Space Invaders Get Even with Pit Crew Panic! on WiiWare

by Justin McElroy { Dec 1st 2008 at 10:55AM }

Next week, we'll be switching formats so the WiiWare and Virtual Console posts will be combined. Let's take a quick look at the games that prompted the move: The final, breathtaking solo salvo from WiiWare Weekly.

Space Invaders Get Even (Taito, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): It's completely antithetical to the whole spirit of the WiiWare Weekly post, but we're going to going ahead and admit that, judging from this YouTube review, SIGE, which lets you destroy a city as the titular invaders, actually looks pretty fun. Thanks for messing up our last hurrah, Space Invaders.
Pit Crew Panic! (Hudson Entertainment, 1-4 players, 800 Wii Points): In Pit Crew Panic!, an all-female pit crew fixes cars, trains, bridges and, of course, toilets. See, now, that's the WiiWare we remember.

Tags: wiiware, wiiware-weekly

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr Khan @ Dec 1st 2008 11:02AM

The absurdity of Pit Crew Panic is intriguing. It's done by Hudson, so you know it's not garbage, but it heightens the possibility of the game being pointless

John Z @ Dec 1st 2008 11:07AM

Wait, what the hell is going on here? I actually want both WiiWare titles this week! When did I get sucked into Bizarro World?!

Hippoeater @ Dec 1st 2008 11:15AM

Nintendo is really making me hate wiiware, but not because of the games. Every week it's 2 wiiware titles and 1 vc title :\

Where's my Ogre Battle!?

BPMOmega [gamertag] @ Dec 1st 2008 12:38PM

Why the hell are you so down on WiiWare? So what if an OMG TOTALLY AWESOME download title isn't released every week? It's not like XBLA or PSN have real winners every week, too.

John Z @ Dec 1st 2008 1:29PM

I think it's partly due to the fact that the Wii remains an (unjustly) easy target, and also because there's still been a surprisingly low rate of knockout releases vs lackluster shovelware (and I hate using that word, but there's no other way I can honestly describe "Pong Toss"). Now, granted, there's still a small library of releases compared to XBLA, owing to the fact that WiiWare was the last one out of the gate (though it bugs me that PSN still has such a pitifully small library in NA while other regions are practically swimming in content). But of those few, there's maybe a dozen or so that could be considered huge draws to the platform... and most of those are multiplatform (Mega Man 9, Strong Bad, World of Goo, Cave Story...). Don't get me wrong-- what's good on there is REALLY good.

But the ratio just isn't there for a lot of people; and, more importantly, developers are approaching WiiWare as if it were disc-based software and developing accordingly. Something like Pong Toss would sell a zillion and a half copies if it were a $20 disc game because the people who are likely to buy it, to be polite about it, do not have their Wiis online. The people who DO have their Wiis online, however, feel insulted that this is what they're being offered (and rightly so).

If Nintendo was smart (and for a good long while that was more or less a given), they'd focus their efforts on more quirky games appealing to the (mythical, all-powerful, massive sarcasm) core on WiiWare, and leave the shovelware to discs where the higher costs can bankrupt those "quick-and-dirty, no-QA-required" developers.