A great puzzle game must be innovative in some shape or form and the puzzles must be able to be solved logically. Sometimes a good story is thrown in, but puzzles aren’t known for those. There weren’t many great puzzle games this year, and most of them are indie. These were the best this year.
Dokuro
Dokuro is a very underrated game. Most puzzle games this year were sequels and felt pretty much the same. Dokuro has a wonderful art style and has some great mechanics that usually aren’t explored in puzzle games. Using chalk for a game mechanic is a lot of fun and should be explored more. What makes it the best this year is the charm and emotions put behind the game. This field usually isn’t explored in puzzle games either.
Revelations is the first Resident Evil game on 3DS and is probably the best portable RE game ever made. Not to mention, probably one of the better, more recent Resident Evil games. The controls are solid, the story is at least a little interesting, and the monsters are awesome. Of course, the game has great 3D effects and a lengthy campaign. Hop aboard Queen Zenobia as Jill Valentine and find out for yourself.
You start out as Jill Valentine aboard Queen Zenobia, which is a derelict ship that possibly holds answers for the T-Abyss virus that the terrorist group Veltro unleashed into the ocean (or will unleash). The game has an over-the-shoulder perspective like RE4 and 5, but when you use your weapons, the camera goes into the first person to utilize the 3D effects. It works well, and you can move around while aiming by holding L. There are many different weapons in the game, and you can find custom parts to upgrade them. It really makes a difference when facing tough enemies, but not every custom part is easy to find. Some are hidden away, needing certain keys, but this is grouped into a major issue with the game (I will explain later). The shooting feels great and is really solid. The weapons vary from various machine guns to shotguns and pistols. Each type of weapon shares the same ammo pool, but each weapon is different in range, fire rate, and damage.
The exploration is a lot like early RE games because it is claustrophobic and you are stuck on a ship the whole time. This felt a lot like the mansion in RE1, but I prefer the more open adventure feeling of the later games. This leads to constant backtracking, but Capcom tries to skirt this by blocking off passages or making new ones available via keys. I find these ships confusing to navigate and am always lost until later in the game, when the last few chapters are linear and more cinematic and you only have one way to go. It would help if the map system didn’t stink so much. It is in 3D, but you can’t turn it the way you want, and there are no lines that divide sectors. Half the time, I couldn’t tell if I was on the bottom floor or the top floor and just had to run around guessing. The mini-map is more detailed, but why not the full map too?
This is probably the worst thing about the game, but sometimes the enemies can be tough, and too many spawn. This is a close-quarters game, so having 10 enemies spawn in one hallway is a disaster and leads to frustrating deaths. Not to mention the extremely tough final boss, who is a lot like Nemesis. The game does have a pretty good dodge feature where you push the analog nub towards the enemy at the right moment. This can ease tough boss fights, but finding their weakness is key. The enemy designs are awesome, and some are almost Silent Hill-like. They are creepy and gross, and they stray away from the human zombies that we are used to in this series. It is a nice change and should be introduced more often.
The game also has some pretty awesome gameplay change-ups where you use a turret to fight off a giant monster, carry wounded team members, swim, and do various other things that change up the pace. Revelations is a fun roller coaster ride that is full of surprises and will keep you entertained throughout the entire 10-hour campaign. Once you beat that, you can do co-op missions where you fight off hordes of monsters, but some sort of single-player mission mode would have been nice. Revelations also look fantastic with visuals that fully utilize the 3DS hardware.
Overall, Revelations is fun with great visuals, 3D effects, and awesome gunplay. The monsters look good, and the story is decent but nothing memorable. The gameplay is changed up often, and there is a nice long 10-hour campaign. If you love Resident Evil, then this is a must-have for any 3DS owner.
The original game was created for the NES 20 years ago. The only people who remember that game are probably in their 30s right now. For the new kids, Uprising is a great 3DS game with length, lots of items to collect, and a few modes to keep you busy. The game looks great and seems on par with Resident Evil: Revelations graphics-wise. The 3D effects are good as well, but the game doesn’t come without issues.
The game consists of two- parts: flying and ground combat. Flying is the best part of the game because each level is different, and rushing around canyons, clouds, caverns, and other locales is exhilarating and exciting. You move Kid around while shooting and can use various power-ups. Once you start playing, you will notice one of the major problems: you need three hands to play the game. You control the reticle with the stylus and either the circle pad or the face buttons to move Kid around. The ground combat is more problematic because the game just needs dual sticks to really work. My hands are cramped up from having to use the shoulder buttons to shoot, so I could only play in short bursts.
