Boulder Dash-XL 3D (Nintendo 3DS) Second Opinion Review

In Boulder Dash-XL 3D, players take control of either Rockford or Crystal and must traverse through the game's numerous caves, avoiding boulders and various other obstacles, collecting diamonds along the way, allowing them to progress further. As players make their way through, they will be presented with additional hazards and also be introduced to new gameplay elements, such as doors that can only be opened when the key has been obtained and machines that can be used to transform boulders into diamonds. Also included is the ability to extend Rockford and Crystal's arms, in order to pull boulders, diamonds and various other objects towards them or push them as far back as possible. However, it must be noted that this ability can only be used after obtaining a pickup item and is limited to one use per pickup.

There are five modes on offer in Boulder Dash-XL 3D, each with their own objectives and unique caves. In Arcade, players have a time limit in which they must collect a certain amount of diamonds, whilst avoiding falling boulders and various different enemies. Once the required amount of diamonds has been collected, the exit will then open up and players can progress to the next cave. For those who don't like strict time limits and prefer to go through levels at their own pace, Zen Mode allows for choosing any level from Arcade to complete without having to worry about time.

In Puzzle there are twenty five smaller caves that are more complex to complete and require a bit more thought than the caves found in Arcade. Many of the gameplay mechanics encountered in Arcade can also be found here, with some puzzles requiring players to take a certain path and time their movements correctly in order to prevent being trapped or crushed by boulders. Fans of simple-yet-complex puzzle games will certainly get a kick out of this mode.

The next mode is exactly what it sounds like: Retro takes the gameplay back to the roots of Boulder Dash for the Commodore 64 and attempts to recreate the visuals from the original game. This mode is possibly the most challenging of them all because - as in the original game - falling diamonds can now crush the lead character and everything can wipe out Rockford in one hit.

At £4.49 on the eShop it's easy to recommend Boulder Dash-XL 3D for the content that's included in just the Arcade, Puzzle and Retro modes. There is also another mode known as Score, where players can challenge themselves to see how many diamonds they can collect in these four large stages. The depth of this mode is pretty shallow, though, due to there being no way of sharing scores through leader boards or StreetPass. It's a shame the developer didn't include leader boards, but even without this feature the game is still quite heavy on content.