Game Plan

9 / 16 / 14

Now, if there is one thing I’ve realized it’s that this holiday season is packed with games. While I do not expect to get everything on that list (and find myself slowly narrowing it down), there’s still a lot I am looking forward to. I have spoken about what I am excited for previously, but I will be using this to go into further detail about my excitement and current plans on what to do, not just with upcoming games, but the games I am currently playing right now and essentially give a brief status update. Please realize this only talks about the games coming out between now and the end of the year plus games with no news about localization at all yet.

So, to start, let’s begin with what I’m currently playing:
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – As most people know, I’m still working on the badges I have left! Besides those 4 badges though, I’ve also finally started work on my Island to make it look a bit nicer. Currently, I’m in the process of transferring flowers (so frustrating T__T) and then once it’s finally done, I’ll write an update showing off the newly finished Island. And of course, updates when the badges finish…

Tomodachi Life – One thing I really need to do is spend a day just getting things caught up. I’ve mostly been just checking in each day for the 3 Markets and to check the shops plus see if anyone new wants to get together/have a baby and also checking the news. I’ll have a small mini-update tomorrow though. Regardless, I just need to find time to not only update the Stat page, but clear out my items as I have…way too many clothes in my inventory I’ve been planning to give characters and just keep forgetting. The biggest issue is I tend to get in the mood to play Tomodachi Life at 9PM…when all my Miis have gone to sleep :| Seriously, how much I wish you could wake them up….

Disney Magical World – Disney Magical World is another game I really need to find more time to invest in as most of what I need to do involves gathering materials. Right now, I’ve been checking even more often for Halloween and also been constantly checking the ponds in the 100 Acre Woods as I really need another one of the rare bubbles from there. Unfortunately, Pooh’s World is the area I’ve had the worst chance finding the rarer bubbles and even Good Luck charms can’t help me enough. At the moment, I currently still need the Nightmare Wallpaper, the Skeleton Counter, Pumpkin King Portrait, Halloween Wallpaper, Happy Pumpkin Lantern, Pumpkin King Pie Recipe (which hopefully won’t show up before I can finish the Carrot Costume…), and the Halloween Themed Bed for Halloween stuff. Only the last item is from Scrooge’s shop–the rest consists of recipes from favors (with the exception of the Portrait and Happy Pumpkin Lantern which are the items themselves). For Fall stuff, I need (at least out of what I know–there could be more) Minnie Fall Skirt and Marie Fall Beret… then I’m set limited-wise until Winter/Christmas. …and as I typed this, I just got the other fish I needed in Pooh’s World so Carrot Costume complete! Yay! I plan to write a Disney Magical World update once I have enough combos to get a picture with Daisy, Donald, and Goofy (together or separately) in their Halloween costumes.

Girls’ Fashion Shoot – As you can probably guess from my last entry, I’ve really been enjoying this game and it’s been a bit of my “break” as the games above all require a lot more effort that I just haven’t felt up to lately. Essentially, while I enjoy minigames and things, I have a lot of trouble with things that are grind-based. If it’s for a quest, I can do it, but the same thing over and over without the goal changing tends to tire me out. I’m not entirely sure how long I’ll be playing this as I’m not sure where exactly the end is. Maybe when I reach #1? Maybe when I buy everything? I’m honestly not 100% sure. Despite that, you can find a new page on the website for it showing off the various designs I’ve done in the game. I’ve had fun streaming it, but I’m not sure just yet if I’ll continue to stream everything or not.

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright – Technically, I’ve beaten this game already :P But there are still bonuses (12 total) which come in every Friday so still doing that! Which brings me to…

Pokemon X – Right now this is kind of inbetween here and below. I only am occasionally letting it sit open to try and get the Pokemon Amie decorations I still need… but not knowing how many I have left makes it kind of hard. Besides that, I still occasionally try for ribbons I still need (Battle Maison and the Super Training ones are all I have left and I can’t do the latter due to it being too stylus heavy for me–only got one with help… And well, I’ve ranted enough about my Battle Maison issues).

