Mr. Shauna's Top 5 3DS Games of 2013!

Mr. Shauna's Top 5 3DS games of 2013

Many of you may know I am a big Nintendo fan. Well this year has been the year of the 3DS for me, and such such I have compiled a list of my top 5 games for 2013! As the year is coming to a close, now is the time for meaningless lists to be shared on internet forums!

My intention is to reveal the top five over the next 2 days. With #1 Being revealed on Monday Evening. This should allow for a spot of discussion on the games under the assumption that I am not the only ones that played them.

Without further adieu, lets begin. Starting with:


Number 5

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

My Playtime - 51 hours

http://i.imgur.com/8Lmztbr.png

Animal Crossing New Leaf was my first time with an Animal Crossing game. I had previously heard jokes from those whom had played the games that my life was over and I would never see the light of day again. For around a month, they were correct. Animal Crossing is stupidly addicting for no reason.

The entire premise for Animal Crossing:New Leaf is that you arrive in a new town and are roped in to becoming mayor. For most this would seem like a hard task, but when the majority of the city's problems revolve around the weed infestation it isn't hard to jump right in. The game revolves around upgrading and paying off your home, and investing in public ordinances to improve the town. You however have to finance this about 99% yourself.

Money is not hard to come by as you can undertake all sorts of tasks such as fishing, bug catching, selling fruits from trees etc. These items can be sold to the local shops, which would mean that the local pawn store owners must be the richest people in the Animal Crossing universe.

The game is made more interesting by changing in real time. Some fish and bugs can only be caught between 4am-9am, while some can only be caught after 11pm which encourages players to come back regularly. Some events also happen randomly on a day to day basis allowing for great variety each day.

Despite all my time with animal crossing it inevitably falls short for me for the same reason that I stopped playing Farmville many years ago, there was no logical conclusion. I can pour hours into a game so long as I know that the time invested is justifiable. The majority of my time with animal crossing was dedicated to completing the collections of bugs, fish and sea creatures but it did not go much further than that.

Animal Crossing is very fun if you just want to tune in for 20 minutes a day to see how things are doing. If you are dedicated to an engaging story, animal crossing may not be for you.

I think this might have been the year of the 3DS for me as well, I'm excited for the rest of this list!

I think I played two 3DS games this year. :shobon: I am good at games.

Wow! Number 4 had great discussion. Lots of interesting topics and opinions to consider! Lets see if we can top that with:

Number 4

Fire Emblem Awakening

My Playtime - 50 hours

http://i.imgur.com/wPpNuQC.png

Fire emblem awaking was a surprise for me this year. I have only briefly played Fire Emblem in the past, and I had not played a strategy RPG since Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. As such I opted to give Fire Emblem Awakening a go. I was amazed by how good it was.

The premise behind Fire Emblem Awakening is that the main character is decided by you as you start the game. You can alter the appearance and gender of this character however it bears little impact to the story. Thereafter, You are introduced to Chrom, the prince of Ylisse and the Shepherds with the task of protecting the country that has been ravaged by war. With the local towns been ravaged by Enemy Soldiers and a new threat know as The Risen, the Shepherds go from area to area defeating these threats and hiring new allies.

Fire Emblem awakening offers a new style of play from previous instalments in that party members can now team up to deal more damage. If a team is used more often, they upgrade their relationship rank which leads to stat bonuses when pairing up. If the pair are of different genders, the relationship rank can reach S rank, which results in the marriage between the two characters.. The more party members that reach this level of relationship, the more secret missions are unlocked which unlock new characters.

With around 50 playable characters and around 12-14 playable characters per the largest maps, the game offers a wide selection of play styles. I for one found that one character later one was so broken that she walked into the enemy stronghold, killed everyone and the rest of my team could put their feet up and have a cup of tea rather than fighting.

Despite never having playing a game in this series before, I found myself engrossed in the game. Leveling up characters to be part of my squad, fighting strong opponents from streetpass/spotpass updates, collecting secret characters all added to the depth that the main story had to offer and padded out the game for grind crazy fellows like myself. Well worth a shot if you can find the time to put into it.

The two 3DS games I played were neither of these games. :shobon: I will get to them eventually. If I finish Pokemon.

Well, you had a bunch of fun with them. I was a gaming widow for a long time because of these games. ...And the games he is playing now. :(

It's true, I played Bravely Default for 9 hours yesterday. I only stopped when we went out for food/wrote up this list. Dedication to the cause!

