So you have a shiny new, New 3DS Xl and you are wondering, “What makes this New, newer than a new 3DS XL?”. Well that’s just an unfortunate name snafu but you may notice a couple of things about your New 3DS XL: it is a bit glossier; some buttons have moved around; your downloads from the E-Shop are a bit snappier; hey, even the 3D effect sticks with you when you are moving your head around. So, you start messing around and it hits you, “what in the world is that little nub thing above the face buttons?” Don’t worry; that is just the C-Stick, a replacement for the circle pad pro and will presumably have future games take advantage of it in different manners. Let us not kid ourselves: you want to try all the new thingamajigs on your shiny new handheld. So, allow us to do you the favor of compiling 5 of the best games you can play right now that will allow you to use that nub to its full capacity.

Monster Hunter Ultimate 3/4 

There is nothing like gathering your things and going out to hunt some larger than life monsters. Both Monster Hunter 3/4 Ultimate are great on the handheld, but they had one minor problem: the camera had to be controlled by the touchscreen or centering the camera with the shoulder buttons. The hardcore fans will tell you that it was no big deal. Unfortunately for the rest of us, it was hard enough to even figure out what was going on, let alone have to fight the controls the whole time. Some of the monsters you fight are huge and nimbly move around the screen, so imprecise camera control causes some real frustrating moments.

The newly-added C-stick alleviates this issue. With perfectly integrated camera controls, the C-stick does a great job at imitating another circle-pad. The game is still unfriendly to newbies, but at least you can focus on learning the game so that it can eventually suck all your free time away. We would suggest playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate out of the two as it is excellent, we gave it 4 1/2 burritos out of 5.  Plus it is the newer of the two.

Super Smash Bros. 3Ds

Super Smash Bros. For Wii U gets all of the glory; rightfully so, but those that have tried out the handheld version know that it holds its own in the battle arena, providing fun brawling on the go. Well, it just got better. Emulating the C-Stick from previous Smash games, this new addition makes the handheld version feel almost as good as the home console versions.

What this means is that you can instantly use Smash attacks in all four directions without having to use the circle-pad and button combinations. Hold down the nub and it will even allow you to charge the attacks. Nothing like intuitive controls.  Whether you are a pro player or an average joe, the C-Stick allows you to complete tougher moves with ease. Maybe even giving you that slight upper hand you need to defeat your friends that are still being scrubs with their old 3DS.

Moon Chronicles 

Who said a first person shooter was not possible on Nintendo’s single pad handheld? Moon Chronicles was already a good time with its atmospheric space adventure vibe; the only issue was not having the second pad to aim your nifty space weapons. This game is one of the best you can download from the E-Shop, proving that a space first person shooter could be done on the handheld. It just took some time to control aiming with the face buttons. As off as that sounds, it worked much better than you would expect.

Even if it did work well, the C-Stick allows you to aim the way you are used to doing on a fps. Now you will have the shooter experience that you have wanted on the go (ignoring the Vita of course).

Resident Evil: Revelations 

You know that one discreet series that no one has heard of? Resident Evil, isn’t it? The series had really taken a beating ever since it went more into the action genre rather than sticking to its survival-horror roots. That changed with the release of Resident Evil: Revelations. Going back to basics, this became a hit. So much so that this game got a release on home consoles and now has a sequel that is on new-gen home consoles. Surprisingly, the sequel isn’t on Nintendo consoles, that is neither here nor there, though.

Back to the issue at hand; this may not be a first person shooter, but camera controls are still as important here. The last thing you want to worry about while you are dealing with T-Virus monsters is fumbling around with the camera.

The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask 

This may not be the largest improvement since it runs just fine on old 3DS XLs, yet it becomes essential for a smooth experience after you try it out. The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask is considered to be one of the weirder Zelda titles and for the most part this is true. The one thing that stays the same are the large boss fights that prove to be challenging.

Just like with Monster Hunter, it has large baddies that need to be taken down and the last thing you need is to lose all your hearts because the camera went wonky on you. As previously mentioned, for the most part this game is fine without the C-Stick but once you play with it on, you won’t want to play without it. Also, why not use your shiny new toy with its newest title.

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The lesson learned here is that camera control can be pretty important, first-person-shooters are more fun when you can aim properly, and Super Smash Bros. should always be played with a C-Stick. These games were just fine before hand, but the new nub just enhances the enjoyment positively. It is going to be interesting to see how future titles use this handy new hardware piece.  Let us know what you think are the best games to play with the C-Stick and we hope that you will give these games another shot using the new little nub.