorly on other platforms. I'd still give it a chance on 3DS if it were cheap enough.
@Moon
Me too, but incidentally (and by "incidentally" I mean "contrary to what you just said"), as soon as I watched the trailer it was the first game I thought of. Then again, I had to struggle to remember its title, which might not exactly be a good sign.
I love the idea since I was expecting a game like this on a console. Even if the visuals aren't the best, they do the work and the concept sounds fun enough, so I think I'll buy this.
XD Oh my god it looks soooo bad I love it! Day 1 plz
So is this 'new' 3ds only or can it be played on the normal one ? Looks kind of fun and would be tempted if it's not more than £5-6
@lemonjellydude It's for 3DS. You can see the logo at the end of the video and it's also mentioned in the article.
About the price, according to a user above it's $3.99 in USA, €2.99 in EU.
@Nintendian "I don't know how Nintendo can let them sell these type of games?"
Because Nintendo is no longer in a position to cherry pick the games that come out on their systems. They need any games they can get these days.
BUT HOW DOES IT UTILIZE THE 3D SCREEN?!?!? GIMMIE THE GIMMICKS!!
There isn't a lot of open world simulation survival games like this on the Nintendo 3DS. The graphics may not look the best, but in my opinion it adds to the overall tone of the game.
It seems like we're not just standing around shooting zombies either. We'll be taking care of needs, collecting supplies, playing with friends.
This game looks really fun! I can't wait!
Intrigued.
Is there a reason this couldn't be New 3DS exclusive? This is the kind of game that would stand to benefit from stronger hardware.
@CrimSkies97 So that it's accesible to more people and they can sell more games to continue developing and improving games?
VOICE CHAAAAAAAT!!!!!!! Am I dreaming?
The idea sounds pretty cool, thought the graphics look so rough that I'm inclined to believe it's just been thrown together with no thought. Hope to be proven wrong though.
Potential? I guess. Abysmal visuals? Oh boy yes. Even if the game is good the visuals may send out the wrong signal if they don't at least look competent for the 3DS of all things.
@gatorboi352 On 3DS? Nintendo gets plenty of support on that platform.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with opening the DL platforms up to anyone who wants to release on it. A bad game's existence doesn't negate a good game's existence. Hell, visuals aside, this sounds really ambitious for the platform. For 4 bucks? I'll give it a shot, that's pocket change.
@Nintendian Then that'd be the developers fault for making the games that they are, not the engine itself, isn't it?
@AlexSora89 Why would you think anything has happened with Back in 1995? The dev demoed it at TGS just last month. Independent developers don't typically devote much time to constant status updates. We'll probably get some type of PR statement when the game goes gold and another when it launches on the eShop.
VOICE CHAT?
could be cool. i'm picking up body harvest vibes
DayZ on the 3DS looks fun i may give it ago.
Online play and VOICE CHAT. VOICE CHAT. Which we don't have in 3ds games.
@Ray001011
I know, but I had that weird "what if this is just Back In 1995 retooled into something different?" feeling. Sure, this is open-world, but both are low-poly horror themed games and for a moment I kind of feared a retool was in the works.
Looks like a fun game to me.
VOICE CHAT O.O
The graphics kinda sucks dont get me wrong im not obsessed with graphics but in this case i cant help it
Looks horrible but I guess every platform deserves a open world survival zombie game.
I think it will be average, and seeing as none of the devs old games got updated, don't think they would be adding anything new to it once the game is out, it's sad cuz it could be fun! but don't expect much.
I love zombie games so I hope that this turns out at least not bad. And for the suggested 3.99-price, could be a no-brainer (pun intended).
Ice Station Zebra the game? What a neat idea!
Neat concept, don't really see anything like it on 3DS. I think there should have been a push to go for an art style that suits the game a bit more though, if that makes sense. This 'realistic' approach just looks bad. I know that zombie games don't really stray from realism in graphics but this really does look like a PS1 game in alpha.
Wow dudes, good thing gamers these days aren't superficial.
The use of polygons look more like a style choice. It reminds me of this old open world military game that predates the GTA series. It's going for an enhanced FX Chip style and not a hyper realistic one. That is a good thing. It might help it hide some overly pixelated imagery.
Ummmm.....yeah.....that is one Super Fugly looking game. Depending on how the open world plays out I might be interested. The original EverQuest was Fugly at release time and I loved that. In fact this might look a bit better than the original EverQuest. Would be neat to rock a game like EverQuest on 3ds. Oh wait...in Japan they do rock Dragon Quest X which is open world. Screw the rest of the world
A true open World, survival, shooter experience, with both texting AND Voice Chat, running on 5 year old tech. Seriously, what were you expecting, Next Gen features and visuals.
Seriously, I am just grateful the Devs have bough this out on a Nintendo system, and at the moment, the right system. Being able to play this in many different places is another great feature.
As For Unity getting battered. there have been some fantastic games released, which have used all, or parts of the Unity System: City Skylines, Ori and the Blind Forest, Republique Re-Mastered, Endless Legend, Never Alone, Odd world:"New`n Tasty,
Shiftlings...etc...etc.
@roy130390
awesome thanks for the info! at that price it seems worth a go!
Well this got me curious, ill be sure to check it out once its released!
Oh I'm getting this! Long live the 3DS. F*** NX! lol
Good call on the minimalist art style. Big world games tend to make some real sacrifices when they go portable, but this looks like it might be a perfect fit on the system.
Looks really poor on content... few zombies that just stand there, eat, sleep...
DayZ pre-alpha had more to offer
@roy130390 It has about as many units sold as the vita, yet companies are still releasing exclusive games for that thing.
Potentially I think this was made for when the 3ds XL came out not for the new 3ds seeing as they haven't used a new 3ds for the trailer. That brings up the question, will it have C-stick functionality or circle pad pro functions. I'm also curious to see how the multiplayer turns out, I would mostly purchase this for multiplayer functionality because this would awesome to play with friends especially with game chat. I'm quite keen on the style of graphics of this game as it's sorta unique in its own way which I like, it's got potential so hopefully meets to my expectations!
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