10 Handheld Games To Look Forward To This Year

Luigi’s Mansion 2

Critics may not have been all over Luigi’s Mansion when it released as a Gamecube launch title all those years ago, but it is a fan favourite. And fans had been begging Nintendo to develop a sequel to it. When Luigi’s Mansion 2 was finally announced for the 3DS at E3 this year, everyone was overjoyed- the game looks great, implementing a lot of the functions and quirks that made the original so charming, full of personality and enjoyable. We haven’t seen much of Luigi’s Mansion 2 so far, but we are greatly looking forward to the game when it comes out later this year.

Kid Icarus: Uprising

Kid Icarus: Uprising is probably one of the most anticipated 3DS titles. When it was delayed to a 2012 release earlier in 2011, we were really disappointed. But no harm done, because the game is almost here now. And it looks brilliant. Naysayers might hate on it for having no “blood and gore” and for being on-rails, but it’ll be the sensible 3DS owners who’ll be having tons of fun with this game- because it does look really fun. And coming from a studio like Project Sora, who boast of great talent, it’s hard not to be excited.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D

Here it is, one of the 3DS’ biggest killer app next year. Funnily enough, this killer app is a 3D remake of a game that was released 7 years ago. But it’s not a remake of just any random game. No, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is, till this day, one of the best games of all time, and probably the best Metal Gear Solid game ever. It’s story was brilliant, characterization was great, and it tied up tons of loose ends that had been bugging Metal Gear Solid fans for a long time. Not just that- it was also a return to the great stealth formula after the somewhat different Metal gear Solid 2. MGS3D may not exactly be the most original title coming out next year, but it is certainly the one that has 3DS owners the most excited.

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X, along with VI and IV, is my favourite Final Fantasy game of all time, and I’ve been waiting for Square Enix to announce at least a re-release, if not a remake, of the game for a long time. When they finally announced that they’ll be bringing FFX over to the PS Vita, I was overjoyed, and I knew that even if the rest of the library sucked, I’d have to get the system, just to play this game. In a day and age when JRPGs are a dying breed, to be able to play one is a joy indeed, and to be able to play one that is as excellent as this one is, is even more so. Sure, it’s coming out on the PS3 too, but I’m curious to see how it will look on a handheld screen.

Monster Hunter 4

This was perhaps the most shocking announcement that was made for the 3DS in the entire year of 2011. Why, you ask? Because people usually associate Monster Hunter with the PSP. It was more or less dead, when Monster Hunter came along and sold like crazy and revitalized its hardware sales. To see that Sony let such an important franchise go over to Nintendo, who have already got the likes of Mario and Pokemon to sell their systems in millions, was a huge shocker. And the fact that the game releasing on the 3DS isn’t even a spinoff, rather a full fledged main sequel, is an even bigger astonishment. Anyhow, we’re really excited to see how the game will be, and if it’ll be as big a system seller on the 3DS as it was on the PSP.

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