With over 1600 games released across its lifespan, you’re obviously talking about some not so bountiful bangers all the time when it comes to the 3DS. Cut those games out however, and you’re still looking at a list of dozens and dozens of truly great games. It’s inevitable that some of these games would get lost in the shuffle, so let’s shine a light on those titles with this look at hidden gems in the third dimension(s).
1. Ever Oasis
Developer: Grezzo
Publisher: Nintendo
Ever Oasis is an action RPG that at least partially draws from the likes of The Legend of Zelda, particularly in the combat. But this game is more complex than a quick glance at its gameplay. When you start to dig deeper into the story of protagonist Tethu/Tethi in this vast desert world, you’ll find that Ever Oasis is a pretty unique mix of gameplay styles.
Because while you’ll spend a good deal of time exploring caves and various dungeons, completing an assortment of missions, the game doesn’t end there. Instead, the other side of Ever Oasis has you building and managing a community in the desert. This often means recruiting people to set up shop in your area, expanding your range as the shops grow and thrive when you bring them the materials they require from your missions. There’s a strong sense of exploring a wide-open world with Ever Oasis, encouraging you to increase the size of your desert oasis by looking into everything that comes your way. All of these elements create an immersive, surprisingly addictive gameplay experience, one that might scratch that Dark Cloud itch for some.
Directed by Koichi Ishii, creator of the Moogle and the Chocobo, as well as the Mana series, Ever Oasis is an underrated blend of ideas that we wish had received at least one sequel.
2. Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale
Developers: Millennium Kitchen, Aquira
Publisher: Level-5
An adventure drama set in 1970s Japan isn’t one you come across very often for video game plots, so Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale is at least pretty unique from the outset. As you meet young Sohta and his family as they open a dry cleaner in the town of Fuji No Hana, you realize that from top to bottom, Attack of the Friday Monsters is the sort of game that’s perfect for a rainy afternoon.
It’s also a perfect game for anyone who loves tokusatsu, a genre which covers everything from superhero fare like Kamen Rider to kaiju masterpieces like Godzilla. As you explore the town, talking to residents and playing card games, you’re also solving the larger mystery behind why your village becomes a hot spot for monsters and heroes every Friday afternoon, and it’s probably got nothing to do with Anne Hathaway this time. Attack of the Friday Monsters has a plot structured as 26 episodes of a television show, so even that aspect of this game is nostalgic.
The variety in gameplay begins and ends with conversations and card games, but the card game itself is lighthearted and accessible. And really, the heart and soul of why Attack of the Friday Monsters is so appealing is because its tone, pace, and atmosphere all create a sense of childhood and adventure. It’s a bit of an unusual blend that went way under the radar back in 2013, but is well worth seeking out today.
You might have to seek it out in some uh, unofficial channels, as this was unfortunately never released physically.
3. LBX: Little Battlers eXperience
Developers: Level-5, Climax Entertainment
Publisher: Nintendo
LBX: Little Battlers eXperience, complete with early 2000s upper case X for some reason, is an action RPG unlike anything else you’ll see on the 3DS, with battles occurring in real-time, featuring cardboard dioramas of areas from the game, between toy robots. It’s a unique setup in a vivid, distinctive anime-style world, and Little Battlers eXperience only gets better from there.
LBX draws you into its world with strong characters and a fleshed-out world in which fully customizable toy robots duke it out in miniature arenas. Where the game shifts to something with potentially endless hours of entertainment is in the depth of how much you have to create the perfect little robot brawler. The range of customizable parts alone can be a little intimidating even to adult players, and that doesn’t even get into the nine classes for single or two-handed weaponry.
LBX’s gameplay offers standard real-time action RPG mechanics, often relying on the 3DS stylus, including stuff like attacking, blocking, and dashing, but watch for the sharp turn into much tougher, smarter enemies. It never gets anything too crazy, though, especially thanks to some accessibility settings. Don’t dismiss LBX because it looks cute, or get it confused with eXistenz. That’s a, uh, whole other thing.
4. Pocket Card Jockey
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
With its cute graphics and amiable atmosphere, Pocket Card Jockey is a very disarming way to get you hooked on what is effectively the Solitaire card game variant known as Golf. Your objective in that game and in Pocket Card Jockey, which sees you raising and evolving horses into world champions (we can tell you’re charmed already), is to clear all of the cards from the field of play. There’s a little more to it than that, but you don’t have to be Frankie Dettori or, uh, Arwen to pick up the ins and outs of Pocket Card Jockey.
