Topic: Super Mario 3D Land StreetPass & Firmware Update

[famicomplicated]

After updating his 3DS, James C. hits the streets of Tokyo in search of Mystery Boxes.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/28340

I had a one day delay in getting Super Mario 3D Land (which I'd had on preorder for a while now) thanks to a screw up at Amazon Japan, I ended up getting it on the 4th.

The first thing you'll notice (apart from the very light manual-free box) is that there is a mandatory update to your 3DS before you can even play Super Mario 3D Land. The update, not to be confused with the major update coming later this month, blocks flash carts, but more importantly than that, gives the friend list a much needed update. My friends were sorted by online players first, followed by offline players in alphabetical order after that - nice touch. However the most important change was the ability to jump into an online game with players from the friend list screen. I'm not sure what the official English text will be, but the button in Japanese roughly translates to "play game currently in progress" and is situated at the top of the touch screen.

I called my fellow Japan corespondent, Danny Bivens on Skype (as us Nintendo fans are used to doing to arrange online games) and asked him to remove Mario from his game slot for a moment and put Biohazard: The Mercenries 3D in to test this feature out. Unfortunately it seems the new feature is not backwards compatible with existing online games, so Street Fighter, DoA and any other online games you currently may have will still have to be set up the old fashioned way. It should make Mario Kart 7 games easier to get into though, and I'm most defintely looking forward to that.

After that, I got back to playing Mario and reached the third world collecting every Star Coin on the way. This is my way of extending the life of the game, instead of powering through to the end in a matter of hours, I'm savouring it for as long as I can. Plus, according to Daan Koopman (who you may have heard talking about Mario on the Connectivity podcast) collecting Star Coins for later is a very good idea, so I should be set when the time comes to cash in the coins.

Lastly, today I decided to take my 3DS out with me again, something I haven't done since I completed every puzzle and killed every ghost in the StreetPass games. The streets of Japan didn't disappoint. I got some Mario StreetPasses almost immediately, despite it only being out for three days! The Mii's reactivate mystery boxes and Toad Houses that you may have already used. I actually got a brand new Star Coin from my StreetPass friend as well as a Tanooki Leaf, very useful. I know these are probably just randomly generated and the actual StreetPass data is probably nothing other than the Mii's face, but it's still neat nonethless.

Now I have another reason to look forward to my daily commutes in the morning. This along with the new StreetPass games coming later this month will keep me very busy with my 3DS.

[Scatt-Man]

Any word if StreetPass is needed to 100% the game? Apologies if there were better articles to ask this question. I've been trying to avoid spoilers for a lot of these upcoming games. ^_^ I've still yet to bump into anyone 'ere in Austroileeyah, not that I've tried for a while.

[Razorkid]

I hope they patch the join in progress functionality into past games.  Having two very online-multiplayer-centric games (Street Fighter and RE Mercs) without this function, especially when the library of games that would actually take advantage of it isn't even large, would be criminal.

[famicomplicated]

@Scatt-Man Not sure if StreetPass is needed to 100% the game, even the built in S.Pass games had ways around it (using play coins) but we'll have to wait and see. (I'm a long way from 100%!)


@Razorkid Absolutely agree with you right there, however the responsibility would be (in part) for Capcom to do that, followed by Nintendo who may not even have a system in place for patching!
For existing games there would have to be a certain degree of reprogramming as there are no "drop in" features, e.g in Mercs 3D.
Hmmm, bit of a messy situation and annoying that they didn't tell the publishers ahead of time for such a major new feature.

[Shaymin]

@Razorkid Absolutely agree with you right there, however the responsibility would be (in part) for Capcom to do that

So that would be a "no", then.

[UncleBob]

Of course they won't.  They need a reason to release Super Street Fighter IV 3D: Turbo Championship Remix Edition.

[Ceric]

Of course they won't.  They need a reason to release Super Street Fighter IV 3D: Turbo Championship Remix Edition.

Super will be very happy to break that news.

[famicomplicated]

Well they said they were thinking about bringing "Arcade Edition" to the 3DS, perfect time to upgrade the online features no?
I'd definitely pick that up.