With 1000+ games released for the dynamo handheld, there are more than a handful of games on the Nintendo 3DS that got overlooked at time of release in favour of games like New Leaf, Mario Kart, and uhhh Kersploosh. Let me stop dragon this intro on and open with:
7th Dragon III Code: VFD
As well as sounding like an illness your cat might get, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD is the first of its series to receive an official English localization. It’s also currently the final entry in a series that’s never really had a good marketing push behind it.
The 7th Dragon series places dragons front and center as an invading species that has Earth under siege. Imagine Reign of Fire, but with more waifus. 7th Dragon III, set in the year 2100, stars a customizable set of characters recruited to help fight back the dragon menace.
7th Dragon III’s character creation is quite robust, featuring lots of character art and voices to pick from — and unlike fellow dungeon crawler Etrian Odyssey, none of these choices are tied to the game’s varied classes.
The party you create will be sent into dungeons to explore and fight the enemies within. The game’s use of time travel allows for a variety of eclectic biomes, from ancient advanced civilizations to medieval kingdoms in the far future.
Though the dungeon crawling takes after its peers of the time, the turn-based combat is where the game truly shines. It doesn’t break new ground, but 7th Dragon III does a great job at shaking up the many character classes, giving each one a special gimmick and playstyle that makes them feel distinct.
For those looking for a different-yet-familiar twist on the dungeon crawling RPG formula, 7th Dragon III is a perfect fit. Next up: Outrun but more purple.
80’s Overdrive
Is Mario Kart 7 not your style? Do you prefer something a little more old school, perhaps a tad more Sega? 80’s Overdrive has you covered. This pixel art arcade racer is the perfect bite-sized experience for those looking for a nostalgia hit while on the go.
As with other games in this genre, like Sega’s 1986 title Out Run, this is racing distilled to its purest form. Career mode sees you buying, repairing, and upgrading cars to use in 35 different races, while Time Trial has you race against the clock to the end of a stage, with multiple paths to choose from along the way.
The game looks brilliant, with gorgeous pixel art that looks great even on 3DS. It also has some slapping electro music you’d expect from a modern retro homage. And although 80’s Overdrive is also available on Switch and Steam, the 3DS version does have one surprising draw: it makes good use of the 3D effect, something that most other games on the platform never really tried to do. Ultimately, 80s Overdrive is just a very solid bit of arcade racing without much fat on the bone that’s worth dipping into if you miss 16-bit racers. And if you have a particular R-Type, you might like this next game.
Nano Assault
Developer Shin’en Multimedia made a bit of a splash with the Switch’s fantastic F-Zero and Wipeout-alike Fast RMX, but they’ve been around for quite a bit longer. Though their early work features a handful of licensed games, they’ve also put out some original titles, like Nano Assault for the 3DS.
While Nanostray on the DS is your typical sci-fi scrolling shoot ‘em up, Nano Assault shrinks things down to a microscopic level. Your job is to stop a deadly virus, and so you have to do that thing every animated show seems to do eventually, and shrink down to take the fight directly to the contagion within the cells themselves. Nano Assault’s gameplay takes several different forms, ranging from twin stick shooter stages to rail shooter battles similar to Star Fox.
Nano Assault’s art style and visuals are really quite bloody lovely, and despite being released in 2011 — early into the 3DS’s life span — it’s a pretty good indication of what the magic handheld could do.
Interestingly, Nano Assault actually received an updated re-release on the eShop, titled Nano Assault EX. This version of the game smoothed out the controls a touch, added Circle Pad Pro support, and brought in some new content, such as a Survivor Mode. The eShop shutdown has sadly made that version unavailable, but the original Nano Assault at least got a physical release. If only the eShop was kept alive in some unofficial way, hmmmm.
The Alliance Alive
Made by a talented team known for their work on RPG greats like Final Fantasy, SaGa, and Suikoden, The Alliance Alive took the feedback from Cattle Call’s The Legend of Legacy to heart to deliver a much better game.
