12 Best 3DS Launch Games

Bust-A-Move Universe is Puzzle Bobble 3D, developed by Taito and Arika and published by Square Enix. It was released in Japan as a launch title on February 26, 2011, and was released in North America on March 27. The bubble dragons Bub and Bob fly through space in a spaceship, and as doors open on each planet, bubbles come out that turn into space debris.

You still aim and fire to match colours, and the modes include boss battles, 100-second and 300-second rounds and a Challenge Mode. The few players who picked it up at launch liked it. They call it simple and say the stacked bubbles look great in 3D. It is a small game, best for a quick round on the bus.

Sega's Super Monkey Ball 3D was originally released on March 3, 2011 in Japan. It came out as a launch title on March 25 in Europe and March 27 in North America, then on March 31 in Australia. Sega also put it on the Nintendo eShop in Europe and North America on April 3, 2014, which is the easiest way most people found it later.

You tilt the stage to roll a monkey in a ball toward the goal, and the 3D effect helps you judge the edges. Next to the GameCube games it feels small. Players who still bring it up mostly suggest it as a light game to play together, which is where it works best.

Asphalt 3D was the seventh major game in the Asphalt series and the first on a Nintendo system since Asphalt 4: Elite Racing. It is a direct conversion of the iOS game Asphalt 6: Adrenaline. You get 17 tracks based on real places, San Francisco and Paris among them, and 42 licensed sports cars to unlock as you win races and level up.

Critics were rough on it. Asphalt 3D received negative reviews for its controls, its bugs and a choppy framerate, and it holds 43/100 on Metacritic. One review called it "a contender for the title of 'worst launch game of all time'". Players who name it today mostly tell you to skip it, which is why it sits this low on a list of games people talk about.

LEGO Star Wars III follows the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon instead of the films. The game had been in development since late 2009, when the second season of the show started, and its prologue level is based on the Geonosian Arena battle from Attack of the Clones. The 3DS version came with the system's launch, with Nintendo putting out its own 3DS trailers around E3.

It plays the way every LEGO game plays: smash things, collect studs, swap characters and unlock more of them. Players who finished it call it a lot of fun. The 3D is not perfect, but as a game to play through once with a Star Wars fan, it does the job.

The Sims 3 came out on PC on June 2, 2009, and on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the DS in October 2010. A Nintendo 3DS version, released on March 27, 2011, was one of the platform's launch titles. You create Sims with their own personalities and guide their lives around a neighbourhood that you can customise.

Karma Powers are the fun twist here. You can help a Sim out with "love connector" or "instant beauty", or curse them with an "instant enemy", and the results do not always go the way you planned. Challenges unlock new buildings and landmarks as you play. It was the cosiest game on the launch shelf, and players who want something calm on the 3DS still point to the Sims games.

Samurai Warriors: Chronicles was a Japanese launch title in February 2011 and came out in Europe, North America and Australia in March. It is the Samurai Warriors hack and slash series squeezed onto a handheld: one warrior against a field full of soldiers, cutting through them by the hundred while you chase the mission's goals.

It got two sequels. Chronicles 2nd came out only in Japan in 2012, and Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 reached Europe and North America digitally in June 2015. One early buyer called the first game the "sleeper hit out of all the launch titles", and players who like the series still say good things about the Chronicles games. If you never played one, this is a cheap way to find out why people love mowing down armies.

Shadow Wars was released on March 25, 2011 in Europe, March 27 in North America and March 31 in Australia as a launch title for Nintendo's new console. Instead of a shooter, it is a turn-based tactics game in the style of Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. Elevation and cover matter a lot, and a support fire system lets units back each other up when an enemy moves into range.

The story sends the Ghosts from Kazakhstan to Ukraine and Siberia to shut down Soviet-era "Dead Hand" bases, where Yuri Treskayev is building an army of drones. Each soldier has a class, like Banshee the Recon, who stays hidden until an enemy stands next to her. Players who found it call it a fun turn-based strategy game, and it still turns up on lists of the best games on the system.

Ridge Racer 3D was the launch racer that got it right. The game received positive reviews and was a commercial success, selling over 34,000 copies in its first week. It came out in Europe on 25 March and in Australia on 31 March, and North American players got it with the console. You drift through hairpin turns in a big range of cars, and the 3D makes it easier to judge the gap to the car in front.

The music came from Namco Bandai's own team, with Taku Inoue and Hiroshi Okubo among the composers, and the soundtrack got its own CD on 9 May 2011. Players who still play it call it a really solid racer, and it keeps showing up on their lists of 3DS favourites next to much bigger games.

Rayman 3D is a port of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, the 3D platformer that came out on the Dreamcast in North America on 21 March 2000. Rayman 2 was critically acclaimed for its gameplay, graphics and accessibility. You play from a third-person view, and Rayman's quest for the masks begins at the Sanctuary of Water and Ice, where he defeats the guardian Axel.

How you feel about this one depends on your copy and your patience. Plenty of players call Rayman 3D a bad port and say they ran into glitches all the time. Others bought it at launch, kept it for years and still recommend it as a good way to play Rayman 2. Nobody argues about the original game, which is still one of the best 3D platformers of its time.

Steel Diver began as a playable tech demo for the Nintendo DS, first shown at E3 2004. It was released in March 2011 as a launch title for the 3DS in North America. It did not make the Japanese and European launch window: Europe got it on May 6, 2011, and Japan and Australia on May 12.

You steer a submarine through tunnels, setting its speed, depth and pitch and firing torpedoes. The 3D makes the whole thing look like a small aquarium. There is also a strategy mode where two players hunt each other's fleets. Steel Diver received generally mixed reviews, and players are split on it too: some love it, others call it boring. A sequel, Steel Diver: Sub Wars, came to the eShop in 2014.

Capcom squeezed the full Super Street Fighter IV onto the 3DS, with 35 playable characters, bonus stages and the cinematic Ultra combos. You could fight friends online over Wi-Fi, and a figurine mode used StreetPass to trade collectible figures with people you walked past. Yoshinori Ono added a 3D over-the-shoulder camera, and he included the Dynamic Mode early on in development in part to make it appealing to casual gamers.

For new players there was a simple mode that put special moves on the touch screen. One review called it a "staggering port of an exceptional fighting game". Players still put it on their lists of the best 3DS games, and some still check their StreetPass hits for it.

Pilotwings Resort is a sequel to the 1990 SNES game Pilotwings and the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Pilotwings 64. It is set on Wuhu Island, which was originally featured in the Wii Fit series and Wii Sports Resort, and it was the first Nintendo 3DS game to feature Mii characters. You fly planes, hang gliders and rocket belts through missions that climb from Training up through Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond classes.

The best part is Free Flight Mode, where you explore the island with any aircraft you have unlocked. Critics wanted more of it, and IGN gave the game a 7/10. Players remember it fondly anyway, and many of them still name it among their favourite 3DS games. For a lot of people, this was the game that showed what the 3D could do.