A few thoughts on a trio of just-released 3DS eShop titles (Unholy Heights, BoxBoxBoy! and The Battle Cats POP!)

It's been quiet around these parts the last week or two, I know. There's a reason for that: I've been on vacation!

Normally I prep a few posts in advance so no one can tell I'm away, but that wasn't possible this time around. Oh, well, what's done is done. Plus, that's all in the past now, as I'm home again--and ready to get back to blogging about games.

Specifically, I'm ready to write about the three 3DS games I spent time with while holed up (not really) in a mountain cabin outside of Asheville, North Carolina last week. 

My original plan was to put a good dent in a number of other 3DS and even DS carts--namely Chrono Trigger, Contact, Final Fantasy Explorers and Return to PopoloCrois--during this getaway, but that went out the window when I stupidly left all of them at home.

So, while the above-mentioned cabin still had WiFi (it only lasted a couple of days--harrumph), I bought and downloaded a trio of recently released digital 3DS titles that have intrigued me since they were first announced. The titles in question: Unholy Heights, BoxBoxBoy! and The Battle Cats POP!

Here's what I think of each of these bite-sized gaming experiences after putting a handful of hours into them.

The Battle Cats POP!--I was pretty darn skeptical about this PONOS-developed game before I first experienced it for myself.

Why? Well, for starters,  it's $9.99. To me, that's a lot for a digital title with a questionable amount of depth or content. Also, its art style is ... interesting. And I don't necessarily mean that in a good way--or at least I didn't before I was given a chance to appreciate it in context.

Once I began playing this tower defense title, though, its weird aesthetics made perfect sense. (Or maybe I should say they made as much sense as is possible for a game that features armies of felines who fight each other for some reason that's currently slipping my mind.) On top of that, it was so much fun I completely forgot I dropped nearly $10 to add it to my 3DS' home menu.

Based on what's showcased in this trailer, even more thrilling wackiness is in store for me if I continue to plug away at it--and I can guarantee that's the current plan. 

BoxBoxBoy!--I'll be honest here: despite the fact that I liked a lot of what the original BoxBoy! offered, I've yet to finish it. Although I'd like to say that's because some other game stole away my attention, in reality it's because I lost interest in it.  I

t seems almost criminal to say that, but it's true. For me, there's just something lacking in these HAL Laboratory-made platformers. They look, sound and--most importantly, in my mind--feel great, no question, but they also lack cohesion. Levels are almost painfully short, and they rarely seem to build on one another. (A skill or trick you learn in one may only be used in the next stage or two.)

Admittedly, BoxBoxBoy! offers more depth than its predecessor, and it's also less obsessed with handholding, but even then it doesn't completely solve the earlier game's issue of not being altogether enticing. 

Unholy Heights--Another tower defense game? Yes, but this one differs enough from The Battle Cats POP! that owning both isn't a completely terrible idea.

If you only have the funds to buy one of them (Unholy Heights is $3.99 cheaper than The Battle Cats POP!), though, I'd personally recommend picking up this Mebius-developed title, which shoves you into the shoes of a devilish landlord tasked with attracting monstrous tenants to protect his not-so-humble abode. I

t takes a while to get into, I've got to say, but once it clicks it does so in a way that makes it difficult to put down. Helping matters are Unholy Heights' chuckle-worthy text, appealingly drawn graphics and surprisingly deep--not to mention addictive--gameplay.

Just be sure you're in a patient state of mind when you boot it up, as there are times when the action flows like molasses (even when it's set to fast-forward). 

Have you played any of these games? If so, share your impressions of them in the comments section below. 

Five reasons it's a shame Game Freak hasn't yet released its quirky 3DS eShop title, Solitiba (aka Soliti Horse), outside of Japan

How do I love thee, Solitiba (aka Soliti Horse)? Let me count the ways.

Actually, let me count the hours--as in, the hours I've spent playing this Japan-only, Game Freak-made 3DS eShop title that, as I'm sure you've heard me say before, adds a bit of zip to the traditionally staid horse-racing genre by infusing it with some lightning-fast rounds of solitaire.

The tally so far, by the way, would be just under 25 hours. That's how long I've played Solitiba, I mean. Which, admittedly, is a bit ... extreme. What can I say? I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Which is why, as I state in the header above, it's a damn shame this game has yet to be released outside of Japan.

Here are five more observations related to why I believe that to be the case:

It's addictive--I guess that could be gleaned from my earlier revelation that I've spent 25 or so hours with this sucker so far, but that's not all there is to Solitiba's addictive nature. For instance, there's the fact that this is one of those titles that, even when all you plan to do is pick it up and play it for five or 10 minutes, you end up playing it for far longer than that. In my case, that usually means playing it for 30 to 40 minutes, it not longer, which is kind of crazy when you consider we're basically talking about a gussied-up game of solitaire.

It's adorable--All you need to see for proof of this bullet point are the screenshots that are scattered throughout this post. I especially love the looks of Solitiba's pudgy little horses, although I wouldn't have minded if the artists at Game Freak had conjured up at least a couple of "girly-looking" ones to balance things out a smidge. (I mean, why don't any of them sport pink or purple coats? There are a number of blue and yellow ones, after all.)

It's deep--Despite the fact that I've described Solitiba as being one part horse-racing sim and one part solitaire on at least three or four occasions now, there's far more to this digital title than that. Winning or losing has to do with more than just completing a hand of solitaire. How a player positions his or her steed throughout a race can lead to success or failure, for example, as can either picking up or passing up on the many "item" cards that are scattered about each track.

