Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Now that I've finished StreetPass Mii Plaza: Monster Manor, let's talk about how brilliant it is

I've played most of the StreetPass Mii Plaza games Nintendo has made available to 3DS owners since early 2011, and I've had a blast with pretty much all of them.

The ones that have given me the most joy in that time: Battleground Z, Find MiiFlower TownMii ForceMonster Manor and Ultimate Angler.

Besides Find Mii and Monster Manor, though, none of the just-mentioned titles were able to hold my attention or maintain my interest for more than a month or two.


The Prope-made Monster Manor, in particular, has enthralled me since I first bought and downloaded it. I can't estimate how much time I devoted to it in 2013, 2014 or 2015, but I can say it was almost singlehandedly responsible for me dumping more than 39 hours into StreetPass Mii Plaza in 2016.

I've also put a good number of hours into it this year. The reason: I wanted to finish the climb to Monster Manor's top floor before Nintendo pulls the plug on StreetPass (or, you know, before StreetPass encounters completely fall off a cliff).

Well, I did just that a couple of weeks ago. And now? I'm sort of depressed, to be honest. I was so sucked into this bite-sized adventure that I basically never wanted it to end.

As for what prompted me to develop such feelings about Monster Manor, well, the short answer is I loved--and continue to love--every aspect of it.


I love its deeper-than-it-first-appears gameplay, which bizarrely, yet successfully, combines elements of Tetris with those of a bare-bones RPG. I love the ghouls you encounter in the titular mansion's haunted hallways. I love the creatively designed and upgradeable weapons you find hidden in treasure chests that are tucked away in its rooms. I love its appropriately spooky--as well as jaunty--soundtrack.

And of course I love that it can be played in short spurts. Hell, I'd say it's supposed to be played in short spurts--whenever you get a handful of StreetPasses and whenever you have a few spare minutes. At any rate, games that don't ask for much of a commitment are the ones that are most compatible with my life at the moment, which only added to Monster Manor's appeal.

Sadly, as much as I love this digital morsel of a video game, and as much as I loved slowly but surely making my way through its 50 stages, I can't imagine I'll ever return to it now that I've seen its credit roll.


I know I could pick it up again down the road by StreetPassing myself (assuming Nintendo doesn't make that impossible by disabling the app entirely), but right now that sounds about as appetizing as returning to my aborted playthroughs of Hometown Story or Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. (That's overstating things a tad, of course, but I'm sure you get the drift of what I'm saying here.)

Oh, well, at least I was able to experience Monster Manor in all its glory once.

How about you? Have any of you finished, or at least spent some time playing, Monster Manor? If so, share your thoughts and impressions in the comments section of this post.

Another option: share how you feel about the fact that we're unlikely to see games like this on the StreetPass-less Switch.

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