amphibious_ReViews

As I said in my review of Mii Force , I prefer the StreetPass games that are more passive, rather than those that are action-oriented and demand more focus. Because of that, Battleground Z was the game I dreaded trudging through the most. It was the final game in my lineup, so I had the incentive of getting a new set of Miis from the line and going back to Puzzle Swap as soon as I beat the next level, but I still had to work up the motivation to continue every time. It wasn't even a bad game, and I can see all the cool things they're doing, it just didn't fit with the way I like to consume my StreetPass-fueled media. Battleground Z takes place in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, with you and the people you meet via StreetPass being some of the few survivors. Following the instructions of a genetic scientist who thinks she can cure the zombie virus, you have to battle through various locations to protect survivors and collect zombie DNA for testing. The stages have a lot o...

I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to complete Find Mii II. Unlocking only after you beat the original Find Mii at least twice, Find Mii II is longer, offers multiple branching paths, requires multiple playthroughs of the same routes for completion, and has a secret second quest that does that all again, just bigger! For a long time, the Find Mii games were the only way to unlock new hats for your Mii to wear in the plaza, so their slow grind was still rewarding, but it truly felt like I was never going to be able to finish it. Thankfully, with the combined powers of NetPass and a 3DS Play Coin hack, I finally collected all of the hats in both quests and can move on with my life. Find Mii II is functionally and aesthetically a very similar game to its predecessor, yet it has enough improvements to effectively replace the original. For comparison, the relationship between PAC-MAN and the far superior Ms. PAC-MAN comes to mind. Just like in the first game, your goal is to save ...

All of the pre-installed games on the 3DS were incredible to me as a kid. They may have just been glorified tech demos, but the fun of experiencing such novel technology cannot be overstated. I spent a lot of time playing Face Raiders and the AR Card games, but Puzzle Swap, a demonstration of collaborative gameplay via StreetPass, was easily my favorite. Originally one of just two games in the StreetPass Mii Plaza, Puzzle Swap has now been joined by a large variety of StreetPass-based games, yet it remains one of my favorites. The simple yet rewarding act of trading puzzle pieces and unlocking 3d dioramas had me hooked from the start. While it was a ton of fun finishing up my remaining puzzles all these years later, the prime Puzzle Swap experience was back when new puzzles were still being released. With every update, you'd get a piece of one of the new puzzles as a starting gift, making it your duty to disseminate your share while you try to collect the rest for yourself. Th...

Having already beaten the first Gunman Clive several times when this was announced, I was very excited for a sequel. I bought it on my 3DS as soon as it was released and made it a few levels in before I had an unfortunate realization. Despite all of the advancements and new features, I was finding more frustration with the difficulty than I ever did with the first game and I lost my motivation to continue (please note, I refuse to play these games on anything other than the hardest difficulty). Returning to it almost a decade later, my complaints have disappeared and I can now see how much of an improvement this is over its predecessor. The original Gunman Clive will always have more of a nostalgic hold on me, but I can't deny everything Gunman Clive 2 does right. From the very start, Gunman Clive 2 is dressed to impress. Clive feels the same as before, running, jumping, and shooting as expected, but the world around him has seen some major growth. You start the two games in the s...

The announcement of Princess Peach: Showtime intrigued me for a couple of reasons. Of course, I thought it was neat that Peach was getting the chance to star in an original game outside of the established Mario canon. Still, I was more excited that a Nintendo game was coming out that I could experience with my wife, and maybe even my daughter when she's old enough. My wife doesn't like video games very much, but a special one comes around every once in a while that pulls her out of her shell and helps her to appreciate this medium that I love so much. When she first learned about Showtime, she got pretty excited about it, which kept me optimistic until we actually got the game. She played one level, thought it was fine, then never felt interested enough to play again. Instead, I ended up playing through the whole thing on my own and thought it was good enough. The game's developers, Good-Feel, have quite the pedigree with Nintendo. With games like Kirby's Epic Yarn, Yos...

I'm used to Google-made games being short, yet generally pretty fun, or at least cute. Diamond Valley is fairly short, but all the charm I'm used to was absent for this one. Trying to get people invested in the Google Play Points ecosystem is a significantly different motivation than celebrating a special event, but I was still surprised by how icky the game made me feel to play. In fact, I really only kept playing because I wanted a chance to win the prizes on offer. I've recently learned better than to allow myself to be sucked into little promotional games like this because I know I'll make myself review them. My resolve broke down for Diamond Valley because it offered sweepstakes, and I love myself a good prize. Each of the drawings has an entry fee, which you pay with currency earned by playing the game. With more Google Play Points, new phones, and Duolingo merch available, I nearly completed the game, earning all but two of the thousands of gems available to me a...