Handheld Distraction: Fire Emblem Awakening and Animal Crossing New Leaf

I got a 3DS two years ago and basically played Mario 3D Land and nothing else. I tried a couple of other games, but nothing really caught my fancy bits. Then I started hearing all the praise about Fire Emblem Awakening and decided to give it a go. This is one of the most finely crafted, mature, well-developed games that Nintendo has ever put out.

The amount of content, the quality of said content and the overall polish and delivery is outstanding. You'll encounter dozens of characters throughout the adventure and most are very well drawn and interesting. They all interact with each other in and out of battle. For example, if you stand next to an ally during an attack or when defending an attack, you'll get a stat boost. And the more you pair the same two characters together, the stronger their relationship will grow which results in higher stat boosts when pairing up. If you get characters really friendly, they will outright take a bullet (or spear) for the other one. This mechanic really forces you to emotionally invest in your characters, which is why it's so hard to lose them. If you make a stupid mistake and leave a unit undefended, they'll die. Forever. It adds another enormous layer to an already complex game, but it all fits together so well! 

I usually resist this type of game because I'm bad at them. Especially with Fire Emblem's well-known mechanic of perma-death - meaning when a character dies during a battle, they're gone forever-ever. The only way to get them back is to hard-reset the 3DS. Or play on baby mode where they don't die forever.

But I flew too close to the sun. I allowed too many characters to die - counting them as casualties of war - and left myself with too few units that were undertrained for a massive battle that is now unwinnable. Hence my propensity to avoid these games.

That's why I'm enjoying the other 3DS game of the summer - Animal Crossing New Leaf.

It's hard to explain Animal Crossing and make it sound interesting. Here's a few ways I've tried to defend myself when telling people I'm playing this masterpiece:

"It's like the Sims, but less stressful."
"You can fish and catch bugs and then sell them to a raccoon for bells OR you can donate them to the musem. Bells are used to pay off your mortgage."
"Collectible hats!"
"Oh! AND it's real time! So if it's Christmas in the real world, your animal friends are celebrating Christmas too!"

Every description sounds like it's the stupidest baby game of all time. Donate bugs to a museum? MORTGAGE?! Why don't you just play a game that throws sand in your face and calls you "Little Debby, Sandy Vagina!"?

But it is so gosh darn addicting. If you have never played an Animal Crossing jam, obviously I am incapable of convincing you as I lack the descriptive ability to sell the game on it's many merits. The best thing I can say about it, is that it's what video games were meant to be: an escape. Playing this game is absolute escapism. There is no stress, there's no losing or winning. Just relaxing. And also paying a mortgage.

Up Next: Paper Mario

Never underestimate Nintendo's ability to milk its triple-A franchises until the teat is bone dry. At this point in history Mario had filled many roles, from hero to tennis star, now he's paper. This warrants a larger discussion about the company's  reluctance to stray from it's well established brands when bringing new game designs to market, but not now.

Paper Mario's design is based on the much heralded Super Mario RPG for the SNES. A turn-based RPG at first blush but during the battles, performing well-timed button presses during attacks will give you offensive or defensive bonuses. It's a little thing that goes a long way - by keeping you active during battles rather than just selection actions, you are more engaged in the overall experience.

BOOM! HAMMER SMASH! 1 Damage.

I think most RPG fans can agree that seeing an outrageously large number pop out of an enemy's gaping wound from a sword that no one could possibly ever hold is one of the biggest thrills of playing a game in this genre. This is where playing Paper Mario feels like tiddly winks. Each enemy has, like, 3 HP, and each attach does 1 HP of damage; 2 if you time your attacks just right. I know it's a completely cosmetic and vein complaint and I could just pretend that the 1s are actually 100s but it just feels like I'm playing with a baby's toy.

Its a charming adventure with well-written dialogue and imaginative worlds. But when you use a devastating item that you spent all your coins on and you see 4 HP damage, it's just a total boner killer.