The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX is this months "eShop Review of the Month" and 3DS NES VC Ambassador Games Now Available!

I'm proud to represent a new section of the eShop Land, the eShop Review of the Month! There is already a eShop Review of the Week but now since the first month of the eShop Land is now over you can look at top Review of each month aswell!

This month's eShop Review of the Week is the legendary The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX! To view August's review of the month click here!

In other news all 10 of the NES Ambassador games are now available in the eShop by going into the eShop, then clicking on Settings/Other then going to Your Downloads. I'm having a blast with them. I never beat Zelda, Zelda 2, or Metroid and I've rarely played Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Climbers, and Yoshi. Its good to really play these games they are great games.

I will not have reviews of the NES VC titles up until they are officially released since the prices of the titles are unknown and the prices play a factor into my final review score.

The eShop Land is updated every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific Time with new reviews.

Weekly Update! Two more firsts as new 3D content is reviewed.

There are two more firsts this week. The first 3DS Game Card titles and the first 3DSWare. I guess when your first starting a site theres gonna be lots of firsts.

This week the following reviews can be viewed:

Steel Diver (3DS Game Card) (eShop Review of the Week)
Let's Golf (3DSWare)
Ridge Racer 3D (3DS Game Card)

You can check out the reviews be clicking the links above or scrolling down this page.

The eShop Land is updated every Tuesday at 9AM Pacific Time. To view a version of the eShop Land thats designed for the 3DS Web Browser you can click here.

Steel Diver Review - Fire! Lower! No Back! Full!

Steel Diver
3DS Game Card
3D
Players: 1-2 (Only 1 person needs a copy of the game. However you obviously need 2 3DS's...)

Steel Diver is a new franchise from Nintendo. You control a submarine and use the touch controls to dodge missiles and shoot enemies.

There are three modes. Mission, the main mode where your up against 7 levels with 3 different submarines. Time Trials, which are courses that you have to beat as fast as possible. The time trial levels are different from the mission levels. The mission levels also keeps track of how long it takes to beat each level. And Periscope mode which uses the 3DS gyro controls to aim missiles at enemy submarines.

You use the touch screen to make your submarine go higher or lower, left or right, and to shoot missiles or become undetectable by enemy missiles. Theres a voice inside a game saying stuff depending on what your doing (for example if your go back the voice will say back) these voices are cool for awhile but they can get rather annoying.

In the missions there will be submarines, giant enemy sea monsters, and even a volcano that gets in your way. The first five mission levels are unlocked at the start. To unlock mission 6 you'll have to beat all 5 missions with the 3 submarines that you have meaning that you must beat each level 3 times. To unlock the 7th and final mission you must beat mission 6 with all 3 submarines.

There is also a strategic local multiplayer mode. Unfortunately I'm not a big fan a strategic games so I haven't played this much. Not to mention the fact that I have no one to play it with. It will probably be fun for those who enjoy strategic games. You can also play against the CPU.

Overall Steel Diver is a fantastic game in my opinion. The Periscope mode is fun, the Time Trials are cool, and the mission mode gets challenging. Not to mention the fact that its fun to try to beat your high score.

However since there are only a few levels $40 does seem kinda steep for a game that is so light in content.. I'm glad I bought it at the 3DS launch but you might want to wait and try to find it for $20 or so.

4/5 eShop Stars
Hardcore
Single Player

Let's Golf 3D Review - Golfing in 3D

Let's Golf
3DSWare
3D
Players: 1-2 (On same system)
Price: $6.99
Blocks: 1,520

Let's Golf is the first game available on 3DSWare (yea I know its not officially called this but I don't care.) At first considering that it was made by gameloft ( a company who copies a lot of franchises) and the very high price $6.99 I was not considering getting it. However due to this being the first original 3DS eShop game I couldn't resist.

I'm glad that I did buy it because it is a phenomenal first showing of what a 3DSWare game can pull off. The main mode is Tournament Mode. Here you play various challenges from strokes of the first, last, or random nine holes to a intense dropout session.

You earn bronze, silver, or gold medals. These medals are key to unlocking new character customization and new courses.

There are six courses total ranging from England to Greenland. You can also unlock a variety of stuff to customize your character like new clothes, hairstyles, golf balls, and putts. While playing Tournament Mode you can also gain exp. to level up the character your playing with.

In Challenge Mode you have to meet various goals like putting in one shot or getting a birdie. This mode is a lot shorter than Tournament Mode but still pretty fun.

Finally there is a two player option. You and someone else can play with only one system by handing each other the system when its their turn. Playing on the same system is the only way to play multiplayer.

Overall Let's Golf is a fantastic game and worth the seven dollars. There a a few issues like frame rate drops and longer than it should be loading times, but still it is a fantastic game.

4/5 eShop Stars
Casual/Hardcore
Everyone

Ridge Racer 3D Review - Someone's in your slipstream!

Ridge Racer 3D
3DS Game Card
3D
Streetpass

Players: 1-4 Players (Each person needs a copy of the game)

Ridge Racer 3D was a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS and it shows to with the visuals being nowhere near as great as they could've been and no online play. Despite these two glaring flaws Ridge Racer still has a ton of content.

It should also be noted that this is my first ever Ridge Racer game.

In Ridge Racer 3D you drive in a car to beat your opponents. To get ahead of the opponents you must either keep drifting until your drift meter has enough power to give a boost to your car, or you can slipstream, get behind a opponent's car to gradually get a boost.

In the campaign mode there are tournaments which have four courses to race on. The objective? Get to first place and stay there. (You alway start at 8th place, the last place)

I have spent over 6 hours in the campaign mode and I'm only 24% through it. The campaign mode is definitely long and already getting quite hard.

In addition to campaign there is also a local multiplayer mode where you can challenge friends with other 3DS's locally. The best part? You only need 1 game card!

