3DS Swapnote Special Stationery List - trying to complete

Okay so I know I don't blog very much on this channel anymore. I'm mostly taken up with my Newbie GM blog, all about my Doctor Who Roleplaying experiences and Lave Radio, the Elite: Dangerous Podcast as well as Escape Velocity the full-cast audio drama based on Elite: Dangerous.

But, I am still an avid gamer and a bunch of us have been trying to figure out our Swapnote Special Stationery list, especially since the Swapnote Update in April 2013 gave us the ability to see how many we had each collected.

I've search the internet a bunch of times, but I can't find a list of Swapnote Special Stationeries I can understand, so I thought I'd make my own, based on the ones I have on my system. Hopefully my 3DS pals can send me the ones I'm missing.

I have 52 pieces of Swapnote Special Stationery at the time of writing (now 63 - see updates at bottom). My list is:

• Animal Crossing (insect outlines)
• Animal Crossing (Japanese - border of character faces)
• Art Academcy (Faint flowers in background)
• Bravely Default Flying Fairy (Character with giant speech bubble)
• Christmas Candy Cane, Baubles and falling stars
• Christmas Gift Bow and falling flowers
• Denpa RPG 2 (Japanese - Antenna Tower)
• Denpa RPG 2 (Japanese - Denpa Men in conga line holding a green cloth?)
• Denpa RPG 2 (Japanese - Family in fron of figure with bouquet)
• Denpa RPG 2 (Japanese - Girl sitting in front of pile of presents)
• Dillon's Rolling Western  (Faded paper poster)
• Dillon's Rolling Western (Rope outline with silhouettes)
• Dragon Quest Monsters (Japanese - Wood frame with vines)
• Dragon Quest Monsters (Slime silhouetees)
• Fallblox (2 columns of cartoon figures)
• Fire Emblem (Japanese - Row of pixel sprite figures across bottom)
• Fire Emblem Awakening (Character in front of faint world map)
• General - Beach with surfer silhouette
• General - Writing Paper/Pad with coloured lines
• Harmoknight (floating musical notes)
• I Fight Dragons (Photo booth faces with zooming figures)
• Lego City Undercover (group of 5 crooks)
• Lego City Undercover (police car)
• Luigi's Mansion (Ghosts zooming down corridor)
• Luigi's Mansion (side-scrolling ghosts)
• Mario and Sonic (Tennis and Fencing)
• Monster Hunter? (Cartoon Cat holding meat above head)
• Monster Hunter? (Cartoon Cat holding sword in front of waves)
• New Super Mario Bros 2 (Falling coins with gold mario and silver luigi)
• New Super Mario Bros 2 (Gold mario with fireball, ALONE, with falling coins and coin stack)
• New Super Mario Bros 2 (Luigi tripping with coins and Mario jumping)
• New Super Mario Bros 2 (Raccoon mario flying with scrolling coins)
• New Year Party Poppers with falling confetti
• Nintendo Direct (Japanese - Super Mario Land 8-bi scene with pagoda)
• Nintendo Direct (Nintendo Direct logo with Japanese pagoda with hills and fireworks, on blue stripe background)
• Nintendo Direct (Red top+bottom borders with map of europe)
• Nintendo Direct WiiU Black
• Nintendo E3 2012 with zooming bubbles
• Nintendogs and Cats (with reverse-zooming cloverleaves)
• Paper Mario Sticker Star (Mario with hammer in front of yellow checked background)
• Pokedex 3d Pro (Cartoon Genesect on white background)
• Pokemon Black/White 2 (Genesect on blue/purple background)
• Pokemon Black/White 2 (Genesect on grey background)
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (3 blue circles)
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (Blue)
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (Red)
• Swapnote Update (Flying letter with green baseline + pencil)
• The Legend of Zelda (Vine border with 6 pixel-sprite figures)
• Valentines (chocolate birds and falling flowers)
• Valentines (frame with stitched hearts)
• Valentines (Lace corners with zooming hearts)
• WiiU (Faint Miiverse in background)

UPDATE!

