Hey fellow duders! I finally pulled the trigger and bought a 3ds xl Fire Emblem Fates bundle. Now I'm wondering what else I need to pick up in the future. Give me advice my internet friends!

Fantasy Life is a personal favorite even if there can be a little too much dialog (and it can drag a little). Link Between Worlds, Animal Crossing, Shovel Knight, and Super Mario 3D Land.

[edit] the team here also seemed to like Boxboy and the SteamWorld games

Final Fantasy Theatrhythm - Curtain Call. Trust me. I don't even like Final Fantasy and love that game.

Also you may want to read through some of these -

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3ds/3045-117/forums/recommend-me-some-3ds-and-ds-games-why-dont-you-1775139/#19

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3ds/3045-117/forums/i-bought-a-3ds-what-now-1770782/#23

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3ds/3045-117/forums/must-haves-best-games-for-3ds-ds-1490832/#72

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3ds/3045-117/forums/best-not-so-obvious-virtual-console-3ds-games-1487317/#15

http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-3ds/3045-117/forums/getting-a-3ds-xl-need-game-reccommendations-1460490/#20

Oh man I forgot I could get Shovel Knight on here! Finally a reason to play it!

How about the last Fire Emblem? Is it worth a look? I figured I'd want to play the new one just based on coverage of it.

Fire Emblem Awakening is generally liked , so yeah get it if that type of game speaks to you.

Well, you're obviously a fan of tactical games, so give Shadow Wars a shot. Also, from the eShop, there's an enormous pile of Picross games.

Persona Q doesn't get nearly as much love as it deserves. It's good enough that I've considered trying out the Etrian Odyssey series.

All the Pushmo games are fantastic and pretty cheap.

Bravely Default is a must-have, I think, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon as well because... holy shit, they made a sequel to Luigi's Mansion!

Super Mario 3D Land and The Legend Of Zelda A Link Between Worlds.

Please buy these games.

If you like puzzle games, I highly recommend the entire Professor Layton franchise.

Yup, I second this. It's the licensed X-COM style game the staff mentioned on UPF a couple of weeks ago but couldn't remember the name of. As it was a third party launch game, it's ridiculously cheap nowadays too, I bought a brand new copy for $1 last year.

Awakening? It's sorta the game that saved the franchise and gave it some much needed popularity, it's definitely worth playing, especially if you find yourself preferring Birthright over the other two games.

Shovel Knight has become one of my favorite games ever, I've finished it on PC and 3DS, definitely play that. Also, I played a lot of JRPG's on the 3DS.

• Shin Megami Tensei IV - dungeon crawl-y JRPG, lots of Pokemon-esque demon gathering and fusing
• Etrian Odyssey IV - there are several of these (EOIV, EO Untold 1 and 2, and Persona Q). I've played all except Untold 2 and Etrian Odyssey IV has easily been the best. It's a first person dungeon crawler in the most traditional sense imaginable.
• Bravely Default - Another JRPG, this one is basically Final Fantasy V. Mechanically, great. Story, not so great.

And, of course, the Nintendo games that Nintendo released on their Nintendo system. Out of all of those, the best one I've played is The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

I'll second Persona Q, that game is super rad! However, if you haven't either Persona 3 or 4, you're probably not going to get as much out of it as you could. Also, if you've ever had any sort of interest in the Ace Attorney series, there's a great bundle of the first three games on the eshop.

Box Boy is a fun puzzle game. Simple mechanics but it has a lot of charm and style.

Mario 3D Land is arguably the best game on the system.

@fisk0 said:

I will also reluctantly recommend this game. The tactics are quite fun, but it really lacks any sort of polish, in that the campaign is linear, the upgrades on each character are linear, you have very very light loadout customization meaning each character has a pretty rigidly defined role, and the story and characterization are pretty bad because it's a Tom Clancy game where thankfully they spent the vast majority of their budget making the gameplay solid. Also graphically, it looks like it started life as a DS game or something, because even though it was a 3DS launch game it still looks pretty bad, as far as polygonal games on the 3DS go. Or maybe they had to lock in the fidelity of the graphics before Nintendo had exactly confirmed the power of the 3DS so the devs accidentally lowballed the graphical power they'd have available.

It's an OK XCOM-style game, but I'd probably recommend Steamworld Heist over Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. If you do buy Shadow Wars, either buy a physical copy for like $5 or less somewhere, or watch the Nintendo eShop like a hawk until Ubisoft does a sale and then buy a digital copy for $10 or less.

