StreetPass Mii Plaza: Premium Plaza

The plaza update was finally released outside of Japan today, and due to some monetary shenanigans, the only thing I could afford to buy right away was the premium plaza, which I'd previously expressed doubts about getting.

But first, a small bit about the update itself.  It includes updates to the StreetPass games to support the VIP plaza, where you can manually place up to 100 Miis that will never be deleted.  It also includes a very welcomed update that makes all the games realize when you've completed them, and even shows a medal on the game's icon to indicate this.  These medals can be turned off if you so desire.  You can reorder all the icons on the touchscreen, and hide everything except the Plaza and Plaza Gate icons.  Games you've hidden show up in the Game Vault and can be launched from there, or restored to the menu.  The update also adds custom speech bubbles for your StreetPass message, chosen by selecting "Change Greeting".  You get a few of these themed around the pre-existing StreetPass games immediately, and more can be unlocked using Plaza Tickets.  There's also more hats to be unlocked with Plaza Tickets.

According to GameFAQs, there are a whole host of additional updates to the existing StreetPass games.  Text in general is faster.  Apparently dialogue in Mii Force is now skippable, Flower Town goes faster, and a whole array of changes relating to hiring Miis with play coins.  Also, in Find Mii 2 you can apparently see which rooms still have hats left, which is a very nice thing, and there's a Helper Hare that removes traps in rooms you've already been to if you pay play coins.

Now, on to the subject of the premium plaza.  Its first main feature is the VIP plaza, which as mentioned above, can hold up to 100 Miis that you specifically choose.  This is pretty useful for keeping Special Miis around for use in the StreetPass games, as well as generally being useful with the Hire Old Allies option found in some of the StreetPass games.

The second main feature of the premium plaza is the Birthday Calendar.  It keeps track of the birthday assigned to each Mii that you get via StreetPass, and challenges you to fill in the whole year (including February 29th!).  You get Plaza Tickets for accomplishing various objectives and reaching certain landmarks.  There are 22 Plaza Tickets total, which matches the precedent set by the previous paid StreetPass software.

Other than those two main features, what else is there?  Well, both the VIP Plaza and the Birthday Calendar have new background music, and entering them will unlock that music in the Music Player.

Speaking of the Music Player, you now have the option to change the track that's played in the StreetPass Plaza, by selecting a track and pressing Y.  Strangely, not all tracks can be selected.  You can also listen to music in the Music Player through headphones with your 3DS in sleep mode.

In the Settings, there are a series of options to exclude portions of the greeting process when greeting Miis at your plaza gate.  Sadly, there isn't a "Make 'Fantastic' the default option" toggle, but pretty much everything else can be disabled.

Overall, a lot of nice things were added, even before the paid portion of the update.