Street Pass Mii Plaza

Genre: Compilation

Players: 1, Online Content Sharing

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Review:

Street Pass Mii Plaza is a free-to-play Compilation that comes pre-loaded on every Nintendo 3DS, so if you have a 3DS, you have this game! This Compilation comes with two included games, Find Mii and Puzzle Swap, and additional games can be purchased for $5 individually, or in combination packages – Flower Town, Mii Force, Monster Manor, and Warrior’s Way can be purchased together for $15; Battleground Z, Ultimate Angler, and a Street Pass Mii Plaza upgrade that adds extra features can be purchased together for $8; and Feed Mii, Market Crashers, Mii Trek, Ninja Launcher, and Slot Car Rivals can be purchased together for $9, with players who don’t get this package being able to choose getting either Market Crashers or Slot Car Rivals for free. In other words, completing this package with all the included games will set you back $32.

All of the included games share a basic premise – while the 3DS is in sleep mode, its Street Pass feature will automatically communicate with any other 3DS in sleep mode that passes within range, regardless of what game you have playing while the 3DS is asleep. In doing so, the profile for each of those 3DS owners will generate something useful for each of the included games as it populates on your 3DS. In some cases, those playing Street Pass Mii Plaza on their 3DS will populate something useful relating to what they’re doing in their own game.

This is a really unique premise that’s not quite like anything else in the videogame space – these games not only have a way to share everyone’s play together via passive means, but it also encourages players to take their 3DS out and about to “meet” other 3DS systems. This is further encouraged by the accumulation of in-game coins that build up as the 3DS moves, acting as a pedometer of sorts.

Of course, with this review being written up as the 3DS eShop is due to be closing within a year, it bears mention that this portends an inevitable decline in Street Pass Mii Plaza due to the 3DS being replaced by the Switch – as fewer and fewer players are playing the 3DS, in means that you’ll be increasingly less likely to pass within range of another 3DS… which in turns means that the fuel that these games run on will become increasingly scarce. You’ll still technically be able to make up the difference somewhat by taking your 3DS around to collect coins that can then be used to generate NPC characters, but suffice it to say it’s just not the same experience when the people who populate in your game aren’t connected to real actual people out there in the world that you know you passed by sometime throughout your day.

However, that dour future aside, let’s talk about the included games as they stand now, and not so much what things will look like in the future. What follows are my thoughts on each of the included games in Street Pass Mii Plaza:

Here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Find Mii	Turn-Based RPG	1, Online Content Sharing	D
tl;dr Like the rest of the Street Pass Mii Plaza games, Find Mii is charming, but its gameplay is so simple it’s hard to feel engaged by it.
Puzzle Swap	Misc.	1, Online Content Sharing	N/A
tl;dr There’s not really any gameplay to speak of here, this is just collecting parts of a picture until you can create the entire picture, which then transforms into a 3D diorama. An interesting novelty, to be sure, but nothing you’re likely to spend much time with.
Flower Town	Simulation	1, Online Content Sharing	C+
tl;dr This is a fairly unique game that has you growing an expanding collection of flowers, with Street Pass enabling players to cross-pollinate with others to create new mutations. The Simulation elements here are fairly simple, but this game gets bonus points for its originality.
Mii Force	Shmup	1, Online Content Sharing	C
tl;dr A fairly simple Shmup where Street Pass helpers act as power-ups for your ship. An interesting take on the genre, but not an outstanding one.
Monster Manor	RPG / Puzzle	1, Online Content Sharing	C+
tl;dr This game combines a simple RPG with Puzzle elements in a clever way that has you building a dungeon using pieces provided by Street Pass helpers. It could stand to be deeper, but what’s here is still fun and inspired.
Warrior’s Way	Strategy / Misc.	1, Online Content Sharing	D
tl;dr This game is largely just about building up your forces to overpower the enemy forces, but it’s little more than a numbers game.
Battleground Z	Action	1, Online Content Sharing	C
tl;dr A simple melee-focused Action game. Nothing outstanding, but a decent time-killer.
Ultimate Angler	Sports (Fishing)	1, Online Content Sharing	B-
tl;dr A surprisingly competent (albeit simple) Fishing game. It would have been nice if players were given more control over where to cast, but for what this game aims to be, it’s pretty fun.
Feed Mii	Simulation / Misc.	1, Online Content Sharing	C-
tl;dr Street Pass helpers give you ingredients and you need to try and guess at which combinations to use to create desired recipes. There’s almost not enough here to really even consider this a game.
Market Crashers	Simulation	1, Online Content Sharing	B-
tl;dr This market trading Simulation game is a clever take on the genre where your Street Pass helpers give you a better idea when to buy or sell.
Mii Trek	Misc.	1, Online Content Sharing	C-
tl;dr This game has you choosing paths to search for treasure. Another “there’s not much to this one” game.
Ninja Launcher	Arcade	1, Online Content Sharing	C+
tl;dr This game has you trying to line up power-ups along a trajectory. It’s a cute concept, but not an especially deep one.
Slot Car Rivals	Racing (Slot Cars)	1, Online Content Sharing	C+
tl;dr This is a decent Slot Car Racing game, although of course by its nature a Slot Car Racing game is going to be extremely (as in “one button) simple. This game plays at having simulation elements as well, in crafting your own car… but these elements are entirely cosmetic.

By now, you’ve likely seem a theme building here – “extremely simple”, “extremely simple”, “barely a game”… the various games in Street Pass Mii Plaza are enjoyable, and they’re fun time-wasters, but they are almost all somewhat shallow. Ultimate Angler and Market Crashers are probably the best of the bunch, and Flower Town, Monster Manor, Ninja Launcher, and Slot Car Rivals are all worth trying at least. But there’s nothing here that will truly blow you away.

Well, that is of course beyond that wonderful unique concept behind the entire package – the use of the Street Pass feature. For what it’s worth, this truly is a wonderful element that makes this collection worth playing. Just be aware that if you want to try it, you’d better do so while you still can – as 3DS game systems become more scarce, so too will your potential enjoyment of this Compilation.

tl;dr – Street Pass Mii Plaza is a Compilation of games that all use the 3DS Street Pass feature to enhance the gameplay by having others’ 3DS profiles provide passive bonuses to your games. It’s a clever and truly unique Compilation, but if you want to experience it at its best, you’d better do so before 3DS systems become a relic of the past and the Street Pass feature becomes obsolete.

Grade: B-

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