You may be wondering what the “Seven Decals Required” et al means. As the number suggests, it means you cannot activate that Decals powers until you have collected that many of the single Decal during the Periscope Strike mini-games after completing Missions. Which is a problem, as I’ll explain later.

You can typically only select one of the Decals that you have activated by tapping on the Decal button in the bottom-right of the screen before undertaking a Mission during the single-player Campaign. As is obvious, these can greatly enhance your chance of beating the mission.

There are a few different Modes of Play on offer in Steel Diver, they are:

Missions
This is the Main Single Player Mode. The main campaign takes you through 7 Missions, five core Missions and two unlockable Missions.

Time Trails
The Time Trail Mode challenges you with 8 different courses for you to tackle. With each course you race to reach the end by avoiding objects and enemies, with the goal being to top the best time or beat the developer’s Ghost Racer.
Periscope Strike – “Hunt for enemy ships with your Periscope”. This is a Score Attack mode where you want to destroy as many enemy ships as fast as you can for the highest score. It works just like the Periscope Strike mini-game, except you get three modes of play: “Enemy Ships” (same as the mini-game), “Enemy Ships In A Storm” (self-explanatory, makes them harder to hit and aim because of the waves) and “Enemy Submarines”, where you can’t see far-off ships and must relie on your radar.

Steel Commander
This mode is completely different than the other Modes. This is a unique strategy game that plays similar to a turn-based Battleship or Stratego boardgame. In it, you must maneuver your ships on a grid, protect your Supply Ship using the other two unit types (Submarine and Escorts) and try to discover the location of the enemy ships and destroy them before they destroy you. If you target and destroy the Supply Ship of your opponent, you automatically win (much like capturing the flag in Stratego). This mode can be played with 2-Players in Local Play (but not online). It also supports Download Play so you can play the game with two people using two 3DS systems and only one Steel Diver Game Card. This unique strategy game offers a fun change of pace for those who into these types of games, and you have a total of 9 Maps with different shaped grids to play for the Single Player of Steel Commander.

With all of that out of the way, how is the game itself you ask?

Well, in my humble opinion, Steel Diver is the poster-child and the quintessential reason you didn’t buy a 3DS. Because this is NOT the type of game you bought a 3DS for.

What do I mean by that? I mean quite simply this, Steel Diver feels more like it could’ve been a port of an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad game, and feels like it should’ve been saved as the introductory exclusive title for the upcoming 3DSWare eShop, the 3DS’ upcoming digital store. This is exactly the type of game you hoped wouldn’t be a launch title, as the game not only lacks longevity and real depth, but it also lacks wow-factor and has a somewhat steep learning curve. While the learning curve isn’t great, its tough enough that it makes this game the opposite of say Nintendogs + Cats, its not the type of game you hand to people to show them how cool the 3DS is. As they will quite simply run into walls or floors and die or, worse yet, find the slow pace and lever-based controls boring.

The game is also pretty short, at most you will probably spend a few days with it and be done. There are ONLY five core courses. Not only that, but you are forced to play these courses over and over again. As you will not unlock course #6 until you have successfully beaten courses 1-5 with ALL THREE different sized ships. And then once you unlock course number 6, you will not unlock course #7 until you beat that course with all three ships. It just feels so artificially extended as far as the amount of true gameplay that is packed into the title. I feel that most people will probably not replay all of the five courses three times each successfully (it is easy to die) before shelving the title out of rudundincy.

Additionally, while the Decals are cool and all, you need to collect WAY TOO MANY of the same Decal before you can use it. The result is that I only had FOUR usable Decals by the time I had unlocked the 7th stage. By that point, it’s kind of useless. Why use them if you’ve already completed most of the game? To go back through and get a higher score by “cheating” with Decals that give you more powers? Meh.

I will say this though, the game WAS fun and addicting enough (even though all you are going for is high scores, essentially. Unless you count unlocking the Decals. You can also try to beat the developers Ghost to earn a medal. Which has to be a near perfect run) that I did keep playing it until I beat all of the stages in one sitting (except the last, Stage 7 is one hell of a tough cookie).

Additionally, while the Main Missions do get repetitive, you can also try the Time Trails Mode which does offer unique courses that are enetirely different from the campaign missions. And you can also play the Periscope Strike mini-games. And then there is Steel Commander. So the game DOES actually have quite a bit of content, its more a manner of how much you want this content and how much Steel Commander you can take. I have the feeling that I am kind of done with the game, and I don’t envision myself going back to play it much more if at all. Its one of those kind of games. But hey, at least its unique! When was the last time you saw Nintendo make a Submarine “sim” anyway? Exactly.

