Nintendo 3DS Homebrew

I'm a fan of puzzle games. Always have been I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I love RPGs and First Person Shooters too, but Puzzle games are the games I go back to when I don't have a whole lot of game time to invest in playing a really involved game. I also love 3DS homebrew, as you can tell from this lens. So when I can mix up a puzzle game and get it for free because its released as homebrew, it's a win-win!

PuzzleManiak fits the bill. And the bonus is that instead of just being one game, it actually features 27 built in puzzle games, all in one convenient file. The games include some of the following: Dominosa, Bridges, Mines, Light up, Patter (a Picross style game), Net, Untangle, Soduko, Pyramid, Galaxies and many others. Puzzle games are all the rage these days. I think partly due to the brain training games being such big hits. And also because you can pick these games up, play them for 5 minutes or an hour, and you can put it down. No steep learning curve and not a huge time investment when you only have 10 or 15 minutes to game.

You can also compete world wide. Something that even store bought games don't have a built in feature for. Take your scores online, and share them with a world wide leader board of players who also play this game. Your scores can be and are submitted via the WiFi connection. So no need to actually copy any files form the R4 3DS or r4i 3ds card at all. Just let the game do its automatic score uploads. The multi player feature of this games makes it stand out. There are even daily challenges that you can download via WiFi as well, straight from the server, so you'll have a new challenge every day.

Once the game is loaded, and running, the bottom screen of your console will display in a cover flow style all of the different games and puzzles on the card. Just pick the game you want to play and you're ready. Not every single game is great, but of the 27 different games, I've only found 4 or 5 that didn't keep my interest.

Just in case you're wondering about the quality of 3ds homebrew games.... This game is an excellent example of what many of the homebrew games can do in terms of quality graphics, game play, and more. This game is so popular in fact that it has now been ported over to the iPhone and ipad too! Not bad as bragging rights for a game you can play free on your DSi and Nintendo 3DS. While homebrew games are usually perceived as "amateur" games, amateur games don't get ports!

I love having the opportunity to write about the Nintendo R4 Card and NDS homebrew games in general. My love of all things to do with NDS homebrew is simple. I never cease to be amazed by the generosity of all of these hard working developers who have no problem letting all of us download and play their games. They don't do it for the money (it's free - remember?), and they certainy don't do it for fame or any kind of commercial gain. They do it just simply because they love to make games, and love to have people play those games. I'm sure they must do it in part at least, for the pleasure they get from releasing a game title for free and having a huge number of Nintendo R4 DS users play them.

There's a fascinating little homebrew game I uncovered a couple weeks ago called Brix DS. I am a very big fan of any kind of puzzle game, and especially puzzle games that try to stand out by being really unique or possess a different take on the puzzler genre. I'm sure you know what I mean - Not the mainstream type of puzzle game where you're clearing blocks or matching colors, but puzzle games that are unique in their game play and more importantly, offer up a totally new kind of puzzle experience. Brix DS offers up just the kind of puzzle game I love, unique, different, great graphics and excellent puzzles. Brix DS in it's third version - and Brix DS V3. has only gotten better. V3 of Brix DS brings the full number of stages to 73, with the addition of the 16 new stages which are added in this version.

The puzzle part of Brix is easy to explain: make sure that the dynamite does not touch the ground or fall off the bricks while you remove each row, or level of brick below it. As you work your way through the different levels you'll find that with each one, you have a lot more thinking to do to ensure that your dynamite doesn't smash to the ground and blow up. To make things even harder, there are certain bricks you won't be able to remove (The dark grey bricks) so it really plays on your physics and planning, to ensure that the dynamite does not bounce off those bricks only to hit the ground. You may look at this and thing "That's easy, I could balance the dynamite by removing those two bricks", but the fact of the matter is, you aren't able to just remove the bricks one after the other, you will have to wait while your player re-charges to be able ot break the next brick.

The game does do a fantasic job of progressively getting harder and harder. You'll find yourself dealing with the first few levels with ease, only to realize there's much more of challenge coming up in the later levels. This game has excellent replay value and you'll be going back to it again and again, and if you're lucky enough to have a Nintendo R4 DS card you can start playing it for free right away.

The biggest thing in my books that gives huge kudos to the developer of Brix DS is the way that he updates the game. In fact, several dozen new levels have been added since it's v1 release, and V3 proves that this trend will continue. And it goes without saying that the updates themselves are absolutely free as well for anyone with a Nintendo R4 DS Card. You will not have to fork out any money at all for updates or new stages, etc. I have never even heard of, much less owned any commercial game that can boast that updates and new levels are free, not on the Nintendo DS or DSi anyway.