Since posting this appeal to my 3DS buddies I have had an excellent response from the lovely Alana who has provided me with the following additional swapnote special stationery:

• GameCenter CX (Japanese - Pixel art King on zooming starfield)
• Pokemon Black/White 2 (paper in two halves, black border left, white right, black and white Kyurem depicted)
• Super Mario 3D Land (Jumping mario with raccoon shadow on airmail border with logo)
• Mario Tennis Open (Peach on right with tennis balls scrolling left to right)
• Mario Tennis Open (Mario on left with tennis balls scrolling right to left)
• Monster Hunter? (Cartoon Cat holding playing card? with duck on head and pink background)
• Culdcept (Japanese - shows zooming rectangles with Manga girl in foreground, reads "Omiya Soft" in border)

UPDATE 2!

I also have the following stationery:

• Super Mario AR Card
• Mario and Donkey Kong - Minis on the Move
• Animal Crossing (Isabelle with zooming leaves)
• Monster Hunter 4 - Big English Logo and Silhouette Tribal Design

Does the PS Vita add any value?

Today marks my last opportunity to pre-order Sony's new handheld console, the Playstation Vita. To be honest I'm still uncertain as to whether I want it or not. To get my own thoughts in order and to provide you with some food for thought, below is the summary of my current thinking. This is not consumer advice, nor is it an analysis of the specification of the console; this is purely my experiences as a buyer and as a gamer.

I have a lot of games systems. Currently vying for my attention are the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS. Really I need to consider what the Vita offers that these do not.

Compared to the 3DS

On the one hand I love the 3DS as a portable games system. Poor battery life aside, the increase in power and resolution over the DS makes it a highly credible machine for more serious games. By "serious games" I mean bigger adventures, with deep stories and levels and cinematic presentation.

Having said that, the 3DS (as is often the case with Nintendo platforms) still lacks a generous quantity of these kinds of games. Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (3DS) and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS) have been good examples of the kind of excellent games at which the system can excel. However, I still haven't caught up with Super Mario 3D Land or the new Resident Evil and around the corner is Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure and Heroes of Ruin, so I still have plenty of opportunity for decent adventure games on the 3DS handheld.

But with the PS Vita I wouldn't have to wait ages for good quality singleplayer adventures to appear. The PS Vita will allow for much the same kind of games as are released for the PS3. Uncharted, Killzone, Unit 13 - these are all the kinds of games that can and will make a regular appearance on the handheld. If I'm going on a trip and I want a single game to really involve me and keep me company, I know that with the Vita I will be able to walk into a shop and find something I fancy, whereas the 3DS library may possibly let me down. The 3DS is still unable to deliver comparable ports of big console titles, as is demonstrated by the Lego games. The 3DS versions tend to be upscaled from the DS, rather than downscaled from the Wii.

Online

Multiplayer is a possible issue. Multiplayer gaming on any Nintendo system is usually a horrible experience, and online is often not offered at all - except in a few excellent exceptions, such as Mario Kart 7 or Tetris 3D. The Vita will benefit from Sony's existing expertise with PSN and most of the Vita games look to be highly supportive of online multiplayer.

Having said that I don't really like multiplayer all that much. Shooters aren't really my thing, although I do love anything that offers online co-op. Ironically (apart from Uncharted 2) the most fun I have had online has been with Nintendo's Pokemon and Animal Crossing and also the Wii diving game Endless Ocean. I'm certainly not interested enough to fork out for a 3G Vita so I'm really only going to do multiplayer on my home wireless (where my PS3 and 360 are already located).

Backwards compatibility and watching movies

I did have a PSP once, until it was stolen. I still have cartridges of a few games which I dearly loved on the PSP and would love to play again, such as Metal Gear Ac!d 1 & 2. It disturbs me that the only way I will get to play these games is to pay to download them again from PSN, IF they ever become available. Sony are very bad at offering backwards compatibility because it cuts into their profits, hence why my PS2 is still connected to a TV in the house.

I liked my PSP at the time because I could transfer DVDs and music to it and use it as a portable movie player. At the time this made it a killer machine. I'm still hugely disappointed that Nintendo have not made good on their promise to bring full 3D movies to the 3DS in Europe. Times have moved on since the PSP, though, and now my phone now delivers all of the peripheral benefits the PSP once offered. Now the Vita must stand up as a games machine alone.

