If you’ve paid attention to Nintendo over the past several years, I’m sure you know the story of Steel Diver quite well. Starting out as a DS tech demo back in 2004, the game resurfaced as a title shown on the 3DS this past E3. Though many remembered the game to be a little on the lackluster side back when it was seen on the original dual screen system, a new level of excitement surfaced around the game due to the impressive hardware the world was introduced to last June. We all remember when Eiji Aonuma, Reggie, and Miyamoto all raved about the game and though many of us didn’t know particularly much about it (I didn’t even get a chance to play it during our 3DS booth tour), I think we all were a little excited.
In comes the launch of the 3DS, seemingly a little rushed, with the majority of blockbuster 3DS titles slated for June 2011. With one great title already gracing last month’s March launch (Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition), could Steel Diver live up to the hype that the Nintendo talking heads were divulging?
Simplistic Simulation
Steel Diver contains three game modes but the major portion of gameplay involves piloting a sub throughout an underwater course, avoiding enemy subs, rocks, and creatures as you attempt to reach the goal. The game merges simulation with action as you pilot your sub via a few different knobs and switches on the touch screen, which in turn directs the submarine on the top screen. The simulation portion comes into play as your actions are not immediately carried out but rather mimic that of an actual submarine (and thus it almost feels like you’re watching the submarine pilot itself through the maze).
There are three different submarines to choose from, each with different attributes to alter the overall experience. The Manatee is the smallest vessel and though it is highly maneuverable and can fire missiles both vertically and horizontally, it can only fire one torpedo at a time and doesn’t take well to damage. The second sub, the BlueShark, is the balanced vessel that features moderately easy maneuverability, the ability to fire 2 missiles in succession, and more HP than the Manatee. Finally, the Serpent is the largest submarine of all, boasting 4 torpedoes and a massive amount of HP but the least maneuverability and largest size overall.
After you finish a simulation mission, you’ll be treated to another showcase of the 3DS’s functionality in the Periscope Strike minigame. This 30 second gameplay session uses the system’s gyroscope to make the system mimic a periscope. The goal of the mission is to find enemy ships by physically rotating yourself and firing missiles by pressing a button on the touch screen. Though these missions feel a little out of place, they are a nice break from the slow simulation gameplay and extend the experience a little further.
Also, the periscope strike missions serve another purpose: earning decals. These decals act like the stickers from Super Smash Bros. Brawl where they can be placed on your submarines on a particular mission to have an added effect such as increasing the speed of your torpedoes or halving the damage taken by certain obstacles. These are a nice addition to the gameplay and help on the more difficult missions.
Tech Demo Tantamount
One of the things that I feel like Nintendo could have done to make the 3DS’s early months thrive was to immediately provide online features to make up for the lack of incredible software. Things such as 3DSWare (I’m assuming that’s what it will be called) and the Game Boy Virtual Console could have sold the thing like hot cakes. However, having owned the system for a month now, I still haven’t had the opportunity at any of these features.
See, the beauty of the downloadable games/Indie game movement is that great concepts for games can be brought to life and sold at very reasonable costs. Every developer has taken advantage of the movement, via Xbox Live, PSN, WiiWare, DSiWare, and even on the Android marketplace and iTunes App Store. When a concept doesn’t have enough gameplay to be sold in the form of a $40-$60 game, the low costs of downloadable software make an ideal platform for showing off the game.
This is one of the biggest problems with Steel Diver, in my opinion. The game is a neat showcase of some of the 3DS’s capabilities (utilizing the gyroscope, and providing a few different mini-games with different styles of play) but the problem is that even with everything in one package, the game still feels far too expensive for the amount of gameplay available. When I first turned on the game, I hadn’t read anything about it and was hoping the experience would be an enjoyable one. Playing the training missions, I immediately enjoyed the simple, yet paced gameplay and the slight variations between subs.
However, after finishing the short stretch of training levels, and realizing that there were only 7 campaign levels in all, I was floored by the lack of depth (seeing as each level takes only a few minutes to complete). Sure, changing subs alters the experience slightly but with the levels remaining the same, there isn’t enough of a reason to replay missions with each of the three ships (even if two of the missions can’t even be unlocked unless the other 5 are beaten with each of the three subs).
If you do manage to finish the entire campaign, beating every level with each of the 3 ships, a challenge mode is provided for the persistent gamer. However, many will find, like I did, that the main campaign feels so much like a grind at that point, that the challenge mode isn’t even worth attempting (even with the difficult, redesigned enemy placement). That’s a pretty bold thing coming from a gamer such as myself who embraces both lengthy and challenging gameplay. Finally, you can also attempt time trials on each level, which allows you to peacefully navigate the levels without enemy fire (but I found this to feel much more uninspired as the game is already slow enough with the enemies, so taking them out just becomes boring).
As for the other two modes of gameplay, the aforementioned Periscope Strike is no longer than 30 seconds at a time and feels like a quick diversion from the actual gameplay. The other mode, Steel Commander, is a more established type of game that combines the classic Battleship board game with a basic strategy game. The game features up to 9 maps (6 unlockable ones) where players must sink the enemy’s supply ships before their own are destroyed and also includes a multiplayer mode to play against friends.
The game begins by allowing you to place your ships in any fashion on the board. Then, you must move your units around the map in a fashion that reminds me of Advance Wars. There are even three types of units available to use; subs, escorts, and supply ships. Subs can be used to attack all other ships with torpedoes and can use sonar to spot other ships, escorts can attack submarines with depth charges, and supply ships are helpless. The only problem, however, is that only one unit can be moved per turn which makes battles extremely lengthy (and albeit a little too uneventful). And, if you’re looking for an already established, better version of strategy, you could always just play Advance Wars: Dual Strike.
