Virtual Wares: Pirates suffer a Masterful Pitfall

by David Hinkle { Apr 13th 2009 at 10:45AM }

It's Monday, which means that the Nintendo faithful get a slew of new downloadable content. DSiWare is the place to be this week, with two new titles available for download, one of which is the first third-party offering on the service. For the Wii, both WiiWare and the Virtual Console each have one item available for download this week.

DSiWare

Mixed Messages (Activision, 2-21 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Nintendo DSi Points): Vicarious Visions' crazy party game features support for up to 21 players and can best be described as Telephone for your DSi. That's pretty much it; players draw pictures or write sentences and pass along the message to others.
Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games (Nintendo, 1 player, 200 Nintendo DSi Points): Another installment in Nintendo's Master of Illusion Express series, this title includes the Vanishing Card trick, as well as tricks to help you "boggle your audience members' minds." Well, if you're dressed like a magician, you won't need a DSi game to perplex them, that's for sure.

WiiWare

Party Fun Pirate (TOMY Corporation, 1-4 players, 500 Wii Points): Based on the popular Pop Up Pirate toy, the game requires players to insert swords into a barrel, which holds your captured captain. The player that can put the most swords into the barrel without, uh, horribly maiming the captain wins. It doesn't seem like a sound strategy for freeing someone from captivity, but we guess it's the norm for drunken, surly pirates.

Virtual Console

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Famous adventurer Pitfall Harry's son, Pitfall Harry Jr., is the star of this 16-bit version of the classic Pitfall series. In search of his missing father, Pitfall Harry Jr. must take on Zakelua: Lord of Evil through 13 different levels of side-scrolling action.

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, dsiware, master-of-illusion, master-of-illusion-express, mixed-messages, party-fun-pirate, pitfall, pitfall-harry, pitfall-mayan-adventures, sega, sega-genesis, tomy, vicarious-visions, virtual-console, virtual-wares, wiikly-wares, wiiware

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

tmacairjordan87 @ Apr 13th 2009 10:55AM

no no no. You win once the pirate pops his head out and someone snipes him in the head. Preferably someone in the navy just to go along with current events.

acefondu @ Apr 13th 2009 11:49AM

w00t! Navy seals are awesome!

esposch @ Apr 13th 2009 7:17PM

ERR ERR.
I can has fish nao?

TrueNRPeace @ Apr 13th 2009 11:15AM

Thanks, Nintendo. Thanks for another week of garbage downloads and shattered dreams.

Garu @ Apr 13th 2009 11:21AM

David, any chance you can let us know which was better... the Sega or SNES version of this game? Also, if the SNES version on the VC now?

David Hinkle @ Apr 13th 2009 11:36AM

Based on Wikipedia, the Genesis is a port of the SNES game (the one I remember playing as a kid). JC says you can unlock the original Pitfall in this, though I never did back during my adolescence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=2345830

As for which version of the game is better, I really can't comment on that. The SNES version of the game is currently not available on the Virtual Console.

Garu @ Apr 13th 2009 11:49AM

Thanks David! Maybe I'll wait and see your review and if they do offer any other versions on trhe VC eventually.

lobotomies4free @ Apr 13th 2009 11:24AM

I miss pitfall. Wouldn't mind a decent 3-d one ever being done either

samfish @ Apr 13th 2009 11:33AM

Well if you edit the word 'decent' out of that sentence, your dreams have already been answered!
http://www.amazon.com/Pitfall-Big-Adventure-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B0018RWMSM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239636717&sr=8-1

Neuromancer @ Apr 13th 2009 11:23AM

Ah Pitfall, I remember that game. It came bundled on on a PC I had back in the day, fun platformer.

MowDownJoe @ Apr 13th 2009 11:34AM

Of course, Activision is the first one to put out DSiShovelware... Hey, Activision! We already have this! It's called Pictochat!

acefondu @ Apr 13th 2009 11:51AM

I would have banked on Ubisoft being first out of the gate for a garbage game.

Mr Khan @ Apr 13th 2009 12:22PM

So at least now we can confirm that they'll release Majora's Mask whenever they damn well please, and not at all related to the other regions.

Feba @ Apr 13th 2009 11:24PM

I've heard some talk of the VC being up to 295 games in NA, and that they might be saving MM for the 300th. Still annoying, but if that's the case we should get it in May.

Dopple Boppler @ Apr 13th 2009 12:52PM

Well, at least Aquia is still awesome.

yyr @ Apr 13th 2009 1:41PM

I applaud Activision for their amazing product marketing skillz.

1) Yes! They've designed a casual, multiplayer-only game that requires the purchase of a brand-new, expensive piece of hardware that--for right now, anyway--is really only a slight upgrade to something the player already has! This maximizes the potential audience!

2) Great! They have succeeding in NOT pricing their glorified/slightly upgraded Pictochat at the lowest price possible, to encourage impulse buys from their casual audience!

I blame Activision. What developer would do all of this on their own?

P.S. this will sell, because it's something to spend those free 1000 DSi points on.

Vince @ Apr 13th 2009 10:14PM

You can't doubt that the US took care of the situation, but we'll have to wait to see what the long-term consequences of how they handled it will be. Still, these are some reasons to be a pirate, and getting shot by snipers isn't one of them: http://www.toptentopten.com/topten/reasons+to+be+a+pirate