Ground combat is longer than flying, which is disappointing. Moving around and shooting just isn’t as fun as flying, but each of the 22 levels has a boss fight at the end. Thankfully, the game is as hard as you make it because, before each level, you can increase or decrease the difficulty to earn more hearts. Hearts are used to buy weapons and upgrade them. Of course, there are hidden areas in each level that have new weapons or healing items. Be careful though; you get three recovery spheres at the start of the level, and that’s it, so the higher difficulties are extremely tough.
There’s a co-op mode, which is fun, but gathering the items and replaying the levels is really for hardcore fans only. There are a lot of rewards for finding items and completing certain objectives, like the number of enemies killed, so there’s enough content here for any type of gamer. I just feel the game gets too repetitive after a while because the levels follow the same pattern of flying, ground combat, and boss. Sure, they are all different, but I would have liked to see some mini-games or levels that are all flying, all ground combat, or just one big boss level.
Overall, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a beautiful game with lots of content, but it has a repetitive pattern. The voice acting is sketchy at best, and even the story is pretty much yawn-worthy. The 3D effects are great, but the biggest problem here is the controls. We either need three hands or dual sticks, so expect some hand cramping often.
One of the best DS series is Professor Layton because of the charming characters, engaging story, and fun puzzles. Doctor Lautrec is similar in story but far worse in gameplay. The story and ideas are superb and very original, but they are just poorly executed. You play Sophie and Doctor Lautrec, who are 19th-century treasure hunters in France. The game consists of three parts: battling your treasures, finding your way around labyrinths, and solving door puzzles. The story is about Sophie and Lautrec, who find a mysterious deciphering device. Other treasure hunters are after him, but all he wants is the mystery and not the glory.
Let’s start with the treasure battles. These are highly convoluted, poorly explained, and simple to a fault. You fight your treasures, known as Treasure Animatus, so think of an archeological version of Pokemon. The whole battle system is based on a hierarchy, like Humanoid is stronger than Avian, which is stronger than Aborheal, etc., but the chart and symbols don’t make any sense. You place each treasure on a pedestal, but some are cracked, which will give you random effects, both good and bad. Once you place a treasure, you can no longer use it, which is completely outside of standard RPG battle rules. You can only equip three treasures before entering a dungeon; if you equip the wrong ones, you have to leave and do the dungeon all over again. It is very important that you explore the entire dungeon because you need to find gems and tame other smaller animals for the boss. Most animals can be tamed by bringing their health into the blue range. If you kill them, they become extinguished and can’t be used for battle.
This all sounds very simple, but it is actually really complicated when you play. Even after reading in-depth guides online, I still didn’t get it. The most frustrating part, and why I quit after 5 hours, is that you will solve the mystery to get to the dungeon only to realize that your Animatus isn’t strong enough to fight the boss. Sophie will tell you before entering the dungeon how your Animatus will fare because she can sense the boss. If you can’t do any quests, you have to buy resurrection stones to bring your Animatus back to life, but they are very expensive, so sometimes you will be screwed. Those gems you collect that aren’t killed in battle at the end of each dungeon are turned into experience points that go toward your Animatus. If you get stuck on a boss that kills all your gems except the one you want, you will never be able to level them up.
So, you will run around solving all these boring quests just to realize you can’t do that dungeon. The quests involve running around a map to different blue pins and listening to various dialogs. Rarely will you get to solve an actual puzzle. The puzzles involve using the touchscreen but aren’t very interesting. Matching words on a crossword puzzle-style grid, making shapes fit on different shapes, a Minesweeper-style mini-game that makes no sense, spotting the difference, and a few other boring puzzles. These are far and few between and the only break from the monotonous mystery solving.
Once you get into a dungeon, you have to push blocks around, avoid enemies, and dodge traps to get to the various animals. The AI is really stupid here because you can push blocks right in front of them and they won’t notice, but run behind them and they chase after you reset the whole room. These dungeons are not fun and are a complete pain to complete.
Between all this nonsense are huge strings of dialog and cut scenes. The anime-style ones are nice to look at, but the 3D ones are just awful. The voice acting is really good, but some of the characters are just not interesting to listen to or get to know. The only reason to keep playing is to find out more about the interesting characters and story, but the game is so frustrating to play that you will give up quickly. Just a side note: My rental copy had two saves of only 54 minutes and 90 minutes. (That’s how frustrating this game is.).
Overall, Doctor Lautrec has a great story and characters, but the puzzles are boring and spread too thin. The 3D effects alone are minimal and don’t really add anything to the experience. The worst part about the game is the confusing and terrible Pokemon rip-off battle system. I actually can’t even recommend this game to anyone except hardcore puzzle fans.
