Nintendo 3DS In-depth Reviews

            As one of the Nintendo 3DS ‘launch window’ titles Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D carries a certain amount of expectation upon its shoulders. There has been little thus far to convince gamers that the Nintendo 3DS system won’t go the same way as the original Nintendo DS: catering for the core demographic at first and slowly diluting the software catalogue with a range of Touch Generations! titles and fewer of their leading franchises, and so many had been hopeful that Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D would fill a void. It doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to achieve such a goal, simply present an inviting concept and interesting gameplay.

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            Of all the Nintendo 3DS launch titles, it’s surprisingly the Beat-‘Em-Up genre that is one of the most well catered for. Not typically a staple for handheld devices, it appears that developers working on Nintendo’s groundbreaking new system saw worth in bringing their top-performing fighting game franchises to gamers in stereoscopic 3D as early as possible. One of these early-bird titles is of course Capcom’s Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, a surprisingly complete rendition of one of the most widely respected home console Beat-‘Em-Up games in decades.

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            The latest title in the Super Monkey Ball series has arrived alongside Nintendo’s all-new handheld, promising to break new ground for the series. It’s becoming something of a tradition that a Super Monkey Ball game should arrive at the launch of a Nintendo console, with the original being a launch title for the GameCube and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz being available within the launch window of Wii. However, what isn’t such a welcome traditional is the gradually falling standards of the series – a trend which Super Monkey Ball 3D is hoping to buck.

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            Ubisoft seem keen to dominate all aspects of the Platform game genre on the Nintendo 3DS, as following the 3D Platform game Rayman 3D, Rabbids 3D brings a 2D Platform game to the console. 2D in that of the gameplay plane, of course, as Rabbids 3D still features fully 3D visuals and the stereoscopic 3D enhancement offered by the Nintendo 3DS console.

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            Possibly the last version of The Sims 3 to hit the market, number nine is a Nintendo 3DS launch title from Electronic Arts. As one of the world’s largest videogame publishers, EA does appear to be unusually slow to support Nintendo’s new console, with only The Sims 3 included in the launch line-up, but given the quality of this conversion of the game, you could forgive the publisher for putting all their eggs in just one basket.

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            Perhaps the least surprising launch title for Nintendo’s latest handheld format, Nintendogs + Cats is the follow-up to one of the most successful, unique titles on the original Nintendo DS console. There may have been many imitators over the years, but none came close to replicating the simple addictive quality of Nintendogs, and now Nintendo are cracking that whip for a second time.

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            Perhaps a sign of the times, what was once the most prolific videogame genre has but one representative in the launch line-up of the Nintendo 3DS. Rayman 3D is a fully 3D Platform game in the vein of Super Mario 64, and is a reportedly a remake of the Dreamcast version of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, arguably the most respectable game in the entire Rayman videogame series.

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            Ubisoft’s strategy of basing their Nintendo 3DS launch line-up on existing franchises is fairly hit-and-miss. The likes of Asphalt 3D and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D are hardly groundbreaking, but in the same regard are not offensive in their mediocre quality. While Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is a third title launching today based on a well known and well exercised franchise, it’s also the most original title the publisher offers to the console. Entirely unlike any other title carrying the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon banner, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is also a unique videogame experience for its host console.

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            Of all the launch titles available alongside the Nintendo 3DS console, it’s Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D that’s most likely to draw a mature gaming audience. A remake of the critically acclaimed Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the third title in the series, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D hopes to define stealth action games on the Nintendo 3DS console, and the fact that it’s the only such title on the horizon for the console will surely work in its favour.

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            Ubisoft is seemingly one of the keenest third-party supporters of Nintendo’s new handheld console. With no less than four titles arriving alongside the Nintendo 3DS today, most of which based on one of the publisher’s key franchises, Ubisoft are most certainly poised to capitalise upon the hunger for new software at the hands of the early adopters. Of all the titles Ubisoft is presenting, Asphalt 3D may not be the biggest priority for many gamers, but on day one it is surprisingly one of few racing titles available on the system.

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