Thursday, December 10, 2015

Streetpass Insanity



I have been very very busy with Streetpass Mii Plaza. This is incredibly addicting. It has seriously gotten out of hand for me and one other. It has gotten to the point we both stop through our local Home Depot just to get tags. What? Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. You see - the Mii Plaza has this thing it interacts with called a "Nintendo Zone" and in various locations working in conjunction with Nintendo - they have set up these zones with a wifi connection. When your 3DS/2DS/Handheld of the 3DS family is within range of one of these zones, you get a "streetpass". What this does is send Miis from other people's 3DS console to YOUR console and lets you play games with their Mii.

Of course this isn't active - it's passive stored data that you interact with after the fact that somebody has already been there. Someone could be using your Mii across the world in an entirely separate game. The thing is, you can only Streetpass up to 10 Miis at a time. So you have to play ALL your Mii Plaza games before letting anymore in or you'll waste them. Thankfully you can store up to 10 more Miis at your "gate" before it reaches max capacity.

The problem? In high density areas such as cities and local conventions you will probably max out before getting to play even a single game. You don't want to have to sit there and play all your games while you have other stuff to do! Unless that was your sole reason for coming there. To make matters even worse, Nintendo has "National Streetpass Weekends" where you can collect people's Miis from all over the country.

This helps people who live in rural areas(like me) to get the passes we need for that last puzzle piece, soldiers for our army, fishing bait and so on. What bothers me is that they can do this and decide to make it event only and not permanent. What's the drawback? Is Nintendo afraid people would lose interest too quick? I know I would be far less addicted and have been finished with my streetpass games long ago if they weren't so darn -rare-.

I love Streetpass games. I really do. I love dressing up my Mii in silly hats and communicating with other players. Maybe even being the one person they needed to help them win a game. But there are other games I would like to get to. Triple A titles and even OTHER 3DS games that I enjoy. I wish it hadn't become such a grind although I am so close to having everything I can get (All hats, birthdays, accomplishments... not so much) I don't feel like I can stop now.

I need a major boost. One that hopefully Nintendo can provide.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Ultimate NES Remix


Ahh... the NES Remix series. It has held it's place on the WiiU until finally making it's way to the 3DS. Now you can take challenges from your favorite NES games with you on the go and compete with online scores provided you have a connection to Wi-Fi. Additionally, you may see a replay of how the person achieved their score to get tips on how to improve your performance or see which exploits may have been used to get to where they're at.

The premise of this game is simple - you select a game from an NES series from Mario, to Zelda and even Punch-Out!! where you are given a task to complete. If you complete the task, you finish the level. However, you can earn up to 3 stars on each level and the faster you complete your task(s) the more stars you will get. Essentially... the game is a speedrun with the fastest person scoring the highest on the board. Additionally - gaining stars on levels can unlock new games and even sometimes secrets - giving you extra incentive to reach for those lofty times.

I recommend this game to NES fans & veterans alike looking for an extra challenge in their favorite games of yesteryear. Just one warning - there are no full-versions to unlock for any of the games included. What this boils down to is a score-attack type game where you can show off online and to your friends. Even so, it remains excellent and the games are still what you remember after all these years.



                            Super Mario Bros. 3



                              Punch-Out!!


Special thanks to:
xboxwarrior for the +1!