Wii U and 3DS eShops to go - post your must-buys!

I think this deserves a new thread. Basically Nintendo are being shiters and closing down the eShops on both last-gen. consoles, with no aim to make the software available anywhere else. This is especially galling on the Virtual Consoles (given that, let's face it, the NSO offering is nowhere near as comprehensive as those are) and for any games that aren't available anywhere else.

So: do you have any suggested games, or DLC, that will be tricky/impossible to pick up anywhere else? Post your best games here.

I'll start with Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and particularly Spirit of Justice. If you've even got a passing interest in the series to the point where you some day might play them, they're worth picking up. SoJ is one of my top 25 games ever: DD is... still decent, let's say, just weaker. Worth noting you can get them on mobile, where they'll likely be infinitely worse; so it's not a particularly good example. Please, do better!

I posted the games thread but Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation is DLC, I might get. Going to be loads over 1000 games people are saying, I know Sony last year backtracked on this with PSP, PS3 and VITA that maybe Nintendo will as well.

Then as I even said about PS3PSPVITA, how long is a piece of string, as now on PS5 like they got to come to an end at some point.

On the topic, though, can see Cappa have a lot of insight on this.

masofdas wrote:

On the topic, though, can see Cappa have a lot of insight on this.

I might, but I'd need to think about it.

I like this thread idea a lot. There’s lots of fun and creative stuff on both eShops. I’d bet your house on those Ace Attorney games getting re-released elsewhere soon though, Capcom do a really good job of bringing their old stuff to new systems.

My suggested game is the almighty Pocket Card Jockey.



This might be Game Freak's best non-Pokemon game (and that's a high compliment). You win horse races by playing solitaire, with light RPG elements to go alongside the strategy that the racing and card game requires. It’s mashes together these genres fantastically well, and it’s coated with really good visuals, colours and music too. It must also be laced with crack cocaine, because it’s that addictive. At the very least, give the free demo a try.

I never got around to PCJ, and it came up yesterday as well.

For my money, I got a decent bit of enjoyment from Nintendo Pocket Football Club, though I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea.

I think I'm going to shell out on Pocket Card Jockey, which Cappa's obviously recommended and various other sources have too; and Weapons Shop de Omasse, which I'm not quite sure why I missed out on first time around.  A rhythm-RPG mix!  That doesn't star a taiko drum with a child's voice!  I need to get on that.

I've had at look both NLife lists, the Wii U one is tad dull also I have most of the games and I still think the VC is the big thing going from Wii U.

3DS did look more interesting, then I turned mine on, to find I own most of what they recommend part from The Starship Damrey of the Level-5 Guild series.

Nintendo life is a shite website, pass it on.

No website with Kate Grey producing regular content for it can be entirely shite.

It's like the only Nintendo one though

Nintendo Life is a pretty good news source, but it always struck me as being somehow very amateurish, I think because it has a lot of writers who feel like amateurs who write reviews in their free time, and much less content from actual good games journalists (like Kate and Scully).

Some legit names have written for NL, but I often got the same impression as Rum. It always felt like a fansite that accidentally found itself with a budget - and not in the fun ways!

Yeah, the guest reviewers are usually best part of it for me.

Rum wrote:

Nintendo Life is a pretty good news source, but it always struck me as being somehow very amateurish, I think because it has a lot of writers who feel like amateurs who write reviews in their free time, and much less content from actual good games journalists.

Buskalilly wrote:

Some legit names have written for NL, but I often got the same impression as Rum. It always felt like a fansite that accidentally found itself with a budget - and not in the fun ways!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks this way. There’s too many tadgers knocking about who call themselves games journalists, but don’t set or meet a high standard that I feel is fair to expect. It’s like me calling myself a sommelier because I used to work in a pub that sold Echo Falls.

On topic: X-Type Plus on Wii U is a moreish bullet-hell shooter that plays very well, doesn’t take the mick with it’s difficulty and (IIRC) is under three quid.

Is that unique to Nintendo Life though?  My impression is that you either write/wrote for magazines (and with respect to the fine folks behind Switch Player that's not the kind of magazine I'm thinking about) or, in the vast majority of cases, your writing is a step behind 'where it should be'.  That's because you work for an industry that prizes getting news and views out quickly, rather than good writing.  There's no time to hone your craft: gotta get that sweet SEO juice!


