Recently a group of us at Canadian Online Gamers had the chance to sit down with the fine folks at Nintendo at their Vancouver offices for a “hands-on” day with a number of Nintendo games slated to arrive this year and a few that have been recently released. One of the games we played was Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the Nintendo 3DS.
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is a spinoff of the Fatal Frame Series for the Nintendo 3DS and utilises AR technology. With game’s release right around the corner, we had a chance to play with what will likely be the game’s final build.
Spirit Camera’s mysterious storyline revolves around a girl named Maya who has been hiding in the darkness of an old house, cursed by a malevolent woman in black. To free Maya from the curse placed on her, players must use the “Diary of Faces” 16-page AR notebook included with the game. With the book you can view ghostly images and interact with the world Maya is trapped in.
Prior to the demo, I never really had a chance to fiddle around with the 3DS’ AR technology. So needless to say playing with Spirit Camera’s AR notebook was a bit of an eye opener and some pretty neat technology.
The Nintendo 3DS system becomes the Camera Obscura in player’s hands and is capable of revealing the supernatural and dispelling evil spirits. Playing with the camera and using the AR notebook takes a bit of practice and there is a learning curve. In order to find the ghostly images in the room you must scan the room with your 3DS. I would suggest you sit in a swivel or office chair. This lets you spin around the room without having to physically get up and spin your body around to scan. The game screams to be played in the dark; however, you are going to need plenty of light for the 3DS camera to work properly.
The “Diary of Faces” book is the gateway into Spirit Camera’s absorbing story. When viewed through the lenses of the 3DS camera, each page of the book displays a variety of augmented-reality (AR) experiences.
Some of the pages seemingly come to life in the form of video segments that reveal past events and begin to unravel the game’s central storyline. Targeting the camera was fairly easy, although you do have to be fairly precise. You do get lots of variety as such things as summoning players to virtually enter a haunted house where Maya is hiding keeps you on your toes and on edge.
Other camera modes let players use the camera in strange and somewhat scary ways. Spirit Photography lets you take photos of any kind and lets you observe, as haunting visions appear within the pictures. In Spirit Challenge, you can put your own face or a friend’s face on a spirit and then battle it. Players can also use the notebook with their Nintendo 3DS system to face other challenges involving a mix of memory, hide-and-seek and other game play elements all with a supernatural twist.
At the end of the day, Spirit Camera the Cursed Memoir for the Nintendo 3DS has a great deal of content and there is plenty to offer with the variety of game modes available. The game arrives next month and it showing plenty of potential thus far. Check back with us in April when the review goes live.
