If you’ll be looking for something new to download from Nintendo’s digital stores this Thursday, here’s what’s available this week: Continue reading
Tag Archives: 3DS Download Software
News: Two Tribes’ Toki Tori Arrives on eShop This Week
Toki Tori, for many, was a WiiWare launch title, with a sequel on its way to the Wii U’s launch window. However, the series actually made its debut on the Game Boy Color, and you’ll be able to download the original puzzle game for £3.60 this week; amongst an assortment of other 3DS, Wii and DSi downloads. Continue reading
News: DLC For Mutant Mudds Incoming?
Jools Watsham of Renegade Kid has today confirmed that one of the 3DS’s finest games, Mutant Mudds, is being ported to PC under the alias Mutant Mudds: Grannie Edition. How does this affect owners of the 3DS game, though? It was also confirmed that the Grannie Edition will include an extra twenty levels which may well be on their way to the 3DS game via downloadable content.
The PC port’s press release reads as follows:
“In addition to the 40 challenging levels featured in the original Mutant Mudds, players who purchase this special ‘Grannie Edition’ on PC will be treated to 20 brand new levels!”
And then, when queried on Twitter, Renegade Kid’s Jools Watsham posted the following response:
“Many are asking if the 20 new levels in the special ‘Grannie Edition’ of Mudds coming to PC will make their way to the eShop. It’s possible.”
Great news for those of us who’ve cleared the standalone game and are looking for some extra longevity with the title. Whether these levels, should they make it to the Nintendo 3DS, will be free (much like Mighty Switch Force‘s DLC) remains to be seen, but surely more Mutant Mudds would be worth paying for?
Source: joolswatsham.blogspot.com, Twitter
News: Nintendo Letter Box Update, Mario & Sonic Virtual Card Album Now Live on eShop
Expansion app now available!
Nintendo UK’s going a little QR Code mad today, making two of the square little blighters exclusively available to its Twitter followers.
The first takes you into the Nintendo eShop, where you can download an update to the Nintendo Letter Box software. Whilst adding nothing monumental, you’ll be able to push the left or right button on the D-pad whilst writing a letter to change the colour of your ink. Spoilers – you can now write in red, blue, green, purple, orange, as well as the standard black ink.
The second QR Code takes you to the download page of the Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Virtual Card Album, which was revealed by SEGA’s brand director of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Both downloads are free, so be sure to check out the eShop for these latest downloads, on top of this week’s bumper selection of games and DLC, as confirmed earlier this week.
News: Mutant Mudds Demo, Theatrhythm DLC and Castlevania Arrive on eShop This Week
Be sure to stock up on these before Thursday!
This week’s European Nintendo eShop update is arguably the best we’ve seen since the launch of the service in June of last year. With an original 3DS download title, the first downloadable content for a retail 3DS game and a brand-new demo, there’s plenty on offer for everyone with a 3DS and an Internet connection.
3DS Download Software
Zombie Slayer Diox
UFO Interactive
£5.40
Zombies have taken over most major cities in the world and our hero, Diox, is on a quest to put an end to the undead. Lure the zombies with your sweet songs and slick guitar solos, and cut them down with your mighty katana when they get close.Add-on Content
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Square Enix
90p each
A Fleeting Dream (FF10), Ride On (FF08), Cosmo Canyon (FF07), In Search of Light (FF05), Fighting Fate (FF13), Fighters of the Crystal (FF11), The Final Battle (FF04), Battle Theme 1 (FF02)Demo
Mutant Mudds
Renegade Kid
Free
Armed with a heavy-duty water canon, Max has what he needs to vamquish his long-term nemeses: the Mutant Mudds. Max must blast and hover his way across the soiled landscape to seek out mysterious Water Sprites. Collect all the mysterious Water Sprites and wash the filthy Mutant Mudds away for good!Virtual Console
Castlevania: The Adventure
Konami
£2.70
Count Dracula has risen from his grave to threaten Transylvania and only the chosen one – who wields the mystic whip – can stand in his way. Brandish your trusty whip, seek out upgrades to increase its power, and battle Dracula and his minions to save the day.DSiWare
Escape the Virus: Swarm Survival
Teyon
£1.80 / 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Dodge, wind and jump to link all pieces of DNA and build the longest chain ever while fighting off vicious viruses. Look at your surroundings and get one off bonuses such as vaccine or a micro-world equivalent of a rocket-launcher.
If our review of Mutant Mudds didn’t tempt you to download the game the second it launched, maybe the demo’ll rectify that. As for the Theatrhythm add-on content, are you pleased to finally see Nintendo embracing a digital strategy, or do you think the extra content should’ve been on the cartridge?
