50 best Nintendo 3DS games right now

Best Nintendo 3DS Games – #9 Fire Emblem Awakening

Developer: Intelligent Systems, Nintendo SPD

Release Date: February 4th, 2013

Synopsis: Fire Emblem: Awakening continues the well-known tactical RPG series on the Nintendo 3DS, but with new additions such as the option to turn off permanent character death, a relationship system that unlocks new conversations with certain characters, and multiple adjustable difficulty levels. The player character is a customizable Avatar, who serves as a tactician. You begin the game with amnesia and confronted by a mysterious masked woman styling herself Marth. While the story is told in cutscenes between battles, the primary gameplay involves moving different types of units across a battlefield to combat the enemy, taking into account strategic elements such as the environment, weapon types, and magic.

Why It’s One Of The Best Nintendo Games: Until Fire Emblem: Fates was released in 2016, it seemed inevitable that Fire Emblem: Awakening would stand tall as the best game of the series yet. Fates had a tough opponent to beat in that regard–Awakening’s story of neighboring kingdoms and deities at war, time travel, and familial ties delighted and surprised its audience, while the adjustable difficulty and ability to shut off perma-death helped the series appeal to a wider range of players than ever before, many of whom found previous entries too difficult or frustration had they never played a tactical RPG before.

The relationship system is an interesting point of contention between those who enjoyed the additional depth it added to the series (and ability to marry and produce children to fight for you), and those who found the system cheesy and awkward. But since the system was largely avoidable by those who weren’t interested, it (along with the other new systems and polish of familiar gameplay) ended up helping Fire Emblem: Awakening achieve heights much greater than thought possible from a tactics game once known and loved solely in Japan.

Next: 8 - Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate