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Fun Club Why did the 3DS had a lot of "high-concept" games that never lived up to the hype?

Yzz

Yzz

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The 3DS was the last mainstream console that wasn't restrained by HD development, which meant that reaching return in investment was easier for publishers. The lower development costs was the reason why the PS2, Wii, Dreamcast, etc. had a vast library of 3D games, a lot of them were what we consider nowadays as middle-shelf / AA games. Because the bar for graphics and production values wasn't as high as HD systems and there was a new game almost every week, games had to be creative and quirky to distinguish themselves of the competition, thus classics like Katamari Damacy were born.
The 3DS must have been, in theory, the true successor to the 6th generation home consoles (PS2, GCN and XBOX), but despite that publishers were pushing for brave and interesting concepts, a lot of these games ended up disappointing.

Here is an overview of some of the 3DS games that didn't exactly lived up to the hype:

"Oh boy, we are getting a brand new 3D Mario in the first year, this console is off to a good start"
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It was okay.

"Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright!?, this is going to be amazing!"
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It was okay.

"A full 3D Pokémon RPG with over 700 models, this is a dream come true!"
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It was okay.

"Pokemon HGSS was awesome, I can't wait to see how GameFreak remakes Gen 3!"
Pokepic.jpg


"A new strategy game by Intelligent Systems featuring american heroes fighting lovecraftian monsters. What could possibly go wrong?"
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Definitely not great.

"Looks like Chibi-Robo is back baby!"
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One of the worst Nintendo-published titles. (ok not a "high-concept" game by any means, but its weird how not even platformers can be done right)

"Look at this: a massive crossover between Namco, Sega, Capcom and Nintendo properties developed by Monolith Soft. Who needs Smash when I can make Kiryu fight Dante!"
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I'll stick to Smash, thanks.

"Persona on a Nintendo system? This could turn out really good!"
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ehh

"One of the best Wii U games ported to the system? Wow Nintendo really cares about 3DS owners!"
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Nintendo: "You can only create levels tho..."

"Please Yoshitaka Murayama, I maybe not be a huge Suikoden fan, but I'm so tired of eating low budget Chibi job-based RPGs for 6 years. Only you can give this console a refreshing game for once!"
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Fuck this console.


What was the cause of the 3DS producing so much underwhelming game after underwhelming game? The ideas were there, but the execution left a little bit to be desired.
 
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Tbh that was overall a bad time for Nintendo. Wii U software wasn't great either. 3DS definitely is the weakest handheld out of all the Nintendo ones, but so was the global software on that era.

Japanese devs didn't support the console as much as they did for the DS, so Nintendo had to fill the void but their games weren't that great. You didn't mention them, but I consider Luigi's Mansion 2, Mario Kart 7, NSMB2, Mario & Luigi 4 and all of the Mario Party as pretty disappointing as well.
 
Quoted by: Yzz
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Maybe some growing pains?

Meanwhile Kid Icarus Uprising, the Kirby games and Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon remain a shining beacon of quality.
 
It was a very low budget console and it was usually left for quick releases and experimental stuff. However, i highly disagree with you.

First of all, personally i think that 3D Land, Pokémon X, ORAS, Codename STEAM and Project X Zone are amazing.

And frankly, the console is chock full of great games. Just by looking at my own library i see

  • Kid Icarus Uprising
  • Luigi's Mansion 2
  • Castlevania: Mirror of Fate
  • Metroid: Samus Returns
  • Ridge Racer 3D
  • Ace Combat Assult Horizon Legacy
  • Yokai Watch
  • Miitopia
  • Tomodachi Life
  • Dead or Alive
  • Smash Bros
  • Steel Diver Subwars
  • Pushmo
  • Hana Samurai
  • Bravely Default
  • Bravely Second
It's a long, loooooooooooooooong list of amazing games.

3DS was fine.
 
I never understand these threads because you can make a similar list for every system ever made if you ignore all the good stuff.
 
System had 3D Picross and Theatrhythm and a great deal more. I was happy. (Also I liked a good number of the games in the OP)
 
Why does being in HD balloon the man-hours so much? Aren't you just rendering the assets at a higher resolution?
 
Kano said:
Tbh that was overall a bad time for Nintendo. Wii U software wasn't great either. 3DS definitely is the weakest handheld out of all the Nintendo ones, but so was the global software on that era.

Japanese devs didn't support the console as much as they did for the DS, so Nintendo had to fill the void but their games weren't that great. You didn't mention them, but I consider Luigi's Mansion 2, Mario Kart 7, NSMB2, Mario & Luigi 4 and all of the Mario Party as pretty disappointing as well.
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Some people will argue that those games lived up to expectations (at least LM2 and MK7), so I omitted them. Tbh The Alliance Alive also has stans.

btw how could I forget about Sticker Star and Paper Jam lol

"Oh snap, a crossover between Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, I can't wait to play this!"
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Arguably the worst in the series.
 
Glom said:
Why does being in HD balloon the man-hours so much? Aren't you just rendering the assets at a higher resolution?
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You have to create all the assets in much higher detail and quality than before. You have to spend far longer using more polygons to create better looking models than before.

Mario's mustache alone in Odyssey's menu took as much work as Mario's entire model in SM64.
 
Zalman said:
I never understand these threads because you can make a similar list for every system ever made if you ignore all the good stuff.
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Don't get me wrong the system has a lot of great games. The weird thing is that the library has a lot of high concept games that never lived up to the hype.
 
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Because nothing went wrong?
The one thing that was weak was its launch, but after that it had many amazing games.

Mario Kart 7 was one of the best until 8 came out and you had the amazing OoT remake.
Also you had A Link between Worlds from nintendo but also Monster Hunter 4 or Resident Evil Revelations.

Maybe for some it wasn't the best handheld, but I think it kind of saved nintendo with the Wii U (and even there you had some gems)
 
It was still a really good system, but it lacked the breath of 3rd party titles. Still going from a system like the DS that was like a 10 out of 10 to a system that was like an 8 out of 10 doesn’t mean it was bad.
 
I think you're focusing too much on the lows.. even if most of those are just subjective.

I see more value in 3D Land than most 3D Mario games, to be honest (it was the birth of the formula that was eventually perfected on 3D World, and for that, I'm always thankful).

We also got Smash on a handheld for the first time; Resident Evil Revelations was great in a time where the series was too much into the action side.. we got Street Fighter IV on a handheld as well!

Kid Icarus is often praised (personally, I have my gripes with it); Ocarina of Time 3D and Star Fox 64 3D are the definitive versions of those games.. A Link Between Worlds is one of the greatest entries in the series; Samus Returns happened and so on...
 
I think the 3DS definitely has a better first party library than the DS, but I agree it’s library was kinda disappointing. Not because the games were bad perse, but because it got to the point where they were pretty much “console games, but worse” with 3D Land, NSMB2, Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion.
 
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I feel like you listed a bunch of fantastic games, minus maybe X/Y due to growing pains, but then they did Sun and Moon which were gorgeous and a nice change of pace from the usual Pokémon games.

o.o

I feel the 3DS has one of the best, if not best libraries of all Nintendo consoles.
 
Kano said:
You have to create all the assets in much higher detail and quality than before. You have to spend far longer using more polyongs to create better looking models than before.

Mario's mustache alone in Odyssey's menu took as much work as Mario's entire model in SM64.
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Gives new meaning to Moustache Man.

So the assets are critical path rather than the design and mechanics?
 
I said it before, the Wii U/3DS gen was a lot of "Good games, wrong execution and wrong time".

Also a lot of, "who the hell asked for this?". Especially for the side projects that didn't get a mainline game on either console. That's why a lot of those games are getting redeemed on Switch.
 
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3DS library is great, all things considered. Possibly even fantastic.

TBH the OP kind of reads as if someone could make this same thread for the Switch and use games like Yoshi and Kirby Star Allies and ignore all the heavy hitters.
 
3DS was pretty good in my opinion, but did suffer from 3rd party droughts compared to DS. I think Nintendo’s output is better on it that the DS in some ways. Didn’t have as many obscure games but felt their major franchise entries were better with exception of Pokémon.

As for Mario Maker, if people didn’t play the single player campaign with the badge challenges, they are missing out on maybe the best Nintendo developed Mario levels ever.
 
...Nothing? The 3DS library was awesome, half the games you listed in the OP were great, and this is cherrypicked to hell anyway. I could easily make a list of beloved games that dwarfs this one
 
Phendrift said:
I think the 3DS definitely has a better first party library than the DS, but I agree it’s library was kinda disappointing. Not because the games were bad perse, but because it got to the point where they were pretty much “console games, but worse” with 3D Land, Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion.
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At that same time too, the Wii U had the problem of console games, but worse, but slightly better and in HD.

Nintendo in general, had their foot back. Remember, the 3DS tanked during its launch. So my guess is, that Nintendo canceled(or put on hold) a lot of Wii U games to focus on the 3DS and push out content as fast as possible. They managed to save the 3DS in that way.

