Top Five Most Underrated Nintendo Franchises

For a company that's been in gaming for several decades now, Nintendo has amassed an insanely robust repertoire of franchises that have mostly withstood the test of time. However, for every Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pokemon, there are franchises that are overlooked and don't receive the same kind of pomp and circumstance. These five Nintendo franchises I have selected qualify as those. While such a category of game franchises is certainly subjective, I've tried to pick the ones from Nintendo that don't get their due diligence. Once you've read my choices and reasoning for each, I'd love to hear from you your thoughts on series that you'd love to see Nintendo and fans give more attention to.

5) 1080° Snowboarding 

1080° Snowboarding (Nintendo 64)

On the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, the genre of extreme sports in gaming was made massively popular by the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise. While that series continues on (albeit in seemingly somewhat disappointing form with Robomodo's THPS 5), 1080° Snowboarding basically fell victim of an avalanche of obscurity. The developer, NST, a Western Nintendo studio, has since been relegated to smaller downloadable titles and less core-demographic games. This is a major shame, as the duo of 1080° games, Snowboarding on the N64 and Avalanche on the GameCube, had an extreme sports taste with a Nintendo touch to them.

1080° Avalanche (GameCube)

Shredding snow as you guided your snowboarder down a luxurious and insane amount of courses against opponents, tricking your way to the top of the leaderboards, or running away from avalanches as seen in the GameCube entry delivered thrills, chills, and for bad players like me, various spills.

4) Chibi-Robo

Nintendo doesn't seem to have settled on a particular gameplay style for their Chibi-Robo franchise. While this series is actually still quite alive and relevant in the regard that Nintendo is still making games for the little household robot, Chibi-Robo is far from a household name or well regarded series by most owners of Nintendo systems. Again, another shame, as Chibi-Robo delivers abundant charm and a huge array of wackiness to players.

Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (Nintendo 3DS)

The first game, available for the GameCube, followed the titular robot's adventures in a bizarre Japanese family's home (what else can you say when the daughter of the family dresses and ribbits like a frog?), during tasks to earn energy. Two Nintendo DS games were released, one arriving in the West, but in North America it was a Walmart exclusive, and the other stayed in Japan. A Nintendo 3DS Photo Finder downloadable game released a year or so ago, and now a full retail title is hitting the system with an accompanying amiibo figure with Chibo-Robo: Zip Lash. Will this 2D platformer finally give some deserved attention to Mr. Robo?

3) Style Savvy

I hope none of you reading this article did a spit-take reading this entry. While the three games are indeed popular in Japan, known as Girls Mode over there, Style Savvy is actually an incredibly in-depth and fulfilling game for those of us who love customization. Two games have released out West, the DS original and Style Savvy: Trendsetters on the Nintendo 3DS. The latter offered the ability to run your own clothing shop, ordering clothes from various brands, picking out the perfect combination of clothing to create satisfying outfits for your clientele, and making contacts to further your career in fashion.

Style Savvy: Trendsetters (Nintendo 3DS)

Themed fashion contests brought ways to not only spread your fashion sense to the world, but also test your abilities in coming up with a compelling and competent outfit for your model to be showcased in. As a male without a vested interest in the fashion scene, I didn't think Style Savvy would interest me whatsoever, but I was impressively addicted to the plethora of customization options, gameplay mechanics, and content both Style Savvy games released out West offer. Feel free to call it casual gamer drivel, but you'd be the one that's mistaken with that kind of statement.

2) Advance Wars

My first run-in with this extremely capable and joyful (well, as much joy as a game about war can bring) Advance Wars series was the first on the Game Boy Advance that launched a few months after the system launched in North America in 2001. Now, the series didn't start there, as many fans probably know-- it has roots all the way to the Famicom, as the series is known as Famicom Wars in Japan.

Advance Wars (Game Boy Advance)

Regardless, assuming the role of one of a colorful batch of commanding officers, each with their own special in-battle ability known as a CO Power, you use funds to build various enemy units, from base-capturing infantry to powerful tanks, all with strengths and weaknesses, to try to defeat all opposing units, capture the enemy base, or complete a miscellaneous objective. Advance Wars did well enough to see a sequel on the GBA, Black Hole Rising, and two released on the Nintendo DS, Dual Strike and the darker Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict. The latter's poor sales have put the long-running series on an indefinite hiatus with only Virtual Console releases to hold fans over. Despite fan support, the series actually doesn't have anything as close to a steady and strong fan base as something like Fire Emblem, making Advance Wars a series that is definitely overlooked, if not by Nintendo itself.

