More Thoughts From Me #26: Catching The Denpa Men

Recently, a certain cellphone game that everyone won’t stop talking about got thinking about one of the coolest AR games I have ever played. The game is called The Denpa Men. In the game, you catch the Denpa Man via altered reality (AR) and then use them in video game battles. There are three Denpa Men games on North American 3DS systems. Let me tell you about the series!

The Denpa Men is a game that uses AR and “radio waves” (WiFi) to generate what type of Denpa Men you’ll find in a given area. Basically, there just needs to be a WiFi signal in an area to find Denpa Men. There are a lot of Denpa Men to find and you can’t find all the Denpa Men in one area. You’ll have to travel beyond you’re home if you want to find more Denpa Men. The concept here may sound familiar to you, but Denpa Men has actually been out for awhile now.

The Denpa Men came to the 3DS eshop years ago. Since then, there’s been two sequels. There was also a free-to-play game that never came to the United States. I’ve played the first Denpa Men and the second. I tried a demo of the third one recently too. I really need to get that third one eventually. Each Denpa Men game gets better then than the last one.

The first Denpa Men game, They Came By Wave, is what I’ve been playing recently. This first game has a simple menu to navigate between the dungeons and main island where you live and also where you can access the AR tower to capture Denpa Men. The sequels actually have world maps and a town for the Denpa Men to wander around in though. And while the first game seems simple in comparison to the others, it does have a lot of charm and fun, challenging dungeons.

Denpa Men has a wacky sense of humor, especially when it comes to its enemies, and its dungeons are nothing to sneeze at. You will be challenged by the first Denpa Men game (and the sequels too). The battles in this game are turn-based and you can let the game do all the work with a Auto battle mode or you can pick what each Denpa Man will do. The battle system is fun and pretty fast. The AR catching game is a lot of fun too and later on you can even use QR codes to get Denpa Men and share them on the internet. I highly recommend taking your 3DS with you no matter where you go though! You just never know what special Denpa Men you’ll find. I highly recommend all of the Denpa Men games!

The first Denpa Men is good, the second is even better, and the third looks like it’s the best yet. All three of these games are worth owning. If you have a 3DS and you like AR related games (and/or role playing games), you’ll probably like Denpa Men. Each of these games have a lot to them, especially the second and third one. I really wish the free-to-play Denpa Men had come to the U.S. too.

Now that AR seems to be all the rage, perhaps its time that The Denpa Men return. Either the free-to-play game or better yet a brand new sequel would be amazing. It would be ok with me if they take their time developing it though. I still need to replay the first and second game, plus play through that third game! It’s a shame more people haven’t played the Denpa Men. The series is a lot of fun!

Have you played any of the Denpa Men games? What do you think of them?

Next week: Now you’re playing with Power! NINTENDO POWER. Yes, I take a look back at Nintendo Power. Still the coolest source of Nintendo info EVER!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts presented here are mine and mine alone. Excuse me, I’m going to go play some more Denpa Men now.