NintendoWare Weekly: Excitebike World Rally, Electroplankton, Cybernoid, and more
by JC Fletcher 
{ Nov 9th 2009 at 11:00AM } 
DSiWare
- Bomberman Blitz (Hudson, 1-8 players, 500 DSi Points): It's eight-player Bomberman, online or locally. Have you hit your Bomberman quota for the year?
- Electroplankton: Beatnes, Nanocarp, Rec-Rec, Hanenbow, Trapy (Nintendo, 1 player, 200 DSi Points each): Toshio Iwai's now-rare musical toy is broken up into individual instruments for DSiWare.
- Excitebike: World Rally (Nintendo, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points): The NES classic, with a new look and online play! Perhaps most importantly, you can save your tracks now.
- Frogger Returns (Konami, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): Excitebike isn't the only retro revival this week. And while modern Frogger games tend to be cutesy platformers, this is a refresh of the frog-crossing-the-road gameplay that so mesmerized George Costanza.
- Dragon Master Spell Caster (Stickmen Studios, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): Aside from being the name of our Dio tribute band, this is an aerial combat game in which dragon-riding wizards face off against one another.
- Cybernoid (C64, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): This is one of the Commodore 64's most beloved shmups -- and not a game about the dystopian future of Domino's Pizza.
- Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Sega Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): This is the same game as Dragon's Curse on the Turbografx, but one dollar cheaper (and not as pretty).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rodrigo @ Nov 9th 2009 11:05AM
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
Rodrigo @ Nov 9th 2009 11:07AM
Amazing Game!!!!
Accidentally posting a comment is not so amazing ¬¬
dark_inchworm (stronger than never, ever before) @ Nov 9th 2009 11:16AM
"This is one of the Commodore 64's most beloved shmups -- and not a game about the dystopian future of Domino's Pizza."
I find this revelation deeply disappointing.
Nigeria: Charmy Bee DF @ Nov 9th 2009 11:16AM
There are well too many Wonderboy games on the VC.
Wardo @ Nov 9th 2009 11:19AM
Wow there is quite a bit to check out this week, sadly there are way too many new games coming out this month as it is. I'll have to check all these new titles out in December.
muddyhelmit @ Nov 9th 2009 11:30AM
are friend codes manditory for excitebike online?
sam @ Nov 9th 2009 4:56PM
um... no. like every single other nintendo WFC online game ever released, friend codes are optional. SHOCK.
to be specific, when you start a game, you can choose 'race against anyone' or 'against friends'. if you choose the friends option you are going to need to use friend codes. If you choose against anyone, that's it, you're in.
btw never played the original but this game is pretty fun. Maybe a fraction overpriced given how simple it is (it's no Lost Winds, say) but on the other hand the presentation is nice so that's fair enough I guess. It's nicely easy, too: so far I got S on everything in Bronze Cup and the first from Silver Cup.
(Btw my scores improved a lot once I actually paid attention to the '1 button is turbo' thing... uh yeah that helps... I kind of assumed 1 was going to be brake like every other racing game, but no it's a button you actually have to press, and kind of the whole point of the game... oops.)
Jay @ Nov 9th 2009 11:32AM
Excitebike World Rally makes me wish I hadn't bought the VC release of the NES version. I bought the VC one for track editor saves too!
ZaxCG2 @ Nov 9th 2009 11:35AM
CAVE STORY WHERE ARE YOU!?!?
Orion @ Nov 9th 2009 11:41AM
Coupled with the face of your avatar, I feel so bad for you.
T-Patch @ Nov 9th 2009 11:43AM
Pending Nintendo's approval... again
but at least, after a month of no news, Nicalis is finally talking about the game again.
either way, I suspect December, at the earliest...
Alexisonfire @ Nov 9th 2009 7:50PM
My thoughts exactly.
RavenLord @ Nov 9th 2009 11:36AM
Where's Castlevania Adventure Rebirth?!?
Dopple Boppler @ Nov 9th 2009 12:20PM
Truth; this has replaced Cave Story as my most wanted WiiWare game, and yet it's still nowhere in sight
gatotsu911 @ Nov 9th 2009 1:03PM
TELL me about it!!!
acefondu @ Nov 9th 2009 11:39AM
I am one of the few that still owns Electroplankton on the DS. I played it for about an hour and never touched it again...lol
T-Patch @ Nov 9th 2009 11:47AM
QUIT HOGGING IT!!!
Seriously though, why did Nintendo have to limit the original game to their online store? ;~;
Granger @ Nov 9th 2009 12:16PM
Just import it. Comes with earbuds and doesn't require an understanding of Japanese to enjoy.
acefondu @ Nov 9th 2009 1:06PM
Mainly I was annoyed the game didn't let you save any music, or let you compose it together. So basically you're just fiddling with the plankton and nothing more. Great idea, just needed to go the extra step.