The narrative, penned by the late Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Murayama, is set in a world where Daemons have invaded and subjugated humanity for over a thousand years. As the name might suggest, The Alliance Alive stars an ensemble cast that seeks to overthrow Daemon rule. The divided focus on many characters allows the game to flesh out its world in ways that other RPGs can’t, and it makes for a surprisingly thrilling narrative.
The turn-based combat features a formation system, where your placement of the characters matters just as much to your strategy as your stats, gear, and abilities. There’s no traditional experience system; instead, characters will randomly learn new abilities as they continue to use their weapons, and their stats gradually and directly increase after battle.
Though the game was released very late into the 3DS’s lifespan, it would find new, but not massively successful, life just over a year later with releases on Switch, PS4, and PC, so at least this is one interesting 3DS game that wasn’t crushed into dust.
Gaist Crusher God
When talking about hidden gems, it doesn’t get any more hidden than something that was never even released in the west. Developed by our mates at Treasure and published by Capcom, Gaist Crusher for the 3DS is one part of a larger multimedia franchise that includes a manga and anime, as well as this remake called Gaist Crusher God that included new features.
The game is an unabashed anime brawler that takes place several decades into the future. Humanity has discovered a special kind of metal called “Gaimetal”, and has begun mining it for industrial use. Eventually, however, the world came under attack by creatures known as Gaists, encrusted in that metal. To fight back, an organization known as the Gaist Crusher Garrison developed and deployed a special armor called Gaist Gear to empower its fighters.
Gaist Crusher God plays like God Eater or Monster Hunter, with a mission-based structure that involves hunting down Gaists. There are multiple weapon types to use, as well as different Gaist Gears to equip. There’s even a toys-to-life system, where figures can be attached to the 3DS to unlock new gear, and it’s about as gimmicky as all those things were.
Sadly, Gaist Crusher as a franchise bombed hard in Japan, and Capcom previously ruled out a localization for the game, leaving the IP to languish in obscurity. This is also Treasure’s most recent game, having been released over a decade ago. Time to liberate them both?
Liberation Maiden
Liberation Maiden’s characters were designed by Yusuke Kozaki, who would later work on the beloved Fire Emblem Awakening. The game’s director, meanwhile, was none other than Goichi Suda himself.
Despite Suda51’s involvement, the game’s story is far more straightforward than his usual fare: a massive nation known as the Dominion has invaded Japan, and after her president father is assassinated, Shoko Ozora takes his place and charges into battle to protect her country. Yeah, a bit out there, but it’s basically American Pie as far as Suda51 is concerned.
Liberation Maiden’s shooter gameplay absolutely calls to mind something like Panzer Dragoon. The touch screen is used to move a reticle around the top screen, and on releasing the stylus, you’ll fire a volley of missiles at everything you’ve marked. Stages consist of three lesser targets that must be taken down to reach the boss at the end of the stage.
Though there are optional objectives along the way, the simple formula might’ve become just a tad repetitive, but Liberation Maiden is a very short game that can be finished in about an hour. It’s one of those games you’d be very glad to pick up for a mid-afternoon session, but wouldn’t be pleased if you’d spent more than like a tenner on it.
Interestingly enough, not only did Liberation Maiden end on a cliffhanger, it received a direct sequel in Japan in the form of a visual novel developed by 5pb. of Steins;Gate fame. Liberation Maiden didn’t get a physical release, so you’re going to have to either find a weird man wearing a very long coat in an alley or do a simple Google search and install some files.
Sadame
For players who enjoy both Diablo and games that have a Sengoku Japan aesthetic, Sadame is the perfect bite-size experience for the 3DS. This hack and slash game sees you picking between four different characters before challenging a variety of stages to stop a demon uprising led by — who else — Oda Nobunaga.
The controls are simple and intuitive, with each character having light, heavy, and special attacks, as well as magic at their disposal. As you’d expect, there’s also tons of loot to find, and loot is shared across saves to encourage players to try out every character.