Remote and cross-platform play

The remote play feature looks interesting, but from what I have seen around this will be extremely limited. I love my PS3 games and I would love to be able to sit in bed and play them on the handheld. I think I would be more committed to the Vita if Sony sounded more like they were going to follow through on the promises of universal remote play.

It will also be good to be able to engage in multiplayer across the Vita and PS3 networks. Although, as with the remote play feature, it remains to be seen how extensive this will be in practice.

Conclusion

I really like the look of the PS Vita as a piece of kit and its ability to play great games without compromise to limited hardware. If I didn't have a PS3 or Xbox 360 I would definitely get one to use as a serious games machine.

But most of the games I would really enjoy are available in some form or another on the PS3 or Xbox 360. Sure I'd like to play the Vita Uncharted game, but I do already have three Uncharted games on my shelf. Is it worth paying over £200 for another one?



If you'd like to join the debate, feel free to post below or find me on Twitter as @holdmykidney.

Novel Gamer Episode Eight - Pilotwings Resort, or "Learning to fly"

This is the eighth episode of the popular online alternative review column "Novel Gamer", part of Game People, which specialises in real world, alternative and artistic reviews. Don't forget that a podcast is also available from the source of this article, here.

This week, awoken by a mysterious message on his computer screen, an invitation leads Geo to a waterside warehouse where he must ask himself: does the Matrix have him? Or is the truth about the other side of the screen far more incredible?

This weeks' Novel Gamer review is based on reactions to a pre-release launch experience of PilotWings and is a preview, than a review based on a full assessment of the game.

...Wake up Geo

That was what the monitor screen said. It's appearance, unbidden, on my display had woken me from my light slumber as I lay on my couch with my DS on my chest. The battery had obviously died some time before. I was so tired when I had been playing I actually had no idea what I had been doing or what progress I may have lost.

At least I thought the text on the screen had appeared. I could picture it, but now the screen was blank. I half remembered that actually that was the beginning of a movie, so maybe it hadn't happened at all?

I stumbled into the kitchen, drew a glass of water, tipped some cereal into a bowl and sat down. The milk looked okay and I'd only bought it a couple of days before, but I still unscrewed the cap and gave the contents a sniff, automatically. Some habits you just get used to.

That day -- more than any other day -- I was strangely aware of my senses. The floor, between the kitchen table and the fridge had a slightly tacky patch. Not actually sticky, but maybe a place where a spill had once happened and been cleaned up, leaving only the faintest of adhesive traces. One end of the room seemed slightly darker, as though perhaps the bulb on that side of the fitting was on its way out. Condensation had formed on the tap spout where the cold water had escaped its confines for the alternative comforts of my glass.

There could be any number of reasons for my heightened feelings on that day. But, the reason I prefer to cling to is because that was the day I was about to have my eyes opened to a new world.

I've always been a gamer. From my earliest memories I recall slipping into an alternative world of adventure and intrigue on the other side of the screen. For me games have always enabled me to lose myself in an alternative reality. Much more than film with its fixed view on the action and its set narrative. The only other route I have ever found as effective for escaping from this world is books. It's not for everyone, but for the confident reader the barrier of the ink on the page melts away and the words and ideas are transported directly into the brain; to fire the imagination and to create a witness eye view on events that are unique to the reader.

The problem with games has been the thing it shares with film: the screen. In spite of its ability to display incredible vistas, gravity-defying moves, heart-breaking empathy and deep intrigue, it is the screen that reminds us we are trapped. Trapped in a world of mundanity, tethered to practicality and shackled to domestic limitation.

The screen gives us window into a world that is more alive and that accepts fewer excuses for what "cannot be done" within the bounds of physical reality.

That day was the day a man came who took the barrier away and enabled me to soar in the skies, as I used to in my childhood dreams.


If I could not be sure that I had seen the cryptic movie pastiche on my monitor I was in little doubt as to the reality of the card that had been pushed through my door.

It was clearly meant to serve as a business- or calling-card; however, it's dimensions were more reminiscent of a playing card. That certainly grabbed my attention. It featured a simple "?" mark.