In fact, with its bright, adorable character sprites, particularly the horses themselves, you may find yourself enjoying Pocket Card Jockey even if you aren’t a fan of card games, in the same way you might enjoy Stardew Valley but hate back-breaking labour and getting attitude off alcoholics. Because the gameplay isn’t just about playing a card game, but also about balancing your horse’s mood and energy .
Even if the game can be a little bit aggravating at times, Pocket Card Jockey will prove to be an unusual mix of genres for most players that quickly becomes absorbing. A rare non-Pokémon release from Game Freak, Pocket Card Jockey has a lot to offer openminded players as a truly underrated 3DS title, one that you can even check out on your Switch thanks to a recent port.
You might want to do just that, as the game was unfortunately an eShop exclusive on the 3DS and has now been lost to the totally unnecessary sands of time.
5. Project X Zone
Developers: Banpresto, Monolith Soft
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Project X Zone brings together more than 200 characters from Namco, Bandai, Sega, and Capcom. The mass of recognizable faces and names alone makes this unique and engaging tactical RPG worth a glance.
Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a big fan of this particular type of role-playing game, Project X Zone has simple turn-based gameplay that doesn’t require you to delve deep into Ulala’s moveset to figure out how best she can batter Heihachi. The answer: two volcanoes. It’s simple stuff, ut hardcore RTS players will appreciate that things can get much, much deeper when you start focusing on things like timing and coordination.
It’s a layered system with something to offer everyone. If you simply want to move through this admittedly confusing crossover story that features characters from more than thirty different franchises, you can do that with ease. There’s something pretty amazing about seeing a game where Chris Redfield, Ryu, Mega Man, and even characters from games like Shining Force and Xenosaga can all square off.
Project X Zone may not be the brawler you might have been expecting, but there’s a sense of entertaining bedlam with so many characters mixing it up. The real-time strategy demands of Project X Zone can get you closer to the feeling of a traditional fighting game than you might think. It might not be for everyone, but any game in which Ryu can be humiliated by Frank West has to be at least worth a look.
Okay, maybe not that one.
6. Codename: S.T.E.A.M.
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Codename: S.T.E.A.M. remains one of the most unique strategy games ever released to the Nintendo 3DS. Taking place in an alternate history steampunk world with character designs and aesthetics built around 1950s and 60s Silver Age comic books, the game is a turn-based strategy game that is also a bit of a first-person shooter. It might remind you of the Valkyria Chronicles series from Sega, but really, there isn’t too much out there that can be compared to this story of Abraham Lincoln recruiting you to help him fight off an alien invasion.
One that also involves the Necronomicon, the Cthulhu Mythos, and the freaking Land of Oz. Codename: S.T.E.A.M. has a seriously unhinged and creative narrative, combined with graphics that give you a great sense of the sprawling, bonkers universe this game is set in. Codename: S.T.E.A.M. can be a little frustrating with its camera during enemy turns in combat, and the combat itself with its unique first-person view can take a little getting used to, but these are very minor complaints.
Codename: S.T.E.A.M. has unique gameplay elements in a world that truly stands alone on the 3DS. It also doesn’t forget to be fun, and that’s what counts. Sadly, it seems like everyone forgot to buy it, as the game can now be found incredibly easily brand new and sealed for like a fiver. It didn’t deserve the Hannah Montana on DS treatment.
7. Stella Glow
Developer: Imageepoch
Publisher: Atlus
In Stella Glow, the world has had music taken away by the gods as punishment for the arrogance of humanity. Which, fair enough in any universe or timeline (maybe it’s what we need here too), but Stella Glow’s visually beautiful RPG begins when amnesiac protagonist Alto suddenly hears music coming from the nearby woods. He meets a witch named Hilda, and soon becomes part of a quest to unite four witches and save the world from the forces of evil.
Stella Glow has a story and character tropes you’d imagine in an anime-inspired turn-based RPG but tells all of the story with so much personality and bursts of energy, it’s easy to get swept up in an JRPG that’s like Final Fantasy Tactics meets Flashdance.
