Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS!

Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS!
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom of the Doraemon series.
Protagonist(s): Doraemon Nobita Suneo Gian Shizuka Dorami Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Nintendo 64 Release: July 28, 2000 Developer(s): A.I. Co., Ltd. Publisher(s): Epoch Series: Doraemon Predecessor: Doraemon 2: Nobita to Hikari no Shinden

Doraemon 3: Nobita's Town SOS! (ドラえもん3 のび太の町SOS! Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS!) is an action game for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by AI and published by Epoch on July 28, 2000 in Japan. It is the third and last Doraemon game on the Nintendo 64.

Plot

One day, Nobita sees a comit. He chases it and finds Shizuka, Gian and Suneo has three pieces of the comit. When they join the pieces, an explosion happends and they disappear and Nobita flies off. The town is taken to a mysterious planet where robots and different animals attack people. Now Nobita and Doraemon must find there friends. Will they succeed ?

Gameplay

The game is divided into seven worlds where player has to find characters. Each world has different enemies and different setting.

Why It Deserves Dorayaki

1. The graphics are very good, all of the characters model is very detailled for a N64 game and look almost like a Dreamcast game, they look also a bit more mature than the first two games, kinda like Bomberman 64: The Second Attack.
   • In fact they are so good that it's look better than most game on the console, thank to how A.I. Co., Ltd. designed the game.
   • They also look very advanced for the system, compared to other games on the console such as Daikatana which was a terrible game with bad graphics, and this Doraemon game came the same year of that said game.
   • Speaking of the characters model, they are so well made that it's could almost be used for a CGI cartoons or movie in the early 2000s, and they look extremely true to their anime counterpart, compared to the first two games where the characters model for some of them (mostly Gian and Shizuka) aren't as true as this game.
   • In fact the graphics are so great that it's might even be comparable to Shadow Man which also had amazing graphics for it's time and the game doesn't even have pushed the console to it's limit, showing how great the graphics can be on a Nintendo 64.
2. Extremely fun gameplay: it's also a huge improvement over the first two games on the N64, due to that you will easily kill a huge amout of hours to trying to beat some levels, it has also aged very well as the game have being barely aged which is impressive for a early 2000s game.
   • It's also one of the Nintendo 64 games that are still fun to play today which is an amazing achivement due to many Nintendo 64 games that are not fun or have badly aged over the years which make them not fun anymore but here it's have barely aged like Bomberman 64: The Second Attack and Super Mario 64.
3. The controls are absolutely responsive, tight, comfortable and it's play extremely well at the same times, the fact that they are tight make the game even more better and are as good as Super Mario 64, they are also one of the many reason of why the game have aged well.
   • They are also heavily improved from the first two game on the Nintendo 64, where each characters move at different speed, especially in Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki, despite them having good controls, he reason why they have flaws compared to this game was because they are a bit sluggish and sometime in the second game they we're unresponsive but they still we're decent enough.
   • Due to how tight the controls are, you will never have any trouble playing the game due to how good the controls are, almost like Rayman Legend, and you can pick up the controls without even a tutorial, showing how much efforts was put into the controls.
   • The controls are also one of the reason why this game is so fun, yes this game is that awesome.
   • This game might also have some of the best controls ever in a Nintendo 64 game since they are Incredibly tight, responsive and confortable, it's can't be said about many Nintendo 64 games, which had sometime clunky controls but still decent or great.
     • Although some of the games that had clunky controls, some of them are designed with it.
4. The game have multiplayer probably for the first time in a Doraemon games, and it's fun even if it's only a racing game, it's can also count as the only good racing game with Doraemon due to how bad the Doraemon Kart duology was, especially Doraemon Kart 2 which is one of the worst games of all times and one of the worst Doraemon game.
5. The game is more longer than the first and second game, lasting over 4 to 5 hours, it's can also be even longer due to the fact that you will want to play the game over and over due to how fun it is (which depend on the player), although the game is still fairly short.
6. The gameplay is more fast paced than the first two games which is really a cool thing and it's make the gameplay even more fun, it's has also improved the speed from Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki.