I turned the card over, half anticipating something from the world of literary cliché: the ace of spades maybe, or the Tarot figure of Death grinning up at me. Instead, the reverse of the card featured a simple typed message: a local address and a time.

Looking at my watch I saw that I had just enough time to get ready and get to this meeting. There could be no question of my not following this invitation. Not only was the "?" mark on the card reminiscent of the prize boxes in Super Mario, but I couldn't help but think that if I had slept any longer I would not have been able to make this appointment; I thought back to those ghostly words on my screen.

I walked down to the docks. The address I had been given was for a waterfront warehouse, next to a small cafe. I decided I had no time for a tea break and headed inside. I was too excited about the wonder of this invitation to delay.

In the centre of the room stood a tall, imposing man in a long, black, leather coat. Beside him on a table was what appeared to be a Nintendo DS.

"Welcome, Geo" the man intoned. "I am glad to meet you. I believe that you are a man with a problem. A problem I hope to solve."

I nodded my head, "you're talking about the games."

"I'm talking about the reality you create for yourself, Geo. You who have always loved the excitement of exploring other worlds and doing things that no person could hope to experience in reality but who always feels like you are kept on the outside. Are you ready to go deeper into the game?"

I frowned, trying to understand. "You're talking about increased immersion?"

He replied, quickly, "I'm talking about reality, Geo. What is real? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. If you can convince your brain that an image you are seeing is in three dimensions -- 'appears' solid -- then who is to say it is not real?"

He held up his hand dramatically and I could see that he was holding a pair of old-style 3D glasses, with coloured lenses. "You have a choice," he announced, "look through the blue lens and you will see the world as it has always been, flat and dull ... ummm..." he faltered, "and looking a bit blue..."

I raised my eyes to the ceiling. The dramatic mood had been broken.

He continued unabated, "look through the red lens and you'll see, well, exactly the same thing." I think he sensed he was losing me, as he went on, hurriedly, "but if you look through both -- here's the thing -- it also changes nothing! What I am about to show you doesn't require glasses." He threw them over his shoulder and they landed in a puddle of water leaked from somewhere high in the ceiling.

He opened up the machine on the table. "This," he declared, "is the Nintendo 3DS and it will show you a world of which you have only dreamed." He stuck out a hand towards me, palm up, "the card, please."

I reached into my pocket and recovered the calling-card that had been pushed through my door. As I placed the card down on the table, "?" mark facing up, he handed me the 3DS and I focused on the image of the card on the screen. It wasn't like looking through a camera lens. It was like seeing the table in front of me with fresh eyes. A 3D viewport onto the world as it is. Then the 3DS showed me the world as it could be: the card unfurled, revealing a deep recess in the table. A dragon head on a long neck extended out and toward me.


I was reeling, "but this is incredible!" I called out.

"Patience, Geo," he said, raising a hand "I agree this is impressive, but the dragon is only to demonstrate that the world is not necessarily as you see it. Let me show you what you are really here to see; what you really came to do..."

*****

I felt myself soaring high above the ground, floating over the sea and onward, ever toward my target. The clouds parted and I saw the world laid out before me. It was like the world, only at the same time not like it. It wasn't drab, grey and mundane -- this was a world inhabited by living colour as though the sea was trying to be as blue as it could be and the grass exerting itself to be the greenest grass the world had ever seen.

The world was so ... if I had to settle for a word, I'd have to go with 'real'. Not the kind of real I expected. It was not our world reproduced on the screen. If anything it was the reverse. It was as though the world of the games had been made solid and brought into our reality. Before, these places had always seemed like colourful sketches in some framed picture I could never enter. Now they lived and breathed in three dimensions and it was like seeing a cartoon hero come to life.

The flying itself was breathtaking. The ease with which I could soar through floating rings seemed to come naturally to my fingers and I glided over the beautiful island paradise and landed the aircraft gently on the waves exactly as I had been taught.

The dream changed and I found myself hanging in the sky, held aloft by a jetpack. It was a fun variation on the controls required by the plane and I propelled myself forward, through balloons onward towards the goal.


The dream changed once more -- now I was whooshing over the mountaintop, suspended from a hang-glider. The world was so deep and so intense and I wanted to explore every part of it, but I felt myself being pulled away.