1) Wario Land

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)

With so many underrated and overlooked Nintendo franchises to choose from-- heck, there are plenty that could make a list of more than five like Wave Race, Ice Climber, Custom Robo, and Steel Diver, for instance-- I select Wario Land as the one most deserving of praise and a new entry. Wario Land started as but a sequel to Super Mario Land 2, where Wario as a character debuted as the game's main antagonist. Not content with just taking over Mario's castle in that game, in Super Mario Land 3, Wario went ahead, shot for the stars, and took over Mario's role as the protagonist! Future games would implement a lack of death via conventional means, but still offering challenge in its puzzle design, level design, and timed exits from levels.

Wario Land: Shake It! / The Shake Dimension (Nintendo Wii)

My personal favorite of the bunch is the Wii's Wario Land: Shake It! (known as Wario Land: The Shake Dimension for my PAL pals). This game introduced traditional health to the series (as opposed to Wario getting hit and reverting to small Wario like Super Mario Bros' health system), brought awesome hand-drawn art, engagingly fun and superbly designed levels, great music, and a challenge that hadn't been seen in the series for a long while. Sadly, the game was mostly overlooked, despite being on the platformer fan's system of choice. Now, with the WarioWare series, that style of Wario is the one popularized and loved by many and not the Wario Land franchise.

Style Savvy: Trendsetters (3DS) Review

It is a week before Christmas. If you are still feeling that finding that perfect gift for the gamer in your life is difficult, take a look at my 2012 Holiday Gift Guide's Part One and Part Two. This next game I will be reviewing was listed as a Nintendo 3DS game to get that special someone in your life. It's Style Savvy: Trendsetters. Let's get dressed for the occasion, shall we?

Fashion fades, style is eternal. 
Screenshots taken by SuperPhillip.

A game about fashion-- no, that is not normally what you see reviewed here at SuperPhillip Central. Instead you normally see platformers, first-person shooters, role-playing games, and action titles. You might simply dismiss the subject of this review as shovelware, simply because of its content. However, let it be known that such a position would be folly as Style Savvy: Trendsetters is one of the most from-out-of-nowhere-good games in the Nintendo 3DS library. Here's why.

Style Savvy: Trendsetters begins with you being hired by Michaela, a heavily renowned fashion stylist with plenty of credentials under her belt. She teaches you the proverbial ropes of running a fashion boutique, pleasing customers, and taking care of inventory. Eventually, Michaela gives you ownership of the store, allowing you to name it whatever you want, refurbish the store (setting its look and music), fixing up the store's mannequin, and essentially lets you loose to do your own thing.

My character (on the left) 
with Michaela (on the right).

As you become more famous in the fashion world by schmoozing with the locals and winning fashion contests (more on those later), the popularity of your store grows, giving you more customers. There are over 100 unique customers in Style Savvy: Trendsetters, and each one comes to you with their own tastes and what kind of style/piece of clothing they want. At first the requests from your customers are rather basic-- a pop-style skirt, an edgy jacket, and so on-- but as you get further into the game the customers ask you to create entire outfits based on their tastes, which you have to discern for yourself.

Occasionally, a customer will do an impulse
buy on what you have in the store window.

A new addition to this sequel of Style Savvy is the ability to dress men customers. Unfortunately, you cannot be a male character for your in-game avatar, which is disappointing. I understand it would have made a lot more work for the developers, so I cannot complain too much. Regardless, the amount of men clothing pieces and styles are far less than women pieces, but there is still plenty of pieces to look into and buy. Whether it is a male or female customer, whenever they buy something, their store card is stamped depending on how many items they purchased. The fun is to try to get your new customers to become repeat customers, buying more and more stuff for your shop funds to increase and for your customers to get more stamps on their cards.

For the first time, men's fashion is available.

Even though the task of finding the right fashion item for a customer may seem daunting, you are not entirely on your own. Style Savvy: Trendsetters makes coordinating outfits easy-- even for those of us without a tasteful eye for fashion. You can browse clothing pieces by type (dress, base, outerwear, shoes, etc.), brand, taste (pop, preppy, bold, girly, luxury, etc.), color, and price. It's a welcome feature of the game, and one that gives weaker fashionistas leeway to enjoy the game.

Please your clients and they'll
keep coming back for more!

When selling outfits and clothing pieces to customers, they get removed from your store's stock. This is where the Buyer Center comes in. The Buyer Center is where you go to stock up on the latest fashions from numerous brands, each with their own styles. At the beginning of the game, you are limited to holding a small amount of styles, meaning you can't just buy everything you see (your shop's meager funds will also make sure of that). However, the amount your shop can hold will increase as you play through the game. With that in mind, you still need to purchase a good mix of clothing styles to make sure you're ready for whatever your customers request. Also, anything you buy or receive clothing-wise goes to your closet for your character to strut around town in.

