Ok. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and I'm picking up a (regular) new 3ds today, the Super Mario bundle one.
If I could only get like...3 games to start, what are the best ones?
I know I'm late to the party but I did not see anyone mention it yet, so I have to tell you that downloading Stretchmo might be the best decision you ever make. Here are all of the reasons why:
1. It costs $10 for all the levels (at least it did when I got it). If you don't want to commit $10, you can just buy one or two level packs (though if you end up buying all of them, it costs a little more to buy them each individually). (If you are just going to buy individual level packs, I would recommend getting Mallo's Playtime Plaza (the introductory pack) and Papa Blox's NES Expo (the hardest pack), but really it's worth $10 to get all of them, because you get a level editor too which makes the game last forever, plus Perilous Peak if you beat all the other levels which has a few crazy hard levels in it.)
2. What is Stretchmo, is what you're probably wondering. I'm glad you asked. Stretchmo is a puzzle game, where you pull out pieces of a design (often times a picture of something) to climb to the top of it. I'm sure that didn't make sense, so download the free demo and play it to see what I mean. When I played the demo, I was a little skeptical of how much you could really do with that mechanic, but it turns out, a lot. Enough that it's my second-most played 3DS game (Smash 4 being my first), with almost 90 hours logged. A lot of the puzzles are very challenging, and require a surprising amount of outside-the-box thinking to solve, even though the mechanics are very simple and well-defined.
3. Let's go back and appreciate the fact that it cost $10 and has lasted me 90 hours so far. That's $1 for every 9 hours, and it's still my go-to game when I'm bored on an airplane or sitting around with nothing better to do. But even better, every single one of those hours was packed with loads of fun, there was never a point where I felt like the game was a grind. I loved the Portal series but it cost more and didn't last nearly as long as Stretchmo. I love Pokemon too, but even though those games can last a long time, they sometimes become grindy. Stretchmo is cheap, lasts forever, and is always fun.
4. It's very easy to make your own levels. This is where I think it really has Portal beat. Portal 2 has a level editor, which is super cool, and even though the developers did a great job of making the level editor as clean and user-friendly as possible, the mechanics of Portal inherently make it very difficult to make levels. Not so with Stretchmo! If you can scribble, you can make Stretchmo levels. There's all sorts of ways you can make Stretchmo levels. You can absent-mindedly doodle patterns that look cool, you can draw pictures, you can copy pictures from another source and try to make levels out of them. Making
good levels takes a little work, but really compared to pretty much any other game with a level editor, I think Stretchmo's is the easiest to use.
5. I have a bunch of cool levels I've made personally that you can download if you somehow run out of things to do in Stretchmo. I have quite a few levels that are extremely difficult (harder than any of the levels in game), and a lot of them use really unique clever tricks that aren't really used in any of the other levels in the game. The best part is, probably about 60% of my levels are Pokemon-themed. I made them by looking at the sprites for the little icons (when you're switching Pokemon in battle) and trying to copy them as accurately as possible, and then adding ladders and switches and stuff to them to make them into interesting puzzles. The other ~40% of my puzzles are mostly just cool-looking patterns.
A few weeks ago a friend asked me what my five favorite single-player games were, and Stretchmo was really the only one that I could very confidently say had to be on the list.
A few other recommendations.
I'm a huge Pokemon fan, but more and more lately I've found that I really just like the idea of Pokemon more than the actual games or TV show. I'm sure I'll still get Sun or Moon when those come out. But I recommend the Mystery Dungeon series; in particular, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon (the most recent Mystery Dungeon game). The Mystery Dungeon games have always had some major balancing issues, but those have been getting better and better and Super Mystery Dungeon is pretty much fine now balance-wise I think. Here's what I like about the Mystery Dungeon games compared with the main series:
1. They feel a lot more immersive to me, which is the most important thing about Pokemon games (since, as I said before, I like the idea of Pokemon a lot more than the games themselves).
2. They have more interesting plots.
3. They usually feel less grindy, as there's no separate battle scene (it's like a roguelike, where you walk around and fight enemies as you run into them).
4. I generally think the battles are more interesting than the main series games, though they can still get repetitive.
5. The exploration is more fun because dungeons are randomly generated (though this probably has the opposite effect for a lot of people).
That being said, I never actually finished Super Mystery Dungeon (my interest in it kind of just faded eventually). If you have any interest in Pokemon though it's probably the best Pokemon game to get right now (besides maybe Pokken Tournament, which is for the Wii U and also for a very different audience).
Rhythm Heaven: Megamix is another good game. I have not played any of the other Rhythm Heaven games, but I like Megamix a lot, and wow I just checked and I have almost 70 hours on it. It has a quirky sense of humor (it's developed by the same team that made Warioware) and lots of fun and very challenging mini-games. I have a few complaints about it that I think could take it from being great to amazing, but it's overall very fun and entertaining.
Yoshi's New Island is pretty good. It has an overall very cute and happy feel to it. I'm not sure if you'd like it if you didn't already grow up loving Yoshi's Island.
Even though I'd probably say Smash 4 is my favorite 3DS game, it's probably nothing to write home about if you're not already into Smash Bros., fighting games, or Nintendo. As a competitive fighting game, the main difference I think between Smash Bros and other fighting games is that Smash is much more positional, which I think makes it a much more interesting game. But really the main reason most people get into Smash in the first place is because they like to see all their favorite Nintendo characters beating each other up in fun and hilarious ways. So that's why I say you're less likely to have interest in it if you don't already have some experience with Nintendo.
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3DS...I never actually played that one, but I played the Wii version, and I think they're the same. I'm a big fan of DKC games. The new ones (DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze) are very difficult platformers, with absolutely gorgeous aesthetics (visuals and music; though I'm not sure how well that translates to the 3DS). If you're going to get one platformer, I think this would be the one I recommend.
Contrary to popular opinion here, I don't like Fire Emblem. At all. I could rant about it, but it doesn't quite seem fair for me to judge Awakening and some of the newer games, because I haven't played them. My experience with Fire Emblem games has been that almost everything in the game is designed to piss you off as much as possible, and make you feel like you have control over things when you're really just making totally meaningless decisions because you have no way of knowing what's coming. I don't mean this to be insulting to people who like FE though, I'm just warning you that you may not have the experience that everyone else seems to have with them. Most of my friends who have played FE love it, but a few feel the same way about it that I do, so I know I'm not the only one with that opinion.
That's all I can think of. In summary:
I very highly recommend Stretchmo if you have any interest in puzzle games at all (it's cheap and will give you endless hours of fun)
I recommend Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon as a more immersive alternative to the Pokemon main series games
I recommend Rhythm Heaven Megamix if you're just looking for something light and fun and you like or think you might like rhythm games
I recommend DKC Returns if you're looking for a good, challenging platformer
I recommend Yoshi's New Island if you're looking for a light, cheery platformer
Maybe hold off on Smash 4 unless you already have reason to think you'll want it right away
Be wary of Fire Emblem
