Wiikly Wares: LONPOS, Snowboard Riot, and Sonic Chaos
by David Hinkle 
{ Feb 2nd 2009 at 9:30AM } 
WiiWare
LONPOS (Nintendo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): A puzzle game not for the weak of heart, LONPOS tasks players with solving puzzles revolving around a rectangular area comprised of 55 spaces. Using 12 different pieces, the goal is to fill the entire playing field and not have any pieces left over.
Snowboard Riot (Hudson Entertainment, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Hudson's snowboarding game takes advantage of the Wii Balance Board and is full of ... well, racing down mountains covered in snow.
Sonic Chaos (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Players can go through the game as either Sonic or Tails in an attempt to stop Dr. Eggman, who has nabbed the Red Chaos Emerald and plans to use it to create nuclear weapons. No, we did not just make that up.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yourself @ Feb 2nd 2009 9:43AM
So which "Tales" does one get to play as? Symphonia, Legendia, what?
Batzarro @ Feb 2nd 2009 9:49AM
That's a Sonic plot I didn't know...
Finn @ Feb 2nd 2009 10:04AM
screw sonic running in there. In these troubling times we need Obama to diplomatically talk with Eggman and convince him that it would be better for the world if he were to give up searching for the Red Chaos Emerald before it's to late. Will give him something in exchange... something we don't need anymore.... like sonic
samfish @ Feb 2nd 2009 10:33AM
" in an attempt to stop Dr. Eggman, who has nabbed the Red Chaos Emerald and plans to use it to create nuclear weapons."
See, that's when Sonic was cool still and had a TRULY crazy ass super villain planning on nuking a forest full of cuddly little critters!
Alien Lord @ Feb 2nd 2009 10:37AM
If Nintendo is wondering why I've never bought anything from their virtual store this would be why.
Roto13 @ Feb 2nd 2009 10:49AM
... WHAT would by why? The fact that there are puzzle games? Or Sonic games? What exactly is the problem here, and why does it ruin WiiWare/the Virtual Console every other week and make Mega Man 9 or Ocarina of Time less worth buying?
samfish @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:02AM
WiiWare alone is already superior to XBLA in my book. Even though it's flooded with shitty puzzle games...
D_Average @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:05AM
@Roto13
Hmmm, maybe the fact that snowboarding games released in 2008 don't look much better than 1080 for the N64.
Finn @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:23AM
@D_average
If you judging how good XBLA or wiiware is based on graphics I REALLY think you missing the point. There's plenty of bad LOOKING games on both.
8-bit.artist @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:56AM
@samfish
castle crashers, bionic commando rearmed and braid are better than anything on wiiware.
Russ Carroll @ Feb 2nd 2009 12:08PM
@ 8-bit.artist
So I'll bite at the lame bait.
...but first...I want a list of every WiiWare game you've played.
I expect it will include 0 games...
...my guess is that your ignorant.
It's really the only explanation for such a remark.
There are stunningly good WiiWare games, just like there are stunningly good XBLA and PSN games. You could enjoy them...or just act like you have sort of gamer supremacy due to your ignorance and inability to really consider anything beyond what you already know. If you remove your prejudice, you'd find the world [including the gaming world] is a much better place than you may realize.
Shadow El @ Feb 2nd 2009 12:12PM
"castle crashers, bionic commando rearmed and braid are better than anything on wiiware."
WiiWare's a new service, and we already have LostWinds, a LAUNCH game, which was amazing, Mega Man 9 (sure it's multiplatform, but it's a better experience on a Wiimote. No, not fanboy babble, I've played on both 360 and Wii), plus, you've got all the Virtual Console games, which you may not be counting, but you can't play Sin & Punishment on XBLA, can you?
...then again, XBLA has the original Banjo games...
Fernando Rocker @ Feb 2nd 2009 12:33PM
8.bit
I think both services are great... WiiWare has a very good selection of games, specially for a relative new service compared to the 3 year Live Arcade service.
