Nintendo 3DS Launch Titles

Street Fighter, Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil, Star Fox, and more.  The lineup for the upcoming launch of the Nintendo 3DS is the best list of titles for a Nintendo launch since the original NES.  The launch lineup spans all genres: sports, racing, fighting, adventure, and puzzle/interactive.  It comes as no surprise that developers would take advantage of a 3D gaming system and make a game packed with beautiful women.  Dead or Alive Dimensions is this game.  The only surprise is that these games are coming to Nintendo, who is thought of by many as a children's game maker.  In addition to DOA, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries is also outside this profile.  Is Nintendo expanding its target audience to those mature, hardcore gamers?  Based on some recent DS releases and these titles, I think it is a likely and welcome possibility.

One of the games without any massive franchise or familiar characters that looks promising is Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs.  Even in 2D still images, the dinosaurs look high quality.  As a fighting game though, the variety and creativity of the moves will likely be the deciding factor in its success.

Super Monkey Ball 3D, Pilotwings Resort and Nintendogs + Cats look like the launch titles on every console that are released to capitalize on the features of the console.  Monkey Ball has been fun on previously on other consoles (although the DS version was not as great), and while the number of players is TBD, I expect it to be a great multiplayer game.  Pilotwings Resort is one of those Mii games, but it appears to have some excellent scenery.

I'm not entirely please that Nintendo just continues to take games from past consoles and releasing updated versions, such as Star Fox 64 3D and Ocarina of Time.  Looking through many past Game Boy titles, there is an overwhelming number of remakes.  At least Ocarina of Time will guarantee one excellent launch title, since it is in the running for the greatest game of all time.

My pick for the most disappointing title is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars.  Simply put, this looks no better than a GBA game and 3D cut scenes and some effects.  Judging by the 2D stills it looks like it will lack the 3D graphics of some of the other titles, but maybe it will surprise me.

By far the most interesting title on the list is Kid Icarus: Uprising.  It is the only title made specifically for the 3DS that isn't one of those gimmick games like Wii Sports or the Xbox Kinect launch games (or *cough* Pilotwings Resort *cough*) and behind the game is the creator of Super Smash Bros. and Kirby, Masahiro Sakurai.

The launch titles look great, so we will just have to see how well all the hardware features turn out.  Check out all the videos and stills on the 3DS page.  The 3DS is available March 27, 2011 for $250.