3DS Shambassador

So I got a 3DS. Surprising, I know, since I talked a lot about how worthless and overpriced it was. Well then they had a huge price drop within a few months of release. Basically something that's unheard of in this market. No one expected it. To appease the early adopters that paid full price, they promised 20 free downloadable games from the eShop. To get this, you had to connect to the eShop by the date that the price drop occurred. Sounds fine, right? Well, Wal-Mart, and later others, broke the date for the price drop allowing myself and other internet-savvy gamers to snag one at the new price and still get the free games. Hence the title of the post. Which I stole from the Giant Bomb (the site that I always link to for game descriptions) podcast guys.

Anyway, I spent some time with a few of the downloadable games.

Metroid:
I was excited to jump back into this one. This is probably the one game that I've beaten more than any other. In fact, I used to keep track of that very stat. On a file on my Apple IIc. I was up to over 30 on this game thanks to everyone's friend JUSTIN BAILEY. What? You don't know what that means? Basically it was part of a famous code to start you fully powered up near the end of the game. From there it was somewhat of a cakewalk to the end. Also, she was only wearing a swimsuit instead of the normal power suit. Saucy!
But it's a tough game. And sometimes it goes beyond "tough" to "just plain mean." For instance, it teaches you that lava is bad and will kill you. Except when it's used to hide a secret passageway later in the game. Also, there are several rooms where you are guaranteed to get hit by an enemy immediately after you enter based on the timing and pattern of them. And Tourian is just mean. It makes you go back and forth down a staircase type thing while avoiding those stupid Cheerios that keep appearing. Sure you could freeze a couple of them, but that doesn't last very long, and it's such tight quarters that you often can't get around them once they're frozen. And I haven't even mentioned how those damn Metroids love to pop up and swarm on you just as you're distracted by Cheerios. Also Zebetites. Screw them. Anyway, I thought I had plenty of energy tanks and missles to take down Mother Brain, but I died right before she did. Whatever, I'm done with that game.

The Legend of Zelda:
Have I said before that this is the best game ever made? Well it is. I need to write a post on why that is someday, but I grew up loving this game. The control pad on the 3DS isn't the best representation of the original NES controller. It's a bit spongy in comparison. And that's key when you're forced to make quick adjustments to get around pesky Ironknuckles or Wizrobes late in the game. But overall I found that I could breeze right through the game and I was pleasantly surprised how many of the secret locations I remembered.

Ice Climber:
This game sucks. Probably because I never played it when it came out and I'm not looking at it with the nostalgia-tinted glasses as some of the others. But really, the controls are slow and terrible.

Zelda II, The Adventure of Link:
I'm only through the first dungeon on this one and I don't know that I'll play it all that much farther. It satisfies the nostalgia itch like the others but I remember how difficult it gets later on. That might not be something I want to put myself through with the 3DS control pad and my age-reduced reflexes.

P.S. I typed this post using the iPhone Blogger app on an iPad with a wireless Bluetooth keyboard. Mainly just to see if I could. Not bad. I think if it was an actual iPad app it might be a bit better because then it could take advantage of the landscape mode and get rid of the onscreen keyboard that takes up half the screen.