I blinked and found myself back in the room with the stranger.

"How was it?" he asked me.

"I feel," I struggled to find the words, "I feel like I've held a world in my hands, a world that I can enter whenever I choose and fly over, under, through and across. I want to explore every inch of that world from my vantage point in the sky. It felt real. It was almost too deep. Sometimes I felt like the gulf of depth was too massive and I wanted it to feel a bit flatter... incredible."

I rubbed at my eyelids, "why do my eyes hurt?"

The figure looked at me poignantly, "because you've never used them before."

I made to pick up the Nintendo 3DS again. I desperately wanted to fly some more.

He stopped me. "That is all you can see for now. It is time for you to return home."

I was incredulous, "but I've just seen the most incredible things! I've seen the world of games as it could be and I'm not sure if I can return to the other side of the screen! I want to spend more time here and see more and fly more..."

He nodded, kindly, "the world you seek is coming soon, Geo. It is only a few short weeks away and you will be able to return to the real side of the screen again. For now, you must spread the word that others may be enlightened."

*****

My alarm clock beeped loudly and I awoke. I could hear the rain lashing against the glass.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and, in doing so, I remembered the adventure with the Nintendo 3DS. I remembered getting my pilot wings and soaring high above the ground.

I looked out of the window and could see blue sky breaking between the grey clouds. I had had the most incredible adventure, journeyed to a colourful world and flown... and then had it taken away before I was ready; before I had had a chance to see it all.

The memory felt like the aftertaste of a sweet dessert in my mouth. In my heart I knew I was desperate to fly again. It had all felt so real to me.

It couldn't have been a dream, could it?

The Nintendo 3DS: My experiences at the Bristol Pre-Launch event

I had the chance on Feb 13th to see the Nintendo 3DS in action at a venue called Arnolphini in Bristol. It's one of those art gallery / coffee bar / small theatre / cinema venues that sit so beautifully in the regenerated areas of a city. Sitting alongside the quayside, it's a cool - if surprisingly anonymous - place for Nintendo to show off their latest hardware.

It was an opportunity I had to take up - I've been a huge fan of what Nintendo has achieved with the DS. With the prospect of potentially immersive 3D gaming without glasses combined with a boost in processor power, I really couldn't wait until the 25th March (Nintendo 3DS release date in the UK) to see if it would meet my expectations.

The event itself was very well presented. It was handled admirably by Nintendo's chosen PR company - there were few representatives of Nintendo proper but the staff on hand seem to be very well informed about the console and related facts around release. The building was filled with about 50 Nintendo 3DS consoles so there was plenty of opportunity to get hands-on an try out a number of titles.

Greeted by a historical display of Nintendo's successful handhelds in display cases (the Virtual Boy, Nintendo's last attempt at a 3D gaming device, was notable in its absence), entertained by a very credible live theatre of Street Fighter IV, taken through an immersive Resident Evil interactive drama, forced to endure a Jonathan Ross video face-check we were eventually led into a room full of 3DS units in clear illuminated pillars which reminded me of classic Doctor Who sets.

There were a nice range of games to try out in here. The 3D effect of the Nintendo 3DS' screen impresses immediately, regardless of the game. Street Fighter IV offers great a great depth-of-field illusion; Steel Diver, a submarine combat game, provides beautiful immersion while undertaking Periscope target-shooting; Pilotwings Resort generates a soaring feeling of exploration while flying through hoops and popping balloons. Raving Rabbids Travel In Time, from the little I played of it, doesn't use the 3D to enhance the platform game-play, but the sense of depth of the landscape stretching into the distance is compelling and the depth information helps with the old problem of telling the platforms apart from the scenery. My other half seemed quite taken with Ridge Racer 3D.

Interestingly there is no catch-all experience for the 3D on this console. Each title seems to offer a different feel. Generally speaking I felt comfortable with the full 3D setting for each game, but for some reason I felt most comfortable with Pilotwings at about 60% strength. More time with this console should help me get to grips with the reason for this.

So that deals with the stuff I expected to get from this event. Now for the things which the Nintendo 3DS threw at me which I genuinely did not expect.