Speaking of which, every busy working girl needs some time to herself. That is what My Apartment is for. You can sit down, unwind and relax, and do all kinds of activities. For one, you can advance time from day to night or night to day at your will. You are able to change clothes via your closet, dressing up in anything you have purchased or won. If you have any photos you have taken, you can use that photo to copy what you were wearing and wear it in the present. It's a very cool feature! Finally, you can redecorate your room-- change the wallpaper, flooring, and customize the furniture.

Sometimes you just need time to relax.

Another feature of the game-- this one can be accessed at virtually any time in the game-- is the cell phone. Here you can view pictures taken, look up fashion terms mentioned in the game, look at a fictional magazine for the hottest fashions and style news, take a glance at your schedule and any messages you may have received, glimpse over customers your boutique has served, see your profile card (which can be exchanged with others over StreetPass), and visit the Fashion Plaza, where you can open your own online store and view other players' stores.

As you satisfy the requests of customers and perform other tasks in-game, your receive happiness. A gauge fills higher and higher with each positive action you partake in. As a game day ends, all of the happiness you have gathered fills up the moon in the starry sky. Fill it completely and you receive a bonus of some type. It may be a new store opening in town like the photo studio, the hair salon, the makeup studio, or the furniture store. It may be an increase in how much inventory you can store in your boutique, or it may be a new brand that comes to town. Accumulating happiness is an enjoyable activity, and you're always wanting to see what unlocks next in the game. You constantly have something to strive towards, which is very addicting.

Say... "Calvin Klein!"

Places like the photo studio allow you to take three pictures of your in-game character in various poses against numerous backdrops. Show off your favorite outfits to your friends as every photo (either taken by you or done in the photo studio) can be saved to an SD card. In the hair salon and makeup studio, you predictably change your hairstyle/color/highlights and makeup respectively. Lastly, in the furniture store you can purchase items for your apartment to spruce things up a bit.

One important feature that opens up as you gain happiness and progress through the game is the fashion contest. These contests are held nightly at the Contest Hall, and each one has a different theme. Each requires all four entrants to create an outfit based on a one sentence description. For instance, and this one is made up, "an edgy outfit with attitude." If your outfit is well coordinated and all pieces match together well, you will be the winner. There are multiple contests per fashion contest difficulty. Making your way through the Beginner Contests to the Premier Contests, and then finally beating the Elite Contest will give you top bragging rights, great prestige, and a view at the game's credits. Of course, there is definitely still plenty to do even after seeing the game's personnel as you and your friends strut on the catwalk.

As you progress through the fashion contests,
the competition gets more and more heated.

Style Savvy: Trendsetters is full of content, and is easily worth the forty dollar asking price. From all the customers to please to the over 12,000 unique clothing items, your inner fashionista will be very enthused. Reaching the ending of the game took about twenty hours, and there was much more that I could accomplish with my save data.

The game's presentation is certainly top-tier for the style of game it is. I've been so used to Imagine games from Ubisoft that I forgot that games of this genre could have remarkable production values. There is an Animal Crossing level of dialogue in Style Savvy: Trendsetters. It will take a long time to see a repeated line of text from customers. The visual design is well done. I like the anime aesthetic and how it doesn't overdo its own look. The graphics are colorful while not being too sugary sweet. The 3D effect is nice and has the text and characters popping out from the screen. Meanwhile, the music is quaint and serviceable for this type of game. I especially like the fashion contest theme that occurs as you're coordinating an outfit for your model of choice. Overall, Trendsetters really impresses presentation-wise.

This outfit makes everyone know that
this girl is dressed for school success!

But that's not all in how Style Savvy: Trendsetters impresses. From how complex the game is (but not too much so that it is inaccessible to beginner players) to all of the available customization, this 3DS version of Style Savvy is terrific. The game is a serious effort and well worth the money. It might become repetitive occasionally, but the good without a doubt outweighs the bad. Style Savvy: Trendsetters is definitely dressed for success. I am honestly surprised how much fun I had with the game, especially considering I am not the target demographic. Give Trendsetters a chance-- you might be surprised too.

[SuperPhillip Says: 8.5/10]

Style Savvy: Trendsetters (3DS) Fashion Showcase, Part One

One of the games that I have recently been playing is Style Savvy: Trendsetters, a game that I wouldn't have expected to like going into it. However, I found myself becoming insanely addictive to the game, supplying my store, entering fashion contests, and most importantly, dressing my clients. The following are a series of screens I took using the in-game tool. Enjoy, and expect a full review of Style Savvy: Trendsetters later today.