However, they then forgot they had all of these resources on 3DS, that they practically forgot about the Wii U. It was a tough generation where I think Nintendo was counting on good 3rd party support that never came like the Wii and DS.

There were a lot of droughts in that era of Nintendo. It's really funny seeing people complaining about droughts of the Switch, or that they don't see or feel the effects of the unified console approach. Nintendo has released a ridiculous amount of games the past 4 years, and third parties have as well. Those effects are there definitely.

3DS had a pretty good library though. But you could tell games were rushed out to cover for the disastrous launch.
 
Probably my favorite system ever besides the switch 😅 I feel enthusiastic about most of the games pictures in the OP and it's missing a lot of good games! Fantasy Life, Yokai Watch, Ever Oasis, Animal Crossing. Oh well hah the core 3ds gimmick wasn't something I fussed with but I really love the system for the library.
 
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Well I can't say I quite agree. Yeah, there were some mediocre 1st party games on it, mainly in the dark age of 2015/2016 but I'd struggle to find another handheld or console that didn't have their own. You could literally do this with ANY system

Personally, as far as Nintendo handhelds are concerned, I consider it far and away the best when it comes to 1st party output. 3rd party output was definitely lacking compared to the likes of the DS or GBA but there were still plenty I found great and made the system worthwhile
 
3DS had an amazing library. If I have any real complaint it's mainly just about the handful of games that didn't get localized (Slime Morimori 3, DQXI, DQ Monsters 1R/2R/Joker 3, E.X.Troopers, Puyo Puyo series, some of Sega's later 3D Classics, Pictologica FF, Great Ace Attorney 1-2, Beyond the Labyrinth, Taiko series, Time Travelers, Snack World, Etrian MD2, Metal Max 2R/4, Yokai Sangokushi, some Kunio stuff, Picross e9, etc).
 
Wasn't the problem more the console itself? The 3d gimmick wasn't great and having to slap a warning for kids not to use it probably lost them a fair few sales.

I enjoyed a few games on it but none of them are my favorites of their franchises
 
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I genuinely enjoyed Project X Zone, the problem is that it's 20 hours too long.
 
Glom said:
Why does being in HD balloon the man-hours so much? Aren't you just rendering the assets at a higher resolution?
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The transition to PS3/360 killed a lot of studios. The 3DS survived the Vita, because the latter was more similar to a HD console. Nintendo's strategy with the 3DS was to attract developers (mostly japanese) who weren't ready to make the jump to HD. A lot of those developers, most notably the Monster Hunter devs, ignored the Vita.
 
I think a lot of the games in the op are fantastic and did live up to the hype, and beyond those the 3DS has one of my favorite handheld libraries ever.

Which probably just means this isn't the thread for me 😂
 
Gonna agree to disagree on a lot of these op. Thoroughly enjoyed a lot of titles on 3ds up to 2013 or so , afterwards there were less but still some notable gems . Ultimately I think 3ds was a strong system and a precursor to the potential switch would actually realize . The only notable down point to me was the mid 2015-mid 2016 period .
 
I kinda don't get the concept behind this thread. What exactly are "High concept games"? Honestly, this thread feels like it's just a list of games you didn't enjoy wrapped in something disguise the fact it's just a list of games you didn't enjoy.
 
Kano said:
Why "rather"? Both are essential.

But if your game looks like shit, people won't buy it.
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Of course both are essential. I just meant that the creation of assets is what is driving the timetable rather than the other stuff. All the talk about BOTW delays made it seem like it was the other way round.

Critical path is a project management term meaning the activity that has the potential to affect the schedule.

Say you have two widgets A and B that must be produced before assembly can be begin. Production of A takes 30 days and production of B takes 20 days. A is the critical path because any delay pushes back assembly or any opportunity to accelerate it can bring assembly forward. But for B that's not the case (unless B experiences severe delays in which case it becomes the critical path.)
 
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Zalman said:
I never understand these threads because you can make a similar list for every system ever made if you ignore all the good stuff.
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Love how even in this list they’ve still got games like 3D Land or the Pokémon games. If you’re trying to make the argument that the 3DS had a weak library, you’ve got to try harder than that.
 
3D Land doesn't belong on this list, it's a great game from start to finish.

There are also plenty of amazing entries the system got. ALBW is one of the best 2D Zelda entries. Dark Moon is better than the original in every way. I could go on. If you just cherrypick the games that disappointed you, you can build a case against pretty much any console ever made.
 
