With over 70 million owners world-wide, the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS isn’t quite ready to give up the fight. In fact, this year we saw some fantastic games on the system. All of which make great holiday gifts those those your your shopping list.
Let’s take a look at the top Nintendo 3DS games for the gamer on your list.
Detective Pikachu
Developer: Creatures
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Adventure
Modes: Single-player
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Detective Pikachu sets you in the role of Tim Goodman, a teenage boy whose father recently went missing. His search brings him to Ryme City, a bustling city full of humans living peacefully with numerous types of Pokémon. Early on you bump into a Pikachu, who just happens to be wearing a brown detective hat. He can talk, too, but for reasons unknown only Tim is able to hear him.
Detective Pikachu is, by far, a highlight of the entire adventure. A major reason for this is his incredibly funny voice and constant comedic one-liners. He sounds like a gruff middle-age man with a spunky attitude, and is always grumbling for his next coffee.
Over the game’s 9 chapters you’ll travel around different districts of Ryme City solving a variety of cases. As a result, this almost always involve Pokémon that have suddenly—and temporarily—became filled with rage. As to why this phenomenon is happening, or how it relates to the disappearance of your father, is something you’ll unravel over time.
Purchase Detective Pikachu for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS
WarioWare Gold
Developer: Intelligent Systems, Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Action, rhythm
Modes: Single-player, multiplayer
ESRB: Rating: E (Everyone)
WarioWare Gold is a collection of over 300 microgames. These are made up of new offerings and fan favourites from across the WarioWare series. WarioWare Gold features a story mode where Wario finds himself short on cold hard cash. Quickly realizing how lucrative the video game industry is, he hatches a plan to host a massive tournament.
With this in mind, your job is to compete in the tournament and earn cash prizes along the way. As a result, your victory is necessary to ensure not only your well-earned reward, but also to stop Wario’s nefarious scheme to take the money and run. Furthermore, upon completing the main story a new challenge mode opens up. This is where the real fun begins!
Here you will find new ways to enjoy all the microgames featured in WarioWare Gold. Challenge mode takes the typical rules of events we became accustomed to in story mode and alters them in fun and interesting ways. The bit-size nature of microgames make it easy to jump in an out of an event. There’s never any concern as to where I leave off when my stop arrives, and even short play sessions leave a feeling of satisfaction.
Get WarioWare Gold for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS
Kirby Battle Royale
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Brawler
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
Kirby Battle Royale includes a single-player story mode that’s all about winning a prize cake. It begins with King Dedede deciding to host the Cake Royal Tournament for those brave enough to enter. The winner of the tournament is promised to receive a scrumptious personalized cake—of their choosing. To the surprise of no one, we soon discover the tournament is a ploy to draw Kirby into Dedede’s trap.
The majority of the Story mode is spent progressing through competitive leagues. You start in the Beginner’s League, and eventually progress through Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum ranks. Each tier introduces new minigames, Kirby Copy Abilities, and eventually items called Boost Orbs.
There are a total of 10 different minigames. These include, Battle Arena, Apple Scramble, Coin Clash, Attack Riders, Crazy Theatre—to name a few. These are simple, straightforward minigames that appeal to kids. Correspondingly, the minigames are quite fun, especially when played with friends using Local Wireless.
Get Kirby Battle Royale for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Action Puzzle
Modes: Single-player
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker features three-dimensional gameplay with perfectly challenging levels. All of which will keep you entertained for hours upon end. One day while both Captain Toad and Toadette are looking for treasure, a gigantic bird snatches Toadette away. Captain Toad sets out to rescue Toadette from the evil bird and save the day.
The story is told in a series of three books, referred to as episodes in the game. The pages in each episode are composed of several chapters. Each page is a level in the game. You can walk, dash, climb ladders, throw turnips you dig up from the ground, and carry items. Each level is self-contained and relies on the heavy use of rotating the 3D camera. This allows you to uncover hidden doors, path ways to advance, and bonus items.
Each level has three goals for you to complete—discover and collect three gemstones, grab as many coins as possible, and an optional objective. Four new Super Mario Odyssey themed levels have been added to Captain Toad Treasure Tracker that can be unlocked by using the Mario wedding amiibo or through general gameplay. This game is perfect for short-burst gameplay and out of the 82 levels in this game, no two are the same.
Get Captain Toad Treasure Tracker for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS
Luigi’s Mansion
Developer: Nintendo EAD, Grezzo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Action/Adventure
Modes: Single-player, multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
With a brand-new entry in the series set to hit the Switch in 2019, Nintendo has decided to bring the GameCube original Luigi’s Mansion to the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS. Luigi wins a mansion in a contest he doesn’t ever recall entering. Sure enough, it turns out Luigi’s new abode is a haven for the supernatural.
Even worse, Mario has gone missing within its halls and it’s up to Luigi to brave a mansion full of ghosts to rescue Mario and get to the bottom of this uncanny mystery. Luigi arms himself with a flashlight and the “Poltergust 3000” and sets out on his arduous task.
One of the biggest updates hitting Luigi’s Mansion is the addition of multiplayer. The second player plays as “Gooigi”. Your co-op partner gets to control this gelatinous-looking green doppelganger as you hunt down ghosts together. You can play the main story campaign in co-op mode and battle for the best time in the competitive “Portrait Ghosts” mode.
Get Luigi’s Mansion for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS
Top Nintendo 3DS games for the gamer on your list
That’s our list of the top Nintendo 3DS games for the gamer on your holiday shopping list. The holidays are fast approaching and you’re sure to make the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 2DS gamer on your list happy with any of these games. Be sure to check out Best Buy Canada for even more great gift ideas for everyone on your holiday shopping list.
Click here to see the full line of video game software available at Bestbuy.ca
The problem with my 3DS is that it isn’t my Switch. I find that I hardly want to use my 3DS anymore. That being said there are some older games that I would also recommend for the 3DS gamer on your list.
The Legend of Zelda: TriForce Heroes
This is a fun take on the Legend of Zelda franchise where you can play either in single player or 3 person multiplayer. If you are playing online though, don’t get hopeful about voice chat. Also, since the game is a few years old I am not sure how active the online community still is.
Super Mario 3D Land
I had a lot of fun with this 3D handheld Mario game. I found it challenging at times, but never to the point that I didn’t have fun.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Please note that this game will not work on your system if your system does not have the word ‘New’ in front of it, (ie. New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL). I do not have one of those systems, so I can’t actually vouch for how good this game is, but from what I have heard it is an enjoyable JRPG experience. The sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, is also available on the Nintendo Switch.
The Nintendo 3DS family of systems has been out for almost 9 years now, and there are many great games available for you to choose from. If you can’t decide on a game, get an eshop card since there are also many digital only games available on the system.
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