For real, though Steamworld Dig and Steamworld Heist are really fun 3DS games.

@mike: Haha, did you keep those links saved somewhere?

Stretchmo series is my recommendation whenever I see these threads pop up.

Shin Megami Tensei IV, Etrian Odyssey IV, Final Fantasy Theatrhythm, Bravely Default, Fire Emblem, A Link Between Worlds, Super Mario 3D Land, Yokai Watch.

Attack of the Friday Monsters

@mgalchemist: I watched the entire Persona 4 Endurance run but, I've never played any of them.

Shen Megami Tensei seems like something I would eat up.

Wow I had no idea how many games there were for this system lol I keep hearing and seeing Yokai Watch. If I were on the fence between it and say the newest pokemon, how would you guys weigh in?

Now that you have a 3DS, finally you can buy the Phoenix Wright Trilogy.

Okay, besides Phoenix Wright (I really love that series), I'd add Kirby Triple Deluxe to the many games already mentioned. All of the Fire Emblem games should be up your alley. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is the best game on the system IMO and one of the best games in recent years. I'd definitely give that a go.

The Layton games are all worth getting. There is kind of an ongoing plot, but not so much that you'll be lost if you haven't played previous entries in the series. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright also was quite good.

I'd actually recommend Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker over either Persona Q or SMT IV. Persona Q and SMT IV are both dungeon crawler type games, while DS 2 is more a tactical RPG. I also just think it's a better game than the other two.

@cav829: Tactical RpG you say.... you're speaking my language friend.

@gaminghooligan: You'd definitely be fine then. Having no experience with either game would be a problem since you'd have no attachment to the characters, but in your case, you'd probably get a lot of enjoyment out of the P4 side. Both sides have their moments with characters from both games, but picking one side assumes you know about that game already and doesn't bother explaining the background stuff of those characters.

Edit: whoops, proof-reading

@gaminghooligan: It's really good. It's like what you'd get if you turned Pokemon into a tactics game. It's not like a Fire Emblem game where you'll have like 8-12 units on a map. Rather, you have 4 humans who control two demons each. Enemies on the map similarly can be in groups of 1-3 units. It might be easier to understand if you watch a Youtube clip or two.

Outside of battle, it has a bit of Persona's social link system as well. You choose how you spend your time and what battles to partake in.

The first one is out on the 3DS as well, but IMO the second game was a bit better. The stories are completely unrelated, so you can try either first and be fine. They're both ports of DS games that added a whole bunch of extra content.

Edit: Actually, I just saw the first game is on the eShop right now for $9.99. Might as well start with that one then.

No, I just looked at the 3DS forum for five seconds. These types of "I just bought X console, recommend me some games" topics pop up like clockwork.

Also, if you can wait until March 11th, Ocarina of Time will get the "Nintendo Selects" treatment and drop down to $20 (USD).

• Adventure Games
• Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
• Layton vs Phoenix Wright
• Zero Escape : Virtue's last Reward
• Attack of the Friday Monsters: a Tokyo Tale
• RPG
  • Bravely Default
  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV
  • Dragon Quest Vii & Viii (once they release)
  • Pokemon X/Y
• SRPG
  • Fire Emblem : Awakening
  • Tom Clancy's Shadow Wars
• Rhythm
  • Theathythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call
• Action RPG
  • Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask remasters
  • Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
• Action Adventure
  • Legend of Zelda: A Link between Worlds
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
• Platformers
  • Shovel Knight
  • Super mario 3d LAnd
  • Donkey Kong Country returns 3d
  • New Super Mario Bros 2
• Racing
  • Mario Kart 7
• Puzzle
  • Pushmo
  • Crashmo
• Fighting
  • Super Smash Bros 3DS
• Life Sims
  • Tomodachi Life
  • Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  • Fantasy Life

Let's see... Stella Glow, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Theatrhythm: Curtain call, Bravely Default, The Legend of Zelda: A link between worlds, Ocarina of time and Majora's mask, Fantasy Life, Yokai Watch, Fire Emblem Awakening, Puzzles and Dragons Z: Super Mario Edition combo, Mario and Luigi Paper Jam, Tomodachi Life, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pokemon X, Y Or Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Kirby Triple Deluxe, Persona Q, Pokemon Art Academy...Those are my picks for bigger games. Eshop gems are things like Shovel Knight, Weapon Shop de Omasse, Crimson Shroud, Runny Egg, Box Boy,Yumi's Odd Odyssey

Edit: Stella Glow is a tactical RPG similar to Fire Emblem...well at least on some levels.