The 3DS offers a few AR (Augmented Reality) experiences. Bundled with the 3DS, Face Raiders offers a quirky shooter in which the enemies are based on a photo of your own face. You physically turn to locate and aim at the enemy, which are superimposed over a 3D video feed of your own surroundings (using the outer camera). Missed shots knock holes in the live scenery to show outer space beyond. In a nice touch, face photos of other 3DS users nearby also appear in the game (presumably via wi-fi) and can be freed and collected. It's a great touch that the captured image of your face is distorted to form frowns and villain-gurning to become the evil enemies.

The 3DS' sense of motion control is unrivalled, in my opinion. It's ability to rotate with you is pin-sharp and provides real immersion when combined with the 3D display. The only trick is maintaining your own viewing angle to the screen when moving, to avoid breaking the 3D effect.

Similarly, the other AR game (as yet untitled to my knowledge) involved laying a card (about the size of a playing card) down on a surface and pointing the camera at it. Once calibrated, the screen shows, targets, creatures and holes forming on the real-world surface presented. The effect is remarkable and the requirement to move around the object to attack targets from multiple sides is a great addition. While the game does moan at you if you move out of the optimum distance to the target card it didn't seem to stop it working. The realtime distortion effects on the real world objects is very laudable.

The other AR-style quirk I enjoyed was the automatic Mii generator. It's always a slightly inexact science trying to generate one's own avatar (assuming you wish for a cartoon replica of yourself) and it always generates arguments between friends and couples. With the 3DS, the internal camera can be used to take a picture of your face and then the software generates an appropriate (and pretty accurate!) Mii.

The big surprise which 3DS delivered is the promise of 3D films on the console. As well as arrangements in development with the major film studio to deliver 3D films via 3DS cartridge, there is also the prospect of 3D TV feeds via a Sky application - usable with or without a home Sky subscription. This goes a long way to making the Nintendo 3DS a highly credible multi-media device, something which previous iterations of the DS have failed to achieve.

All things considered it now seems a very long wait until the 25th March. Some of the highlights won't be available for day one, it seems: even though I couldn't drag my eyes off the rolling 3D videos of Starfox and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, these are a little way from completion.

As for the cost, I think its pretty reasonable, considering what Nintendo are delivering with this console - and with the apparent generosity of the built-in games it offers pretty good value for money, in my opinion at least.

You can read more thoughts about the Nintendo 3DS and reviews on the games as they become available at http://www.gamepeople.co.uk

One of these people is not a character in Resident Evil 3DS. See if you can guess which.

Concerning PS3 Trophies, 360 Achievements and Nintendo not joining the party

I had to confess recently to being something of a Trophy Whore.

For the uninitiated, Trophies (on the Playstation 3 - the XBox 360 equivalent is Achievements) are a ticklist of tasks which can be completed within a game. However rather than simply existing within the game itself, these awards are connected with your online profile. Even if you uninstall and sell on the game, the legacy of your actions in that game live on through your ID.


There is a great variety between titles as to the kinds of trophies offered and the skill required to achieve them (more on that later), but they typically involve awards for getting through certain parts of the game, completing the game on different skill settings, unlocking all in-game features and trying all of the game modes. Genre-dependent, other trophies are for things like winning a set number of online matches, beating a target speed-run time, getting all the women in the game to like you...

Then there are the random trophies which are even genre dependent, but based upon the title itself: I've got trophies for everything from "flipping the bird" to a cop in Mirror's Edge, performing a successful barrel roll in Wipeout HD, flying a helicopter under all the bridges in GTA IV to spending a target amount of money on courtesans in Assassin's Creed II.

Generally speaking, gaining all the trophies for a particular title will gain you the Platinum trophy on PS3 - or similar accolade on XBox.

The top trophies are meant to be an indication of real skill, but sometimes that doesn't work and the skill required to beat all challenges varies greatly from game to game. Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time (HD re-release) features a platinum trophy which can be gained in a few evening's careful play. Wipeout Fury, on the other hand, features trophies which are pretty painful. Complete 20 Zones without hitting the sides of the track? I should co-co!

My PSN card. I have a surprising number of trophies for a fitness game.