Characters from your other save files — or even other players, via StreetPass — can even be brought in as AI helpers, giving the game some replay value. Crucially, you don’t have to finish a run with a given character for them to be available as a helper in other save files. You’ll effectively be able to play all four campaigns simultaneously instead of in a sequential order.
Though it’s a bit repetitive, Sadame is a short-but-sweet experience brought to life by a pleasant art direction. It never got a physical release, so you know where to turn for this one, matey. I loved it when H from Steps opened his own shop.
E.X. Troopers
We’ve mentioned before that in the late 2000s and early to mid 2010s, there was a push from Japanese developers to cater to western audiences — whether it meant creating new IPs or westernizing existing ones. Capcom’s third-person shooter Lost Planet series was one such attempt. Though the IP now lies forgotten, it was actually somewhat popular in its heyday.
The Lost Planet games are third-person shooters with a grounded art style and a premise you’ve probably heard before: humans expand to space and attempt to colonize a new planet, and end up going to war with a hostile alien species. Hmmmmm. So it might be a bit of a surprise, then, that the 3DS (and PS3) saw the release of a Lost Planet spinoff in late 2012 that takes things in a full-blown anime direction.
E.X. Troopers may share its setting with the Lost Planet series, but it fully embraces its anime sensibilities, complete with a stereotypically gutsy shonen protagonist. The game builds on the third-person shooter foundations that Lost Planet established, adding in jet packs and some melee combat to make a much faster-paced experience.
Though E.X. Troopers is a charming, eye-catching, and bold spinoff, it sadly never made it west, due to the effort that a localization would’ve required. Thankfully, fan translations are available for both the 3DS and PS3 versions of this hidden gem for anyone who’s ever come by a search engine before.
The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave
The 3DS is known primarily for its 3D screen gimmick, well I mean it is in the name, but Nintendo also managed to cram some augmented reality tech into it.
And using that tech, developer Genius Sonority brought us The Denpa Men in 2012, with the more than slightly worrying subtitle of They Came By Wave. This eShop curio is a dungeon crawler RPG with turn-based combat reminiscent of Dragon Quest. Its main twist, though, is its use of AR technology to find and capture the titular Denpa Men, cute humanoid creatures hidden within radio waves. Locating them means visiting a variety of different real life WiFi hotspots, each of which spawns a different set of Denpa Men.
Keeping a big stock of Denoa Men is critical to surviving the game’s difficult dungeons, as you’ll need to be able to adapt your team’s elemental coverage to suit the environment. Think Pikmin, and you aren’t a million miles away.
What the game lacks in dedicated story, it makes up for with charm and personality, with the Denpa Men behaving as more than just creatures to bring into battle. The IP carved out its own niche, with multiple sequels released on 3DS, as well as a free-to-play entry on Switch. Unfortunately, the 3DS eShop closure means most newcomers will only be able to experience this obscure series on Switch.
Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker
Fans of both Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem will find a lot to love about the Devil Survivor games. These strategy RPGs spinoffs combine tactical gameplay, demon fusion, and conflicting ideologies with a stronger cast of characters than what you’d find in most mainline Shin Megami Tensei titles.
Both games have similar premises: demons emerge and begin to wreak havoc in Japan, with society falling into chaos. To survive, the protagonists must learn to tame demons, overcome disasters, and avert predicted deaths seen in phone messages. Devil Survivor 2 has a lighter tone, with a lot more humor than you’d expect from an Atlus game where society is quickly collapsing.
Devil Survivor 2’s gameplay is a hybrid between strategy RPGs and traditional turn-based games. Characters move around on a grid-based map with objectives to fulfill, with positioning and tactics being critical to survival. As with Atlus’s other games, striking enemy weaknesses in turn-based combat and landing critical hits can reward extra turns. It’s as fun as it ever was.
In addition to the multiple endings already present, Record Breaker also introduces a lengthy after-story of sorts that introduces new characters and endings. This updated re-release also added new mechanics, like StreetPass integration and voice acting. This is the definitive way to play one of Atlus’s — and the 3DS’s — best hidden gems, and it’s a 3DS RPG that won’t cost you the world if you want it physically.
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