Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Nintendo 3DS

    Platform »

    The Nintendo 3DS is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The handheld features stereoscopic 3D technology that doesn't require glasses. It was released in Japan on February 26, 2011 and in North America on March 27, 2011.

    Looking to get back to the 3DS, are these "THE" games?

    Avatar image for rhaknar
    Rhaknar

    6300

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 12

    so I bought a regular 3ds at launch with Zelda and SF4, barely played it, have since lost the charger and have zero interest in using it again...

    ...I do have interest on the other hand, quite obcessevely too lately, in buying a 3DS XL (which, ironically, does NOT come with a charger here in Europe). Since I have followed little of the 3ds until now, Im trying to make a list of the best games on the system to get if I do in fact jump head first into a XL. So here's what I got (again, I already own Zelda):

    -Mario Kart (I didnt even know there was a Mario Kart for the 3ds >_>)

    -Fire Emblem

    -Luigi Mansion 2 (loved the gamecube one)

    -Animal Crossing (always wanted to play one of these)

    -Super Mario 3D Land (looks cool and I never played the galaxy games)

    these are the 5 I have in mind. I have no interest in Donkey Kong (hate the series, sorry), or New Super Mario Bros (again, dont like the NEW games), I thought about Monster Hunter Tri, but If I ever jump into a MH game, I'd rather do it on the Wii U with "proper" controls. Oh and I have RE: Revelations on PC so thats a no-no also. Anything I forgot? And also any thoughts on the 5 I mentioned?

    Avatar image for fancysoapsman
    FancySoapsMan

    5984

    Forum Posts

    2

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 13

    #2  Edited By FancySoapsMan

    if you haven't played Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward on the Vita, then you should add it to your list.

    Also make sure to check out some of the download-only titles, especially Push/Crashmo

    Avatar image for slyspider
    slyspider

    1832

    Forum Posts

    14

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Look into some shin megami games, the 3DS has some absolutely amazing RPGs. I'm currently playing Soul Hacks and with SMT4 next month I'm super happy!

    Avatar image for make_me_mad
    Make_Me_Mad

    3229

    Forum Posts

    1007

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 11

    #4  Edited By Make_Me_Mad

    Kid Icarus Uprising is still really close to being my all time favorite 3DS game, with Fire Emblem Awakening slightly edging it out. I simply cannot recommend Kid Icarus enough. If you're interested in the SMT games there's Devil Survivor Overclocked, as well, which apparently offers some serious improvements over the original.

    Avatar image for deactivated-601df795ee52f
    deactivated-601df795ee52f

    3618

    Forum Posts

    6548

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 1

    I would definitely recommend all of those games. Mario 3D Land is one of my favorite Mario games ever, Luigi's Mansion 2 is great but not as good as the original, Fire Emblem I don't have but I really liked the demo, Animal Crossing is my newest addiction, and Mario Kart is fun every once in awhile. Monster Hunter kinda sucks on 3DS so I say no to that.

    For right now that should suit you perfectly.

    Avatar image for ravenx302
    RavenX302

    328

    Forum Posts

    8

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 4

    #6  Edited By RavenX302

    Project X zone next week. I played the demo, and have been playing JRPGs all my life, and it didn't make any fucking sense to me at all, at least the combat...HOWEVER, it does look and sound pretty fucking awesome, so maybe its just slightly odder learning curve.

    Super Mario 3d land is great and much better at the end of the normal game.

    Animal Crossing is fucking amazing, it is just a hard game to play for hours and hours on end, which can be hard when you REALLY just want to keep playing. The real world clock and how everything is at such a long pace (it is always TOMORROW WE WILL HAVE IT DONE FOR YOU) can drag some sessions down, but it is prefect for quick 10-20 minute chunks.

    Honestly, I got bored with Fire Emblem pretty quick. I found it got very easy once you start getting people grouped up and leveled.

    If you like adventure games and don't mind a DS game, Hotel Dusk is fantastic. Its a bit low key at first, but there is something about that hotel that just stays in my head. Every few days I keep wanting to go back and play that.

    Avatar image for quantris
    Quantris

    1524

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #7  Edited By Quantris

    Out of those 5 I only have Mario Kart and Fire Emblem, which are both great (MK is not for everyone but I love that series; it plays similar to MKDS). Everything I've read / seen suggests your other 3 picks are solid too; I'll pick all those up once I actually have time to play stuff.

