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VC/WiiWare Friday: Happy Hanabi Festival

This week's awesomeness extends to WiiWare, with both Bplus's Bit Boy!!, the maze action game that shuffles between various levels of retro, and Gradius Rebirth, which settles at the 16-bit era. And on DSiWare, the Mario calculator and clock apps arrive. Roll your eyes all you want, but they're surprisingly delightful. Details after the break.
Nintendo also announced Hanabi Festival titles you can expect in following weeks: Bomberman '94, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, MUSHA, Detana!! Twinbee, and the NES Smash Table Tennis!
VC in Brief: Ogre Battle (SNES)
We say: download it!
Ogre Battle is both extremely strategic and incredibly deep. It has a lot to offer fans of the genre (including endless gameplay that never ends) and, really, this is the best (and cheapest) way to get your hands on the game. We know, because we checked. On Wikipedia.
Wiikly Wares: Ogre Battle, Family & Friends Party
This week's downloadable titles on Wii are a mixed bag. We get what appears to be some shovel(Wii)ware, but a tried-and-true classic on the Virtual Console. Sure, it's a niche genre, but it's still 100% classic.
Virtual Console
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): The classic strategy title finally comes to the Virtual Console. Personally, our own experience with the franchise has been mainly through the N64 sequel, so we're anxious to give this one a whirl. Look for it in our VC in Brief segment later today.
WiiWare
Family & Friends Party (Gammick Entertainment, 1-8 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Billed as "an interactive board game," this WiiWare title sounds a lot like Mario Party in its description and supports up to eight players.
Virtual Console
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): The classic strategy title finally comes to the Virtual Console. Personally, our own experience with the franchise has been mainly through the N64 sequel, so we're anxious to give this one a whirl. Look for it in our VC in Brief segment later today.
WiiWare
Family & Friends Party (Gammick Entertainment, 1-8 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Billed as "an interactive board game," this WiiWare title sounds a lot like Mario Party in its description and supports up to eight players.
Super Punch-Out!! and rare Ogre Battle rated by ESRB

That copy of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen you stashed under the mattress to partly fund your early retirement just got a whole lot less valuable. The ESRB has rated the rare Enix RPG for a Virtual Console release, along with another, more widely known SNES gem: Super Punch-Out!!. Is Nintendo planning to release the classic pugilist title alongside its modern Wii equivalent, as it did in the case of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption? Perhaps!
Those aren't the only surprises in the latest ESRB ratings: Lonpos, a launch title for the Japanese WiiWare service no less, has also been classified. As it's been a while, here's a reminder of what it looks like:
Gallery: Lonpos
VC Tuesday: Whack an Ogre
The biggest news for Japan's downloadable Wii games this week is the debut of an excellent Square Enix series on the Virtual Console. While it's awesome that the VC will be graced with the first Ogre Battle game from genius creator and Queen fanboy Yasumi Matsuno, it's basically confirmation that Square Enix doesn't care about the series -- like ActRaiser and King's Knight. And Mana. This is no surprise, really, since Matsuno all but disappeared during the development of Final Fantasy XII and isn't at Square Enix to work on more Ogre Battle. The other VC game, Cadash, is a pretty good side-scrolling action RPG type thing from Taito. It's a fantasy game that's got a ninja in it!
- Densetsu no Ogre Battle (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
- Cadash (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
- Bakutan (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Tataite! Mogupon (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
November's Japanese VC lineup: Ogres battle Mega Man
It's a pretty light month for releases on the Virtual Console in Japan, but it's still a good month, mostly for one reason: Mega Man 3. Even though we'll be happy with any Mega Man games that Capcom decides to put on the Virtual Console, Mega Man 3 is, generally speaking, from the period before Mega Man games started to go downhill. So it's actually good! We'd love to see how new Mega Man 9 players react to a game designed with sliding in mind.The other really big news is Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the first Ogre Battle strategy game, and a classic of the genre. Personally, we're happy to see Mercs, Cadash, and the CD version of the Kunio soccer game! The full list is after the break.













