Rodea the Sky Soldier (3DS)

Kadokawa's "Rodea the Sky Soldier" has an interesting history that began in 2011. It's one that started on a rocky road of development, and has only since came to fruition this year. Interestingly enough this sky oriented action game that takes hints from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise, and "Nights Into Dreams" began as an ambitious Wii title. You heard me right. Rodea's adventures in the sky kingdom of Garuda was meant to be released only on the Wii. Through delays as well as development, and publishing issues though it ended up not only switching intended release dates, but also which consoles it was to be released on. Instead of being a Wii exclusive it became a WiiU, and 3DS exclusive for the sake of being console generation relevant. Though the time, and transition phase was geared towards making the game what it was meant to be on the newer consoles it did not seem to change all that much.

After having gotten my hands on a 3DS copy of the soon to be released game it was more than obvious that the game was dated both in the graphical, and functional sense. The animations definitely looked like Wii era visuals, and the controls just did not jive with the 3DS control layout. Despite the the 3DS including a console tilt/movement function similar to what you'd get using a Wii Mote, and accompanying nunchuck it failed to make the tedious tasks of objective fulfilling, and point "A" to point "B" traversing a manageable ordeal. If you strayed from the beaten, and often times unapologetic linear paths you'd struggle just to regain your bearings, and would have trouble getting back on track where you needed to be. This along with some targeting, and movement issues only served to hurt my opinion of the game as you will find out ...

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 (3DS)

The Nintendo 3DS, and Tecmo Koei's "Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3". That's a mash-up I never thought would happen. After having played it for a while, and having sampled the way it's deeply involved features were applied on the 3DS I can kind of understand why I felt that way in the first place. Certain aspects of this game port did a huge disservice to the gamer, and functionally made things more difficult than they should have been. Without disclosing all of that intended point in one paragraph, and spoiling the purpose of this review early on I will say that sometimes one screen is better than two ...

For those of you unfamiliar with the "Samurai Warriors", or "Dynasty Warriors" franchise you'll find that each game in the allotted series is an objective based action RPG experience with a historical timeline of events geared towards driving the exclusively included story forward. Most, if not all games in said franchises feature epic campaigns with various warring Asian empires/dynasties involved who are each trying to overpower one another for some reason. The games are always rich with content including a variety of different combat-centric modes of play, historical references, and a story mode that centers around a base conflict. In the midst of it all you get to play as a created character, or a character from a selection of available or unlockable protagonists. These characters of choice help to win the wars, or engagements for the generals, and warlords they choose to align with, or whom they are assigned to. When it comes to the "Samurai Warriors" games your duty as a samurai warrior will of course be combat related, and objective oriented throughout all modes of play. In the way of objectives there are always targets laid out for you in the form of characters of interest whom you must defeat with your weapons/abilities as well as lesser soldiers who attack in army sized hordes that must be defeated as well. Objectives do vary as you progress in said games, but you'll find that the provided challenges always come with a time oriented nature.

Undead Nightmare Storm (3DS)

If you like your zombie horror survival game with a serving of gritty hard rock music, and a side order of shmup style combat then G-Style's "Undead Nightmare Storm" might just be the indie for you. It's game design, which is simple yet complex in it's own right harkens back to a retro era of gaming goodness similar to that of the original Playstation days. You'll find it's many objectives, boss fights, and escape from the undead to be a formidable challenge for any shmup enthusiast out there, even when packing enough heat to take down an army. For those of looking for value in your purchase this time around you'll be pleasantly surprised that the game has in place a full-blown single player campaign as well as a local co-op multi-player experience that will keep you, and up to two other friends busy for quite some time. Which ever way you choose to play it you will definitely have to invest a good amount of time into your playthrough in order to fully complete it as there are a lot of things to unlock.