Demo Seen and the 3DS:Part 2

Hurrah! The 3DS being so nice 'n' all has pulled us kicking out of the slump thinking about all that time we'd spent on gaming when we felt that gaming just didn't love us anymore (thanks XBONE and PS4). We've spent over 15 hours playing through demos alone. Here's Part 2 of our coverage. If you're even here reading it, congratulations, you're unique. Part 1, for the hard of clicking is embedded in the word here not that here or the last here or that here, it's here. 

/Sigh

Dead or Alive Dimensions We remember Dead or Alive. We still say "It is like the desert" when the situation calls for it. Dead or Alive Dimensions looks like Dead or Alive and sounds like Dead or Alive.It's probably Dead or Alive which means playing it online will be an experiment of continuously getting destroyed by the three people still playing it. We're happy to report that there was slow motion upvag in the cutscene and vibratits in the demo alone. Just in case anyone was wondering if the constant moaning about Team Ninja's love of such things was waning. Not only that but we found an image of the specific scene in mind so, you know, it's really really working. 

Theatrhythym FF Or Theatrerhythym Final Fantasy if you're not restricted by characters. Our second rhythm action game in the line up. The prelude that plays on the title screen is worth the download alone. Sadly, the game itself just isn't that great. There's little connection between the on screen prompts and the music and the song selection for the demo includes some of the least memorable FF songs of all time which is actually an impressive feat. 

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed During our recent two month shunning of this blog and the world of gaming generally one of the few games we played was Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on the Xbox 360 with three friends. For a day. What it lacks in Mario Kart's not-crashing-every-five-minutes it makes up for in letting four players play through the entire game together. Genuinely the most fun I've had couch co-opping with three other people since Timesplitters 2. The 3DS version is too fiddly and chaotic and unsatisfactory as a kart game can be. 

Pokemon Dungeon Gates to Infinity We own two of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games and it combines two of our favourite things. Games that tap into the GET ALL THE LOOT and POKEMON centres in the medulla oblongata. By all accounts this is a dumbed down, albeit '3D' version of the game. From the demo alone it's pretty much the same. There's a nice hook in that it'll let you carry over your save if you buy the game. Good work.

Project X Zone If you ever wanted to have no idea what's going on with none of your favourite Sega, Capcom and Namco characters look no further. At certain points 'playing' this demo I had to check to see if I hadn't had a stroke.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Loved the Wii version so, so much. This seems to be pretty much the same although prolonged sessions are probably a thousand times comfortable with a circle pad pro. We imagine. Yes there's the usual extra bits and pieces added as Capcom are want to do with this franchise but we just don't see the sense in these iterative releases in games that are already absolutely huge. Holding out 'til 4 methinks.

Hint. To get those instant high review scores from That Guy's a Maniac just recreate this scene here

HarmoKnight Probably the best of our three rhythm action game demos available with bonus tracks from Pokemon being a personal highlight. Probably the one we have least to say about too. Scratch that. Definitely the one we have least to say about. 

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney- Dual Destinies We are gamers we swear but this is yet another series that has largely passed us by despite owning two volumes of the manga. The detective sections of the first two games in this series to get released in Europe just weren't intuitive or rewarding enough, obvious conclusions had to wait until the right time to draw them and other solutions were too much of  a stretch to link without a very Japanese logic. This looks fine with a new gizmoguffin to grill witnesses with.

Resident Evil Revelations Lots of people hated Resident Evil 5, all the people I know who loved it played it couch co-op. Operation Raccoon City has been officially wiped from history from the FBI and our copy of Resident Evil 6 is still in it's shrink wrap because we've got medals and mercenaries to do on 5 still. Squeezing Resident Evil Revelations onto the 3DS is a fantastic feat given that we were over the moon to be able to play the original on the DS. We played the demo three times, downloaded the digital version of the game which was also 40% of in the eShop and we haven't looked back. Glorious.

And there we have it. There's a few we haven't downloaded yet, Heroes of Ruin, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate, Farming Simulator 2012 3D and Shifting World still beckon. I Love My Pets, every LEGO game ever and Pyramids not so much. But you don't have to take our word for it, you can go and download all of these for free right now. You too can have opinions about these demos. It costs nothing!* Do it. Go on. Do it. Pin him. Piiiin him.



*Assuming of course you live in the first world, have access to electricity, a 3DS, an Internet connection, an SD card, a backup SD card and time on your hands which is perhaps the most expensive and incredible luxury most of the world just don't have.