Games I need to get back to

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy – Like with Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, I’ve already beaten it and only have bonuses left. Now, I love puzzles. A lot. Unfortunately, Azran Legacy took the same bonus puzzle format as Miracle Mask which I found… incredibly boring. It just doesn’t switch up enough and I don’t like most of the puzzles that are options either which makes it really tedious. I love the rewards for it, but I just wish the puzzles were better. I’m sure I’ll get to them eventually, but it’ll be quite a while…

Hometown Story – I really want to give this game another shot–I find several things about it fairly interesting. I just need to get over certain mechanics and the lack of direction for it first.

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning – I just want to get my child fully grown. Everything else is done though.

Style Savvy: Trendsetters – I mostly want to get a picture in each event. The hard part is I’m not entirely sure how many events there are. Style Savvy had a great index of all the different outfits and when the events are, but the sequel sadly does not.

Pokemon Rumble Blast – Yep! I still haven’t beaten this. I’m in the last area I believe, but in general a lot of stuff came out that I just cared for more as some of the changes in this game made it disappointing for me compared to the Wii version (though, I still find it better than the Wii U version).

Freaky Forms – I need to StreetPass people more to get the final trophy I need. Plus I need to try and get jackpots more for the final pattern I still need.

Art Academy – As I’ve mentioned before, I have issues with Stylus heavy games so I can usually get only one lesson done at a time and then I usually hate my work so much I give up for like months. I’d like to complete it though. I’m hoping Pokemon Art Academy may get me to try and stick with it more… but I’ll talk more about that in the next section. Also, I missed the special Goomba pattern which just made me even more unmotivated :(

Nintendogs + Cats – Another game where it’s just up to luck and hoping to get the final items I need. Regardless, I’m still determined to try.

Fire Emblem: Awakening – One of the bigger ones. I beat the main story and I did all the DLC, but I really want to get all the support conversations done with each person plus get my renown maxed so…

LittleBigPlanet 2 – While the main story is 100%’d, I have several DLC packs which are not along with DLC I still need to buy. The main issue is LBP2 has many things I’m just awful with (like anything involving the Move or Vita) and also requires more than one person… On top of that, my PS3 is very very old and the overheating is getting worse by the day which makes it harder and harder to play for long periods. :(

Super Mario 3D World – I really want to finish the final world and final mystery box and get all the stamps, but it’ll be a lot of practice before I do so…

Games I’m looking forward to/will be gotten sometime soon

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call – This actually comes out today, but it’s unlikely we’ll be getting it on release. While I seem to be a lot better at it according to the demo (yay for button controls) and supposedly character unlocking is easier, there’s just so much happening right now I can’t really go out of a way for any game I don’t feel I’ll be super in love with. That said, I definitely want this game a lot more after the demo now that I know I won’t break my wrist while playing and that I have a much easier time with it. I love the music in the game so.

Disney Infinity 2.0 – Coming out in a week, I’m sad I can’t get it at launch. I love Disney, but this is a game that I know will just end up costing me quite a bit. As it is, I think it’ll be a long discussion on who we decide to get in the first place.

Hyrule Warriors – This is probably more my fiancé’s highlight than mine, though, I still think the game looks cool. I don’t think I’ll stream it or write much about it, but I am looking forward to playing as Zelda, Ruto, and Lana. Still sad Saria didn’t make it though! I am sad it doesn’t look like North America will be getting the full special edition with the clock and chest in addition to the scarf though–that pack looked amazing so it makes me sad it doesn’t look like it’ll be making its way here.

Super Smash Bros 3DS & Wii U – While I have yet to decide if I want to go to a store to get it (I’ll probably be doing this for the Wii U version though) or just pre-order from Amazon, I’m still pretty excited for it. It’s not too much longer until the 3DS version is out and I’m looking forward to getting to play as Jigglypuff and do my Pokeball toss matches. I am probably going to do the Classic Mode followed by Adventure Mode with every character first… but I may do some versus matches inbetween just to unlock characters. That said, I’m really nervous about the challenges/requirements of some things. I don’t think I’m good enough to be able to achieve many of them which makes me quite sad as collecting trophies is my favorite part and I’m really looking forward to the Mii customization…

Fantasy Life – I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS. I really want to finish a lot of the games I’m currently playing off (or at least get them to a good point) because I know I will be focusing on this game a lot. I’m just super excited to level up all the classes and dress up my character and decorate her home and play with friends and seriously, I can not explain enough how excited I am for this game. I just hope I’m not completely awful at the “minigames” that happen when making things.