FUN FACTOR: 7.0

This game is a solid 7.0. The game is far from great (8.0) yet it’s a little more than above-average, as the game is unique for what it is, and does offer a refreshing experience in particular when compared to the rest of the 3DS launch lineup. And even when compared to other games, the game is fun if you can get into it. For me, I actually kept playing it for a solid six hours. Granted, I had a review to write, but even so I WAS having fun. Even though the game can get frustrating at times, particularly when you die near the end of a mission and thus have to do it all over again. But with only 5 core Missions, there is not a ton of content and it feels like the game should’ve been a downloadable title and not a full retail game. I certainly would not recommend paying full price for it. Thankfully for those who want more, you are offered a fair amount of different Modes and even an entirely unique board-game like strategy game that you can play with a friend called “Steel Commander”. But the game lacks in 3DS functionality. While it does take advantage of the built-in gyroscope and accelerometer to physically rotate your Periscope when looking through it, it completely lacks any kind of online play or multiplayer (beyond the strategy game) and has no leaderboards. The goals in the game are almost entirely focused on earning high scores (although there are 31 Decals to unlock) so it would’ve made a lot of sense to include some kind of leaderboard system where you could compare your high scores with friends and the world. The game doesn’t make use of SpotPass either. For shame! All in all, its not to say that Steel Diver is a bad game or devoid of fun. Quite the opposite in fact, I had fun with the game. It’s not about whether the game is fun though, because it can be and was fun for me. Its about how much fun you want and expect from a 3DS game. In my humble opinion, this is more of a $10 fun game, or $20 at most. NOT a $40 fun game. But your mileage may vary, depending on how much you are into “sub” “sim-like” titles and enjoy the gameplay on offer, and whether or not you are into the Steel Commander sub-game (pun not intended).

Graphics: 8.0

Steel Diver is not a game that will “wow”. And it is not the accessible game you will want to whip out to wow your friends and offer them a play. In fact, the game, in my humble opinion, is a poor candidate as a showboat for the capabilities of the 3DS. The reason is that most of the graphical stereoscopic 3D effects in Steel Diver do not “pop-out” of the screen, which is what you expect to see when viewing something in stereoscopic 3D. And in that regard, the menus (specifically the one that pops up when you complete a mission) are more “THREE D” than the actual game itself. Which is kind of sad. But, for those who really pay attention and look into it (pun intended), you’ll notice that the graphics do have a depth to them that goes into the screen. The problem is that the gameplay is played on a 2D plane. While you will occasionally get hit by something coming from the background, for the most part you are only focusing on what is directly ahead of you, as half the gameplay is simply NOT RUNNING INTO THINGS. As a result, I found myself barely even paying attention to the pretty environments and depth of field going on behind me. Another problem is that many of the background environmental objects that do have a depth to them, will get confused as actual objects you can hit when instead they are simply background objects that you pass through. This is annoying. While “hittable” objects can clearly be identified as such when you can see the two together, other times you will rush to avoid what turns out to just be a background object. In short, the game looks good, solid and at times pretty, but isn’t exactly a showstopper. Although some people, particularly those who really love environmental underwater beauty, and those who really pay attention to the depth, may find the game to be quite beaitiful. Again, your mileage will vary based on your expectations of a 3DS launch title. I shouldn’t forget to add that the game also looks great with the 3D effects turned off.

Music and Sound: 6.5

The music in this game is forgettable, but it works. Sound effects are overall good, but the voice acting repeats. The repetitive voice acting is definitely not a deal breaker but it is not something that you expect from a “next-generation” game system, and something I noticed right off the bat. Thankfully the voice only comes in when you move the Depth Slider all the way up to Surface or all the way down to Dive, or get hit or brutally damaged, etc. So it doesn’t happen often enough to be a bother, but it is noticeable.

Ingenuity: 7.5

I wouldn’t exactly call Steel Diver “unique”, it’s more like “refreshing”. The game is an interesting one, what with Nintendo actually tackling a semi-realistic underwater Submarine action game with a dash of tactics thrown in with the a focus on high scores. The lever control system works pretty well actually, if you can get into it, but the game has a steep learning curve. Although I suppose it depends on how many sim-like, lever-control-based games you’ve played before. And I doubt many of those were side-scrolling in nature. The learning curve and the way your ship gets damaged when hitting the sides or can get a hole blown in it that you must fill by rubbing on the screen is both blessing and curse. While these mechanics are cool in all, it can make the game extra frustrating when you get hit and must plug the hole, as your ship controls will freeze and the Sub will sink; Causing it to slam into objects or the ocean ground where it will continually take damage until you plug the hole. And then the Sub, since it is a “ton of metal”, takes time to react to your lever-pulling, which adds insult to injury. Overall, the game is unique enough to stand out from the pack of titles available at the 3DS launch and it was an interesting and refreshing “genre” for Nintendo to tackle, so I’m glad they did. But, as I mentioned above, Steel Diver feels like a downloadable game, and that is what it should’ve been.

Replay Value: 6.5

Steel Diver only features 5 Core single-player Mission levels to play, with artificial length added to unlock the other two, because you are required to beat each level three times (once with each Sub), ad nauseam. The game does offer unlockable Decals to earn, but they missed a good opportunity to make the player strive for them by requiring you to gain multiples of each Decal before it becomes activated. The result is that you won’t earn many of them until long after you really needed them. But if you are talking pure replay value, then there are 31 Decals to unlock, extra levels beyond the initial 5 for those who want to play that much, and bonus mini-games where you shoot at oncoming Subs via a Periscope viewfinder. The game also has Time Trail levels to tackle, but the gameplay is the essentially the same. Bump that 6.5 up to 7.0 if you are one to enjoy a turn-based, strategy game that’s like a cross between the boardgames Battleship and Stratego, because the game contains a whole other beast known as “Steel Commander” that definitely adds a lot of replay value for those who are into it (including two-player support and 9 Single-Player Maps). But in short, the game doesn’t offer a great deal of content, certainly not for full asking price of $40. I’d pay no more than $20 for it.