StreetPass Mii Plaza: New Games

I've finally got my hands on the two latest StreetPass games, so... here's my initial thoughts on Ultimate Angler and Battleground Z.  The games are $5 each, or $8 if you buy the bundle.  If you've already got any of the games from the first bundle (Mii Force, Flower Town, Warrior's Way, Monster Manor), you get an extra dollar off the price of the bundle, which is neat.

Continuing the tradition, you get a hat for purchasing each game, but with the plaza update, you also get a speech balloon for purchasing each game.  If you haven't updated your plaza, do it now.  Even if you don't plan on getting the new games.  It's okay, I'll wait.

...updated?  Okay, let's continue.

Ultimate Angler

It's a pretty relaxing fishing game, where the people you StreetPass give you bait according to the color of their shirts.  You select a fishing spot, and different fish naturally like different bait, so... the bait you have generally determines what you're able to catch.  You can also fish up empty cans, boots, etc. instead of a fish.  Also, I'm guessing rarely, you can fish up a treasure chest with a fishing rod in it.

In addition to the regular fish, all of which seem to be real-world fish, there are legendary ones that show up every now and then.

Reeling in a fish works a lot like in real life, you have to worry about your line breaking, but you can play with the fish to tire it out and make reeling it in easier.  The on-screen gauges are pretty good at indicating what's going on.  Every catch is ranked by size, with the best being A+.

The tutorial has you fish up three fish, and they count towards your completion, which is cool.  In the group I had lying around from my previous HomePass session, I caught everything available in the first fishing spot, as well as a boot.

You get money based on what you catch, and you can stick your catches in tanks.  Just like with the gardens in Flower Town, you can get more tanks and set one as your favorite, which controls what other people see when they look at your tank.  You can also buy tank designs to make your tanks look better.

I was kind of disappointed that you couldn't jerk the 3DS upwards and use the accelerometers to sink the hook when a fish bites, instead you have to press A or tap the touchscreen.  But whatever.

It's a neat, relaxing game.

Battleground Z

This one is more of an action game.  You're in an area and have to use weapons to defeat zombies.  The weapons you get are based on the hobbies of each Mii you StreetPass.  The weapons are pretty fun.  In my play session, I got to beat up zombies with a pillow (hobby: sleeping), swing a Wiimote at them like a sword (hobby: playing video games), use a tablet to defeat them through the internet (hobby: using the internet), and use a pop-up book to scare them (hobby: reading).  Each weapon also has a charge attack with limited uses.

There appears to be a fair amount to do, in terms of stage replayability.  Each stage has a rare zombie that only shows up if you trigger certain conditions.  These conditions are hinted at in the Z-Wiki, which you can view from the main menu.

As you're running around a stage, you can find the people you've StreetPassed.  If they have a weapon, you can team up, or you can choose to get their weapon.  So far, I've not seen any reason not to team up.  As you're fighting, you can change weapons, which might be useful depending on the situation.  Weapons can also break, so changing up is kind of important anyway.

It's a fun action game with imaginative weapons.

Overall

They're both good, and if you're looking for something different to do with your StreetPasses, or if you're like me and had already beaten the rest of the StreetPass games, go on and pick them up.  I'm excited to have things to do with each group of StreetPasses once again.