3DS Outpost: Niche game alert

Has anyone heard of this new game? It's called "Crossing Mammals" or something like that. "Animals Walking."

Danimals Talking or something like that

I don't really know. I guess it's about some guy talking with some little creatures who can talk. You gotta take this guy (or girl) and dig holes and catch fish so you can make some raccoon guy happy (with your money) (named after a musical instrument). Except this new one on the 3DS also has some girl sheep that you gotta make happy. While still paying the raccoon guy.

Of course this new sheep girl doesn't want your money. She wants you to be nice and plant trees or something until everybody thinks you're nice and they like you. Also you're the chieftan or something. That probably could have been said earlier. Governor. Mayor. One of those. I wouldn't have voted for me. 

So you act as a diplomat and you cross animals for like six hours per day and you don't do anything else with your actual life. You now live with small animal people and you owe your soul and your finances to a fucking raccoon in an apron. Really fun. I recommend this to anyone and everyone who can find a copy. You'll spend days planting trees and hanging up fish and sympathizing with clothes porcupines, just so you can become the best mayor ever. Then population grows. It's a wild world. 

With these city folks.

new

leaf

3DS Outpost: Desperate Times Call for Ice Climber Multi-player

Background: I work at a summer camp. Sometimes it rains at a summer camp. One of those instances, and a particularly dangerous one, happened at 4:30 AM on Friday, May 30th, 2013.

And so, when you and a fellow staffer (doba) are sitting in the dining hall for like 2 hours in the early morning, having already beaten WarioWare and being just kind of tired of everything, you take a desperate route:

Ice Climber download multi-player mode.

Ice Climber became available to 3DS owners in 2011 with the 3DS Ambassador program. Of these twenty titles, Ice Climberstands out as one of the most questionable releases. While many players, mainly those from the 1980s but not limited to them, remember Ice Climber fairly well, many current players stay away from it due to the slippery controls and narrow jump arc. I fall in the latter category.

Single player in Ice Climber works like this: Run left and right, then jump to clear a hole in the icy ceiling above, then jump again to go through said hole. If any animals come, show no mercy and hit them in the head with a hammer. If you fall through your own hole, then you're dead. Do that three times and Game Over. Though I never played Ice Climber while growing up, all of my experiences with it could have been worse.

Multi-player in Ice Climber works... exactly the same way. There's another one, though. It's sorta like a race between the blue one (Popo) and the pink one (Nana). Though vertical scrolling typically kills the player in single player, one player's speedy ascent cannot lead to another's lost life as long as the player on the bottom doesn't fall into a hole. That's nice, as it keeps the competition going between both players, as well as doing a part not to make the multi-player unplayably hard. 

Via the 3DS' download play, Ice Climber's multi-player works fairly well. Not bad, not great, but certainly lasting.

The 3DS Outpost: First, a few confessions

I like to title things. That's my first confession. I like having columns with titles. I also like the 3DS. In this "Column," as it could loosely be titled, I'll talk about the 3DS.  Now for some 3DS-related confessions:

1. I haven't played with the 3D on for months
It gives me a headache. That sucks because I like the 3D effect but I don't so much like physical pain. Granted, even before the system launched, I thought that I would never use the 3D because I assumed that there would be problems with the technology. Thankfully, there were none, but I still don't use the 3D technology.

2. There are a few MP3s on my SD Card
I'm willing to bet that most people don't know that the 3DS has the capability to play MP3s. Well, it can. I've written about this feature before, (Mainly about the laughable attempts at auto-chiptune creation) but still, I have yet to meet anyone who actually uses the 3DS' music player capabilities. I knew a few people back in the sixth grade who used the MP3 player on the PSP, but other than that, these tacked-on music players on gaming devices seem to be mostly obsolete. I wonder when they'll stop trying.

3. I haven't used SwapNote in months
Others have probably done the same. I haven't checked it, even though I could. Really. My 3DS is right next to me and I don't even care enough to look. Sorry if you have sent me anything in the past few months, either of you.

4. My collection does not contain any sports games
Weird, considering the fact that I basically play sports games and nothing else if the stuff that I upload online is any measure. Is that weird? I hope not. At this point, I've only seen a handful of sports games available for purchase. There's a Madden game, Mario Tennis, and a few FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games. I like the idea that both FIFA and PES are available on the system, as that seems to be the only real competition in sports games currently going (unless you want to count the competition between the arcade style NBA Jam and the sim NBA 2K series) I'll probably buy PES 2013 sometime soon.

5. The 3DS is home to my favorite game
My favorite game of all time (at this point, at least) is Mario Kart 7. MK7 currently sits atop my 3DS' rankings in terms of both hours played and times played, mainly because in early 2012, it became a distraction from insomnia. There's nothing better than being unable to sleep at 1 AM and racing against a group of Japanese people. (Correction: Losing against a group of Japanese people). I still consider MK7 to be the best Mario Kart and the most fun game on the 3DS, as well as probably the best game of all time up to this point.

So those are a few confessions. Feel free to comment yours as well!