Nostalgia Time: DS and 3DS Game Memories

 

Hey lovely readers, what’s up!

It’s another hot day here and seeing as I am very much heat adverse, I thought I’d spend (another) day inside under a fan and reminisce on my childhood gaming tastes. And yes, this means I'm digging back out my old Nintendo DS and 3DS to no doubt cringe at all the games I used to play and to sob over the games that I wish had moved over onto the Switch because my little pink DS is on its last leg to say the least. Without further ado, let’s take a drive down memory road and sob together over the peak games from the early two thousand – because yes, I'm gen-z but I had (fairly) decent gaming taste as a child! I use the word fairly very liberally.

Okie so I know I said my DS was on it’s last leg, but I'm digging it out for this special occasion along with all the cute little cartridges that I miss – the Switch version will never be as good as those were *sobs in nostalgia* I had a lot of games as a child namely because gaming was the best way to occupy me on the long flights I used to take as a child, but off the top of my head, I know which games I miss the most (yes it’s ben a while but you never forget the good games). So, let’s discuss all the games that I wish would be available on Switch or at least miss a heck of a lot (because the thought of attempting these games at my age now remind me I’d be as bad as I was as a child XD) …

 

Spoiler alert: I was one heck of a girly girl.

 

Style boutique –

If you’re rolling your eyes, fair enough, but this game kept me occupied for straight HOURS and I restarted it numerous times because I was that in love with it. I loved the design of the first game and then the upgrades on the second game, I'm not going to lie though, I didn’t buy the third one, when I read the reviews it didn’t sound that good and I didn’t to ruin my love for the first two as those were so good in my mind and they were such a big game for me that I didn’t want to risk ruining my nostalgia XD it was a good game in my opinion though, I liked the storyline and how you were able to do lots of different roles – especially in the second game, if anything the storyline was too short and that was why I sometimes restarted just because it wasn’t as long as I would have liked it to be – which in the grand scheme of video games, really isn’t the worst thing to be sad about plus the art styles felt really good for the two thousands. But maybe I'm bias XD after all, I did love this game and play it for hours for yearsssss… if this came out on Switch you can almost guarantee I would beat the front of the queue to get one and play it.

Cooking Mama –

I know this is on Switch but having watched videos of the gameplay and read reviews, I won’t be buying it, the affinity I had for Cooking Mama especially as a child was how timeless it felt, I'm one of the generation that grew up with the internet but when I was playing a lot of these games the internet had very little significance – and in some ways that’s a huge thing I miss. I especially miss how the game wasn’t just limited to cooking, there was a gardening version as well (and a camping version according to Google which I have no recollection of) and the recipes weren’t overlapping a huge amount. A huge criticism I heard of the Cooking Mama available on switch was that it was trying to incorporate social media too much, and as I move away from the need to constantly shared share every second of my day, I don’t want to see it in a video game, I game to escape reality and that is why Cooking Mama is one I will always have an affinity for, but I’ve still got no interest in buying the new game and would rather dig out the old version where I couldn’t even crack an egg correctly to her standard – if you were wondering, I can in real life but my cooking skills are definitely up for debate and at uni they are pretty limited!

Imagine …. –

Now if you remember these games, you’re awesome, because I have no idea how many people actually played this game but from what I remember of the one I played the most (the teaching one shockingly), despite the often irritating lack of response between my stylus and DS, I really liked this game. I played the Imagine… Teacher one the most and to be honest if this appeared on Switch I would genuinely throw my money at it, it was a game I loved as a child. I know for a fact I played more than the teacher one – I'm going to guess the wedding designer and fashion designer ones as well but something about the teacher game really stuck with me (the other two didn’t as you can tell XD) – not that I remember ever wanting to be a teacher as child… most of these games are still available to buy so if I happen to get bored I know what I might go and dig out and hopefully by now I could actually complete the pottery class to some success.