Before you write Pushmo off as a cutesy kids’ puzzle game, think again. The game uses depth as its core, which is what 3DS is all about. You get to move blocks forward by four blocks, but you have to rescue a Pushmo at the top by figuring out how to configure these blocks. Thankfully, you can jump around, so this makes the game a bit easier, but not all games are as easy as they seem. One puzzle can only consist of four blocks, but the way they are shaped makes it difficult to climb, so you have to figure out how to stagger these to get to the top.
This makes the game original and fresh so as to stray away from the Tetris, physics, and memory clones. If you feel really stumped or want to analyze what you did, just rewind with the shoulder buttons or reset the whole thing via a button at the bottom of the blocks. This is the entire game, but when you get bored, go ahead and build your own puzzles, which add a layer of extra fun. There are plenty of puzzles to solve, but the game is quick and easy to just play on the go without worrying about checkpoints and saves.
The art style is cute with bright, colorful graphics, and the 3D effects are there to help immerse you in the depth layering, which makes it feel like part of the puzzle-solving rather than a gimmick or something that gets in the way (like Bit.Trip Saga). With the low price point, you get dozens of hours of fun content, but overall, the game is just really simple and only good in short bursts. This is a game for any age, any player type, and for everyone who owns a 3DS. Right now, this is the eShop’s killer app and probably the best game on there.
If you are a fan of classic 8-bit games or quick simple games then you will be right at home here. Bit.Trip Saga takes all the games in the series and packs them into one game. There are 6 games here, but each is different and requires lots of concentration and good hand-eye coordination to have some fun. Let’s dig into this pile of pixels and see what’s in store.
Bit.Trip Beat is one of my favorites because it’s a variation on Pong where you repel pixels coming at you to create a catchy beat. It gets harder and harder as time goes on and is a blast. If you miss too many the game will go in a Nether mode which actually turns the game 8-bit and is really neat. The 3D effects here are nice but are distracting and using the circle pad is useless and inaccurate. I chose the stylus for precise aiming because you will need it.
Bit.Trip Core is one of my least favorites because of how hard it can be to watch four sides of the screen at once. You stay in the middle and control a beam to destroy pixels coming at you from all sides. This can get confusing and it’s really hard to play for long periods of time. I didn’t play this one as much and was a bit of a disappointment.
Bit.Trip Void is another favorite because it doesn’t require much concentration and accuracy. You are a black hole that collects black pixels and avoids white. When you are too big to fit on-screen, or between two pixels, you pop and bank your score. This one is highly addictive and I wound up playing for longer sessions than the other games.
Bit.Trip Runner is my favorite of them all because it’s the biggest game of the six and most fun. You run down a level and avoid obstacles by jumping, kicking, sliding, and timing things just right to a super catchy beat. At the end of each level, you go into an 8-bit version to collect gold and rack up your score. There are tons of levels here, but it can be very difficult towards the end because it requires perfect timing.
Bit.Trip Fate isn’t one of the best because you are on a set path and have to avoid enemy fire while firing back. Dodging fire on a set path seems like it works against you and isn’t really all that fun even if you do concentrate. The game has a slow pace and also requires right-handed stylus use.
Bit.Trip Flux is the last of the six which is like an anti Bit.Trip Beat. You avoid getting hit instead of hitting objects and is just as addictive as Beat. I found this to be one of the more fun games of the six and is super fun to play for long periods of time.
The whole experience is nice, but in short bursts only due to the repetitiveness and sheer concentration needed to get far in the game. This is great for a portable experience, but the 3D effects are distracting, and with some games, it made the experience worse. This game isn’t just for anybody, but for hardcore gamers who love racking up scores and like precision skills and twitch shooting.
When you think of Tom Clancy or Ghost Recon, you probably aren’t thinking of turn-based strategy. Ghost Recon takes the weirdest and most unlikely departure that is sure to become a disaster, but works well and culminates into a great little TBS game. This would be a great game, whether it had the Ghost Recon name or not. Traditional fans of the series may cry foul or turn their nose up, but portable fans and turn-based strategy fans will likely get hooked. Ghost Recon has never been known for deep or complex stories, and Shadow Wars is no exception. You play a squad of elite soldiers trying to stop a war between the Russians and Kazakhstan. Due to the lengthy campaign (a good 15 hours or so), you get an entertaining story that you actually want to see an ending to. While the characters aren’t very deep, you do grow somewhat attached.