Pokemon Art Academy – As mentioned above, I have the Art Academy game which I am still trying to play more. I’m hoping with this being Pokemon and the fact that maybe I won’t miss out on special DLC will make me more motivated for it.

Sunset Overdrive – While I most likely won’t be getting this at launch simply because I do not have an Xbox One yet (and with how the year has been going, it seems our plans to get one most likely won’t work out), I still think it looks great and if I did have the system, there’d be no doubt in my mind on whether I should get it or not. The customization looks amazing and it reminds me so much of when I still really enjoyed the Sonic series with all the rail grinding. I miss you, Sonic Adventure series. But yes, back to Sunset Overdrive–the exploding Teddy Bear launcher just makes it even better. THE POWER OF TEDDY BEARS.

LittleBigPlanet 3 – LBP3 has a weird effect in the fact that I’m constantly going back and forth on it. Not because of the game–LBP3 looks awesome, but an odd thing on if costumes are coming over or not. With all the changes, it seems highly unlikely they will come over (with maybe the exception of DLC). On the otherhand, you may still be able to get them through levels… on the otherhand, maybe none of the items will be available and there will be all new DLC and etc. And I just have so many scenarios going on in my head that I don’t really know what to do and I don’t want to go into LBP3 without figuring this out. On one hand, if they don’t transfer, I don’t have to worry about the few things I have left in LBP2 or the DLC I didn’t buy. On the otherhand, if they do… well, you can figure that out. I just wish there was more information on what is going on with this.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire + Omega Ruby – I know I will be getting these on release. There’s no question on that. I am IMMENSELY excited about Secret Hideouts and their upgrades. I am in love with Mega Audino’s design (why can’t it be permanent T___T). I have my party ready to go (minus Cosplaychu). But there’s still been no news on Trainer Customization! And that sucks. That really sucks. I just… I want confirmation on it already. And if they really did remove it, that’s just… super super super disappointing. Like I said, I’ll still get it, but… bleh. May’s design has always been my least favorite (I also only liked her very first outfit) and just customized trainers with the updated contests (and wow do I hate her contest outfit) and secret hideouts would be absolutely amazing.

Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley – At the moment, it seems The Lost Valley will be out first. While I still have some worries for both (Story of Seasons seeming nearly impossible to complete in the time I like do to Animal Lifespans, Lost Valley’s lack of a shipping bin, neither really having a Bachelor that jumps out at me, etc.), I’m still looking forward to them just for my love of the Harvest Moon series in general.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker – Captain Toad is adorable. Puzzle games are adorable. There is just no reason I wouldn’t be super excited for this. If not also terrified by some of those level designs.

Games I’m still waiting on news for

Magician’s Quest: Town of Magic – I’ll be honest, I know this is probably never going to come over. I loved Magician’s Quest and that’s part of what makes me sad that the sequel is most likely never going to happen. It’s essentially Animal Crossing with magic and quests.

The update to Style Savvy: Trendsetters – Japan received an update in Spring that added several new features. Ignoring that Japan also got some lovely items we didn’t (Baby the Stars Shine Bright has a US brand too T__T And that blue dress is gorgeous… I wish it was also in pink) and some of the stuff removed from the North American version, I just really hope we can get the update. I feel like it may be unlikely due to the things that were removed which makes me sad, but I really want to see the update come over. The game could definitely use it.

A Surprising Game

9 / 15 / 14

Every so often, there are games I debate back and forth on whether to get them or not. Girls’ Fashion Shoot is one of them. After a rough day and due to the fact that it is currently on sale on Nintendo’s eShop for about $8 (plus tax) until September 16th, I decided to go ahead and get it. I was expecting something similar to Style Savvy, but a bit cheaper. And I was wrong. And after having played for about the last 8 hours, I can truly say I wish I bought the game sooner. Girls’ Fashion Shoot is by Rising Star Games and is for the 3DS. It came out a little over a year ago. Although the graphics may not be the highest quality, if you enjoy dress-up games, the gameplay more than makes up for it. If you’d like to see the game in action, I’ve uploaded several Youtube videos.

