I picked up a new 3DS XL during the holiday season and on a whim I decided to download the four newish StreetPass games. Like Puzzle Swap and the Find Mii games before them, these games are all relatively casual titles that make use of the 3DS StreetPass function. Though I liked some of them more than others, this is an interesting collection that encompasses a variety of unique gameplay styles. Here's what I thought of each title.
Mii Force
This is easily my favorite one of the bunch. It's a relatively simple space shooter in the vein of Gradius or Twinbee. Your weapons are determined by the shirt colors of the other Mii characters you encounter via StreetPass, and each play session consists of a single one of the game's 14 stages. Once you defeat the final boss an "arcade mode" becomes available and you can go back and play through the stages again without the "single stage per game" restriction. This is a fun, competent little shooter with a surprising amount of replay value. Even after beating the main story I'm having fun going through the stages again to find hidden collectibles and top my best scores. Absolutely worth a purchase.
Warrior's Way
I tried to like this game, but it's relatively tedious and rather simplistic. You play as the king of a small country and each person you meet through StreetPass is a "general" who brings along a small army to join you in your quest to "conquer the world". Once you gather enough troops you can invade a country and do battle with its army. By conquering countries you can gain even more troops and earn supplies needed to build a bigger castle. Things progress quickly at first (you don't need many troops in order to conquer the first few countries), but soon the sizes of the enemy armies swell to the point that you need to spend days or even weeks gathering up the necessary bodies in order to beat them. Besides the problems I had with the game's pacing, I also found the battles themselves to be rather dull. The action is completely automated and the only real "strategy" you need to employ is to make sure you have a larger army than the enemy. I feel as though a few small tweaks could have made this game more engaging, but as it is it just didn't grab me.
Flower Town
I expected to be completely bored by this casual gardening sim, but it's actually quite relaxing and surprisingly deep. Players start by planting a seed and each person you meet through StreetPass stops by your place to water your plant and help it grow. As each plant blooms it will release more seeds and the process can begin anew. Plants that have bloomed can be placed in your own customizable garden areas, and job quests can be undertaken where you are tasked with growing specific kinds of flowers. For those who want to go deep there are dozens and dozens of different kinds of flowers you can grow and myriad ways to tweak your garden, but I had fun just playing around and growing random shit. It's super mellow, yet engaging enough to still be fun.
Monster Manor
This one is an interesting combination of puzzle and RPG elements. Players take on the role of a paranormal investigator who must comb the halls of a haunted mansion fighting ghosts and searching for treasure. Characters met via StreetPass give you map pieces that allow you to explore more of the mansion, and your character gets stronger as they defeat more ghosts and find stronger weapons. This was my second favorite game behind Mii Force. The battles, while fairly straightforward, still have a good amount of strategy to them, and it's enjoyable to try and explore every inch of the haunted house.
Overall grade: B
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