Shadow31 @ Nov 9th 2009 1:58PM
I just recorded it on my computer. All you gotta do is connect your computer to the DS through the headphone jack.
Though I do agree it needed some better way of saving data. Can these ones at least save to the SD card? Please?
Cody @ Nov 9th 2009 11:43AM
Bomberman and Excite Bike will be purchased today.
NintendoJunkie @ Nov 9th 2009 11:53AM
It's crazy how much electroplankton goes for on ebay.
kojo87 @ Nov 9th 2009 2:59PM
wow you weren't kidding $40 was the cheapest i saw. some were going for over $85
NintendoJunkie @ Nov 9th 2009 3:20PM
It's really funny how some games you don't know if they are gonna be rare or not. Unless it's an AAA game it's hard to know how many copies of a game will be printed.
NintendoJunkie @ Nov 9th 2009 11:55AM
Based upon how many & how frequently they release VC games, how long do you think it'll be before they're "done" releasing them? My guess is not until the successor to the Wii comes out.
the_randomizer @ Nov 9th 2009 12:22PM
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap!!? Don't make me laugh! Just how many bloody Wonder Boy games do they intend on releasing? There's how many so far...? I counted at least five for the VC, SMS, Genesis, SMS, Genesis....This is getting really annoying, I mean, can't they release a game that's worth downloading, much less worth spending 500 points on? It's times like this I'm glad I installed the Homebrew Channel; at least that way I can play the games I legally own, but without relying on Nintendo and other 3rd parties to release a half decent VC game. Not to mention I'm not going to update my system menu until A - they release an update that won't brick my will and B - until they release SNES games that last more than twenty minutes long (Final Fantasy VI. Earthbound and what have you). So far, 2009, I haven't so much as seen any worthwhile games on the VC. I bought some games, alright, but they're from 2008 and 2007.
bVork @ Nov 9th 2009 12:31PM
Dragon's Trap is one of the best games on the Sega Master System, alongside Phantasy Star. The TG16 version isn't nearly as good thanks to a slightly wonky translation and more awkward physics.
Roto13 @ Nov 9th 2009 2:01PM
Every week there has to be someone having a nice long cry about how the game they want hasn´t been released yet.
the_randomizer @ Nov 9th 2009 5:20PM
So what if I'm "crying"? I'm just saying that they never release the games that the people truly want, which as a result, forces many people like me to resort to to other methods (such as the homebrew channel in this case). The whole issue on whether or not HBC is legal is one thing I could care less about. Nintendo has deterrents to prevent people from installing HBC, hence the VC. Sure, the videogame industry can come up with all these anti-counterfeit measures (SercuROM, Starforce*, etc), but one way or another, people have found ways to circumvent them. If Nintendo truly desires to stop people from installing "illegal" homebrew on the Wii, the best way would be to have polls and then have people vote which games they want to see on the VC and actually go through with it. Or at LEAST show what games are coming out, one month at a time. This is why hackers are doing the very thing that Nintendon't want to do, which I don't consider illegal. Injecting ROMs you don't rightfully own into WAD files on the other hand, now that's just stupid, not to mention you have a very high chance of bricking your Wii.
(*Starforce is something I can never figure out how to get rid of)
Shagittarius @ Nov 9th 2009 12:43PM
Just in case anyone forgot:
http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=75145
captainprotonx @ Nov 9th 2009 1:14PM
Never enough Bomberman.
WhatIsThatThing @ Nov 9th 2009 1:16PM
Actually, from this review here: http://dsiware.nintendolife.com/reviews/2009/11/bomberman_blitz_dsiware
it seems that online battles in Bomberman Blitz are limited to 4-players. Only local multiplayer is 8-person bombin' action.
Cyantre @ Nov 9th 2009 1:47PM
Electroplankton DSi Ware content made it state-side. Rejoice! If I had a DSi, I would be all over that.
Alex @ Nov 9th 2009 2:08PM
Still no Castlevania? Come on!
Even though that game bears absolutely no resemblance to Castlevania Adventure in any way, shape, or form whatsoever - it doesn't even use any of the original game's music, and that one has one of the absolute best soundtracks in the entire series! why they didn't just call it a new game (which is what it is) is beyond me - I still desperately want it for the fact that it's a brand new classic-style Castlevania.
Then again, I'm still waiting for them to get around to releasing Dracula X over here, and that's been out on the VC in Japan for, what, 2 years now?
BPMOmega [XBL, PSN, Steam] @ Nov 9th 2009 7:04PM
Okay... so do we NOW have every version of Wonder Boy?!
the_randomizer @ Nov 10th 2009 10:43AM
Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boy We're not out of the woods yet. See? Is this not motivation to soft hack your wii?
Nook @ Nov 10th 2009 9:04AM
I dl'd Frogger Returns last night - love it. Well worth 500 points.