I guess it really is a personal opinions thing, but i think PokemonX/Y, ORAS and 3D Land are good games. I suppose the "high concept" games that came out and where meh are because they're crossovers. There's a lot on your list and it's difficult conceptually to nail the feel or two or more series in one game.

I think the 3DS overall has a fantastic library. New Leaf and Fantasy life stole too much of my life lol
 
This doesn’t really seem like the “these games are bad” more so you just didn’t like those games.

I genuinely think 90% of the games you posted are generally well liked?
 
some of these descriptions are a little off too

super mario maker 3DS was a pretty strong port for a late 3DS release and you could not only play all the levels you made as well but a bunch from the Wii U version downloaded online. it also had a small campaign's worth of original levels with unique goals as well

what you couldn't do was share levels online, just locally. every other feature made it over intact or with small concessions to run on the 3DS

and like, nobody expected games like zip lash to be good, there was a lot of doom and gloom around the release because of how obviously it seemed to be a hail mary attempt to prevent the franchise from dying. nothing high concept about turning a quirky adventure game series into a rote 2D platformer.
 
For every disappointing game, you’re missing a whole lot of amazing ones off your list. You can make anything look bad if you choose to focus on only the lows.

Not to mention I won’t stand for 3D Land slander.
 
Common Knowledge said:
3DS library is great, all things considered. Possibly even fantastic.

TBH the OP kind of reads as if someone could make this same thread for the Switch and use games like Yoshi and Kirby Star Allies and ignore all the heavy hitters.
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Not really, those games were always seen as just another entry in middle-shelf series. The premise of this thread is that the 3DS had many firsts (portable 3D Mario, 3D Pokemon, etc.), along with many awesome-sounding games (Layton vs Wright, Codename STEAM, Project X Zone, etc.), but a lot of those are just not very fondly remembered, or even known, by the larger gaming community.

Like I was watching a Matt McMuscles video about Monolith Soft, and he commented that nobody remembers Project X Zone, despite being the dream crossover of millions of people.

This is not the case for the Switch library, because even a mediocre received game like Super Mario Party has millions of sales and a huge presence among 'non-gamers'. I can count with one hand the Switch exclusives that make me go "Oh yeah, I forgot that existed", unlike the 3DS which has a lot of those.
 
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If we’re doing hot takes I’m gonna throw out that the DS has the worst first party library of any Nintendo system!
 
Yzz said:
Not really, those games were always seen as just another entry in middle-shelf series. The premise of this thread is that the 3DS had many firsts (portable 3D Mario, 3D Pokemon, etc.), along with many awesome-sounding games (Layton vs Wright, Codename STEAM, Project X Zone, etc.), but a lot of those are just not very fondly remembered, or even known, by the larger gaming community.

Like I was watching a Matt McMuscles video about Monolith Soft, and he commented that nobody remembers Project X Zone, despite being the dream crossover of millions of people.
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I mean on the former point , I can say in the western gaming sphere inherently a lot of handheld titles are way less remembered or talked about than their home console counter parts , I don’t believe it to be indicative of overall mainstream reception , in fact the overall reception and reviews of a lot of 3ds titles of the time were fairly high and some even higher than some switch counterparts (namely pokemon ).

Secondly overall the appeal and concept of project x zone is just likely way more niche than folks realize especially considering the genre it is .I also remember stuff like codename steam being far from hyped , especially once folks saw screenshots.
 
I think 3D Land is generally liked? I personally didn't enjoy it all that much, though 3D World later became one of my favourite Mario games.

For me 3DS continued to excel in what the DS had done before; smaller, occasionally quirky games you couldn't really do on other platforms. Perhaps the common thread with OP's examples is that they are the complete opposite of this: they aim to do something bigger not in a way that would be particularly unique to the hardware. The end result then just may become a bit flat.
 
Yzz said:
Not really, those games were always seen as just another entry in middle-shelf series. The premise of this thread is that the 3DS had many firsts (portable 3D Mario, 3D Pokemon, etc.),
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64 DS was a thing before 3D Land, but if you mean only original entries then it's correct. I still don't understand how anyone would think 3D Land is worse than Sunshine for example. Aside from that, the only other points of comparison are 64 and Galaxy 1 & 2, which are not exactly low bars.
Yzz said:
Like I was watching a Matt McMuscles video about Monolith Soft, and he commented that nobody remembers Project X Zone, despite being the dream crossover of millions of people.
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A strategy JRPG was the dream crossover of millions of people? I'm gonna have to cast doubt on this one. PxZ is the successor to Namco x Capcom on PS2, which sold about 130,000 units in total and was never localized.
 
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