Dr. Mario, Bomberman, Tetris Party, Art Style series, LostWinds, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Mega Man 9, World of Goo, an episodic series from Telltale Games, Alien Crush, Space Invaders: Get Even... and in the next week WiiWare will have Bit.Trip.Beat, and later Cave Story, Evasive Space, the new Bubble Bobble, Icarian, LostWinds 2.
Both services have a great selection of games... problem is, people like you only see the bad games, but don't want to remember the good selection of games.
Roto13 @ Feb 2nd 2009 1:10PM
World of Goo is better than anything on the XBLA.
sam @ Feb 2nd 2009 2:23PM
What, this particular week when one credible looking game and one blah looking game are released? (Oh and a VC game, meh.) That's the whole reason you're not buying anything from them? One week?
If you don't have much disposable income then sure avoiding WiiWare is an easy way to save a few dollars, but there are several fantastic WiiWare games and lots of pretty good ones. And they're managing to uphold a fairly good mix of genres (ignoring the puzzle-game half of releases, which is to be expected).
Anyone played the snowboarding game? I guess I'll wait for a review. It looks pretty good (for a WiiWare game obviously - if it was full retail I'd probably be complaining about 57,000 copies of the same tree) and I like racing type games but, yeah, could probably suck... maybe I should buy that retail one instead, it got pretty good reviews...
Jody Anthony (gamertag and psn: JodyAnthony) @ Feb 2nd 2009 3:37PM
Tetris Party on WiiWare is better than Tetris Splash on XBLA. Luckily however, they are both incredibly awesome.
T @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:16AM
I see Hudson has taken the "impractical" approach to character design...and given us a snowboarder with an exposed middriff.
Or maye it's just the colors in the pic that are making it look that way.
snapa @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:45AM
Ugh. I'm really hating the new Joystiq. What does this have to do with the DS?!?
Knightroad @ Feb 2nd 2009 11:52AM
I think it somehow has been miss tagged... I don't get why this is showing up under the DS tab either.......
Hey, Joystiq, fix? maybe? please.
Haohmaru @ Feb 2nd 2009 2:49PM
It was better when everything on the "fanboy" sites appeared on their respective pages only. We used to have some semblence of a community on each site of actual PLAYERS of the represented consoles. Now we get every single troll on Joystiq - and there are a lot of them - instead. No thanks.
David Hinkle @ Feb 2nd 2009 4:07PM
Actually, yeah, that's my bad guys. Still getting used to the new site and everything. Sorry!
snapa @ Feb 2nd 2009 4:18PM
Hi David,
It's not really your fault. Like Haohmaru said, if everything was back to "normal", you wouldn't have to select what story is what. With that being said, what's the point of me just visiting the separate joystiq tabs? Now the reader has to search for "featured" articles on their respective systems. All of the stories on the tabs are just found on the main page, so when I visit the tabbed versions, it's like I'm just looking at the same exact thing. Why even bother? Are the "featured" articles really that great that I need to be bombarded with the same information? It's rather irritating. If I wanted one single place for all my gaming news, I would go to IGN. I loved that fact that Joystiq gave me everything I wanted/needed in a blog form. And if I wanted to read about my respective systems, I could go to the fan boy site where there was a community. Now, it's basically just a mosh pit for console users. And yes, I own a Wii and a DS, but that doesn't mean I want my DS news rolled in to news about the Wii. I know there is a "DS" tab, but it really doesn't break up the content as much of the "news" is both tagged for the Wii and DS. This ends my rant.
-snapa
ChromeAlchemist @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:24PM
Oh Dave, you sound like you are working hard, but you're still getting stick for the site, but like snapa said it's not really your fault.
Anyone know if Snowboard Riot is any good? I guess I'll wait for the review. And is VC Monday madness gone?
And I agree completely with Haomaru, the fact that we have all the trolls consolidated into one website just brings me nothing but irritation whenever I check the comments section now.