7. Some cutscenes are funny, also they are much better than the first two games on N64, mostly due to being fully animated compared to the first two games on the Nintendo 64.
   • For a exemple of a funny scene in the game, there are the one before the boss that posseded Shizuka when Doraemon see her in the bath and his face go red which can make you lauch and it's also very hilarous.
   • The cutscenes are so good that it's can make you feel that you watch a Doraemon movie but on the Nintendo 64.
   • Most of them can be either funny or hilarous.
8. There are a lot more weapons than the other Doraemon games on N64. And they are not for only a unique character compared to the first game, and most of them are awesome.
9. The soundtrack is awesome, and it's a lot better than the second game even if th1t game doesn't have bad musics, it's also sound so good that it's almost like you will forgot that it's from a Doraemon game, the musics also gave a even better feeling than it's already is.
10. The open world sessions is much better than the second Doraemon games on the N64 even if that game action sessions was not bad
11. A pretty good plot, trough not very original because it is similar to the one in Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon but that don't matter because it's very good and more darker than the first two games on N64 (see WIDD#14).
12. The bosses is well designed and fun to fight, even better than Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki and there are a little more boss fight than that game in this game, most of the times they are epic (with a few exception).
13. A great challenge that is very well balanced, it's not to hard or too easy (depending on your wiew), howewer the difficulty is fairly easy for the most parts, especially if you know the game well (see BQ#11).
14. Like Asterix & Obelix XXL, the game have a dark tone that is enjoyable and a very good one which altern with the lighthearthed tones of the Doraemon anime.
15. Some of the characters model are improved, such as Gian and Shizuka model is a huge improvement over Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki and Doraemon 2: Nobita to Hikari no Shinden in which in these games she look like a creppy doll, here in this game she look more like her animated and manga counterparts, the same can be said for the other characters such as Doraemon himself, altrough not as much as they have great model, Gian also look more polished compared to the first two games on N64.
16. Unlike the first two games on Nintendo 64, this one is more faithful to the animated serie due to having most of the environnement.
17. There are a lot of replay values due to the fact that the game is very fun and also because there are a multiplayer mode or other thing that would make you want to replay the game.
18. The exploration can be very fun, trough that depend on the player.
19. Great voice acting with all of the voice actors reprising their roles for voicing the characters and they does a good job as always.
20. Unlike the previous game, the characters now have statuses and personalities.
    • The number of lives also differs depending on the character. Status characteristics such as movement speed and jumping power are based on the character's original settings. (Example: Nobita who is good at shooting , Doraemon who swims fast, etc.)
    • This has made it possible to feel that you are controlling a specific character, but this also creates the problem of disparity between characters due to the recovery items in this work.
21. There are also many secret tools, over 50 types. Among them, there is a secret tool original to this work called the Hyper Air Cannon .
    • One of them, ``Michibiki Angel, will tell you where to go next and what tools to use. But that also leads to drawbacks.
22. The situation of fighting against brainwashed friends is also perfect for a Doraemon game.
    • Also, each boss battle has elaborate situations and boss forms, and the second and fourth boss battles are especially exciting, along with the BGM.
    • The conversation events before each boss battle also have various patterns depending on the character you are controlling.
23. The camera game has improved significantly, despite still being a bit annoying.
    • In this game, the camera hardly moves relative to the characters, so it is easy to see a level without trouble, it's also barely bad or annoying, which is Impressive for a 2000 game on the N64.
    • Therefore, this game can be considered to be a somewhat 2D-like 3D game due to the static camera.
24. Stress-free operability for a 2000 Nintendo 64 game, with barely any issues related to the delay or the sluggishness, the framerate also help.
    • There is no sluggishness or delay in the motion, and it moves smoothly, so you won't feel stressed with poor controls since the controls aren't sluggish and instead are incredibly tight
    • You can attack in the subjective mode mentioned above, which eliminates the annoying feeling of not being able to hit the enemy, which is common in 3D action games.

