Dream Trigger 3D Preview

The 3DS isn't even out in North America and it has already got a ludicrously wide assortment of games. On the one end, there's Nintendogs and Cats, with all its cuteness and fuzziness and complete lack of anything resembling traditional difficulty. Then there's a game we just checked out here at GDC 2011 called Dream Trigger 3D. It's a shoot-'em-up for shoot-'em-up fans, a game for those who enjoy the unique sort of abuse only this type of game can offer.

What makes Dream Trigger 3D so tough? Well, to start with, you can't even see your enemies by default. They can attack you whenever they please, but you have to go searching them out to defend yourself. Doing so requires use of the bottom touch screen. Most of the game's action takes place on the top screen, while the touch screen features a corresponding grid that you need to tap to make enemies visible up top. If you successfully tap their location on the grid, they suddenly reveal themselves on the top screen. Think of it like guessing where your enemy is in a game of Battleship, only a lot more frantic, and with hundreds of bullets flying all over the screen that you need to avoid. You can still say "You sunk my battleship!" if you want, but that would be kind of weird.

Oh, and there's a rhythm element too. Your touch-screen inputs are cleared off the bottom screen in rhythm with the music (we believe it's every fourth beat, but we might be wrong here), so you need to tap out where you think enemies are in groove with the game's electronic soundscape to get the most out of your guesses. If this all sounds a little bit confusing, well, it is. These mechanics certainly take a little getting used to if you're more accustomed to a straightforward sort of shoot-'em-up, but the game does start off pretty easy before it ramps up to sadistic difficulty levels later in the game.

Dream Trigger 3D's other selling point is its visual diversity. There are a bunch of different visual themes throughout the game's 50 levels that range from serene Sakura trees to a Virtua Boy-inspired cyber world to optical illusions in the vein of an M.C. Escher drawing. Naturally, the game also offers some 3D effects, such as the way power-ups come fading in from the distance. If all of that sounds like something up your alley, you can expect to see the game released during the 3DS launch window here in North America.