Anyway, I tried out two of the soon-to-disappear games off the 3DS store and I thought I'd give my thoughts:
Pocket Card Jockey - I'm bad at this.  I'm very bad at this.  My poor horse.  Still, it's really interesting, not least in that the writing's quite amusing.  You die in the first five minutes!  Where have these writers been when Game Freak turns its attention to Pokémon?  The racing itself is certainly unique, even though (stop me if you've read this before) I'm very bad at it.  I have a sub-par horse called Spronty Chap and I've won one and lost one with it.  Also, I'm surprised Cappa got on with it, because it lays the tutorials on thick: a little too thick to my mind. Anyway, my greatest sadness about this game is that it doesn't have 3D graphics, and I've missed the 3D graphics.
Weapon Shop de Omasse - This has the 3D graphics!  Remember when Level-5 were the last word in gaming?  I do...  I think if I remember this one was spearheaded by a stand-up comic?  Which would explain the canned laughter at random points in the storyline, and the, er, irreverent approach to said story.  The gameplay?  You forge weapons by tapping them rhythmically, while you read a Twitter feed from the heroes you sent out on quests with said weapons.  Yes, really.  It's another very interesting game.

Off the top of my head, I woudl Say Rune Factory 4 might be worth a punt for historical sakes, as anyone without a US or Japanese 3DS won't be able to legitimately play it anyway. Yes, I'm aware that it's now on Switch.

Not necessarily condoning or dissing any of these game (except HarmoKnight, which was crap) any of these games, but here are a few I can think of:

HarmoKnight
Dillon's Rolling Western
Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale
Crimson Shroud


These are all pretty well known ones, granted, but none of them are likely to pop up anywhere again. Dillon was about as popular as syphilis, from what I recall.

I’ve tried that HarmoKnight demo a few times but I’ve never really got along with it. I didn’t think that the gameplay and the sounds mixed together very well, pretty much knackering the whole thing.

Dillion’s Rolling Western was about as good as syphilis too, it was an overpromoted bore. There’s a physical sequel that was much better, and it’s probably much cheaper too.

Attack of the Friday Monsters: A Tokyo Tale was really good, from what I can remember (from like a decade ago). A lot of it’s impressiveness might have come from the fact that it felt like a high-quality, big-budget production on a download service that had basically hee haw else.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Dillion’s Rolling Western was about as good as syphilis too, it was an overpromoted bore. There’s a physical sequel that was much better, and it’s probably much cheaper too.

That's good to know. I picked that up for about five squids when the 3DS was dying off.

Would it depress anyone to know that, at the same time, I picked up Yo-Kai Watch 3 for the same price from Argos?

I had a soft spot for the original Yo-Kai Watch, but fell off it before the sequels. Any monster-catcher that presents you with colour flips deserves some degree of scorn.

Harmonkight was okay. Solid 6/10. Then again, I didn't get on with Attack of the Friday Monsters. Games that take other people back to their childhoods just make me annoyed at the poorly written children. I was a bit too shallow for the barebones nature of Crimson Shroud.

Surprised we've not had Yo-Kai Watch 4 for Switch here yet.

It's Level-5, that's why. They don't do anything in the UK any more. They don't do anything much any more. No money.

Ohh yeah and it's shame as think they had a good looking game in last Japanese Direct. Nintendo should pick up publishing.

Balladeer wrote:

It's Level-5, that's why.  They don't do anything in the UK any more.  They don't do anything much any more.  No money.

Still really sad about this. Haven't moved onto the sequels yet, but I played the original Yo-kai very heavily.

As I just got a bit of money, I've look at various lists etc and got these on 3DS

BUGS vs. TANKS!, This one I don't know much about but completes the Level-5 games as I was getting this other two anyway
The Starship Damrey, Another Level-5 game which seems to be the one that I didn't own already that was the must-have
AERO PORTER, rounds out the Level-5 games which I got because cheap
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation, yeah I know most of ya say it's pants but sooner have the opportunity to play than not

Wii U I've not really looked at yet, just I know it is mostly VC I would want which stuff slowly coming to Switch or ways to play like the GBACastlevania games.

I've got Bugs V Tanks. It's a meh top-down shooting game made interesting by the fact you play as a German WW2 tank.

stu_the_great wrote:

Would it depress anyone to know that, at the same time, I picked up Yo-Kai Watch 3 for the same price from Argos?

Yes, that would make me depressed. I ordered a discounted copy of Yokai-Watch 3 at Argos too, but I couldn’t be arsed going into town to get it