    I had a good time with Kid Icarus; the controls are kind of weird on the ground but they do work, and the multiplayer was surprisingly enjoyable too (I don't know if people still play that though). The main appeal for me was replaying on harder difficulties to get better weapons or lots of weapons for weapon fusion; I guess that kind of thing only appeals to certain people though.

    Virtue's Last Reward is also awesome; I'd recommend playing the DS game 999 first though. These games are pretty text-heavy (visual novel style) so read this user review to get a better idea if you'd enjoy them.

    Project X Zone is also coming out soon; there's a demo on the e-shop to check out.

    Finally, if you regularly listen to the bombcast then you've already heard about how great Pushmo and Crashmo are (downloads from e-shop)

    EDIT: and it looks like others covered all that while I was typing :)

    Avatar image for bisonhero
    BisonHero

    12785

    Forum Posts

    625

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 2

    #8  Edited By BisonHero

    You pretty much got the main ones.

    Some weirdos are going to recommend Virtue's Last Reward and Shin Megami Tensei IV and Etrian Odyssey IV, but those games are not for everyone. They're not bad or anything, but read up on what kind of games they are before you buy them, because their appeal is a little more niche and may not be your thing.

    Luigi's Mansion 2 gets slightly tedious, as although there are multiple mansions, the game lingers in each mansion just a bit too long, to the point that there's one mission at the end of each mansion where you're like "Look, I know this mansion inside and out and have seen all the rooms and everything, stop wasting my time and let me just fight the boss".

    Avatar image for justin258
    Justin258

    16683

    Forum Posts

    26

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 11

    User Lists: 8

    Some weirdos are going to recommend Virtue's Last Reward and Shin Megami Tensei IV and Etrian Odyssey IV, but those games are not for everyone. They're not bad or anything, but read up on what kind of games they are before you buy them, because their appeal is a little more niche and may not be your thing.

    I'd agree that anyone should know what those games are before buying them, but the OP should definitely look into them. Etrian Odyssey IV has been my most played game on 3DS thus far, and I don't doubt that SMTIV is going to follow it. SMTIV is pretty much the reason I wanted a 3DS.

    Avatar image for theodacourt
    theodacourt

    591

    Forum Posts

    143

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 8

    You should definitely play 999 before VLR in any case, as a 3ds will play the DS cart it comes on.

    Also there is a Professor Layton game, if you're into those!

    Avatar image for rhaknar
    Rhaknar

    6300

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 12

    #11  Edited By Rhaknar

    I have VLR on Vita from PS+

    And I do like JRPGs, guess I forgot to check those (well except fire emblem)

    Avatar image for hunkulese
    Hunkulese

    4225

    Forum Posts

    310

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    @rhaknar: It comes with a charger it doesn't come with a dock.

    Avatar image for omniscientcajun
    omniscientcajun

    168

    Forum Posts

    245

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 4

    #13  Edited By omniscientcajun

    I was going to pipe up to make sure VLR (and 999) were considered, but you fine folks beat me to it. Besides those, "the 5" you mentioned are pretty solid. I can't speak specifically to New Leaf as I haven't jumped into it yet, but I've played all of the others (well, playing Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon now).

    Oh yeah, and as mentioned above, Pushmo. Just get it right now. Don't even think about it.

    Avatar image for schreiberty
    schreiberty

    229

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    Your intended library almost exactly mirrors my games except for SF4. The only one i would be cautious about is luigis mansion. For me it got incredibly tedious about 3/4 of the way through mostly because it was so easy, the only real "difficulty" is that some of the missions are a bit long and if you die you have to do the entire mission from the beginning just adding to the tedium. Even with all that i would say its still worth buying especially if you can get it used for cheap.

