Who would’ve thought that on rookie cop Chase McCain’s first day on the job he’d find himself traveling all over Lego City trying capture elusive criminal mastermind Rex Fury? Well, you probably did because both characters are right there on the box. Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a 3DS prequel to the Wii U release that came out earlier this year.

While developer TT Fusion should be applauded for their ambition–trying to bring an open-world Lego City game to the 3DS–ultimately the hardware’s own limitations are what keep The Chase Begins from truly shining.

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What is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity? A simple enough question. One answer is it’s the latest in the Mystery Dungeon series and the first one for the Nintendo 3DS. Another answer is that it’s a that mixes Pokémon with roguelike, dungeon-crawling mechanics.

But the bigger question that needs to be asked is: who is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity for? I honestly can’t say. And I have a feeling that Spike Chunsoft can’t answer that either. Not having a clear audience in mind leaves the game  full of boring, repetitive gameplay that wastes the player’s time.

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MercurySteam has come a long way. After fumbling the much hyped Clive Barker’s Jericho, they were given a new lease on life by Konami, and headed up the reboot of the Castlevania franchise, titled Lords of Shadow.

While it may have more in common with God of War than Castlevania, I found Lords of Shadow to be a serviceable addition to the series, with a compelling story that will captivate most fans.

Mirror of Fate is MercurySteam’s second go, this time opting to go 2D and try their hand at recreating the magic of the portable Castlevania games.

With a rather tall order in front of them, I’m pleased to say that like Lords of Shadow before it, they somewhat succeeded. Read more… »

Remember those Reese’s commercials? You know the ones about “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” That’s Fire Emblem: Awakening.

“You got your dating sim in my strategy RPG!” Okay, that’s a little disingenuous, but either way, Fire Emblem: Awakening is an excellent game. “Prepare yourself!”

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Nintendo just released another new trailer for the upcoming 3DS game Fire Emblem: Awakening. This video shows off the character progression and class systems in the game. I recommend you watch this video as it shows how to get your characters to the more advanced classes.

Our review will go up later this week. Fire Emblem: Awakening will be released on February 4, 2013.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the newest entry in the Paper Mario series and the first one on the 3DS. This latest entry plays up the series’ paper-based setting and humor to new heights. After Super Paper Mario on the Wii, at first glance, this game looks like a return to the RPG form created with Paper Mario and perfected with Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

However, even with everything polished to a flashy, shiny sheen, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is not an unequivocal step back when compared its predecessors. Frustrating design decisions and some questionable gameplay mechanics keep this from being considered among the top Mario RPGs.

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When Guardian Heroes hit the market in 1996, the gaming world shook. Never before had the genre seen such a detailed mix of beat’ em up action and RPG elements. It drew in crowds that weren’t even fans of beat ‘em ups like Double Dragon that came years before it — that’s how much power it had.

Fast forward to 2012 — a number of developers who worked on Guardian Heroes are now poised to release Code of Princess, a press-dubbed “spiritual sucessor” to Guardian Heroes. As is the case with anything that has to live up to a ton of hype and legacy, this really could have gone either way for them. Fortunately for fans, I’m pleased to say that you won’t be disappointed.

Bottom line: if you like beat ‘em ups with a solid side of quirk, Code of Princess is a must have, despite some niggling issues.

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Can you believe that Kingdom Hearts is celebrating its ten year anniversary in 2012? The mere thought of said celebration is enough to make most of us gamers feel extremely old.

Speaking of dated, recent iterations of the Kingdom Hearts franchise have had their ups and downs, and have had their own share of dated gameplay to boot, leaving gamers to clamor for Kingdom Hearts 3. As time goes on, worlds are reused, and the charm wears off, it’s easy to see the franchise as a relic of the past.

Thankfully, there’s nothing old about Dream Drop Distance. Read more… »

Rhythm games used to be a dime a dozen. After Gitaroo Man, it felt like there was a new DDR iteration launching every other week, among many other prolific series such as Parappa the Rapper, and later, enough Guitar Hero and Rock Band games to fill a small landfill.

Recently however, the genre has really quieted down. The Guitar Hero series is on indefinite hold, and outside of a few minor titles, it’s fairly hard to get your groove on these days. Enter Theatrhythm Final Fantasy — a collection of music from Final Fantasy I all the way up to XIII that seeks to placate all the insatiable rhythm fans across the world.

It isn’t perfect, but if you’re a long time Final Fantasy fan, Theatrhythm is probably the best method in which too relive your nostalgia to date. Read more… »

Siliconera was able to chat with producer Ichiro Hazama regarding the history of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy , and it’s potential fate. Among some particularly neat tidbits (such as FFXIII-Versus DLC, when the game doesn’t even have a date yet), Hazama explains that since FFXIV is undergoing a major content update, music from it shouldn’t be included yet.

He also very proudly re-iterates that the game sold out in Japan, and hopes that it will be a staple Square-Enix franchise going forward. Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Tomb Raider (!) are a few examples he cites as possible contiunations of the series.

[Siliconera]

Nintendo wasn’t satisfied just bringing you one press conference, so they broke the Wii U into two, and added an extra 3DS conference.

The unfortunate part of this strategy is that none of the conferences packed any major punches. While the main Wii U conference was satisfying enough in my opinion, this 3DS event fell completely flat. Read more… »

It looks like the cat is out of the bag: Nintendo is perched to release the “Midnight Purple” version of the 3DS on May 2oth, alongside of Mario Tennis 3D.

This is the fifth new color for the 3DS. The unit will retail for $170, and sadly will not ship with the Ambassador games. In what seems like a missed opportunity, I wish this iteration was called “Eggplant”, and shipped alongside of Kid Icarus: Uprising.

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