Bad Qualities

1. The game, while longer, is still a bit short, lasting 4 to 5 hours as said in WIR#5
2. There is a disparity between characters
   • As mentioned above, the number of lives and status are differentiated for each character, but the life limit is almost meaningless as it is easy to recover unless you are tied to recovery items as mentioned above. As a result, characters with at least a high amount of life and movement ability (Suneo and Shizuka) are easy to use, while characters who are specialized in life and have ordinary stats (such as Gian) are weak, creating a disparity.
   • If you don't have any particular preferences, you can use Shizuka, who is good at jumping, fast speed, and swimming if you want to get an advantage. On the other hand, if you don't use Atar Gun, Nobita, who has the lowest life and unremarkable stats, will become a lower level of other characters in every aspect and become the weakest character.
     • Therefore, there is basically no need to differentiate between allies. However, it is not extreme, so anyone can clear it without much trouble.
3. The game can be sometimes calling "a Zelda Clone with Doraemon Skins" due to how similar for inventory menu and gameplay (altrough not as much as it's predeccesor, Doraemon 2: Nobita to Hikari no Shinden).
4. You still need to talk to someone for unlocking a levels, altrough not as much as the SNES quatrilogy (altrough we're not talking about the fourt game as it's a simple platformer) now which is at least an improvement.
5. Making the 100% in this game is a bit of a chore, you have to get all the items which can be hardcore and unfair.
6. Unlike the second game, all the characters are not unlocked quickly, for exemple Dorami is unlocked at almost in the end of the game which is a pretty bad change because some peoples would be disapointed by the fact that their favorite Doraemon characters are unlocked at almost the end of the game which somehow make them pointless (depending on your wiew).
7. While the control is responsive and really tight, the camera is seems pretty annoying altrough not as much as the previous entries on Nintendo 64.
8. Underwater maneuverability is a little difficult.
   • It takes a lot of inertia to operate, and it takes some getting used to to move freely. Since there is no ability to deal with underwater enemies or adjust the aim, it is difficult to aim and it takes time to defeat them.
   • Many people regret this point because other operability is good. ``Posedo no Umi, which mainly involves underwater operations, is highly difficult due to the large number of underwater enemies that appear and the complexity of the terrain.
9. Fairly easy difficulty for some of the levels.
   • Recovery items can be easily obtained by defeating enemies, and ``Zenkaifuku-no-mi, which fully recovers your physical strength, is no exception. Since you can stock a large number of them, unless you play with a recovery limit, not only will you not get a game over, but you will rarely see your character collapse.
   • The condition for game over is not ``the life of the character you are currently controlling runs out, but ``the life of all currently joined characters runs out, so as the number of playable characters increases, the game may become over. It becomes a time-consuming situation.
   • Items that have fallen on the stage will respawn once you exit the stage, so you can easily stock up on ``Fukatsu Capsules that can revive your friends who have run out of life on the first stage. I guess I shouldn't have gone this far anyway.
     • As a result, the above-mentioned full recovery/revival items are much more efficient to repeatedly go back and forth between stages and defeat enemies who have them, rather than collecting and exchanging energy stones or obtaining them from treasure chests, and their significance has diminished. ing.
   • If you don't use "Ella Tube" underwater, your so-called oxygen life will decrease, but the rate of decrease is quite slow, so even if it reaches zero, you won't run out of life or get a game over without any questions asked.It's very sweet as it only takes 1 heart worth of damage. Of course, if you use a recovery item, it will become a mess, so the significance of Ella Tube's existence is diminished.
   • Enemy attacks are also fairly simple and easy to deal with. As expected, the final stages are somewhat difficult, but you can push through with the aforementioned item stock.
   • On the adventure side, when it comes to riddle scenes, Michibiki Angel will forcibly give out not only hints but also concrete solutions with the message ``Michibiki Angel Tojo!, so there are many scenes where the mystery is not really a mystery. To put it bluntly, It's come this far as an intruder, and there is no way to turn this off in the settings.
   • In the original story, Michibiki Angel was a meddler, so maybe he was conscious of that.
   • You can choose the difficulty level when you start the main story, but even if you start with "difficult", the difficulty will not increase that much.
10. The continue are again limited, and if you lose them all, it's back to the title screen, not only do that system was outdated (even for 2000s standards) but also very frustrating and is an unfair system, it's also don't help that the game is pretty hard.
11. Nobita's Town, while great, have some flaws:
    • The degree of reproduction itself is very high, but the back mountains and schools do not appear. It can't be helped because it's a place that is never mentioned in the scenario, but it's a place that often appears in the original story, so it's sad.
    • Also, until the end of the scenario, all the residents are possessed by slimes and cannot talk, and there are no stops or sub-events along the way (*3), so it is unlikely that you will visit this place many times.
      • For this reason, even though the title says Nobita's Town SOS, it is not very noticeable. The scenario also focuses more on defeating King Buggle than saving Nobita's town which is a shame.
12. The final boss battle is quite poor and is not as epic as the other boss fight of the game, as you can just spaming a bomb over and over, and you will easily beat the boss like that.
    • The difference is obvious compared to the previous game. For the time being, it sets up a barrier that can only be broken with ``Hyper Fight, but the attacks themselves are mostly simple ramming, so even children of the target age should not have much trouble if they can advance to this point. Once you get used to it, you can easily win without recovery. The previous boss has a variety of attacks and is difficult to deal with, making it a few steps more difficult.

Reception

Famitsu give this game a 25/40, the game receives positive rewiews from players worldwide in which even some people calling it the best Doraemon game ever.

Trivia

1. Out of the three Doraemon games on the Nintendo 64, this is the only one to have multiplayer.
2. The game possibly uses the engine of Bomberman Hero due to having similar characters running animation or controls even if they are more different than that Bomberman game.
3. This is the only Doraemon game on Nintendo 64 where Dorami is a playable character or having an apparence on the console.
4. While it was only release in Japan, the game got a cult following over the year (mostly with the how to play Doraemon 3 on mobile phone videos on YouTube).

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