Tomodachi life –

I MISS THIS GAME that is all. Like the Sims, create your own life, make relationships (I'm sure a lot of us wish we could create our own romantic relationships with our chosen people XD) and it was just in general a fun game, it was one of the first games I got when I upgraded to my 3DS and I still remember it from the hours of flights I would spend playing it. One thing I remember about this game is my island was not the intended name – I ran out of characters while naming it, so instead of it reading ‘Ocean Breeze’ as I had intended because I had been staring at the ocean that day – it instead read ‘Ocean Breze’ I wish I was joking lol. I also remember how the Mii faces ended up on almost EVERYTHNING in game, and when I was looking for a refresher of the game online, I came across a picture of the Mii faces on fish – talk about interesting nostalgia, I had completely forgotten that even happened in the game. It was weird and as some pointed out you started it and then kind of left it to its own devices for everything to happen, I do wonder what my island would look like if I restarted it now…

Barbie jet, set and style –

Very girly I know, but another game that kept me occupied for the long flights and just occupied in general, nothing about this game is huge in my memory except for the fact that it taught you how to use rollers on the characters requesting makeovers and made them look like the easiest things in the world to put in – at the tender age of near 20s, I can very much assure anyone wondering, who ahs been fortunate enough not to experience this… rollers are not that easy to put it and I would not volunteer to help anyone else put them in. Also, I was low key scared of how the in game characters were drawn for animation but I did like how you were rewarded with more options to do in game by playing, and that provided motivation to keep playing even if some aspects were a little repetitive e.g. how so many people wanted the exact same style … a bit like real life then with all the trends.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf –

I couldn’t mention my most memorable DS and 3DS games without mentioning Animal Crossing, and as a game that I also play on the Switch, I have huge amounts of fondness for this game. New Leaf was actually the first Animal Crossing game I played (I was very late to the whole Animal Crossing world) and as New Leaf was actually the first Animal Crossing game I played and as one of the only people I knew who actually played video games, I loved that I could play alone any time of day or night and level up my town – especially the department store and shopping street – though to this day I still haven’t finished levelling it up to have all the stores. The version of New Horizons has now changed the boat tours to the need to travel to other islands via the airport first – which isn’t something I'm a huge fan of, maybe it’s because I played New Leaf first or perhaps because I'm rather anti-social and loved being able to play alone, I'm not sure, but New Leaf holds a piece of my childhood that is undeniable and even though I'm sure my town is an absolute mess by now, it is just one of those games – I loved that you could take a boat tour without wifi and I spent a lot of time playing the fun games on the island to win tokens, without a need for wifi which was a huge blessing.

Professor Layton –

A favourite of my mum (so obviously worth a mention) but a game I'm not entirely sure I could complete now as my brain simply isn’t interested in figuring out puzzles after study/work hours unless that puzzle revolves around the fastest way to snuggle into bed and have a nap. But she loved it and enjoyed it whole heartedly every time she played it so that has to mean something – even if I never touched the game myself, it felt worth a mention.

While brainstorming this I decided to try and write it with limited sources as I wanted to give my own opinions and not base it on other sources or reviews, but to be honest, it’s actually hard to think about these games because for the most part they’re a random set of games that kept me occupied on planes and long journeys, so it’s hard to look back without the rose tinted glasses. What were your favourite childhood games? Would you want to see a new version of that game or keep it as a piece of nostalgia to look back on fondly? Out of the list I’ve given my favourite in a weird kind of way was probably Tomodachi Life, a lot of people describe it as a very weird game where everything in the game is a bit mismatched but if anything, that’s why I liked the game so much and why I almost wish there was a similar version available on Switch.

Games like Animal Crossing surprise us by upgrading what was already there and adding in a few new features once in a while but it’s a game that can get quite repetitive after a while (also while we are on the topic of Animal Crossing – are anyone else’s villagers passive aggressive when you haven’t played in a while?). Tomodachi Life was a weird game, you put the pieces into place and then watch it play out and occasionally intervene, the fourth wall effectively comes up and down throughout the game and it is almost Multiverse of Madness or Everything Everywhere All At Once as different versions of a reality play out. But in my opinion that was what made it such a strong game, it was so weird, so out there and unlike the usual content Nintendo was known for that it was an interesting game. Would I play it again now? Yes probably, quite happily play it again, it’d be a very different island to the one I had and this time I hope I’d manage to stick in the character limit for the island name XD but it is a game that I look back on with huge fondness.

This was a lot shorter than my usual blogs but I felt like breaking up the serious topic articles with some nostalgia and something a little more light hearted – feel free to let me know if you would like to see more light hearted content and what your favourite childhood games were! Outside of DS I was a huge Mario Kart fan and I still am – though my driving skills on the game are arguably no better than when I was a child and had just about mastered the art of not driving into the sides of the raceway.

Thanks for reading this blog!

See you next time !! ヽʕ •ᴥ•ʔﾉ

 

Notable Sources of Information –

 

(just one for this blog as I based it mainly off my experience and opinion)

The Verge – Tomodachi Life is the weirdest thing Nintendo has ever made (2014)

https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/6/5782786/tomodachi-life-review