I can generally tell at a glance if I'm going to try for the platinum having taken a look at the trophies on offer. I'm currently playing Brutal Legend and I'm pretty sure the challenges offered aren't for me, heavily reliant as they are on multiplayer success: not something at which I excel these days and also a viral trophy dependent on find another player who already has it.

I didn't think I was a trophy whore for a while, because in my mind trophy whores are people who play, buy or download games specifically because they offer a cheap or easy Platinum trophy. There's something very arbitrary about playing simply to boosts one's own player score.

However I did find myself recently choosing to not bother playing a game because it didn't offer trophies. That sounds a bit trite - actually I had a choice between two games in a series and I chose the title with trophy support over the older title without. I also felt a little pang of disappointment when I realised that neither Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light or Costume Quest offered a platinum trophy for 100% completion. (especially since Lara Croft GoL presented a steeper challenge than many other games!)

It led me to wonder where my own fascination with trophies comes from. Also, having read recently that the Nintendo 3DS will not feature an achievements system I found myself disagreeing with the sentiment, feeling that the system will be somehow incomplete without this peripheral feature.

In that article, Nintendo's Bill Trinen is quoted as saying "When they create their games, [Nintendo's designers] don't tell you how to play their game in order to achieve some kind of mythical reward... Basically, the way the games are designed is they're designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery."

I disagree with that statement for the first reason I love achievements and trophies. I find they encourage me to attempt things in the game it would not have occurred to me to try unless someone had suggested it. That's not to say that the trophy system diminishes my sense of intelligent exploration - it just shapes it into a target to hit.

Costume Quest + Platinum: What I'd like to see

Take GTA IV for example. It doesn't take a genius to realise that one of the first things you are going to attempt when you first grab a helicopter is to fly under one of the city's bridges. That "sense of discovery" comes naturally to gamers - it's why we love the medium. However, without a pointer (and a system to keep track of progress) would I have spent a very entertaining hour or so flying around the city to try and fly under all the bridges in the game? Probably not.

Similarly, GTI Club+ offers a couple of trophies for the following: get a carwash and still win a race and win a race by turning around and reversing over the finish line. This adds a great sense of fun to the experience and really enhances the challenge available.

Done well (and we'll all played games with trophies clearly added as an afterthought) the trophies available for a game add to the game experience - they integrate with the gameplay, provide additional replay value and expand your skill with the game. Batman Arkham Asylum is a great example of Trophies implemented well. The combo achievements encourage you to raise your game in terms of melee fighting accuracy, and some of the trophies help expand side plots featuring the ridder and the Spirit of Arkham.

It is true to say that you can implement these kinds of objectives and rewards in-game. Batman Arkham Asylum would be the same game without trophies - you could simply move the achievements to an in-game menu and live without a unified achievements system.

But what is fun about the trophy system is sharing your achievements with others. If I have a friend playing the same game as me I can look at their trophy list and gauge how far along they are with a game - even provide a bit of help if they need it.

Sure there's an element of competition - but isn't it nice to be able to add a bit of friendly competition even to games with little or no multiplayer element?

Metroid Prime 3 had quite a nice idea - when you complete the game it posts a screenshot of the "game complete" screen to your message board on the Wii with a percentage of completion. Unfortunately, the Wii's message board is a bit useless and can't be navigated with ease or readily shared with friends. But I like the idea - beyond trophies or achievements - that you can take a snapshot of your experiences with a game and record them for posterity.

You only get a view like this through trying to get all the trophies

I think my love of trophies comes down to a feeling of completeness; of closure. This is purely a personality issue, but with so many games offering replay value and open worlds to explore (even after the main game is completed) I often feel that there I some games I never finished - just abandoned. Having a checklist of specific tasks to complete does at least give me a sense of closure with a game.

It's also a way of recording memories. We all play so many games and have so many experiences. If you have trophies, take a stroll down memory lane and take stock of some of the things you have achieved and experiences in the games you have played.

I'd like more games to capture memories. I'd like to be able to play back what I just did and take photo snapshots of incredible moments I witnessed, hilarious mishaps I encountered or poignant beats that spoke to me. To quote Blade Runner, "I have seen things you people would not believe ... all those moments will be lost like tear-drops in the rain."