IronFall Invasion channels the cover-based shooting of Gears of War on the New 3DS

By Jeffrey Van Camp Published April 24, 2023

I played a lot of games built to support Nintendo’s New 3DS XL handheld, but the most surprising was IronFall Invasion. Made by the three-person team at VDdev, the downloadable game is a full-fledged third-person shooter with dual-stick controls and six-player online play, plus a campaign mode. This is nothing amazing for a console game, but on the 3DS, it’s a fresh idea.

The extra ZL, ZR, and C-Stick on the New 3DS XL are all used to great effect.

Recommended Videos

The game mostly revolves around killing evil robots, but the cover system is particularly exciting. You can press B to hide behind objects. Sidling, jumping over, or shooting around corners or over cover is also possible — reminiscent of Gears of War.

Controls were tight in our first runthrough and you can customize the sensitivity of the C-Stick as well, if you’re not aiming as fast as you’d like.

IronFall Invasion doesn’t yet have a release date or price, but it should hit the eShop in “early 2015” and is best played on the New Nintendo 3DS XL. Check out our firsthand look.

Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Deputy Editor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

Topics

Gaming

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more

I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Computing

The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out

Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.

Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.

Computing

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2026) Review: Almost everything I want from a gaming laptop, except the price

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop

Quick Take

Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.