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Check out our picks for the DS franchises we want to see make a return on the 3DS.
It's been more than a year since Nintendo launched its 3DS around the globe, but the transition from the DS generation to the 3DS one has been much slower than past shifts in the portable space. In fact, new games for the Nintendo DS are still on the horizon. We don't mind that the last generation of Nintendo portables is enjoying a bit of a prolonged shelf life, but at this point we're also craving some true next steps for several of the best handheld brands from the last several years. Here are a handful of DS franchises we want to see on the 3DS.
Castlevania
Konami made a big show of support for Nintendo's portables way back in 2001 with the release of the Game Boy Advance launch title Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. That game kicked off a cycle of six total sequels exclusive to the Big N's small machines – the last three of which came to the DS. 2005's Dawn of Sorrow, 2006's Portrait of Ruin and 2008's Order of Ecclesia each brought fresh mechanics into the franchise's classic castle-exploring gameplay model and helped define the DS library as a whole.
Now we're dying for a 3DS adventure. Konami's been absolutely quiet on the future of the series after the reboot Lords of Shadow dropped two years ago, but Koji Igarashi and his team must know the demand exists for stereoscopic vampire-killing, right?
Advance Wars
Fire Emblem: Awakening launched less than a month ago for the 3DS in Japan, so we'll likely be getting confirmation of an English-language release soon. Where does that leave Nintendo's other ongoing tactical series, though? Advance Wars has only been around in America since the GBA days, but it's been a fixture of nearly every piece of Nintendo hardware in Japan since the 8-bit Famicom days. Surely a 3DS installment must be in the works.
We'd be thrilled to have that suspicion confirmed, as both DS installments in the long-running franchise were superb – Dual Strike brought the series boldly onto the two-screened system and Days of Ruin blew apart Nintendo's kid-friendly image by telling a story of a global apocalypse that wiped out almost all of humanity. Advance Wars 3DS could keep the momentum rolling and give us 3D modeled units for the first time in the series, making the playing field pop out of the screen and look like an Axis & Allies-esque board game (as Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars first did.)
Picross
Franchises like Castlevania and Advance Wars fuel our hardcore gaming hearts, but we've got to give a nod to some of the best casual gaming in the DS library too – Nintendo's Picross puzzle games. Filling in the spaces to build pixel-art pictures in Picross was winningly addictive, and the more recent Picross 3D brilliantly brought the puzzles into another dimension to have us chiseling away at cubic sculptures.
Picross is actually already on the 3DS, but only in Japan – a game called Picross-e has been available to download for months in their version of the eShop. American gamers are still twiddling their thumbs and waiting for a translation, though, with only an old-school, Virtual Console version of Mario's Picross to tide us over.
Kirby
Kirby, Kirby, Kirby! You're going to be hearing a lot about the pink puffball this year if Nintendo has anything to say about it, as the company's planning a big 20th anniversary celebration for the hero who makes sucking a good thing. We already know that a compilation disc of classic Kirby games will be released for Wii later on in 2012, and the 3DS eShop is getting tons of Kirby love as well – 3D Classics: Kirby's Adventure and Kirby's Dream Land are there already, while Pinball Land, Block Ball and Dream Land 2 should all be arriving soon. That's a whole lot of Kirby.
But there's still something missing. Amid all the re-releases and celebration, we've still not heard anything about any actually new Kirby games on the horizon. Kirby had an incredible run on the DS, with a mix of wild stylus-directed adventures like Canvas Curse and Mass Attack supported by traditional platformers like Squeak Squad and Super Star Ultra. So while we're going to love and enjoy every bit of this year's 20th anniversary for Kirby, what we're really hoping for is news of a true 3DS adventure for the little guy. Come on, you know that round pink body would be too cute popping out of the screen in some new side-scroller.
Mario & Luigi
Lastly we have a Mario spinoff series that seems to have an unfortunately uncertain fate. There have been three Mario & Luigi RPGs on Nintendo's portables, starting with Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance, then Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, both for the DS. They've each been wonderfully comical, bringing together colorful worlds and great, timing-based RPG battles with a winning sense of humor that few other Nintendo games can match. It seems like a no-brainer that such a unique take on Mario's world would earn a fourth installment on the 3DS at some point, and yet that future could be in jeopardy – thanks to Mario's other on-going RPG spinoff series, Paper Mario.
You see, Paper Mario 3DS was announced a year ago, and is almost guaranteed to be a big showpiece at E3 this year. Nintendo wouldn't position another Mario role-playing game against it, so Mario & Luigi 4 almost certainly won't show up on the show floor. Stressful, I know. But here's hoping Nintendo hasn't crowded out the tag-team bros for good by letting Paper go portable - and that Mario & Luigi 3DS will soon become a reality.
Those are five DS franchises we feel need to make an appearance in the 3DS library, but what do you have to say about it? Share your thoughts and ideas through the comments box below, and feel free to offer reassurances that the Mario & Luigi series actually isn't disappearing for good.