But Stella Glow isn’t just a matter of traveling, grinding, and getting ready for the inevitable showdown. About half of your time in this game will also be spent on building relationships with the characters you meet along the way. If you’ve ever spent too much time enjoying Fire Emblem, it’s something you’ll find yourself looking forward to in Stella Glow.
The rest of the time can remind you of the best qualities of games like Advance Wars and Shin Megami Tensei, and that’s certainly not bad company for Stella Glow to find itself in. Something tells us the price of this is only going to keep going up and up.
8. Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion
Developer: DreamRift
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion on the Nintendo 3DS sought to combine the interactive paint-and-thinner mechanics of the previous two, similarly underrated Epic Mickey games with platforming and a sense of adventure evocative of Disney’s legendary Illusion Mickey Mouse releases in the 80s and 90s. It succeeded in this, making Power of Illusion one of the best platformers on the 3DS, but one that far too many people seem to just forget exists.
It’s also an excellent fit for the 3DS touchscreen, which will often have you tracing the items you come across in any given stage. How well you trace these items will determine what they ultimately do, and while the game can be infuriatingly difficult at times, especially if you have bricks for hands like we do, more often than not tracing is fun and flows with the game relatively well. Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion balances its minor frustrations with a game that converts the scale and fun of games designed for the Wii and Wii U to a much smaller console.
Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion has a better-than-average story, nostalgic graphics that are still very modern and impressive for the game’s 2012 release year, and more than enough challenge for even the best platformer enthusiasts. Yeah, it might not be as iconic as those earlier Mickey Illusion adventures, but if you want to visit the worlds of Aladdin and Peter Pan without a wiki to hand, you’re gonna have a great time here.
9. Culdcept Revolt
Developer: OmiyaSoft
Publisher: NIS
There’s nothing out there quite like the Culdcept franchise. A curious mashup of board games (it’s been compared to Monopoly in the past), card games, and turn-based strategy video games, Culdcept Revolt brings all of that to the 3DS in pretty impressive fashion, with a story revolving around an amnesiac named Allen, who must join together with other heroes to pull the world back from the brink of destruction.
The gameplay of Culdcept Revolt can be a little intimidating to a first timer, since you’re tasked with building a 50-card deck to carry you across the board where everything takes place. These cards represent everything from spells to creatures, and you’ll move along the board with a roll of the die. Winning occurs by either bankrupting enemies (that’s the Monopoly bit) or coming to the total mana value that’s been set for your map.
This is an extremely simplified description of card battle gameplay that gets very addictive very quickly. The overall presentation of Culdcept Report makes it irresistible to anyone who just enjoys an innovative game, regardless of their favorite genres. The game is easy enough to comprehend with a small, forgiving learning curve. Culdcept Report wanted to cast the widest possible net for players, with anime-infused 2D sprites across lovely 3D backgrounds, and the result is a game that should appeal to almost anyone, but sadly didn’t seem to reach that big an audience at all.
10. Crimson Shroud
Developers: Level-5, Nex Entertainment
Publisher: Level-5
Crimson Shroud is another game that will have you using dice to determine how a battle shakes out. We promise we don’t have a problem.
With a more intensive focus on recreating the tabletop RPG experience, Crimson Shroud is another standout game on the 3DS with something to offer that can’t be found anywhere else. This is a game where everything, from combat to item management, involves menus. There are a lot of menus in this turn-based RPG, in a world that maybe isn’t quite as intuitive as you’d like it to be, so it might take you a minute to get used to it.
But while Crimson Shroud can be a little challenging to understand at the beginning, it doesn’t take long to get a sense of how to navigate your party of three across your campaign. The compelling, rich narrative that begins with a group of mercenaries in search of an object known as the Crimson Shroud, takes a turn when one of your party is killed. The strong story makes it easy to learn the basics of the game, and soon it becomes a world you can get fully lost in.
Crimson Shroud also distinguishes itself by substituting traditional leveling up for tying attributes directly to your gear. Everything about this game tries to do things a little differently, which you should probably come to expect from the guys behind Ni No Kuni and Yo-Kai Watch.
Unfortunately, Crimson Shroud was an eShop exclusive, so you’re going to have to play it underneath a different kind of shroud, if you catch our drift. Matey.
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