18. Gunman Clive [3DS]I've just been in the mood for short, neat games lately. Was looking through my 3DS collection and realised I had not beaten Gunman Clive yet. A little embarrassing, considering this single playthrough only took me an hour, but hey, beat it now.
I remember this game being talked about a lot during the hayday of the 3DS as a really good, short run-'n-gun platformer, impressively developed by just one guy. And looking at it 12 years after release, that all still holds true. I think it's fair to say indie games have come a long way since then, but Gunman Clive is still quality. It feels great to play. The controls are buttery smooth. I personally really don't care for anything western at all, but the art style is still nice and wholly unique. I had fun with it. I've only done one playthrough so far, but there's 3 playable characters, and I may come back to do another run with another character sometime in the future.
Unfortunately the 3DS eShop is now down of course, but the game is still available on Steam or in the HD Collection with the sequel on Switch and PS4. It's dirt cheap too: 5 bucks for the HD Collection, or 2 bucks for the first game on its own on Steam. Not on sale: that's the regular price. And at that price? I say go for it!
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19. K3 en de vrolijke noten [DS]Figured I'd add this in an edit to this post as to not clog up this thread. With that said....
![](https://romspure.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/K3-en-de-Vrolijke-Noten.jpg)
....hear me out.
So K3 is a Belgian pop group. They've been around for over 25 years (with a handful of member switches), and in Belgium and the Netherlands they're well known for their upbeat bubbly pop music. I'm a fan of theirs, but while anyone can enjoy their music, as a group they're mainly marketed towards children. And you know it, when you're marketed to children in the mid to late 2000s, you're getting a DS game. (Even for K3 though, their look on this box art is pretty over the top).
Which leads me to
K3 en de vrolijke noten, which translates to
K3 and the cheerful musical notes (Yes I know if you enter it into a translator app it can also say "K3 and the cheerful nuts", I'm sorry, nut and musical note are the same word in Dutch, I can't help it). I just wanted to play it out of curiosity, and I had it anyway. For a K3 DS shovelware game this exceeded my expectations, but that's only because my expectations were so low they were buried next to prehistoric fossils (I swear, some of the other games based on licenses owned by Studio 100, which also owns K3, have been some of the worst games I've ever played on DS and Wii). This is a minigame collection, though it is tied together with a story (which means I could and did beat it). The minigames here are basic stuff you'd expect like dressup and tile matching, but at least it functions. Inbetween the minigames though, there's also three overworlds to explore. Sure they're completely empty with nothing to find, but it's something? The music is midi versions of some of their songs, which at least isn't awful because their music is good, but it just makes me wish I was listening to their music (and even then, the songs they chose aren't the best in their repertoir). And one nitpick: in some music games they have low-poly 3D models of K3 dancing to the song, but the routine doesn't match the song until the final minigame. Yes I'm gonna be petty like that. I finished this game, I earned it.
So yeah, this should shock no one, but it's shovelware and you shouldn't play it. It's not the worst I've ever played, it might entertain little kids who like K3 for a half hour, but they deserve better. Give them a real game and put on some K3 music. Hell, I say check out one of their more recent songs (featuring the newer members) yourself. You'll get endlessly more enjoyment out of it (and I stand by a lot of their music being legitimately good):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ZWV6SjzO0