News: Nintendo eShop Celebrates First Anniversary with Discounts
£9 no longer! For a week…
Nintendo revealed during its Nintendo Direct presentation this morning that, in celebration of its first anniversary, five Nintendo eShop games are available to download at a discounted price, with another five to follow in a week’s time. Here’s the list of games that are currently 20% cheaper when downloaded from the 3DS:
Pullblox
Zen Pinball 3D
Let’s Golf! 3D
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
Super Mario Land
On 28th June these games will return to their original prices, whilst five more get their prices slashed:
Dillon’s Rolling Western
FreakyForms: Your Creations, Alive!
Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH!
Mighty Switch Force!
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
From the first selection we’d wholeheartedly recommend Pullblox and Link’s Awakening, followed by WayForward’s fantastic Mighty Switch Force! which recently received a free update which added five new levels. Oh, and the Super Mario Land games also deserve a mention for those that want/haven’t already had a taste of Mario’s first handheld adventures.
If these games sell well enough during the next couple of weeks it may convince Nintendo to cut games’ prices more often, so if there’s a game here you’re interested in we’d urge you to download it if possible.
Also on the eShop today are demos of Square Enix’s Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 3D. Having played through both, we can safely say that the final games are well worth waiting for, and if you own a 3DS that’s connected to the Internet, download them right away!
Review: Mutant Mudds (3DS Download)
Mutant Mudds
Developer: Renegade Kid
Publisher: Renegade Kid
Review Platform: 3DS Download
Also Available on: N/A
Release Date: 21/06/12
Genre: Platformer
PEGI: 3+
Price: £8.10
Review
The Nintendo eShop has already played host to an array of 2D side-scrolling platformers, from the Super Mario Land trilogy via its Virtual Console service, to the excellent Mighty Switch Force from WayForward: from the original monochrome Mario titles to the modern, brand-new, action-packed puzzle platformer. What Mutant Mudds offers, however, is a striking cross between the two. From the developers behind first-person DS shooters Moon and the Dementium duo, Mutant Mudds sees Renegade Kid taking on a completely new genre and, quite frankly, getting it absolutely spot on.
The gameplay itself harks directly back to the retro days of the NES and the SNES, basically tasking you with navigating from the left to the right side of the screen without dying. As you’d expect, there’s a jump button to navigate the platforms, but the protagonist Max is also equipped with a gun and a jetpack – the first used to wipe out the Mudds that have invaded, whilst the latter allows Max to hover for a short time, enabling access to otherwise-unreachable platforms and collectibles. So far, not so revolutionary, but what’s there is fantastically implemented to make this a very challenging game. You will die in Mutant Mudds, and you will die a lot – especially if you’re considering going for 100% – but every time you take that third hit which fully depletes your health bar, you’ll see where you went wrong, and subsequently be able to focus on getting that little further. For a game with reasonably sizeable stages yet no checkpoints, that ‘one more go’ factor has a lot to offer here.
That said, the game’s main gimmick, which involves using launchpads to fling yourself into the background or foreground, had a lot of potential, but is unfortunately extremely limited. Unlike in Mighty Switch Force where you utilised the ‘switch’ mechanic whenever it was required, you can only hop from front to back when there’s a launchpad around – and their appearances are somewhat rare. This means that there’s no hidden platforms for you to find, and no obstacles specifically requiring you to be stood on a certain plane at a certain time. In fact, its only practical use is as a showcase for the system’s 3D effect, which we’re pleased to say is put to fantastic use in this game. You can play in 2D, but it’s no where near as immersive. When the 3D is slider is pushed to the top, the depth of field added to the game is fantastic, with background platforms appearing to be literally inches further into the screen than they are. When you’re in the foreground, Max is extremely close to the camera which does make seeing where you’re headed slightly more difficult, but the enlarged 2D sprites look really crisp in the foreground as the world passes by at the back.
In terms of length, we’ve read elsewhere online that the game is short on content, but we’d have to disagree. For £8.10 (many will scoff at that price) there really is plenty of bang for your buck. Inside each of the already-challenging sixteen levels in the first four worlds are hidden one hundred Golden Diamonds – all 1,600 of which are required to unlock the final world, which consists of another four levels filled with said shiny collectibles. And then in each of the twenty standard levels are hidden doors. Finding and entering these take you to bonus levels, meaning there’s more than double the number of levels you’d expect upon initially starting the game. What’s extra nice, though, is that these levels are entitled G-Land and V-Land, each one respectively harking back to the graphical styles seen on Nintendo’s Game Boy and Virtual Boy systems – the former ‘boasting’ green-tinted monochrome levels, with the latter’s being red and black. These levels are somewhat shorter than others in the game, but offer a much greater challenge, and add some variety to the otherwise colourful, vibrant levels.