While Style Savvy focuses on owning a store and dressing up models to show off your line, Girls’ Fashion Shoot focuses on the opposite as your character is the model. You get to dress up for photo shoots, send photos to auditions, and shop. You also get to dress up just… to dress up :P There’s even a StreetPass feature. The game has a completely different time system as well with the game being in an endless month until you either complete the “small job” in your room or complete 5 jobs at the Agency. Despite it not feeling like much, everything takes a certain amount of time and roughly 8 hours went by a lot faster than I expected and I’ve only played 8 ingame months. Your goal is to be the top model at the agency. Unfortunately, you don’t get to keep any of the outfits you use in a photo shoot.

There’s also special events that your character can be invited to which get you special pictures. I can’t say what specifically excites me about the game, but I have a lot of fun putting the fashion shoots together. It reminds me of when I used to play the Barbie Fashion Designer games when I was younger. They had a mode where you could print out a cover and magazine articles and it was my absolute favorite thing to print them all out and put together a book of them. And I’d be lying if I said that nostalgia wasn’t brought back for me with this game.

But yes, below you can see pictures of all the events and Photo shoots and things I’ve done so far (while the one above will continue to cycle randomly):

And because there’s that many…

A Day of Smash

9 / 12 / 14

So, today was a pretty eventful day as Smash Brothers for the 3DS came out in Japan. Thus, Nintendo also did a stream showcasing some of their upcoming games. I was really excited to see Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (though, one of the levels seemed really hard and now I’m scared of how long it’ll take me to 100% it :P Still looks fun though!) and Fantasy Life–though, I wish we also got to see more of both too.

During Nintendo’s Stream, they said they’d be sending out the demo to Platinum Members (2014 ones) until the Smash Brothers stream started. It hit 4PM, I didn’t get one and I’ll admit I felt a bit discouraged. I knew I had all notifications activated so imagine my surprise when at about 4:20PM I received an email! I don’t know if there was a delay sending them or if they planned to send them out longer (their stream went longer than originally stated as well), but it made my day. I think the only thing that could’ve made me more excited was a code for Fantasy Life :P

I played the SSB4 demo for about 4 and a half hours and I definitely enjoyed it a lot. My only real “complaint” is I wish you could’ve chosen between time or stock (even if 2 minutes or 2 lives was still set) and I wish there was also a training mode available. It’s been such a long time since I played that I had a hard time getting a hang of it again and having to just jump back into a match and do my best rather than really getting to practice was a bit frustrating. That said, I still managed to beat the computers on each level of difficulty.

I had the most fun using Villager in the Demo. I expect to still use Jigglypuff and Kirby most of all–they are just much more my playstyle, but I think Villager will be up there with Peach in 2nd for characters I enjoy playing as. I really want to try out Duck hunt Dog, Robin, Mii Fighters, and Rosalina. I expect at least Robin and Rosalina to also be in the 2nd category for me, but not sure on Duck-hunt Dog just yet. I’m not sure which Mii Fighter I will go with–probably the Fighter type honestly, but I may try each just incase the trophy at the end of the Adventure mode varies based on what Mii type you use.

I haven’t decided how I plan to unlock others. I want to try to unlike Jigglypuff first if possible–I know doing vs mode to unlock everyone would be faster, but I want to do the Adventure mode with everyone anyway so I may just do it that way (plus more to unlock)… Just need to figure out which characters require a certain intensity level.

In which I have to say I hate that the intensity level is required for some. I’ve really only good with a couple of characters and even then, I have my limits. Sad that the achievements/challenges section has various stuff in songs too as now I need to do them all :P Regardless, it’ll be a lot of practice for me to get decent enough to do everything… And also a lot of practice learning the controls too.

Anyway, I am very excited to be playing as this adorable bow Jigglypuff (Jigglypuff looks so cute in this game):

I miss the crown one, but her new bow is adorable (and was the other I played as)–I also like the one with the nurse hat. I do miss her teal eyes though! The blue does look nice, however.

I am a little sad though about the Ice Climbers leaving–I never really used them, but I liked them and felt they were interesting… Also that Jigglypuff has the same final smash–I think something similar to Peach’s or a fairy move like Dazzling Gleam or Moon Blast would’ve been much better. Finally, considering Little Mac has 16 colors, I wish other characters did. Robin, for example, only has 4 per gender which kind of stinks as I would’ve liked to play the white robe with black hair, but that is male only. I’ll probably end up using the pink because of this… But I guess it just makes me wonder why they didn’t do more options with other characters.

