50 best Nintendo 3DS games right now

Best Nintendo 3DS Games – #14 Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Developer: Square Enix 1st Production Department

Release Date: March July 31, 2012

Synopsis: With their final battle imminent, Sora and Riku must take a test to prove themselves as Keyblade Masters by diving into a series of dream-like worlds to reconnect them to the remainder of the worlds restored at the end of Kingdom Hearts. While journeying through the worlds separately, the two heroes encounter Spirit Dream Eaters, strange dream creatures that they can raise to fight for them and combat the Nightmare Dream Eaters. Sora and Riku play in alternate versions of the same world, influencing one another’s universes and connecting with different characters.

The same action-based battle system from Kingdom Hearts returns, but instead of Donald and Goofy, the main characters use Dream Eaters to fight by their sides. A new movement system called Flowmotion enables each character to travel swiftly across their environments using objects such as rails, buildings, or enemies, and a Reality Shift system alters environmental objects in world-specific ways to solve puzzles.

Why It’s One Of The Best Nintendo 3DS Games: As skeptical as you have every right to be about the direction of the Kingdom Hearts series, it’s hard to deny that Dream Drop Distance was one of its better entries. Almost every playable world in the game was brand new to the series, meaning no obnoxious rehashing of old Disney stories. The Dream Eater Spirits were adorable, and customizing, obtaining, and leveling them proved an interesting take on the generic progression system from every other Kingdom Hearts game.

Each area was expansive enough for exploration to matter, too, and Shimomura’s soundtrack complimented the levels appropriately. Admittedly, the overall story outside of each world is still fairly obtuse if you haven’t been following the series closely (there’s far too many Ansems, officially), but as you soar across Traverse Town using flowmotion and smash through enemies with your Dream Eater companions, it gets hard to worry too much about Ansems or Organizations or any other obtuse plot devices.