I was scrolling through my 3DS game activity after finishing Zelda this week and was not surprised to see Fire Emblem with the most hours by far. It may have been lite on customization and mechanics but it more than made up for it on story and charm. It's still engrossing to grind and build your army as you see fit and many of the character interactions are a lot of fun. This was also my first fire emblem and I can't wait to see what else the series can offer.

I found that when you started S ranking the relationships and unlocking the bonus characters that the game became rather easy. The last boss was rather hard but the rest of the game I just Steamrolled.

Playing "you lose a character, they die" is also something I was not used to. I remember just casting Life on fallen allies. So many times I reset Fire emblem...

Yeah, I reset a lot too, its kinda crazy how it's insta death once they're KO'ed, added a lot of challenge.

I think the only battle I had problems with at the end was with the legendary soldiers/weapons in the desert. It does get kinda easy with promoted characters with S rank relationships, and when you start getting the children at high levels with S rank relationships they absolutely tear through the enemy.

Where's Skyblade at?

I've yet to touch the DS gaming library, let alone the 3DS gaming library. Still curious to see what else appears on this list. Didn't know they were still making Fire Emblem games.

They were scared about this one. Saying that it would be the last in the series if it didn't sell more than 250,000 copies. It appears to have sold 1.13 Million units so we'll be expecting more in the future.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mr. Shauna

I found that when you started S ranking the relationships and unlocking the bonus characters that the game became rather easy. The last boss was rather hard but the rest of the game I just Steamrolled.

Playing "you lose a character, they die" is also something I was not used to. I remember just casting Life on fallen allies. So many times I reset Fire emblem...

---

It'd be a lot harder if you didn't reset all the time, I bet. :smash:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mr. Shauna

They were scared about this one. Saying that it would be the last in the series if it didn't sell more than 250,000 copies. It appears to have sold 1.13 Million units so we'll be expecting more in the future.

---

250,000 is considered a low number? Shows you what I know.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ToriJ

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mr. Shauna

They were scared about this one. Saying that it would be the last in the series if it didn't sell more than 250,000 copies. It appears to have sold 1.13 Million units so we'll be expecting more in the future.

---

250,000 is considered a low number? Shows you what I know.

---

At £30 per game (for argument sake) that's £7.5m in revenue at 250,000 units sold. That's pretty good. Conversely tomb raider sold about 4 Million Units and at roughly £40 per unit that'd be £120m in revenue. Funny thing is that was considered a failure by square enix. Costs for triple A games are dumb.

Half way through. Have any of your favorite games this year made the list? Lets see if this makes your list:

Number 3

Pokemon X/Y

My Playtime - 55 hours+

http://i.imgur.com/y1LWgd6.png

Pokémon X/Y are the two parts of the 6th generation of the Pokémon series. While there are many criticisms of the series that the game is the same each time and that the game relies on nostalgia to sell Generation IV is by far the best generation of the series.

The Pokémon series is different for everyone. For some, they train their Pokémon to fight others online. For other, they collect Pokémon to fill the Pokedex. This generation offered an aid to both with the game overall being less of a grind, and offering a much larger selection of Pokémon available via standard play by entering the pool of Pokémon from previous generations.

Pokémon itself is not much to write home about story wise. Travel through the lands fighting Gym Leaders and an Evil Organisation in order to become the Pokémon master. Same old noise from previous games which is where this criticism comes from. Pokémon is not about the story but more the Journey.
Pokémon Y is also the generation of Pokémon that I managed Miss Shauna to play. Therefore it is the best Pokémon game ever.

I have started playing Pokemon again today as part of my new year challenge to catch them all. God help me...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mr. Shauna

Costs for triple A games are dumb.

---

Yes, yes they are.

@Topic, aha! Knew Pokemon would make it on this list somehow. Now I'm wondering if we'll be seeing Zelda.

Who knows!? You'll need to wait till tomorrow to find out!

I am disappointed by the low placement of Fire Emblem Awakening. But I understand having personal preferences adjust the positions slightly.

Truly, this is a phenomenal year for the 3DS.

This thread makes me wish I could afford a 3ds :aimsad: I love Fire Emblem so I'm glad to see it was so enjoyable for you.

We are reaching the end of the list. How has my list compared to yours so far? Did you play our next entry this list? Is all this talk of good games making you wish you had a 3DS? Find out next time on "Dragonball Z". Also:

Number 2

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

My Playtime - 16 hours

http://i.imgur.com/l9YH3i8.png

For those whom have seen me around the forum, this entry should be no surprise. The Legend of Zelda Series is my go to series, and with a few exceptions I have played all entries in the franchise. Needless to say that this Day one Purchase for me. There is actually a funny story surrounding that…

While I love the series, I am a big fan of the top down view iterations of the series (Links awakening, Oracle Games, Link to the Past) so the introduction of a sequel to a link to the past was waited with the highest of hype. Oh man this game delivered.

