Most of the Nintendo 3DS StreetPass Plaza games are surprisingly involved experiences. If you had a full crew of 10, you could go through multiple areas in Find Mii, take on a full shooter level in Mii Force, get through an entire floor of Monster Manor, spend ten minutes fishing in Ultimate Angler, or survive a whole stage in Battleground Z. The only ones that could be considered “quick” were Puzzle Swap and Flower Town, but even more time could be invested in the later, should you get into garden maintenance and beautification on a visit. The next round of five put on emphasis on experiences that almost all be enjoyed in five minutes or less.
Feed Mii might be the briefest of the new StreetPass games. It’s developed by Prope, the developer behind Monster Manor, Ultimate Angler, Ivy the Kiwi?, and Rodea the Sky Soldier. Players run a restaurant set in the world of Find Mii. The adventurers about to head out to save the abducted ruler stop by your place first, each carrying one ingredient. They’ll ask you to make a dish, like sautéed pork or beef and tuna. You can use the food they’ve bought and a few of the leftovers in your fridge from previous visitors.
Characters file in, give you what they’re carrying, you have the option to change to a different recipe once, then you select items on hand and press a button to cook and (hopefully) fulfill an order. It’s not especially fulfilling, but does have an option to experiment with leftover and put together possible recipes after feeding some customers.
Prope’s other contribution to this batch, Ninja Launcher, is equally speedy. Your character is a ninja tasked with defending a village from demons and monsters. This is accomplished by being shot out of a cannon when not wearing clothes. People you StreetPass appear as ninjas of varying heights, sending armor and equipment up on kites. You position them on the ground, hopefully in the path of your shot as you head to defeat an enemy.
Even with test shots, you only have a few seconds to arrange the group and fire on the foe. Successful hits will eventually defeat these enemies and let you move on to the next opponent. There’s really no strategy to it. Often, I found I’d have ninja of similar height accrued and was able to get a cluster in place by only moving the very first or very last character.
Mii Trek continues this trend. It’s developed by Arzest, a developer that subtly added SpotPass support to Find Mii 2 and Puzzle Swap and worked on Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. It’s an exploration game that taps into people’s current step counts to determine how much you can see. You wander around, occasionally choosing which path you follow while hunting for a major treasure. Sometimes, you’ll have to dig past rocks, take photos of unknown creatures, or deal with wild animals.
This is the one game where your mileage will really vary. You never know how far the people you’ll encounter have walked. I got rather lucky this weekend. I had StreetPass on while at an outdoor flea market where everyone was walking, which meant everyone had at accumulated at least 500 steps by the time I passed them, with one even having over 2,000 steps. But, you won’t always be that lucky with Mii Trek. The only reason this game will take a long time is because people could very well disappoint you due to inactivity.
It’s Good-Feel’s Market Crashers and Slot Car Rivals that can take you five minutes or longer to complete. Which makes sense as its Battleground Z and Mii Force were both two of the more substantial games last time. They’re also the two games you can choose from as your free title from this bundle. Market Crashers is a stock market game where everyone you StreetPass is an analyst offering opinions on a stock that will be traded that “day.” The more people you meet, the more detailed the report. When the day begins, you follow their advise and press Y to sell and A to buy.
What’s nice about Market Crashers is you can actually alter the length of your experience before you start playing. Once you have access to a few different companies, you’ll be able to get a general idea of how they’ll perform that session. You can use some of your funds to invest in the company you might not follow that day. Then, after trading has closed for the day, you can use profits to buy items from those and other companies. It’s very much a twitch game, where you have to be ready to press a button at an instant, and doesn’t involve much skill. But it is entertaining and more lengthy than some of the other StreetPass games in this batch.
Then, there’s Good-Feel’s Slot Car Rivals. I’d have to say it’s the best game in the bunch. In terms of gameplay, it’s rather simple. You race a car on a slot car track, pressing the A-button to accelerate, letting off a bit on turns to keep from crashing and jumps to jump farther. Winning isn’t necessary. Participating is enough to earn experience to reach the next rank and unlock a new track. However, winning and accomplishing certain goals in each level is necessary to unlock new special cars and EX tracks. After a race is finished, the people you StreetPassed come together to create a booster for you to use in your next race.
It’s staggering how much there is to do in Slot Car Rivals. The official races themselves are incredibly brief and can last 30 to 60 seconds. Outside of those, you can race on unlocked tracks to test yourself and get a feel for them. It’s possible to customize cars from various bits and pieces, adjusting sizes, colors, heights, and lengths. My favorite is the Pupstar car above, a pink and black sports car with a sunroof that has some sort of dog peeking out of it. It’s charming and has the option to be a quick diversion or colossal timesink.
The Nintendo 3DS’ new StreetPass games aren’t here to steal your time. You won’t have to spend fifteen to twenty minutes clearing all of your tags out and completing each excursion. If all goes well, you could be in and out of most games in a manner of minutes, reaping the rewards that came from collecting people’s passes. If you’re only considering getting one, however, I highly recommend Slot Car Rivals.
Slot Car Rivals, Market Crashers, Ninja Launcher, Mii Trek, and Feed Mii are all available in the Nintendo 3DS Mii Plaza. After picking your free title, the other four games are 2.99 each or four for $8.99.