Regardless, I am still looking forward to it. I hope I can get a lot of it done before Fantasy Life comes out though…

And if you still want more Smash Brothers, you can check out the newest Nintendo Minute too along with various streams on Twitch that are still going (I’ll probably stream more tomorrow).

What I’d like to see in the next Animal Crossing

9 / 9 / 149 / 9 / 14

Chances are, we’ll end up seeing the next Animal Crossing for the Wii U. I don’t expect it to be too far off (unless they’d be saving it for the new 3DS or another portable) and after random chatter during one of my streams, we started talking about what we would want to see in the next installment of the game. While there are games that I feel need new installments and others that I feel can do much better with just new DLC (Disney Magical World is a good example of the latter), Animal Crossing is a game where I feel it could use a new installment, but with a transfer feature.

In a similar note, if Pokemon keeps the customizeable trainers (something I am STILL hoping or in ORAS so so so so much), I think a transfer option would be good for it too. Your trainer goes to a new region, keeps said Pokedex progress and badges and essentially can earn more–kind of like Ash in the Anime. Obviously, this would have some dialogue changes (or maybe just from the Professor anyway) which would probably be the biggest issue, but I think it’d still be a neat feature. Regardless, this article isn’t about Pokemon so I’ll end that train of thought there for now.

Going back to Animal Crossing, Wild World had a bit of a transfer feature, but your character just moved on so you only kept your appearance. Considering you’re the Mayor of this game, transferring would be hard unless you ditched your mayoral duties. I think it’d be neat if transferring meant your town became a bigger version of itself and more or less was a giant expansion versus a new game.

That said, onto the list:

A Bigger town. As mentioned above, I’d love to be able to increase my town. I worked really hard on it and really adore it, but the limits (30 Public Works for example) can be really frustrating. I really wish bridges didn’t count. Plus the option to have more villagers.
An actual land editor. That’s one of the main things I really feel Animal Crossing doesn’t have right now (The others being able to design skirts, pants, socks, and shoes). I think it’d be great if we could apply patterns and place things in an overview and move stuff around. Maybe even set ramps and how cliffs are, change the beach around… Just in general, make our towns even more unique.
Being able to actually place our villager’s houses. Even if the above never happens, I’d love if when a new villager popped up, Nook would show up at your door and be like “Hey, NAME is moving in. Do you want to place their house?” and you can be like “Yeah, sure!” Or “Let them choose” and if you pick the latter, it’s random, but if you pick the former it’s like when you place your house. I don’t feel it’d be too hard to implement.
Choose how many villagers you can have in your village. I’m sure there will still be a minimum and a max (5 or 6 as a minimum and 12-15 as a max seems like a good number to me?), but I know some people like smaller towns.
The campsite can also be used by our villagers. I think it’d be neat if they decided they randomly felt like camping out. I mean, your villagers could randomly do an Igloo in the first game, so why not?
Have some options when it comes to moving. I wish you could either turn moving off altogether or set it individually (more so the latter than the former) so that if you really like a villager and want them to stay forever, THEY CAN. You don’t have to worry about your ultra favorite villager leaving. Many of the villagers I have in my game are villagers I’ve had in every game they’ve been in. And I’ve never had the amount of moving prompts before this game. Most people feel the increased amount is due to the fact that the main way to get pictures is through them leaving even though you can get them through tasks as well, but whatever the reasoning is… it’s really frustrating.
Be able to have multiple laws/ordinances. I would think the price would go up for each you add, but I feel being able to add more (and having more to choose from in general) could really help make towns more unique.
A bigger item limit. I always loved how the Gamecube game didn’t have an item limit. New Leaf thankfully increased from the 20 item limit of Wild World and City Folk, but if you went and put up a lot of Wall items, that item limit suddenly doesn’t feel so big anymore.
Beautiful Town ordinance also includes flower immunity from running through flowers. Sometimes people get carried away–I’m guilty of it too. This would just save so many issues and considering flowers aren’t supposed to wilt with this ordinance, it’d be nice if it also made them immune to being destroyed from running like on the island minigame.
The ability to go back and forth between the 3DS. This isn’t too unusual–there are other games that have done it and I think it’d be neat if you could play the game normally at home and then switch when going out. Maybe you wouldn’t be able to do everything or it’d be a more comprised version of your town, but I just think it’d be a lot of fun and give the best of both worlds.
If Badges return (and I hope they do), I’d love to see a counter built into them or a counter somewhere to keep track. A large reason I am having so much trouble with what I have left is there’s no real way to know how close I am or how much I have left. I think this would help a lot in not just knowing how close you are, but knowing when to expect Phineas as well.

