City With No People

When I got my 3DS, it wasn’t really a magical experience. It was standing in a queue at my local game store, waiting for ages because everyone else was trading in an old DS of some sort. Being particular about my DS collection (yes, I’m one of ‘those’ people) I was the only one who was buying outright, which meant a long wait and a lot of silent grumbling about ‘midnight launches’. I should have just gone to bed and collected in the morning.

The damp squib of my launch night was greatly contrasted, thankfully, by the wizardry of the 3DS itself. I’m very happy with my 3DS, if not exactly happy with the launch titles, but I can wait for the better stuff to come. Roll on summer.

My favourite thing about the 3DS right now is the stuff that comes bundled with the system. Face Raiders is hilarious fun and the AR games are imaginative and impressive. What I particularly love, though, is the Streetpass stuff.

In theory…

Streetpass is a wireless recognition system. The idea is that if you have a 3DS with you and you walk past someone else who has one, or sit in the same room as them, the 3DS systems recognise each other and say hello. In this way, your Miis can ‘meet’ and do two things: Puzzle Swap and Quest. Puzzle Swap involves just that – exchanging pieces of puzzles with other 3DS owners to create 3D pictures/animations of your favourite Nintendo characters. Quest turns your encountered Miis into little RPG-lite heroes that venture through a dungeon, fighting monsters and winning little character hats for your Mii to wear. It’s very cute, rather silly and also quite addictive.

The whole Streetpass thing, in theory, sounds wonderful. Look at all these 3DS systems meeting each other in secret! Just wander around and when you open up your system later in the day, you’ll find that a random person on the tube also had a 3DS! How cool! Go around gathering heroes and puzzle pieces! Isn’t Streetpassing fun?

Well, not really if it turns out you walk around most of the day in a city with an estimated population of over 7.5 million (according to the God of all knowledge, Wikipedia) and you don’t get a single Streetpass hit. Because hey, not everyone has a 3DS. Which is fair enough, but for a 3DS owner it’s a little annoying. How are you supposed to progress in collecting puzzle pieces and defeating monsters?

WELL I WOULD IF THERE WERE ANY.

There is a way to deal with this. The pedometer on the 3DS rewards you with a maximum of 10 coins per day based on the number of steps you have taken. You can spend your coins on puzzle pieces and hired heroes. However, there is a good chance you’ll get repeat puzzle pieces and the heroes are usually at too low a level to even make a dent in an armoured demon.

I shouldn’t really complain. After all, I’m not the only one in my household who owns a 3DS so a Streetpass can be gained that way, and there are DS/3DS meetups going on in the city on a regular basis. Even so, it’s a strange feeling to be crammed in as tight as a sardine on the London Underground, a system which carries thousands of people every day, and know that even though you’re right in the Streetpassing proximity of all those people, it’s very rare that one of them has a 3DS too. My little system is inside its case, crying out for friends… And receiving no answer.


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2 responses to “City With No People”

  1. Mark P avatar

    Here’s hoping this’ll all change once the 3DS gets more titles. I’m sure Ocarina of Time and MGS3 will give it the boost it needs.

  2. Danny avatar

    Yeah, it’ll be a while before there are as many DS units on the go as 3DS units.

    It’s a different story here in Japan, but only if you’re in one of the big cities. Main train stations and electronic districts are where it’s at, but there’s absolutely no activity anywhere in my city – even at the school I work at.

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