With the impending release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land extremely close, the eShop has turned into a great spot to check out videos for these upcoming games. This week, the eShop in Japan gives us some Zelda and Mario love and also pushes out a few titles. Here’s what hit the eShop this week:

3DS Downloadable Titles

Takeyariman - 400 yen

Virtual Console

Lock ‘n’ Chase - 400 yen

Video Content

As mentioned above, there is some new content this week for Super Mario 3D Land (which launches tomorrow, November 3, in Japan) and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. For Super Mario 3D Land, a new 59 second 3D streaming video has been added, highlighting the use of the Tanooki suit and Boomerang suits, platforming, and fighting Bowser. 

The Zelda related content is even more plentiful, as four new videos have been added. In celebration of the series’ 25th Anniversary, Nintendo has added the winners of the Zelda Flip Note Studio from the Oceania and European territories. The video available on the eShop contains all of the individual creations which were compiled into one roughly nine-minute long video. With this addition, all of the winning videos from around the world are viewable on the Japan eShop. Three videos for Skyward Sword were added as well, the first of which is nearly six minutes long and showcases many of the different locations, non playable characters and enemies throughout the gaming world. The second video is part four of a series showing off specific locations and dungeons in the game. Clocking in at nearly three minutes, this particular video hints that Link will have to upgrade his tunic, as it keeps catching fire as he is walking through an extremely hot environment. There is also an interesting segment where Link is forced to go through an enemy controlled area without any of his weapons, having to rely on stealth to make his way through. It might not be a large part of the game, but is an interesting addition nonetheless. Finally, two new television commercials for Skyward Sword are compiled into one video.

Software Impressions

This week, I went out a limb and purchased the latest 3DS downloadable title, Takeyariman. The game is kind of like a recreation of what you might expect at a Japanese street festival or arcade. The game has you in control of a bamboo bow giving you the task of poking away incoming waves of enemies. you can control the location of the bow by moving the slide pad to the left or right, can perform a normal hit with Y, a charged up attack by holding B, and a special attack by pressing A. The game has a feudal Japan theme with enemies and stages, and has a variety of enemies to dispose of. Initially, you do not start out with the special attack (activated by pressing A), but gain access to it later on when a line of power ups make their way toward your character. By hitting one, you gain that particular power. Having not spent a whole lot of time with the game, it is still difficult to tell what kind of power ups are available in all, but of the ones I have used include a special move that eliminates all of the enemies on the board at once and one that gives you a longer bow. The enemies start out simple, just moving toward you in a straight line, a few at a time at the beginning increasing as you get further into the level. Some boss characters require you to take out other enemies in front of them, as the downed enemies will get knocked over and sent back hitting the boss. Ninjas also appear and if they get too close to you, the release smoke bombs making it difficult to see incoming enemies. There is a good variety of enemies that will keep you on your toes.

For 400 yen, Takeyariman is a decent purchase but does some a little short on content. It appears to contain four levels, however, the addition of Street Pass functionality gives players the ability to exchange their Takeya-list card (in Japanese, this is kind of a play on words of the title with the word “list” at the end) with other owners of the game. This is a cheap, fun, and weird game that will appeal to Japanophiles or anyone interested in a cheap but fun title.