And that’s it for now :) If I think of more, I’ll add them, but I think that’s good enough for now.

Mail drop!

9 / 5 / 14

One of my favorite things is whenever I get stuff in the mail and despite a bit of frustration earlier, it was a really nice surprise–I expected one of the packages, but the rest I had no clue on when they’d get here.

So, onto the mail!

First up–two Pink Moon necklaces:

Despite how they look, they are not Sailor Moon merchandise. I had seen a picture randomly and decided to try looking it up–in the end, I found two… one on Etsy (the one on the left) and one on Ebay (the one on the right). Differences are the one from Etsy features darker round gems along the gold. It also has a more metal feel versus the paintedness of the one from Ebay (which is also a brighter “gold”). The one from Etsy is also a bit bigger. In general, the one from Etsy is more fancy and intricate while the one from Ebay, while still nice, does noticeably look cheaper when compared. I do think both are pretty though and not too expensive.

Next… PLUSHIES. This lovely Shooting Star Plushie:

Made by PaeoniaDrop. (You can find her on Twitter and DeviantArt as well. I am eventually going to try and make a cute bunny from one of her patterns and hopefully it won’t come out awful :3

And MEGA AUDINO PLUSHIES.

This one is by lillyann123:

While this one is by BleedingHeartsCrafts:

(Special thanks to Zero for holding it in place!)

…I truly look forward to the day where I can get better lighting in the basement and have a camera that can take better pictures.

Review: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

9 / 2 / 14

This is a game I had been anticipating since its announcement and after quite a long wait (almost 2 years since it came out in Japan and about 5 months after it came out in Europe), it finally came out in North America last Friday. Was it worth the wait? Completely. Whether you are only an Ace Attorney fan or only a Professor Layton fan, this game is still something you should be able to find enjoyment in (as long as you don’t hate court rooms and/or puzzles). The game does a great job crossing over the two series along with many ties to the original games and various staples you’ll be familiar with. I’m anxiously looking forward to getting to personally play the rest of the bonus episodes, but for now let’s get to the full review.

Tomodachi Life: New Month!

9 / 1 / 149 / 3 / 14

So, it’s not September which means…

1. New SpotPass DLC!:

Bicycle Helmets! Available in Blue, Green, Orange, and White.

2. New Monthly Interior!:

Pumpkin Patch :D

Not too much has happened in my game so just enjoy some random pictures for now!:

Note: I received the game early from Nintendo. Thank you, Nintendo! :D If you are interested in Tomodachi Life, you may want to look into picking it up!

On the new 3DS

8 / 29 / 148 / 29 / 14

I woke up to a bit of people wondering my thoughts along with surprise that I wasn’t up–to be honest, I forgot about the Nintendo Direct that had been announced despite being previously excited for it. It wasn’t due to already thinking it’d be disappointing or that it wouldn’t be important since it was Japan only (I often watch the other Nintendo Directs out of curiousity)–I simply had some issues sleeping due to excitement about the mail that should come today (PROFESSOR LAYTON VS ACE ATTORNEY) which I’m still waiting for.

Thus, when I got on, the first thing I heard was new 3DS. And I felt confused. Very very confused. That feeling almost immediately hit disappointment which has been going further the more I heard about it.

The new 3DS seems to have some features I really like which only makes it worse by the fact that I don’t want it. And it’ll apparently be out sometime 2015 for North America. :/

My main issue is, like with the Nintendo DSi, eventually there will be a game you want and you will be forced to get it. The main difference is I didn’t put as much “effort” into my Nintendo DSi. It’s not that I didn’t play it as much. I definitely did. I enjoyed Flipnote Hatena and several of its features. But I adore my 3DS a lot. StreetPass is one of my all-time favorite features and for the longest time, I had the StreetPass plaza as my favorite game. I bring my 3DS everywhere in hopes of seeing that green light pop up. I had my 3DS decorated twice (The first by an awesome friend as a birthday present–the 2nd time, shown below, by myself moving it from my original 3DS after the charge port had broken):

And as most of the people here should know, I also have a 3DS Capture Card–something that does not exist on the XL. I mean, who knows, maybe it’s CPU is so big it can do streaming off it. I don’t think so considering I’m sure that would’ve been announced, but moving on… I love being able to screenshot and record my 3DS. I have a tendency to take A LOT of pictures. If you’ve played LittleBigPlanet 1 or 2 with me, you know how many times I’d stop everyone to take a photo. Or to upload photos. And that isn’t even every photo I took because for a while I just uploaded them to an SD Card before I know that is what would happen when I uploaded them to the web. Still sad not all my photos are there now. MOVING ON…

If you’ve seen my posts here, you know I STILL have a tendency to take a lot of pictures. And if I couldn’t record, it’d honestly be about 10x more at least. I like being able to record so much and I wouldn’t want two 3DS–I like all my data on one (thus part of why I’m so picky on downloading games). If it’s data on another 3DS, it never feels like it’s mine even if I own both.

So for me, recording was a way to actually lessen my pictures a lot and the fact that I could just screenshot and upload meant a lot to me because it was much quicker. Removing the SD Card (especially after one incident) was not something I enjoyed doing to upload pictures. And while I appreciate the Nintendo 3DS Image Share website, just one at a time was way too slow for the amount of pictures I had the tendency to take. If I had to use these two options without a capture card for my Animal Crossing site, Disney Magical World site, and Tomodachi Life playthrough here, it’d honestly be a huge detriment to my enjoyment and eventually just really weigh down to the point where I’d play significantly less and less (Kind of like what the moving mechanic in ACNL did). And while yes, I know one of the new features has to do with this, there has been nothing that says it’ll be more than one picture at a time. Not to mention the quality varies–of course, this has a chance to be improved as well (though, I didn’t see it mentioned).

Those who know me know I rarely ever replay games so being able to have these recordings is really special to me. And again, saved so many pictures. While you can get a capture card for an XL (though it is very expensive), I’m sure it’ll be a while for one for the new 3DS plus I honestly can’t justify the price again. I made the exception when my original 3DS broke due to how special it was (being half pink and half teal), but I know I can’t do that again–I do not have the funds to make any justification for it as much as I’d like it.

Finally, I just don’t like the XL. I don’t like the shape, the matte finish (Though, the metallic seems kind of shiny which is nice… but only the XL versions are like that and I don’t want the XL), and in general I find it too big. While the latter may not be an issue with the smaller sized one (It doesn’t seem too much bigger, thankfully), there’s still the first two problems which is why I’ve never planned to get an XL.

But yes, going off my own personal reasons from being turned off about it, I want to go over the features too and my feelings on them:

Features I like

Amiibo support with no peripheral – I won’t mind using a peripheral, but obviously this is pretty awesome and the only thing I really envy from the new 3DS.

Better CPU so the new 3DS is faster – Never really a bad thing so… I don’t really find my 3DS slow in the first place, however.

Can move files between 3DS and PC via Wi-Fi – This should be unsurprising that I like this feature. Though, you can already move pictures and stuff through the internet, so unless it’s more than one at a time/completely replaces the use of the SD Card and can also be things like backing up or transferring downloaded games (versus just deleting them and downloading later)…

Home menu themes – Up there with the Amiibo thing–one of the things I REALLY like. I’m not going to go into full detail here since I’m going to talk about it below (since all 3DS’ get it), but just yay.

Videos work in Internet Browser – Yay!

Features I have mixed feelings on/Don’t care much about

Better 3D view: I rarely use the 3D feature anyway so better 3D doesn’t mean much to me… I’m not sure why I’d be looking at it from the side anyway? I guess if I was watching someone, but…

Bigger screen on New 3DS: I actually found the XL screen “too big” honestly, so I’m not entirely sure how I’ll feel about the bigger screen on the New 3DS.

C-Stick and ZR/ZL buttons – I’m worried they will be like my issue with the Vita where they will feel too small. Also, everything just seems really cluttered now. I don’t want to say for sure until I try them though.