In conclusion, Mutant Mudds is a fantastic 2D platformer that feels that it could’ve come from a first-party Nintendo studio. Anyone that might not enjoy the genre won’t be won over by the game, but for those that do will lap this up and relish its challenging gameplay and tight controls. It’s just a shame that its leading gameplay quirk wasn’t taken as far as it could have been.
4.5/5
Many thanks to Renegade Kid for providing us with a review code.
Review: Samurai Sword Destiny (3DS Download)
Samurai Sword Destiny
Developer: UFO Interactive Games
Publisher: UFO Interactive Games
Review Platform: 3DS Download
Also Available on: iOS
Release Date: 14/06/12
Genre: Hack & Slash
PEGI: 16+
Price: £5.40
Review
When you think of samurai, it’s likely that you’ll also think of words along the lines of ‘agility’, ‘speed’ and ‘precision’. Unfortunately, Akane - Samurai Sword Destiny‘s protagonist - possesses none of these traits, mainly thanks to its control scheme. Coming to the Nintendo eShop via Apple’s App Store, the game’s controls have taken a noticeable hit in the transfer from touch-screen-only devices to the 3DS.
When you begin your quest to find Tetsuo, your elder brother who’s been kidnapped by Lord Fuma, your moveset is extremely limited: you move left and right with either the D-pad or the Circle Pad, and choose between swiping the stylus across the touch-screen or mashing the A button to use the standard slash attack. More complex combos are unlocked as you progress, but it is actually possible to play through the entire game (a single boss fight aside) by just slashing at your adversaries with your default attack; and while the game’s description makes claims of “blazingly fast side-scrolling action,” we’re sad to say that the only thing that’ll be blazing is your temper when the game fails to recognise a perfectly-executed combo attack.
In the game’s defence, Samurai Sword Destiny does offer a solid levelling system. Each enemy you defeat in the game gives you a set amount of coins, which can then be spent on one of ten upgrades to either Akane’s katana, or her abilities. Said upgrades enhance a variety of aspects of the gameplay, from giving you extra HP, to the ability to roll by pushing either of the 3DS’s shoulder buttons – vital for that single tough boss fight we mentioned earlier.
To keep things fresh throughout, there’s also the occasional “ambush” level in which Akane runs by herself, whilst you take control of speeding up or slowing down your character to avoid falling boulders, and pushing the B button to defeat archers and deflect their arrows. These can get just as repetitive in their own right, yet in many ways are oddly even more fun than the main game. On top of this, adding very slightly to the replay value is the inclusion of a Survival mode, and a Challenge mode. The former puts you against an unlimited number of enemies whilst you mash away at the A button or the touch-screen to kill as many as possible within a time limit, whilst the latter puts you against a set number of enemies which you must defeat by… mashing away at the A button or the touch-screen. Thankfully, you still earn coins which you can spend on upgrades for the Story in these modes, so it does take away the need to re-play previous chapters, although it would’ve been nice for these modes to mix up the gameplay a little.
Samurai Sword Destiny does excel in one area, mind, and that’s presentation. Whilst the soundtrack consists of fairly generic Japanese samurai-style tunes, the hand-drawn graphics are beautifully vibrant when played in 2D, and the coloured characters and enemies really stand out from the artsy monochrome backdrops. Push the 3D depth slider up, and the game well and truly demonstrates that Nintendo’s 3DS is fully capable of out-of-the-screen 3D effects.
Overall, UFO Interactive’s first 3DS title is a fun little time-waster for those with a little disposable income looking for some mindless samurai-slashing action. Fans of the genre will feel right at home, although will likely be very disappointed by the lack of variety and the length of the game, so download with caution.
2.5/5 Samurai
Many thanks to UFO Interactive Games for providing us with a review code.
News: Mutant Mudds Finally Gets a European Release Date!
Sailing to Europe next week!
One of the Nintendo eShop’s best games is finally set to leave North America and release in Europe, Australia and New Zealand on 21st June. That’s the word from Nintendo UK’s Twitter feed following news that the game’s six-month delay has been due to a miscommunication between the developer and Germany’s age-rating board, USK.
“UK platform fans, the wait is almost over! #MutantMudds is coming to Nintendo #eShop on June 21st.”
Since launching on 26th January over in the States, the game has received all-round critical acclaim from gamers and reviewers alike, and even seen enough success to warrant the confirmation of a sequel by Jools Watsham of Renegade Kid.
Do you plan to download the game from Nintendo’s virtual store next week?