There are time trials for each of the courses. There are also some courses where you can play a time trial and send your top time to others using streetpass. Though I've never had a chance to test this feature out unfortunately. Foreveralone.gif.

Even though Namco could've improved the graphics and added online multiplayer, with the various courses, lengthy campaign, and fun gameplay. This is a game worth looking into.

4/5 eShop Stars.
Hardcore
Gamers

View eShop Land on your 3DS

You can visit a version of eShop Land specifically designed for the 3DS web browser by clicking here.

Additionally you can type the url into the 3DS web browser by typing this: http://nintendoeshopland.blogspot.com/?m=1

So now you can enjoy reading reviews direcly on the 3DS web browser. The only thing thats missing is being able to send spotpass updates to you for when theres new reviews. Obviously Nintendo would never allow that. (Who knows if they ever get friend messaging up it could work like that...)

Have any suggestions on what else to add to the eShop Land? Tell me in the comments section.

Look forward to more reviews this Tuesday at 9AM Pacific Time.

Added pictures to reviews.

Just a small update, I have now added two pictures for each review. (Yes even Baseball...)

From now on all reviews will have pictures.  Even this post has a picture.

Totally random I know...but now you can enjoy seeing pictures of the game while reading reviews yay!

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX Review

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
GBC VC
Players: 1
Price: $5.99
Blocks: 47

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening was the first handheld Zelda title and the upgraded version, Link's Awakening DX is one of the first games to appear on the Nintendo eShop.

Link's Awakening DX unlike recent Zelda's is a very difficult game. With enemies taking whole hearts out of your heart meter and with the cleverly designed puzzles makes this one heck of a challenge.

But a good challenge.

You wake up after your boat has crashed on Koholint island when someone who has a early resemblance to Zelda tells you that she found you at the beach. After finding your lost gear and talking to a owl you head off to the mysterious woods to begin your adventure.

You go through puzzling dungeons collecting items along the way to defeat bosses and retrieve the eight musical instruments to awaken the wind fish. But theres mysteries lurking around every screen. With one of the most weirdest Zelda storylines prepare yourself for a wild ride.

But this game does have its flaws. Some of the games puzzles for example don't give a clear explanation on what to do. For example in one dungeon an owl statue (a hint system) tells you to defeat three enemies in a specific order. The problem? You don't know which room the enemies are in and you really don't know what they look like unless your familiar with the game. Of course a simple experimenting and you will solve this puzzle.

There are also simple yet annoying flaws like only being able to equip two items at once (Tho this is only because the GameBoy Color only had two buttons so this is not really a flaw at all.) and the annoying position of the start button. Since you need to press the start button all throughout the game this will get annoying.

The most annoying thing however is when you run up to a block that you can't destroy unless you have the power bracelet or pegasus boots and if you don't have the item you need equipped you will have to waste five seconds to crawl through a message telling you that maybe this block can be moved. Helloooo? You have already told me this 50 times STOP REPEATING IT!!!

To be fair for blocks that require the power bracelet the message does not appear after beating the dungeon you received the power bracelet from.

..anywayz...

Despite a few minor flaws. Despite a few minor flaws. Despite a few minor flaws. Link's Awakening DX is still the best eShop game available right now (Which ain't saying much) and one of the best GameBoy Color games (Which IS saying much) of all time. With its colorful world' puzzling puzzles, (Puzzling puzzles? Those two words sounded weird when you type them next to each other...) awesome soundtrack, and one of the weirdest Zelda storyline this is a must for anyone who has not played the game and of course if you have its the perfect time to revisit this masterpiece.

5/5 eShop Stars
Hardcore
Gamers

eShop Land Weekly Update! Four firsts in the first weekly update!

eShop Land Weekly Updates

8/23

This is the first week of what I hope will be a long time in updating the eShop Land.

This week will be a first of many. A first Game Boy Color Game, a first 3D Classic, a first DSiWare game, and a first bad game.

This week, by scrolling down the main blog page you can look forward to these reviews:

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GBC VC)
Urban Champion (3D Classic)
Flight Control (DSiWare)
Baseball (GB VC)

The eShop Land is updated every Tuesday at 9:00 AM Pacific Time. Check back next week for more reviews.

Urban Champion Review

Urban Champion
3D Classics
Players 1-2 (Each player must have copy of game)
Price $4.99
Blocks: 125

Having never played Urban Champion before, and the bad rep it gets from the internet, I was a bit wary of buying it.

First let me say that I really don't understand the hate. The game is a simple fighter where you face off against a endless amount of fighters to become the urban champion in the game.

You can either use a weak or strong punch against your opponent. Weak punches are weak (duh!) but lets you swing fast, while strong punches are slower but always sends the opponent flying. You can also block high and low by pressing up or down on the circle pad or d-pad without pressing a button to fight..

You must knock the opponent off the screen before he knocks you off. Sometimes a cop car will patrol the area evening the playing field. Other times a vase will be dropped from the second floor of a building and if it hits you, you'll be stunned!

Theres more added to this edition besides 3D. Theres local multiplayer, but since I have no one to play with locally I have yet to try this out. Foreveralone.gif

...Anywayz...

There is also a new camera angle which switches the perspective to your side when you win a match.

There was one glaring flaw in this game. The 3D effect of the lamp (and you/your opponent when you reach the edge) on the stages had ghosting effects. (When 3D's turned on obviously.) It is pretty distracting. Its probably because of this problem I heard awhile back with the 3D effect of having white on black. Its nowhere near a game breaker but it is pretty distracting...

Overall while this game has a bad reputation, simple gameplay, and a price that should be $2-3 dollars cheaper I still found it quite enjoyable.

3/5 eShop Stars

Hardcore

Gamers