It's got a surprisingly awesome soundtrack--In fact, I've yet to hear a tune that I would describe as anything other than great. The standouts on Solitiba's soundtrack, though, go well beyond great, with two notable cases in point being the ditty that opens this video and the one that can be heard starting at the 8:04 mark of the same medley.

It's really easy to screw things up due to the slew of unintelligible menus--And by that, I mean that if you don't know some amount of Japanese, it can be far too easy to, say, delete your save file--which is a headache that's made even more painful once you realize that you're going to have to go through the game's far-too-wordy-for-its-own-good tutorial once again.

See also: Dengeki Online's Solitiba guide, Japanese3DS.com's review and Sosostris.com's write-up

Shall We Do It? (THE 'DENPA' MEN 3, Pokémon Battle Trozei and Tomodachi Life)

A little warning for those of you who clicked on this link in order to learn more about my on-and-off experiences with THE "DENPA" MEN 3 or Pokémon Battle Trozei: I barely played either 3DS eShop title in the week since I published my last "Shall We Do It?" post.

So, the impressions I share in regard to those two titles are sure to be on the short side. The impressions I share in regard to Tomodachi Life, on the other hand, will be far more extensive. Given that, maybe I should start with my thoughts on THE "DENPA" MEN 3 or Pokémon Battle Trozei?

THE "DENPA" MEN 3--The sad fact about my playthrough of this digital title is that it probably passed the six hour mark a month or two ago (if the game's even been out that long), and all I've put in since is maybe an hour and a half at most.

Why? Because I'm quite literally lost at the moment--which, in the end, may say more about my own intellect than it does about this game's difficulty, but right now it sure doesn't feel that way. And, really, my being lost has very little, if anything, to do with the game being tough; rather, it has to do with the overworld often being surprisingly obtuse. Which is weird, because I've played a lot of RPGs over the years and I generally find traversing an overworld to be a confusion-free affair.

That definitely was the case during my first five or six hours with THE "DENPA" MEN 3, but not any more. I literally don't know where I'm supposed to go at the moment--even though the game has gone to some lengths to point out the location (a volcano)--and so for the last hour-plus of my playthrough I've just been running here, there and everywhere searching for the damn "crust rupture" while doing my best to avoid as many battles as possible (something that's far easier said than done in this game, let me tell you).

Sadly, all this particular experience has done is remind me of my ill-fated attempt at playing through THE "DENPA" MEN 2 last year. After putting about 17 hours into that game, I basically walked away from it without a second thought due to being tired of having to fight a bunch of enemies every few steps.

So, I'm not sure where this leaves me and THE "DENPA" MEN 3, to be honest. I think what I'll do is see if someone else has addressed my issue on line. (No one had done so last I looked, but that was a couple of weeks ago.) If someone has, I'll soldier on a while longer, but even then I certainly wouldn't put any money on me finishing this one, folks--a crying shame when you consider how much I loved the original game.

Pokémon Battle Trozei--Here's another 3DS eShop title that I initially found pretty darn appealing but have all but ignored for the last few weeks.

In the case of Pokémon Battle Trozei, I think that's mainly because I simply don't find its tile-matching gameplay to be all that strategic--or at least not strategic in the ways I'm used to when it comes to such puzzlers.

In fact, I often get the feeling there's no strategy to it at all, as a lot of levels seem to begin with me shifting around tiles in a capable-enough manner (that's a good thing) before ending with little to no input from me. And even when my actions do seem to bring about the end of a level, I just don't feel all that engaged or interested in the action.

Am I just not "getting" this game? Am I doing something wrong? If so, please tell me, because I honestly want to like the otherwise-adorable Pokémon Battle Trozei--but at the moment I can't.

Tomodachi Life--Let's get the silly stuff out of the way for this one, shall we?

First, you should know that I now have about 30 residents on my island--including a slew of Nintendo characters and employees, a handful of social-media friends (Adam, Adrian, apricotsushi, Bri Bri, Kaze and Zaphod65 among them) and a bunch of celebrities (such as Cher, Madonna and Michael Jackson).

Also, my lookalike Mii finally has a sweetheart: Ganondorf, who's looking mighty spiffy with his hot-pink hair and light-pink polo these days, I have to say. The big lug has yet to propose, though, which is starting to make both me and my digital doppelganger mad--especially since Nintendo's Bill Trinen just married Nikki (of Swapnote fame) after dating for about a minute.

Other than that, my favorite aspect of this weirdo life sim is Tomodachi Quest, the mini-RPG that can be played each and every afternoon if you visit the amusement park. So far, I've waged battle against bottles of perfume, glass slippers, truffles (the pricey mushroom, not the candy) and more and I've enjoyed every single second of those scuffles.

All that said, I can't help but admitting that every once in a while I feel kind of bad that I'm enjoying Tomodachi Life as much as I am at the moment. As in, I regularly ask myself some form of the following question: "Why on earth do I keep clicking on these apartment windows, feeding their inhabitants, playing games with them and peeking into their dreams?"

The only answer I've been able to come up with so far is: "Because it's fun." I keep doing the above-mentioned things because I want to hear the next funny thing these goofy-looking Miis are going to say, or I want to watch as they go on dates with their neighbors or play their Wii Us or simply hop around their fabulously decorated (thanks to me) flats.

I'm still more than a bit miffed that the only way to make the Miis that populate your Tomodachi island gay is to use a rather lame workaround, of course, but at least it works well enough that it's not completely jarring or irritating or keeping me from getting a kick out of the overall experience.

Are any of you playing, or have any of you played, the trio of games discussed above? If so, please share your thoughts about them in the comments section below.

See also: previous 'Shall We Do It?' posts