
There have been more animals who have been nominated for governmental office in the world than games exclusive to the New 3DS. Yet of this meager pool, two are runner-style titles. There is the upcoming Runbow Pocket, which to be fair is more of an action-platformer, and then there is Wind-up Knight 2, available on the New 3DS eShop. Who knew running required so much to, you know... run?
Wind-up Knight 2 originally appeared on the Wii U in 2015 and has made a safe journey to the New 3DS. Part of the reason for its exclusivity - in addition to its use of the Unity engine - might lie in the robust graphical design of its stages, which transfer to 3D well and are quite pretty when you take an eye off your running knight to take a gander. There are also no worries with performance, as everything operates fluidly and controls have a snappy response.

Your mechanical crusader must navigate a path of stages, automatically running from one end to the next. To survive you must jump, roll, slash, and shield your way through a gauntlet of enemies and traps. A run ends with a single hit, a fall, or failing to collect wind-up keys along the way to keep your knight powered, but somebody was kind enough to sprinkle checkpoints about to keep one's progress up after a mistake.
The journey tends to mix things up a bit by throwing in stages with speed-varying terrain or walls that make the knight double back or choose different routes. These stages can be quite fun and memorable, but others are apt to blend together with similarity. Others might be remembered more for the sheer number of hazards they contain or the sometimes cheap-feeling way they are arranged. Whereas a game like Runner 2 has a rhythm to much of its courses, Wind-up Knight 2 likes to throw in surprise shots to break that rhythm up. Some stages will require trial-and-error more than anything else.

After some intro, three sidequests will open up for each completed stage. These set your knight through the same paces, but with different goals. You might have to collect all the fairies hanging about, for example, or roll through bowling pins. These can be fun and inventive at first, forcing some variations in each stage, but the glamour can fade when they start becoming a requirement to move on past certain gates on the world map. Completing all of them would feel like a gruellingly tedious task, but luckily only about a third are required to get through the whole game.
The developers took some extra steps to increase the game's flavour, and they largely pay off. Loading screens feature the land's equivalent of Twitter, which makes for an amusing read and occasionally hands out some tips. Players can also collect coins through the levels and their respective bonuses to buy different gear that can cater to their specific strengths and weaknesses. There is also a local "Tournament" mode where 2-4 players can pass the New 3DS around to compete for high scores, and a single-player version where high scores can net some equipment. It's hard to imagine these modes receiving a lot of use, though.

The music is a light and peppy set of "Renaissance faire"-styled themes that initially add to the atmosphere, but someone can only take so much harpsichord and whistles. It tends to become grating after extended play sessions.
Conclusion
Wind-up Knight 2 is a noble effort with a lovely, whimsical look and tight, reactive gameplay. While it can sink into feelings of repetitiveness at times, there are other moments when stages really click and a grand romp can be had. Fans of runners who don't mind the occasional "gotcha" trap or difficulty spike may very well enjoy this one - most likely in short bursts. Remember: New 3DS only, but if you don't own one the Wii U option is always there.
Comments 16
So why is this not on regular 3DS?
@Captain_Gonru I don't understand how the regular 3DS isn't powerful enough to run a game like this.
If this was a standard platformer I might have been interested. Not a fan of runners.
@RyanSilberman this link may answer your question. Sounds like some games can run on an original 3DS, but is limited.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/01/unity_support_on_new_nintendo_3ds_is_now_available_to_developers
@Mr_Zurkon Riiight. Unity.
Kinda makes me wonder how Snoopy's Grand Adventure got to retail for the original 3DS, though.
I played the free smartphone Wind-up Knight 1 game and quite enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy it enough to spend money on this.
Any news on Lifespeed racing game for New 3DS?
"someone can only take so many harpsichords and whistles"
UM SAYS YOU
Anyway, they should get rid of that "No Play Like It" slogan and change it to "N3DS: Bringing the Hits" and have a suuuper close-up of the Wind Up Knight as the main image.
How pricey is this, Tim?
@Ninten-san
Bad news is no more mashups (i.e. the phenomenal Take On Me/Butter Building one), good news is no more blatant trolling.
@Captain_Gonru
I believe that answer lies in the pitfall of emulation. When a game is being emulated (SNES for example) it's not just running the game- it's running an entire emulated Super Nintendo Entertainment system, and then the game on top of it.
So every single system command made has to be converted and translated to something the 3DS can understand and likewise back into something the emulated SNES can understand. Constant calls back and forth. And because it's a SNES game it expects certain parameters to be a certain way, which the 3DS has to emulate to trick it into thinking it's so, or it could crash or bugs happen, etc.
When a game has been ported via remake (like N64 3D games) it's just like any other 3DS game and has been designed to utilize the system in the best way possible.
I don't understand all the intricacies but, I don't think you really need to. It's just the concept of running a game built for the system vs emulating an entire console and game, neither of which are remotely compatible with the system.
@RyanSilberman it's likely that the 3DS version of Snoopy is not built in Unity. It's not uncommon for ports to have to switch engines across consoles (often done by another studio in parallel). Though the need for that is often the reason for them not being ported. But in the case of the 3DS it makes sense as it sells really well.
I couldn't find any information on what it was made in but watching footage of the XB1 and 3DS versions the former showed the "powered by Unity" logo whilst the latter did not. So I think it's a fairly safe assumption that they rebuilt the game in another engine for 3DS.
@AlexSora89 The game sells for $5.
This game probably would run fine on the normal 3DS but let's face it, they wanted to port it over with as little fuss as possible. That's what people were supposed to be happy about when they announced unity support as a thing for New 3DS, it meant a lot of games could transition without the cost holding it back. All in all, it's nothing too great because you definitely have other ways to play those games (they are going to be lazy ports from other platforms, pretty much).
@RyanSilberman It's usually less a matter of power than efficiency. For example, Minecraft struggles to run on many non-gaming PCs despite running fine on mobile to a similar performance level. The windows 10 version on the other hand is more efficient, and thus works smoothly on just about everything.
If they couldn't make this work on original 3DS it's probably because the game itself is built for something stronger (like a wii U).
@TimLatshaw
Not a bad price for a runner. In case of discounts, I will pick it up.
@Captain_Gonru The 3DS does not need to run a virtual N64 (uff, since it is so hard to do it accurately) to play those games, they were programmed from scratch for the console.
The SNES VC "recreates" the original console behavior.
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