Dillon's Rolling Western (3DS eShop) - Review by Trent

Introduction

Nintendo is filling up the eShop with more and more titles these days. The titles are solid, interesting and make the service slowly more valuable. However their latest title to be released on the eShop, Dillon's Rolling Western might be a little different. This title might be one to leave behind, a title which has great dreams but ultimately falls flat.

Gameplay

You are an Armdaillo ranger named Dillon who has some crazy partner which is a squirrel that flies around. Dillon has ventured to a village and decided he will help them out with their Grock problem. Grocks are giant rock like creatures which are attacking the village for their livestock of Scrog. Which look to be some kind of Sheep/Pig hybrid which can be breed by giving them Scruffles, a plant which grows in the various stages in the game.

The stages also have mines which you can enter to find various ores. There are even ancient ruins which are guarded by a door which you must hop on a contraption to spin it as fast as possible. However that isn't all that is in the stages. No the main gameplay mechanic of been a Tower Defence game lies out in these desert wastelands. The game has 10 stages which each have three days and nights within them. The days are spent traveling the stages collecting resources, while the nights are spent battling the Grocks which come out of their nests. Throughout the map are various points which the player can build towers, the towers can be just for watching, or the player can equip some weaponry to them.

The idea is that during the night while your towers are watching and shooting you roll around into these Grocks to battle them. Once you hit them a battle will start in which you fight some Grocks. To defeat them you just roll into them. Once they are defeated the big Grock you hit into is dead, and the village is saved. Well once you kill the desired amount of Grocks to advance to the next day it is.

You can do some smaller quests as well which involve collecting various ores or special items out in the stages. One quest I had to do was to find medicine for a kid, which the hint was they grow around Guard Towers. I found the desired item as a sparkling section around the tower and the quest was done. Quests reward you with more money, and if you don't do them or fail them you get penalised each day.

Controls

The controls in this title are, for the most part the titles down fall. There is very little if not nothing at all mapped to the buttons. You will find yourself using the control stick to move around like in normal games but most of the controls taking place with the touch screen. In theory this isn't a bad idea, however the touch screen controls allow the player to do pretty much everything.

The touch controls work by sliding in a certain direction to power up your "spin" then you are able to let go and travel in the direction you were pointing at. You can also use the L button while in a spin to stop instantly with the characters claws. During your spin you must slash the touch screen to keep putting power into the spin which will make it so your character doesn't slow down.

When attacking a Grock you are able to point to the direction you want to attack them from, however you must use the touch screen to do this. Regardless of which direction you are facing the Grock at, the touch screen controls have their own center of direction which means you must make sure you slash the touch screen at the right side to attack the Grock. The game offers no tutorials on how these touch screen controls work.

These controls in theory are alright, but in practice are a bit tricky to master. It is a shame there is no other control methods available to the player which could reduce the stress of playing this title.

Graphics

The graphics are probably what this title does best. With the graphics been cellshaded and simplistic, they distance the title from other games on the market.

Sound

I love the sound, while there isn't that many musical tracks they are quite well done. The music will remind players of various other Nintendo games at times, as well as the western outback. The music accompanies the games general sounds very well.

Special features

The title uses the 3D screen to display the main action. However the touch screen will show menus, maps, quests etc. Pretty much everything else is on the touch screen. The screen is primary used for control.

The game isn't home to special features of any sort except for the Nintendo 3DS 3D. Gyro and Cameras are not used. While this is disappointing, there isn't much these features could be used for within the title. The 3D itself works well, however it isn't used in any ground breaking ways.

Final comments

The core concept of this game is very good, however the polish isn't there and the controls make it almost unplayable at times. The games difficulty in general is also all over the place. It is a real shame this title didn't shine, instead it flickered out. I was looking forward to this title since I first heard about it, however with it finally in my hands there is something drastically unsettling about the titles presentation. That said, the game is an interesting title with solid graphics and characters which make the game very charming and interesting. Many key elements of the game such as graphics, sound, and even the gameplay concept are done well and shouldn't hinder the title, however the title does have key elements such as controls which ruin the experience. The asking price is also a bit high, and will leave gamers with a sour taste in their mouth.

Pro: Great Characterisation and Graphics.
Con: Controls could of been much better and the difficulty is allover the place.
Final score: 7.1

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