Better Battery Life – I’ve never had an issue with my 3DS’ battery so this just doesn’t matter much to me.

Also a Micro SD Card – I…really don’t know what it’s for/the point just yet so…

Swappable covers – You’d think I’d really like this considering my 3DS is decorated and my original was half teal, half pink, but…:

They don’t even cover it. The white (or whatever color it might be) stripes along the top and bottom because the case couldn’t actually be the whole thing really really really bugs me.

3DS Internet Filter – This really depends on how the filter is. I mean, 30 cents isn’t that much, but at the same time if I’m paying to view any site that isn’t Nintendo, it’s still kind of upsetting. I honestly don’t use the Nintendo internet browser too much. Most of the time, I use it when I need to enter a login on a website while away for work on vacation to get my 3DS on the internet and that’s what really worries me as I could see those being filtered due to not being commonly accessed sites. I mean, the 3DS DOES have parental controls. It’s disappointing (even if I can see why it is this way) that it’s not enough.

Features I dislike

Start and Select moved – I never had an issue with their original slot so…

Volume control moved – I just really liked it’s positioning to begin with.

Game Cards, Stylus, and Power Button moved to the bottom – Much more worried of things accidentally popping out now or hitting things. When my 3DS gets loose from it’s stand, it usually falls on the bottom which if it’s where the Game card and power button is… well… Not to mention I could see the Stylus just falling out randomly when it gets loose enough.

If I missed any features, please let me know.

Right now, I’m just hoping there will never be a game I like that needs that 3DS. But I know there eventually will be and thus, the only thing I really feel is a load of sadness and disappointment. Not necessarily in anyone in particular–it’d be stupid to think there was never going to be a new 3DS… but there’s a difference between a new version (XL, 2DS) and a version that you need to get for new features. And of course, when there is a game I’ll want (even if I’m still hoping there won’t be), I hope a light pink and white version will be out by then (if not a completely light pink version).

On the bright side, this does bring every 3DS the ability for an Awesome theme menu so yay!:

At least I hope that applies to North America too… ._. I do know I’ll have trouble picking one though… I hope we can maybe mix and match them.

Edit: Confirmed for October in North America too! Yay!

Tomodachi Life: Love continues

8 / 26 / 14

With team preparations for Pokemon Alpha Sapphire more or less done, I’ve had more time to play Tomodachi Life. To my surprise, love has continued to be a trend and it seems to be happening a lot more often which is nice as I had been kind of disappointed with how slow it had been going. I think it helps that a lot of my Miis now know eachother due to hanging out with a Mii and others coming over. It probably also would’ve helped if I didn’t start out with so many… too late for that though.

So, onto the updates!:

Jennifer, Zero, and Marina went on a family vacation.

Jigglypuff loves Kirby Saga:

She was denied again. But then finally (with some help from Isabelle)…:

Flora confessed again to Luke:

He said yes this time!

Meanwhile, ChibiUsa tried to get Haruka and Michiru together:

It didn’t work out, however, another attempt by Cooking Mama and well….:

Yay :D

Wally also had a good day between proposing to Kuki:

And finding out his most favorite food (Red Pepper):

I have to say, while it’s the usual house for the two personality types, it REALLY fits them a lot:

And Claire once again asked Professor Layton out–despite some competition, he finally accepted!:

I was really tempted to have her confess giving him a top hat, but I’d probably cry.

As for existing couples, Subaru and Luna had their first baby–a girl they named Cassiopeia:

Finally, please enjoy Zero appropriately dressed for playing Takamaru’s Ninja Castle in Nintendo Land.

And music fun:

Plus beach relaxing:

News highlights:

Note: I received the game early from Nintendo. Thank you, Nintendo! :D If you are interested in Tomodachi Life, you may want to look into picking it up!

Finally, I’ve gotten a few messages on Stream stuff… While it doesn’t look like my special stream will be happening soon (unless something changes–then I’ll try for Thursday), I will be streaming Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney as soon as I get the game until I finish it (not straight though–I don’t think I can finish the game in a ~14 hour period, but we shall see). I’ve wanted to do more random streams (I’ve almost streamed Tomodachi Life, Disney Magical World, and Animal Crossing), but have just not had the energy lately for various reasons.

Keep Up to Date