Hacking your 3DS
I was recommended a YouTube Video about the flash memory in 3DS cartridges failing. Naturally, this kind of irked me, especially after the person making the video noted that it happens especially when you do not plug your cartridges in often. I was on an 3DS hiatus, not really playing it in YEARS. I also didn't like to use it to play my Nintendo DS games, as the upscaling looks quite bad, and playing it with original solution as a small box on the big screen also doesn't sit right with me.
Well, what can you do against it? I never wanted to hack my DS, I had enough actual games, I wasn't playing it often, and my concern was, that I would not spend my time actually playing if I did hack it; that I would be more focused on installing a lot of interesting homebrew, menu themes and what not, and, what I also did was trying to develop my own game for 3DS. (This might become subject of another post...).
So in short, by getting the ability to play everything, I would play nothing (Overchoice). But I wanted to try it anyway, as I read about a software (Checkpoint) that could back up your cartridges save state (and with the hacked 3DS, you could also back up your actual cartridges and store the files on your PC).
So that's what I did. I went through the guide at 3ds.hacks.guide, which was pretty straightforward to do. And, as expected I spent half a day installing random software, installing a bajillion themes etc. etc. XD I also spent time inserting all of my cartridges and using Checkpoint (which comes preinstalled if you follow the entire guide (Finalizing Setup)) to backup all my saves.
Emulation
The overchoice was worst than I had thought. You can emulate basically everything on the 3DS, and as you can also emulate NDS, you can use the emulators written for NDS, which there are also quite a lot of (I used to play a lot of WarioLand 3 using lameboy, as my actual Gameboy Colour suffered battery corrision, and the DS is just way nicer with its backlit screen...)
So, seeing that there was a Klonoa game for GBA, I tried it!
Klonoa! I love those pixel graphics. I upscaled them 4x so that they would show better. Sadly on the 3DS, the upscaling wasn't super crisp (didn't want to play in original res, see above, it's a trade off. For good pixel scale ups, you would need even scaling factors, like 2x, 3x, 4x, etc. which is sometimes just not possible. (According to somebody on GBAtemp, the 3ds is around 1.5x of the GBA from the height, making a perfect upscaling impossible) The matrix mode (default) on open_agb_firm does the best job it can)
It's a great plattformer, with the Klonoa mechanics you expect. Two buttons, pick up and throw enemies. I gotta say, it didn't get stale for me! The game adds new mechanics/blocks/enemies pretty regularly, keeping it fresh, and also all the different worlds have gorgeous art! There is a unique boss in every world (usually, you just hit it three times, but they all move and attack differently, and also give you different windows to attack)
Different tile sets!
And, to break up the plattforming (doesn't matter how unique it is, plattforming is plattforming), there is also a snow(?)boarding stage in every level, and also an autoscroller level. These were always interesting and also sometimes quite challenging (if you want to get all crystals)!
Generally, I would not call the game hard, you get a lot of lives and restarts, but some levels and puzzles had me try around and think sometimes on how I would reach a crystal or a key, it was good fun!
The game is also not super long, which I like (as said, overchoice! I like short and sweet experiences). It is a perfect length, not making you get tired of it. The longplay on YouTube is around 3 hours long, HowLongToBeat states it takes around 5,5 hours for the main story.
The game also had a story (about dreams!), in true Klonoa fashion with a twist at the end. I liked it, it was simple, but charming. Generally I just like Klonoa himself, a cute cabbit going on an grand adventure, always being optimistic.
Snowboarding! And new game mechanics!
just look at him go! I didn't get to finish Klonoa 2, seeing that Snowboard level was the highlight for me :DDefinitely check this out for an rocksolid plattforming experience!
Cutscenes! (Wanted to put some even cooler pics, but they would have spoilt something)
Worldmap! And another pretty zone map (they were fake 3d, it looked really nice when they spun around to show you the next levels)