    Other than that i would say the games you listed are some of the best games available and should give you plenty of play time, also if you havnt finished OoT you should really play that, especially if you didnt lay it on the n64

    Avatar image for starvinggamer
    StarvingGamer

    11533

    Forum Posts

    36428

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 25

    #15  Edited By StarvingGamer
    • Final Fantasy Theatrhythm - If you like rhythm games and have any fondness for Final Fantasy music, it's a load of fun
    • Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - It's more Layton
    • Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars - It's sorta like handheld XCOM before XCOM came out, you can probably find this for $5 now

    Also on the eShop you'd do well to check out Pushmo, Crashmo, Harmoknight and Crimson Shroud

    Avatar image for rhaknar
    Rhaknar

    6300

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 12

    #16  Edited By Rhaknar

    @rhaknar: It comes with a charger it doesn't come with a dock.

    it specifically says on the box it doesnt come with a charger.

    hell here's a link to amazon for example :) AC Adaptor not included

    Avatar image for captaintightpants
    CaptainTightPants

    2838

    Forum Posts

    914

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 5

    I would suggest against Project X Zone after reading through the reactions on Neogaf. The consensus seems to be that it is a shallow sRPG made entirely for fanservice. If you're interested, though, Neogaf user perorist posted a good impromptu review.

    The battle system is very similar to the endless frontier games and pxz's predecessor, namco x capcom with the simple real-time inputs and goal of breaking and juggling the opponent to maximize damage. If you've played either of those you'll know that the battle system is actually very fun.

    The problem with this game is that the entire game relies on that battle system alone to carry it, and it only works for the first dozen or two dozen hours. Despite being a strategy rpg, it contains almost no meaningful srpg mechanics along the lines of weakness triangles, jobs, terrain mechanics, etc. Basically nothing that adds "strategy". It has map attacks, seishin-style abilities ala SRW, a few status elements and that's it. The maps could all be literal flat chessboards and the game wouldn't change.

    The other problem is that in a 50-60 hour game, about 30 hours in you'll hit a "growth cap". You'll still level up and increase stats a little bit each time, but those stats are mostly meaningless in the first place. What I mean by growth cap is that you'll have unlocked every unit and move for each unit, so the feeling of character growth is gone. Moreover, by this point, because of the lack of game mechanics, each unit will essentially be indistinguishable from others. There's nothing unique between one unit and another other than their attack animations by endgame.

    This is comparable, for example, to playing fire emblem or FFT and halfway through the game, all your units are suddenly one same job class, equipment and skills becomes meaningless, and your only attack option is the regular physical "attack" option, but you still have half the game left to play. For the latter part of the game you'll be doing the exact same thing with every unit - moving them up to the enemy and attacking with the same combo you've been using for the last 30 hours, no variation. It's made even worse by the terrible level design in later stages where maps can take an hour or two because they just throw hordes of high-hp enemies at you.

    The story is also pretty bad and you'll get tired of the antagonists' dialogue/motivations fast, but a deep story isn't something you should expect from this type of game in the first place I suppose. Like I said, the game is pretty fun for the first couple dozen hours and the cross-series character convos are great. The sprite animation in this game is some of the best out there as well, as you would expect from banpresto. There are things to like here (like megaman X's last real appearance in a game LOL) and an incredible soundtrack, but just don't expect much from the gameplay side when all is said and done.

    Avatar image for flappy
    Flappy

    2415

    Forum Posts

    20

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 4

    @captaintightpants:

    I already knew what I was getting myself into beforehand (played through Endless Frontier from start to finish), but the only thing that's a bit weird to me is:

    "The other problem is that in a 50-60 hour game, about 30 hours in you'll hit a "growth cap". You'll still level up and increase stats a little bit each time, but those stats are mostly meaningless in the first place. What I mean by growth cap is that you'll have unlocked every unit and move for each unit, so the feeling of character growth is gone."

    That part has me shook.

    Avatar image for pimpsandwich
    pimpsandwich

    87

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    As a fellow european who just got a 3DS, do remember that Atlus games aren't really much of a possibility. I think Etrian Odyssey is the only one that actually has a release date, games like Soul Hackers and SMT4 don't even have a month associated with them regarding their release.

    Being a fan of Atlus games in Europe is frustrating.

    Avatar image for shaanyboi
    Shaanyboi

    1804

    Forum Posts

    3224

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 5

    Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

    VLR (though I highly suggest playing 999 beforehand)

    Soul Hackers

    and SMT4 is coming out pretty soon

    Avatar image for reisz
    reisz

    1626

    Forum Posts

    1095

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 6

    Fire Emblem cannot come recommended highly enough. It's superb, also do not miss out on Pushmo and Crashmo. Be sure to play them in that order.

