Recently, Nintendo released the Nintendo Badge Arcade, a free-to-start eShop game for Nintendo 3DS. The game is about collecting badges from different franchises, such as Super Mario Bros., Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart and more to decorate your 3DS home screen. Every few days, more badges from new franchises are added, while old ones are rotated out. Some badges are there for decoration and can be placed as folder icons, while other badges replace important home screen icons such as the Mii Plaza, eShop, or Settings. The way badges are collected are from a crane game. Holding A moves the crane, and releasing the button drops the crane to then grab a badge. Other cranes have a hammer or drop a bomb to send some badges flying. Drop the badges through the openings in the bottom to claim them. When starting up Nintendo Badge Arcade, you’ll be given 5 free plays to gain some badges, after that, you’ll need to pay $1.00 for 5 more plays. Occasionally a free play will be granted on certain days, or you can practice playing the crane game once a day for a chance at more free plays. It is a system that works well for the most part, but to collect all the badges in a set, you’ll need to pay for plays, as the badges are only available for a certain number of days.
A hook to the game is collecting all the badges in a particular set. Even if you spend money for plays, you aren’t guaranteed to get all the badges in a set. The crane game is simple enough to control, but you don’t know when the crane will grab the badge you want, or when the crane will drop the badge. So you could be spending a few bucks to try and obtain a badge you desire. It’s easy to spend multiple dollars, as, after you complete a set and have some plays left over, you’ll move on to another set, but if you have one or two badges left to collect, you’ll have to spend another dollar to complete the set. If you are a completionist, wanting to collect everything, you will most likely end up spending as much money as you would on a full priced game, perhaps more. On occasion, a free theme will be granted to you if spend a couple dollars on the crane game. However, the game doesn’t show you what theme you’ll be getting, so you don’t know if you want to spend the cash to get a certain theme or not. I would be more inclined to spend a buck or two if I knew I would receive a theme that I would enjoy.
One of the first things you’ll notice when starting the game is a pink rabbit that greets you. The rabbit offers helpful tips and advice while playing, and teaches you more about the Arcade. Most times though, he is there to ask you random questions and tell you various thoughts on various Nintendo games. He’ll ask questions ranging from what characters are in other games to what you like to eat. It offers nothing more than a diversion, as whatever answer you choose won’t affect how many plays or what badges you earn. The rabbit does have a good amount of personality but can become annoying after a while. Other than playing the crane game, or practicing for a free play once a day, you can view your collection of badges. It will tell you the percentage of badges collected in a set, and which ones from a set you haven’t earned yet. The game also has Miiverse integration, so you can take a screen shot of your home screen and post it to Miiverse, then in turn view others’ home screens. Some posts are pretty creative, such as making it look like Mario Kart badges are racing, or a Super Mario Bros. badge jumping on Goombas.
I’ll admit, Nintendo Badge Arcade is addicting. I myself have spent a few dollars on the game, but it’s specifically for badges that I want. For example, if there is a Waluigi badge, you better believe I’m going for it. Of course, when you collect one, you’ll want to collect them all. I would recommend at least trying Nintendo Badge Arcade for the 5 free plays to decorate your home screen. It would be worth playing the practice game each day for a chance at more free plays to collect a few more badges, but be cautious, this is where you may fall down the rabbit (pun intended) hole, leading you to spend a few bucks for more badges.