Of course, you want great tactical gameplay in a game like this, and Shadow Wars delivers. While it may not be very deep, it’s suspenseful and has various missions that will put you on edge sometimes. The enemies are just regular soldiers, but as the game moves along and you level up, they get tougher, and eventually you get drones thrown at you, which are pretty tough against anything but explosives. Each of the six ghosts is completely different, such as one who uses a mini-gun, which is good for up-close firepower; Haze is the sniper; and Banshee uses a cloaking device, so she is invisible to everything unless right next to an enemy. You will use each ghost and rely on their powers and abilities because each mission will require you to really choose wisely how to move about the map.
Each ghost can gain command points by killing enemies, which can then be used for their special power. Duke and Banshee can use Rapid Strike, which gives them one extra turn, or Haze can use Super Shot, which is pretty much a hit-kill sniper shot. Of course, their secondary weapons can be used this way too, like grenades or Duke’s portable missile launcher. Most maps have various command flags that you can capture to earn command points for the entire squad that can be used to give a ghost another turn, give everyone a huge command point boost, or call in an airstrike on outdoor maps for devastating attacks. You can use cover, like in regular games, that will reduce damage, such as going into buildings or being next to obstacles. You also have an attack range that will be reduced the farther the enemy is, but this isn’t anything new to TBS players and should fit right in.
While all this sounds deep, it really isn’t. Sure, on the field, you have to use your brain and decide how to move about the map wisely, because 99% of the time you’re greatly outnumbered, and a dumb move can cost you the game. Each map is completely different, but most objectives tend to be the same. After a mission is complete, you can distribute points to level up your ghosts, which gives them more health, further movement, and more damage. You can also equip weapons, but I was greatly disappointed in this because each ghost only gets one other option for each category, and I stuck with the first one through the whole game.
There are other problems with the game being way too hard on anything but easy, and even then, you’ll fail missions a lot. Thankfully, there’s a save feature, but towards the end, you’re greatly outnumbered by enemies that take forever to kill, even if you’re at the highest level. I found this unfair, and despite being intense by getting out with a hair of health left, it was exhausting because some levels dragged on forever. Despite these shortcomings, the campaign is varied and mixes things up a lot, so this kind of help.
Don’t expect anything deep that you expect from most turn-based strategy games; just come in expecting a lot of fun activities. The game is extremely tough and doesn’t offer a deep and really interesting story like most turn-based strategy games do. The graphics are also nothing special, even with decent 3D effects. You’re not going to see anything that you haven’t seen in a portable TBS game. Shadow Wars is a great entry into the 3DS and will keep you busy for quite some time.
Colors: Cosmo Black, Aqua Blue, Flame Red, Pearl Pink, Red
MSRP: $169.99
Nintendo is well-known for making hardware that takes huge risks. While they usually fail software-wise, they tend to soar in hardware sales. The 3DS started out pretty poorly, with crappy launch titles and a steep retail price of $250. About 6 months later, Nintendo dropped the price to $170 (the same price as the Wii and DSi XL), and suddenly sales rose, and third-party developers jumped on board. I wonder why… Now that the 3DS is in full swing, I finally got one for Christmas this year and have several games to tinker around with with this bad boy. I actually have to say the hardware is well-built and very impressive, despite my early speculation that the hardware would be a complete failure.
The whole system is just completely new because not only is it capable of 3D, but it also has more powerful hardware, so they like GameCube/PS2 quality. The main menu is designed more like the DSi, but leans more toward what the Wii looks like. You can now use the Mii Plaza, plus a bevy of built-in apps that are pretty neat. When you start the thing up, you will notice some hardware changes, like an analog stick, which completely changes the way DS games are played. The top screen is only capable of 3D, but it’s slightly bigger (3.53″), kind of like the DSi XL (4.2″). The bottom screen is the same size, which I found disappointing, but there was something about technical issues that kept the touchscreen from being 3D.
The system has a 1 GHz processor, which is about 10x what the other DS systems are capable of (133 MHz), and the GPU is also more powerful. To show this power off, the system comes with AR (augmented reality) cards of famous Nintendo characters that you use in the built-in game AR Games. Setting the question mark box down in front of the camera acts as a menu with different games like shooting targets, billiards, being able to pose the characters to take 3D pictures, and other crazy games. This is actually very impressive, and it’s so neat to just see these guys pop out of real life onto the 3DS. My only complaint is that you can’t do anything with the characters other than pose them.
The second game is Face Raiders, which takes your face and puts on flying helmets that you shoot down. This is kind of freaky and fun at the same time, but it helps show off the great AR abilities of the system. Other than this, the menu is in 3D, as is most of the eShop, but I can’t explain how much it just pops and makes playing games that much more fun. It didn’t hurt my eyes at all even with the 3D depth slider all the way up, but you have to view it almost straight on, or the view shifts and the 3D goes away, so the whole idea isn’t flawless. The 3DS is capable of downloading some apps that are pretty fun, but overall, the eShop is lacking in good games. The majority are remade original Game Boy games that no one really misses, but over time they will expand, I hope. The 3DS also features StreetPass, which will exchange information on games you own when you pass people in the car or while walking, which is lots of fun. The system also has a pedometer that awards coins that can be used in certain games to unlock stuff. SpotPass allows you to download and unlock items in games when near a center or outside. This is so much fun and adds some unique qualities to games.
Even when playing games for an hour or more, my eyes didn’t even hurt, and yes, even when I was tired. Some games work better than others, but overall, the 3D effects really add to the experience and make most 3DS games unique from regular DS games. Of course, you can play regular DS games, but the top screen puts black bars on the side to compensate for the larger screen, but I found this was kind of stupid and should be full screen. The battery life is also shorter because of the more powerful hardware, but it has some pretty good power-saving features to extend this. One other advantage is that the 3DS takes SD cards and has internal storage, plus it has a 2.4 GHz wi-fi card for super-fast internet speeds. 3DS games also (finally!) save to the SD card instead of on the cartridge due to the size capacity of the 3DS cards (plus price hikes).
When it’s all said and done, the 3DS is well worth the money, and there are enough great games to consider a purchase. The 3D is revolutionary and actually works with the games, but just make sure you try an in-store demo before buying because the 3D will not work for some people or it may hurt your eyes. For the low price and great features, I would go pick one up right now!
I have never been a huge fan of Dead or Alive outside of the characters. The fighting system is convoluted, overcomplicated, and not always explained very well. Dimensions breaks this barrier with a great Chronicle story mode that introduces these complicated techniques little by little so you can absorb them, and it works great. The story mode is entertaining, but nothing to write home about. You play as various characters trying to stop Alpha-152, which is Kasumi’s evil clone. DOATEC is trying to use this to destroy the ninja clan, Mugen Tenshin.
The fighting system is actually complicated, but after the story mode, you can actually use it. There are the usual combos of kicks and punches, but you can juggle opponents and stun them in a critical state. You can throw and hold opponents, and holding is kind of a counterattack. You can actually counter a counter in this game. If someone counters your attack with a hold, you can counter back or get out of the hold. Understanding how to do this takes some getting used to, but it adds some strategy to online fights. You can also do a super stun, which is called OKing an opponent, and this means they can’t counter. There are also special stances that the characters go into, which can be used to strategically add extra combos without the opponent knowing. You can also delay attacks in combos to kind of trick the other player into thinking you’re done, so they stop blocking.
The fighting system is fluid and smooth, with great animations and controls, but my favorite part is that the combos are listed on the bottom screen, so you can tap them or just use them as a quick combo list. This is really handy and actually makes playing the game more enjoyable, so you aren’t constantly pausing the game to remember a combo. On top of this, you can now tag teams, which is fun and adds some great combos to the fray. I liked the extra modes, such as tag team and infinite mode, and of course the showcase mode, where you unlock figurines to take pictures in 3D.
There are a lot of costumes to unlock to make the females look sexier or the males look cooler, and StreetPass and SpotPass are wonderfully integrated into the system. I’ll have my 3DS in my pocket all day when going out, then come home and have a few challengers ready to fight online that I passed when going out. I might even drive by a few SpotPass areas and come back with some downloaded costumes. Dimensions really utilizes these features, and I have a blast using them.
With all that said, the 3D effects are amazing and really show off the features of the system in this way, but overall, the graphics are smooth and crisp and look very detailed. I highly recommend Dimensions because it’s the best fighting game on the system right now.
This was a strong year in fighters with lots of great comebacks. What makes the top fighter stand apart is a great cast of characters, smooth and responsive controls, but most of all a great fighting system. Stories tend to take the back seat in fighting games, but online multiplayer is also important.
Before you go off saying this won because I’m a die-hard MK fan stop right there. There have been past MK games that didn’t deserve the best fighting game. It wins this year because it is true fan service and brings the series back to its roots. This year saw a lot of remakes, but Mortal Kombat gives us great visuals, all the characters we loved from past games and brings it back its 2D roots which are when the game was strongest. Smooth and responsive controls as well as the great fighting system we grew to love, and a bevy of fun modes are what makes Mortal Kombat come out on top.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.