    Avatar image for beachthunder
    BeachThunder

    15269

    Forum Posts

    318676

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 30

    #22  Edited By BeachThunder
    Avatar image for bbalpert
    BBAlpert

    2978

    Forum Posts

    34

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 16

    If you can find a copy of Picross 3D, definitely get that. I realize it's a DS game, but if you haven't played it, it's hella good.

    Avatar image for beachthunder
    BeachThunder

    15269

    Forum Posts

    318676

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 30

    @bbalpert said:

    If you can find a copy of Picross 3D, definitely get that. I realize it's a DS game, but if you haven't played it, it's hella good.

    Picross e and Picross e2 are both out in Europe, both are great. I would say they are both far better than Picross 3D - I felt that game was only a good idea in theory.

    Avatar image for rhaknar
    Rhaknar

    6300

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 12

    thanks for the suggestions peeps, I already own Picross 3d (its not only one of my favorite games...probably ever, but Im replaying it again on my 2ds right now, since like I said, I cant find my 3ds charger, ironically, I have my 2ds one >_>) and I dont really want 2ds games tbh.

    Can I transfer my 3ds stuff to a XL, like the ambassador stuff, and if so, how does that work, do you need a special cable or what?

    Avatar image for abendlaender
    abendlaender

    3100

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    Is the "so many games" thing still going?
    Cause if you buy Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing and Luigi you'll get a fourth game for free, if this is the case

    Avatar image for killroycantkill
    killroycantkill

    1608

    Forum Posts

    7870

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 9

    User Lists: 13

    #27  Edited By killroycantkill

    I would highly recommend Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. It is a truely fantastic game, and if you got some friends to play with or convince to get it as well you'll have a lot of fun.

    Other than that is you're interested in things like Fire Emblem, the grab Project Cross Zone. Also remember there's a ton of games coming out in the future and were announced at E3.

    Avatar image for mideonnviscera
    MideonNViscera

    2269

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    @rhaknar said:

    thanks for the suggestions peeps, I already own Picross 3d (its not only one of my favorite games...probably ever, but Im replaying it again on my 2ds right now, since like I said, I cant find my 3ds charger, ironically, I have my 2ds one >_>) and I dont really want 2ds games tbh.

    Can I transfer my 3ds stuff to a XL, like the ambassador stuff, and if so, how does that work, do you need a special cable or what?

    All you need is both 3DSs and an internet connection.

    Avatar image for chaser324
    chaser324

    9415

    Forum Posts

    14945

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 15

    #29 chaser324  Moderator

    Fire Emblem, Super Mario 3D Land, and Animal Crossing are at the top of my list of must own 3DS titles.

    Also, don't forget the stuff on the eShop. Crashmo and Mario vs. DK: Minis on the Move are both pretty solid.

    Avatar image for flappy
    Flappy

    2415

    Forum Posts

    20

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 4

    So, uh, I'm totally not gonna get Project X Zone anymore. With SMT IV coming out in a couple of weeks, I might as well keep the money and save myself from a potential case of buyer's remorse.

    ATLUS owns my soul and my wallet.

    Avatar image for spitznock
    Spitznock

    1215

    Forum Posts

    126

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #31  Edited By Spitznock

    @rhaknar: There are numerous Atlus published RPGs for it as well if that's your thing.
    Etrian Odyssey IV looks quite good, and then there's SMT: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (large title) and SMT IV if you like that series.
    SMT IV isn't out yet outside of Japan, but the other two are available in the U.S. right now, and will be released in Europe later this year.
    There was a quick look of Etrian Odyssey IV posted on the site recently, so you could check that out if you're interested I suppose.

    Avatar image for optix12
    Optix12

    695

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Don't forget about games that are also coming out later this year/near future like Pokemon X/Y (I havent played a pokemon game in over 5 years so its great for me) and Super smash bros (i hope that its not a slow framey or hacked away mess).

    If you do decide to jump on the 3dsxl before 31st July keep in mind theres the so many games promotion where you get a game free of the 8 listed. That and the monster hunter gift & hunt deal (which I have a code if you want it, which works with the so many games deal so you only really have to buy 2 games to get the 4th free (2 free games, 2 bought games is how I worked the system)

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.