Another year, another E3! Were there winners? Losers? Was it a party or a travesty? I’ve given ample time for the news and excitement to settle, and my own hype to dissipate. So let’s find out what announcements, trailers, and gameplay still left an impact.
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E3 2014 Highs and Lows
E3 Hopes & Expectations
Another year, another E3. It’s that time of year when the biggest players of the industry come together and try to outdo each other’s big announcements. I have high hopes for what we could see from Nintendo, Sony, and surprisingly, Electronic Arts. Will those hopes be met? Here are the lists of my top 10 hopes and expectations for what we’ll see at this year’s E3.
Tomodachi Life Review
Tomodachi Life is a Life Simulation game. It is actually a sequel game (the original being out for the DS), but the first game was Japan only. I always thought this game looked like a lot of fun so I was really excited when I heard we’d be getting one. While the game is a Life Simulation and definitely has some things that remind you of the Sims, I’d say it actually feels closer to a Pet Simulation game. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it means a lot of their actions are much more passive and there isn’t as much free will for the Miis. You pretty much oversee them completely with your realistic hands helping out every so often. Though, if you’ve seen my playthroughs you probably already know about the basic game play.
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Disney Magical World Review
Disney Magical World is a Simulation Adventure game for the 3DS based off a Japanese-only Web game. This game has many different activities you can do while being in a world with many of your favorite Disney characters. It is often referred to as similar to Animal Crossing, but other than customization/collecting and being in real time, I’d say it’s closer to Fantasy Life or Harvest Moon/Rune Factory. However, if you do enjoy Animal Crossing and/or Harvest Moon (or Disney in general), I do think the game is worth looking at. The game isn’t perfect, but its good outshines the flaws and it has a lot more layers and difficulty than you’d expect.
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Animal Crossing: New Leaf Review
Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the next installment in the Animal Crossing series and the first for the 3DS. If you read my Anticipation Article, you will know I’ve been anxiously looking forward to the game. After playing for about a week non-stop, I decided to take a break (well, leave my game open and hope some of the villagers ask for new public works) to write up a review. The game features tons of new features and there were only a few I wasn’t too fond of. Regardless, I hope the series will continue in this direction with the future games in the series…although, maybe with less exclusives per region.
Style Savvy: Trendsetters Review
Style Savvy: Trendsetters is the sequel to Style Savvy for the DS and while the story isn’t much different, it does have a lot of advancements from it’s predecessor. Of course, it does have it’s flaws as well and some changes weren’t always for the better.
The game involves your character getting ownership of a fashion store and slowly making it your own while also helping your customers find exactly what they are looking for. Plus, having some fun with customizing your own character. Despite being relatively simple, the game is also rather addictive.
Fire Emblem Awakening Review
My past exposure to the Fire Emblem series has been rather brief. This should be unsurprising for a game series that rarely comes over to North America. I am, of course, somewhat familiar with the characters that have made an appearance in the Smash series as well as having played one previous game in the Fire Emblem series. I’m also not much of a fan when it comes to Tactics RPGs and, in fact, my taste for turn-based RPGs in general has waned over the years as I have grown tired of level-grinding. So, I was not particularly looking forward to Fire Emblem Awakening on the 3DS.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Review
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is one of my personal favorite spin-off games for Pokemon and thus, I never miss a chance to pick one up. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity happens to be the 3rd (4th if you count the Japan-only WiiWare games–please be aware this review will only be focusing on the handheld games) game in the series and also the first to be on the 3DS.
As usual, the game starts off with a human becoming a Pokemon. But while some stuff remains the same, the game brings a lot of changes and unfortunately, not all of them were for the best.
StreetPass
StreetPass is one of the biggest features of the 3DS, although, not the most heavily advertised (That goes to the actual 3D feature, unsurprisingly). It is the successor to Tag Mode and, honestly, does a much better job of what Tag Mode’s purpose was. The issue with Tag Mode is the fact that it could only trigger if you had that mode up in the specific game which caused finding people to be much more of a shot in the dark due to the fact that even if the person was playing that game if they didn’t specifically have Tag Mode on, it wouldn’t matter.
StreetPass manages to fix most of those issues along with making things a bit more fun/personal as well. However, most people still do not understand what StreetPass is, how it works, or even how to set it up. And as my personal favorite feature about the 3DS, I have quite a lot to say about it.
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning Review
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is the first Harvest Moon game made for the 3DS. While Tale of Two Towns was on the 3DS as well, that was a port rather than being made for it. Like most Harvest Moon games, the general idea of it is to make your farm into something awesome while also falling in love and having a family. The gimmick this time around is you’re also rebuilding the town…literally.
When you first start the game, you will only have 4 buildings in the village area. The Animal Dealer (who is out of town), the General Store (where you’ll be buying most things you need for everyday farming), an empty house, and Dunhill’s house. Dunhill is essentially the mayor of the game and will give you 90% of the tutorials you will be going through. In fact, about the first 25-27 days is nothing but learning the ropes.
