New Releases Video Games

Nintendo's turn-based Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spinoff series makes its way to 3DS for the first time with 3D graphics, dozens of randomly generated dungeons, and a new town-building mechanic in Gates to Infinity. Players once again play as a Pokémon, choosing from Axew, Oshawott, Pikachu, Snivy, or Tepig, and enlisting one of the four remaining playable characters for companionship during adventures and dungeon crawling. Gamers begin their journey in Post Town, where they can shop for goods, learn new moves, and accept quests from fellow Pokémon.

Battling foes and scouring dungeons for treasure earns players rewards that can be used to turn the barren swath of land known as Pokémon Paradise into a thriving city, complete with shops and other facilities. Gamers will encounter many different Pokémon during their travels, including the rare Legendary Pokémon, who may offer helpful advice or become hostile and attack. Players can find dungeons in the wild, or they can use Gates to Infinity's augmented reality features to instantly create Magnagate dungeons by pointing their 3DS camera at any circular object in the real world. Multiplayer fans can join up to three friends for co-op dungeon crawling, and activating StreetPass lets gamers revive friends who have fainted in dungeons. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate combines most of the content from the Wii title Monster Hunter Tri and the Japan-only game "Monster Hunter Portable 3rd" to offer players more than 200 quests full of classic monster-stalking action. As always, gamers take on the role of a hunter and battle large beasts through a variety of locations both on land and in the sea, and then return to their base settlement to take on more quests, exchange goods, purchase items, and upgrade weapons and armor.

Multiplayer remains a core part of the Monster Hunter experience, and 3DS gamers can enlist the help of AI companions or join up to three local friends, including Wii U users, to take on tougher monsters, using their touch screen to quickly access books, maps, weapons, and mini-games. Capcom also plans free post-release DLC updates including new quests and cross-region multiplayer action. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Based on the animated film about a family of cave people dealing with their changing world, The Croods: Prehistoric Party! is a collection of 30 primitive-themed party games. Players can join Grug, Ugga, Eep, Thunk, Sandy, Gran, and Guy as they take on mini-games, collect eggs, meet strange creatures, and learn about technology while searching for a new home. There are two different game modes, with the Trailblazer mode offering a board game competition, and the Hunter and Gatherer mode letting users define their own time- or egg-based victory conditions.

~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

The first entry in Atlus' Etrian Odyssey series released on 3DS, Legends of the Titan adds new aeronautic adventures and a casual difficulty level to its classically styled RPG action. Called to the city of Tharsis as part of a quest to reach the giant tree Yggdrasil, players form a party and head into the wild to battle a variety of beasts in the top screen, and manually map out the game's labyrinthine dungeon grids in the bottom screen. Combat is turn-based, and a special gauge fills after each action in battle, eventually allowing the party to unleash powerful Burst Skills.

There are ten character classes from which to choose, including Medics, Snipers, and Runemasters, and each character in the party can be assigned a secondary class and acquire new skills as they level up and earn experience. At the hub of Tharsis gamers can acquire quests, recruit new party members, heal their wounds, sell battle spoils for new weapons or armor, and save their game before heading out on more adventures. Players use hot-air balloons to travel to the game's many dungeons, but the world map itself is also home to a variety of treasures and extremely powerful beasts. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Nintendo's popular brain-building series returns with an emphasis on short-term memory and focus in Brain Age: Concentration Training. Working on the premise that a society full of emails, text messages, and video clips has produced an information overload, Concentration Training aims to improve working memory through a variety of five-minute exercises. Dr. Ryuta Kawashima returns to guide gamers through simple math problems, matching, and cup-and-ball mini-games, among other activities, and the game offers dynamic difficulty settings that adjust to players' progress. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide