I’ve been vacillating about a PS4 or maybe a WiiU for a while now. I think the future of the PS4 is great, and I have a Vita for remote play and a PS3 now. But realistically, the game library is anemic, particularly since I have a relatively modern computer with a monstrous video card, which means any cross platform game I can play on that.
The WiiU library is closer to what I want, but I just have no faith it will progress much from where it is. And a lot of the Nintendo home console games don’t interest me a ton: I’m interested in New Super Mario U, but not, say, Mario Kart (sacrilege, I know!)
So I was looking around today, and noticed a review on Polygon for a new Kirby game for the 3DS. I’d written the 3DS long ago as ugly graphics on a form factor I thought was stupid. I still hate the 3DS (and the DS and the GBA before it) form factors, but that Kirby game’s graphics looked pretty fantastic. Not super HD detailed or anything, but plenty good. And on looking it looks like there’s a lot of my favorite gametypes on the platform: Platformers and RPGs. So now I’m wondering if a 3DS would be the system for me.
So, questions for folks:
What games does a 3DSXL play? (I know Nintendo generally has some limited string of backwards compatibility. The last system from them I owned was a GBA. I don’t expect them to still support those games or anything, but what is the gamespace availability for the 3DSXL? Will it play older regular DS games? Just 3DS games?)
Is there a metroid game (in the GBA/SNES Metroid vein) for the 3DS?
Are the standards from Nintendo (Yoshi’s Island, Kirby Games, Mario Games, Pokemons, etc…) still good games? Try to discount the “Yoshi’s Island XXXVI is more of the same” criticism. That’s not a drawback for me atm!)
Barring the Nintendo releases, which I can figure out for myself, what are the must haves that a 3DSXL will play? (Say, top 3.)
Do old, 16-bit/arcade type shoot-em-ups still exist even on this platform? Or are those games truly gone the way of the dodo? (Oh, how I would love a Thunderforce I-V collection; although Thunderforce I & II were a bit primitive…)
And a bonus question: Is there any mechanism whereby a WiiU will play the 3DS/XL games? I ask only because I care about the games here, not so much the portability. If I could plop the 3DS/XL games on the WiiU screened remote, for instance, I’d probably be enticed to go with the WiiU to also open up the potential for nice multiplayer games on the TV as my little boy gets older and closer to playing games with dad age. (He’s a bit young at 2 right now, but in the next year and a half, it’s on! And I’m 99.9% positive that when I want to sit down and play games with him, for tons of reasons, I’ll want to do so on a Nintendo system.)