Steel Diver

Overall, I enjoyed my undersea voyage quite a bit; it may have been short, but it was also very sweet. [April 2011, p.88]

Unfortunately, though, as impressive as the in-game content may be, everything ends far too quickly, even with the extra missions to unlock, and means that the RRP of £39.99 is too steep.

Steel Diver offers three different types of mini games. Each mini game is ok, but not more. The combination of all three modes would have been interesting, but there is no possibility to mix them up. The strategy multiplayer game is lame and not entertaining, while the periscope game is pretty funny in the beginning, but it is, like the campaign, too short.

It is, at least, pretty original, and getting to grips with your submarines' controls is both fun and satisfying. We would, though, have preferred to see it priced more realistically to reflect its brevity. It's true that it simply wouldn't work on any console other than the 3DS, but it's by no means an essential purchase.

The core "side-scrolling submarine action game with a bit of realistic physics" campaign is either way too short or frustratingly padded.

In short, Steel Diver is an extremely underwhelming launch game. The eight missions can be knocked out in about 2 to 3 hours and the two player Steel Commander mode is buggy in addition to boring when playing against the AI. It doesn't make any sense to me why Nintendo would sell this at a $39.99 MSRP.

Steel Diver is a very odd choice as a launch game. It's a new IP, which is great, but it doesn't exactly scream mass appeal. The 3D is used effectively, making it look like you're peering into a fish tank, complete with beautifully done dynamic backgrounds, but you can also turn it off and not have the experience change much at all. Mostly though, the biggest problem is that it's short, dull and entirely too easy. While any one of those would cause the game to spring a leak, all three sinks it right to the bottom.

I just can't get enough of this game. Almost every day I play Steel Diver not only to get high scores in time trials ang campaign missions, but also just to repeat these relaxing undersea voyages that are so amazingly addictive. The only mode I didn't enjoy was Steel Commander, but perhaps you'll understand it better then I and get some fun there (well, it's pretty fun if you play it with someone via Download Play). One of my favourite games for Nintendo 3DS! I just love it.

It all depends on how you treat it. As a full priced game? Terrible but as a 5$ bargin bin game years later pretty good.

This is an okay game. The only thing that you do is control a couple of submarines through some courses and play a mini game where you shoot missiles at ships while looking through a periscope. The game is pretty basic and kind of boring at times. That's it. Eh. It was fun for a while but then it became boring. This is a weak 3DS game. It's okay. Just, okay… The graphics are okay, the music is okay, the overall game is just okay.

It seems that Steel Diver was made not to make a good game but to show off what the 3DS could do in terms of how you control the game (big examples being the switches to move and the wolf gang like part in the game) but just because it was innovative doesn't mean it's good.

This was my first 3DS game and i havent polayed it in a long time because there are so many awesome titles that just beat the crap out of it. There are fun modes like sinking the battleships but are only fun for about 15 minutes. The controls are awful and it is very difficult to manuver your submarine in story mode and you occasionally hit into obstacles and enemies and blow up. The missiles are hard to shoot at enemies in story mode and usually cost you health just trying to aim and fire at ships at the surface of the water. The graphics and 3D are average and the water affects are good when you are splashed, but nothing worth "WOWing!" Overall, this game should be avoided to most 3DS owners and eager children should have their parents wait until the price drops to at least to $20 or lower, which is unlikely.