Helping the Friendly Monsters: A Look At Gurumin 3D for 3DS

3D action platformers seem to be making a comeback these days. For awhile, we were seeing mostly just 2D platformers, but now 3D platformers seem like all the rage. Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure for the 3DS is a 3D action platformer, but its also has rpg and puzzle elements too. The game is out now for the 3DS eshop. We received a review code for the game, however our review isn’t ready yet. We wanted to give you a preview of the game though! How am I liking Gurumin 3D so far?

In Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure you tasked with helping…monsters! Don’t worry: these are very friendly monsters. You are helping the monsters defeat the mysterious, bad guy phantoms. This will not be an easy task at all. The game gets harder as you go, but thankfully you’ll collect more skills as you go and those will help you a bit. Gurumin is a 3D action platformer with some rpg elements! The game also reminds me a bit of the Legend of Zelda.

There are elements of Gurumin 3D that will remind you of Zelda. You’ll find yourself going into dungeons and solving some puzzles. There are plenty of enemies to fight in these dungeons too. Unlike Zelda though, you can jump around in these dungeons. The combat in Gurumin is much faster than Zelda too. The main character has a handy drill that you use against the enemy, against pots, and against walls/other things too.

Most of the dungeons I’ve been in so far have been pretty straight forward expect one that was very maze-like. Unfortunately, Gurumin doesn’t have a map on the bottom screen to help you see where you need to go. The bottom screen is used for other things.

On the touch screen, you will have access to your equipped head piece, drill parts, items, and the menu. I wish that the items and menus could be accessed via the touch screen but pressing the items or menu button on the bottom screen opens a menu on the top screen. This also pauses the game. Its too bad you can’t access your items or menu on the fly while exploring. That said, the menus are well laid out in Gurumin.

You’ll easily find all of the items you collect and under the system part of the menu you’ll find Save, a control manual and more. The save is especially handy since you can save anywhere in the game! I also like that there is a ton of save slots. Gurumin 3D, overall, is a neat game. That said, the game does have some issues that hold it back from being a great game. I want to cover a couple of those issues here and I’ll talk about any other issues in my review.

The two largest issues that the game has, so far, are its in-game camera and its music. It seems like nobody can get 3D game cameras right and Gurumin continues that trend. The camera in Gurumin can be controlled by the L/R button and on the New 3DS, the game uses the second nub. However, on both the 3DS and New 3DS the camera is a real issue. You’ll have to be messing with it a lot in the dungeons and the camera can get in the way sometimes. In the town, the camera will follow you around! I wish the camera would just follow you around always instead of the player having to always fight with it in dungeons.

As for the game’s music, a lot of the time its ok, but during load times, it will skip. Its a real shame that the game has this issue because the music, for the most part, is fun and upbeat. Gurumin 3D isn’t a perfect game, but it is nice to see another game like this on the 3DS.

I want to play Gurumin 3D a lot more before doing my review, but once its ready, my review will cover Gurumin 3D’s story, gameplay, graphics, sound, and more. Is Gurumin the 3D action rpg platformer that the 3DS deserves? You’ll have to wait till my review to find out. Stay tuned to Gamesreviews.com for more on Gurumin 3D and other games for the 3DS.