It's been more than a year since Nintendo launched its 3DS around the globe, but the transition from the DS generation to the 3DS one has been much slower than past shifts in the portable space. In fact, new games for the Nintendo DS are still on the horizon. We don't mind that the last generation of Nintendo portables is enjoying a bit of a prolonged shelf life, but at this point we're also craving some true next steps for several of the best handheld brands from the last several years. Here are a handful of DS franchises we want to see on the 3DS.
Castlevania
Konami made a big show of support for Nintendo's portables way back in 2001 with the release of the Game Boy Advance launch title Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. That game kicked off a cycle of six total sequels exclusive to the Big N's small machines – the last three of which came to the DS. 2005's Dawn of Sorrow, 2006's Portrait of Ruin and 2008's Order of Ecclesia each brought fresh mechanics into the franchise's classic castle-exploring gameplay model and helped define the DS library as a whole.
Now we're dying for a 3DS adventure. Konami's been absolutely quiet on the future of the series after the reboot Lords of Shadow dropped two years ago, but Koji Igarashi and his team must know the demand exists for stereoscopic vampire-killing, right?
Advance Wars
Fire Emblem: Awakening launched less than a month ago for the 3DS in Japan, so we'll likely be getting confirmation of an English-language release soon. Where does that leave Nintendo's other ongoing tactical series, though? Advance Wars has only been around in America since the GBA days, but it's been a fixture of nearly every piece of Nintendo hardware in Japan since the 8-bit Famicom days. Surely a 3DS installment must be in the works.
We'd be thrilled to have that suspicion confirmed, as both DS installments in the long-running franchise were superb – Dual Strike brought the series boldly onto the two-screened system and Days of Ruin blew apart Nintendo's kid-friendly image by telling a story of a global apocalypse that wiped out almost all of humanity. Advance Wars 3DS could keep the momentum rolling and give us 3D modeled units for the first time in the series, making the playing field pop out of the screen and look like an Axis & Allies-esque board game (as Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars first did.)
Picross
Franchises like Castlevania and Advance Wars fuel our hardcore gaming hearts, but we've got to give a nod to some of the best casual gaming in the DS library too – Nintendo's Picross puzzle games. Filling in the spaces to build pixel-art pictures in Picross was winningly addictive, and the more recent Picross 3D brilliantly brought the puzzles into another dimension to have us chiseling away at cubic sculptures.
Picross is actually already on the 3DS, but only in Japan – a game called Picross-e has been available to download for months in their version of the eShop. American gamers are still twiddling their thumbs and waiting for a translation, though, with only an old-school, Virtual Console version of Mario's Picross to tide us over.
Kirby
Kirby, Kirby, Kirby! You're going to be hearing a lot about the pink puffball this year if Nintendo has anything to say about it, as the company's planning a big 20th anniversary celebration for the hero who makes sucking a good thing. We already know that a compilation disc of classic Kirby games will be released for Wii later on in 2012, and the 3DS eShop is getting tons of Kirby love as well – 3D Classics: Kirby's Adventure and Kirby's Dream Land are there already, while Pinball Land, Block Ball and Dream Land 2 should all be arriving soon. That's a whole lot of Kirby.
But there's still something missing. Amid all the re-releases and celebration, we've still not heard anything about any actually new Kirby games on the horizon. Kirby had an incredible run on the DS, with a mix of wild stylus-directed adventures like Canvas Curse and Mass Attack supported by traditional platformers like Squeak Squad and Super Star Ultra. So while we're going to love and enjoy every bit of this year's 20th anniversary for Kirby, what we're really hoping for is news of a true 3DS adventure for the little guy. Come on, you know that round pink body would be too cute popping out of the screen in some new side-scroller.
Mario & Luigi
Lastly we have a Mario spinoff series that seems to have an unfortunately uncertain fate. There have been three Mario & Luigi RPGs on Nintendo's portables, starting with Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance, then Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, both for the DS. They've each been wonderfully comical, bringing together colorful worlds and great, timing-based RPG battles with a winning sense of humor that few other Nintendo games can match. It seems like a no-brainer that such a unique take on Mario's world would earn a fourth installment on the 3DS at some point, and yet that future could be in jeopardy – thanks to Mario's other on-going RPG spinoff series, Paper Mario.
You see, Paper Mario 3DS was announced a year ago, and is almost guaranteed to be a big showpiece at E3 this year. Nintendo wouldn't position another Mario role-playing game against it, so Mario & Luigi 4 almost certainly won't show up on the show floor. Stressful, I know. But here's hoping Nintendo hasn't crowded out the tag-team bros for good by letting Paper go portable - and that Mario & Luigi 3DS will soon become a reality.
Those are five DS franchises we feel need to make an appearance in the 3DS library, but what do you have to say about it? Share your thoughts and ideas through the comments box below, and feel free to offer reassurances that the Mario & Luigi series actually isn't disappearing for good.