The main change added to this entry is the ability to buy weapons from a trader early in the game. Traditional Zelda have given you an item to help you solve puzzles within the dungeon, however the ability to have these items before entering the dungeon is a vast change from tradition. What this means is that there can now be various solutions to puzzles as opposed to one. Another addition to this series is the introduction of "Painting link" After a few story events Link is transformed into a painting, and can travel across walls and through cracks. This allows for new puzzles to be invented and that previously were unthinkable in previous iterations.

Another brilliant addition to this installment is its non linearity. When hall the items are available to you from an early stage, dungeons can be tackled earlier than intended (eg previous instalments would require you to have the hookshot from a previous dungeon before advancing to this one). This game this time assumes you have access to all the weapons from an early stage and as such can be accessed whenever you feel. This non linearity allows for a lot more freedom in gameplay by suggesting "I want to do the fire temple first" and being able to do so is refreshing.

The main issue with a link between worlds is it is very short. I purchased the game on the Saturday , and it was finished by Tuesday clocking in 14 hours for 100% completion. This however worked in it's favour as it made me crave for more immediately after finishing. I had to slap my hand and say "No" as Bravely Default was out the following week.

This leaves number 1 on the list. Any guesses to what it could be?

Sweet. I had a feeling this was either going to be #2 or #1.

Calling it, next up is Pokemon X/Y.

Pokemon was already put up at #3! :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shauna

Pokemon was already put up at #3! :p

---

And I even replied to that earlier in the thread...

Haha... Memories.

Well here we are. The finale. Mr. Shauna's Top 3DS game of 2013 is:

Number 1

Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies

My Playtime - 24 hours

http://i.imgur.com/SrUs0dS.png

While Bravely Default was pretty good. I finished it the day after I made my list. Had I considered making the list later It would have been #4, and fire emblem #5. However, this year's best 3DS games goes to Phoenix Wright: Dual Destines.

Phoenix Wright is one those odd niche titles that doesn’t get much publicity. This rings doubly true for the fact it only got an e-shop release outside of Japan. Despite this the game is superb.

The game is the 5th in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series and features both old and new additions to the series. This instalment of the series sees the return of Phoenix Wright to the stand, following his absence in Apollo Justice. Apollo also makes an appearance as a playable character but this entry now features a third playable defence attorney in the form of Athena Sykes.

Each of the three characters has a Unique ability that Aids in the development of the investigations. Phoenix has his Magatama that allows for the investigation into people's hearts to see if they are lying, which can be disproved with evidence. Apollo can use his Bracelet to identify if a person is subconsciously showing they are nervous about a particular statement which leads to further probing. Anthea added a new interrogation technique in the form of investigating the emotions of the witnesses. These emotions of Happiness, Sadness, Shock and Anger are compared to the testimonies that are given in order to identify if a person is consciously or subconsciously lying about events. After identifying the inconstancies, testimonies are then updated to provide the truth surrounding these testimonies.

The reason why this is my favourite 3DS game of the year is that it is a visual novel which we rarely see in the west. The format, characters and story are all superb and you are challenged with finding out the truth behind the crimes while the story develops. Some cases are easy to understand who the culprit is, but finding out motives and methods always lead to an interesting story.

That is my list of 3DS games for 2013. This year has been amazing for the 3DS. Hopefully 2014 will be even better. Unless this is the year of the Wii U!

PHOENIX WRIGHT! *spazzes*

I approve.

Indeed. It is super good fun.This was just icing on the cake.

The only thing that would have made AA: DD better would have been the appearance of Maya. ;_;

No Maya?

And here I was all ready to get a 3DS so I could play this game.

It is still a fantastic piece of video game, and you should still run out to get a 3DS. ;)

Maya was gone in the previous AA game too, so it's not so shocking that she didn't make an appearance here. It would have been nice, but hey ho. :3

It is odd that one of the main characters of the series doesn't appear in the final two games, but I guess her story arc was pretty much fulfilled in AA3.

Great list, and I agree this has been an awesome year for the 3DS. Your number 1 pick was a bit of a surprise and now it makes me want to play it all the more. I have a huge 3DS backlog though. :grumble: