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Contra Rebirth also headed to Europe

by JC Fletcher { Jul 3rd 2009 at 11:15AM }

We just told you that Konami's faux-retro Gradius Rebirth was added to the PAL WiiWare shop. If you've been playing for the past hour or so and have already moved on to dreaming about Konami's other WiiWare retro reinterpretation, you'll be happy to hear that Konami has announced a European release for Contra Rebirth as well, to be expected this August. This also gives North American readers cause for some measure of optimism.

In addition, Konami will release its top-down racer, Driift, later this month as DRiiFT MANIA. "DRiiFT MANIA" is also a condition in which someone is compelled to spell things with two lower-case i's.

VC/WiiWare Friday: Happy Hanabi Festival

by JC Fletcher { Jul 3rd 2009 at 10:15AM }

Nintendo of Europe's Hanabi Festival returns, bringing with it, of course, import games! Fantastic stuff is available this week on Virtual Console: Pulseman, a Mega Man-style platformer from a pre-Pokemon Game Freak, and Ogre Battle, the legendary strategy title from Yasumi Matsuno's Quest.

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!

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How's Life as a Darklord?

by JC Fletcher { Jul 1st 2009 at 5:45PM }

"Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord may have a name that's similar to predecessor My Life as a King," Andriasang writes, "but the two games are nothing alike." So much for the dream of running an evil town full of evil adventurers.

Instead, Andriasang describes the WiiWare game as a unique variation of tower defense. As heroes storm your tower, you delay their progress by adding floors to the structure and filling them with monsters. The strategy comes not only from managing your resources enough to build as many floors as you can, but also in placing things so that there isn't too much stuff on one floor. If there is, the heroes can just skip over a floor!

See a video of the game in action after the break.

Gallery: FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord

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NintendoWare Weekly: Water Warfare in for a Reel Fishing Challenge

by David Hinkle { Jun 29th 2009 at 11:25AM }

It wouldn't be Monday without new games to download across Nintendo platforms. This week's highlight is definitely Hudson's first-person soaker, Water Warfare. It's a neat concept, but we really think Hudson could've spent some time tightening up the graphics on level three.

Gallery: Water Warfare

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VC Friday: Hudson Powers Up

by JC Fletcher { Jun 26th 2009 at 6:15PM }

This week in Europe, Hudson Soft has one release on all three Wii download services. That's a pretty impressive feat, even if the individual games don't seem that exciting. We suppose 50 sudoku puzzles for 200 points is nice, and SimEarth is a good game.

The Hudson releases are joined by Taito's Puzzle Bobble/Bust a Move update and by Altered Beast. Now, we love Altered Beast more than most people (by which we mean we love it some), but 900 points for the arcade version? What's that about?

WiiWare:

Puzzle Bobble Plus! (1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Water Warfare (1-2 players offline, 2-8 online, 800 Wii Points)

Virtual Console:

Altered Beast (Arcade, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)
SimEarth (Turbografx-16 CD-ROM, 1 player,800 Wii Points)

DSiWare:

Sudoku 50 for Beginners (1 player, 200 DSi Points)

Bit.Trip: Core to be 100th WiiWare game upon its July 6 release

by JC Fletcher { Jun 25th 2009 at 2:15PM }

Gaijin Games posted this semi-cryptic puzzle to its official blog yesterday, offering what seems to be the release date for Bit.Trip: Core, the follow-up to the retro-rhythm-Pong-shooter, Bit.Trip: Beat. The numbers "7+6+9" correspond to a date: July 6, 2009, which just happens to be a Monday. We've gotten confirmation from Gaijin Games that this is indeed the meaning of the image.

"Absolutely," Gaijin's Chris Osborn told us. "And it will be the 100th WiiWare release!" Given that Nintendo saves its milestone Virtual Console releases for things like Zelda games, it seems like quite a distinction to be the hundredth game on WiiWare.

[Via GoNintendo]

PSA: Icarian: Kindred Spirits is now NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits

by JC Fletcher { Jun 24th 2009 at 12:40PM }

Icarian: Kindred Spirits, the side-scrolling WiiWare platformer released in Europe last week (and due in North America any old time), will now be known as NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits. The company has launched a new website for the game, which will be identical in every way except the title.

The title change will obviously be applied to the upcoming American release, but it will also take effect on the Wii Shop listing for the European release soon. A statement on the developer's Twitter account confirms that the change is not related to Nintendo or Kid Icarus. It's a shame to see a tiny developer like Over the Top beset with difficulties like this, when even Nintendo was promoting its game.

VC/WiiWare Tuesday: That's Galactic Dancin'

by JC Fletcher { Jun 23rd 2009 at 11:30AM }

This week, Japan gets two arcade games -- both of which have titles starting with the letter G, and both of which are already available on Virtual Console as ports. Galaga '88, Namco's cute, brightly colored, fireworks-filled sequel to Galaga, is definitely something we'd consider double-dipping for. Both the arcade version and the TG16 port (Galaga '90) are great, and the port includes a bit of extra content. And is it okay to like Golden Axe? Because we like Golden Axe.

On the WiiWare front, Hudson launches its second downloadable FPS for the Wii. Unfortunately, it's the dire-looking Water Warfare.

Virtual Console:

Galaga '88 (Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Golden Axe (Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

WiiWare:

Bang Bang Kids (1-2 players offline, 2-8 online, 800 Wii Points)

NintendoWare Weekly: NEVES Plus brings Art Style to SimEarth

by David Hinkle { Jun 22nd 2009 at 4:00PM }

This week's star of the show is undoubtedly WiiWare, which receives the very rare "three-title-update." Playing second and third fiddle are DSiWare and the Virtual Console, which both get the usual one new title. So, without further ado, let's check out what's available to download this week across Nintendo platforms in the latest NintendoWare Weekly.

Gallery: NEVES Plus

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Telltale's Dave Grossman promises Tales of Monkey Island will be more 'epic'

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 19th 2009 at 5:00PM }

A brand new episodic Monkey Island adventure is heading to PC and WiiWare this summer. While some are weary of the game's new 3D look, series co-creator Dave Grossman reassures players that the upcoming adventure is a true sequel. "The series takes place a couple of years after the end of the last game. The characters are a little bit older, but haven't really learned anything," he says in this exclusive video.

The episodic format is giving Telltale an opportunity to create a grander adventure for the upcoming game. "It's going to come out one chapter at a time over the period of five months, and the story's going to be told that way. So, it's more of an epic saga," Grossman says.

The first episode of Tales of Monkey Island will be available on PC in July, with the Wii release to follow shortly thereafter. To check out this video on your Wii, check out the Nintendo Update channel next Monday.

Gallery: Tales of Monkey Island

Bplus explains how to play Bit Boy

by JC Fletcher { Jun 19th 2009 at 12:44PM }

We're thrilled about the generation-traveling concept of Bplus's Bit Boy -- much more than we have been about any previous Bplus game, to be honest -- but we don't really know that much about it.

Nintendo Life spoke to Bernd Geiblinger, art director at Bplus, and got a rundown of the maze game. "As Bit Boy!! is a very old-school, arcade-style action game," Geiblinger said, "your main aim is to get the ultimate high score by rescuing friends, eating fruit and defeating monsters that roam the levels." As the technological level progresses, the protagonist Kubi increases in complexity as well, gaining access to special attacks and a jump move that allows him to "jump onto objects to hide himself from enemies."

Geiblinger also discusses some extra modes, as well as the chiptune-based sound design.

VC Friday: Let's Catch a Kindred Spirit

by JC Fletcher { Jun 19th 2009 at 11:40AM }

This week, the European Wii Shop is granted with a somewhat anticipated new title, and one we're glad is launching there before it does here. We're intensely curious about the platform action title Icarian: Kindred Spirits, and the fact that it's coming out in Europe first means we'll get to read reviews. We hope those 100 soundtrack downloads are claimed by now, by the way!

Also available for download this week: Let's Catch on WiiWare, and some more Brain Training on DSiWare.

WiiWare:

Icarian: Kindred Spirits
Let's Catch

DSiWare:

A Little Bit of ... Brain Training: Maths Edition

Let's catch some new footage and screens from Let's Catch

by Richard Mitchell { Jun 16th 2009 at 5:45PM }

Before we even start this post, let's try to explain the elaborate premise of Yuji Naka's WiiWare title, Let's Catch. Okay, so, in Let's Catch, the object of the game is to both throw and catch things. In essence, it is a virtual game of catch. Wait, that's not elaborate at all. Never mind then.

With that out of the way, we suggest you check out the Let's Catch trailer above and peruse the screens below.

Gallery: Let's Catch

Rumor: McDonalds reveals Pokemon Mystery Dungeon on WiiWare

by JC Fletcher { Jun 16th 2009 at 4:00PM }

According to what has been identified as a pamphlet from a McDonalds location in Japan, Nintendo is preparing to launch three new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games -- on WiiWare.

A detail from the pamphlet shows an announcement of the WiiWare release of the three games, along with logos for Mystery Dungeon games called Susume! Hono no Boukendan, Ikuzo! Arashi no Boukendan, and Mezase! Hikari no Boukendan, which translate to Advance! Fire Adventure Team, Go! Storm Adventure Team, and Aim! Light Adventure Group!, respectively.

Since we don't even know if the pamphlet, presumably distributed as a promotion for the Mac de DS program, is real, obviously we don't have any more details about the games, like whether Mystery Dungeon series creator Chunsoft is creating them or if they are all variants of the same base game.

VC/WiiWare Tuesday: Scramble!

by JC Fletcher { Jun 16th 2009 at 12:10PM }

This week, Japanese gamers will be able to download the new multiplayer Pokemon brawler (which is such a great idea!), but they'll have to pay for it. We admit to gasping a bit when we saw the 1,500-point price tag on Ransen! Pokemon Scramble, but we suspect we'll be spending that many of our American-style Wii Points soon enough. Pokemon Scramble is joined on WiiWare by a tambourine-based music game, and a cute-looking puzzle game about rotating objects to allow little creatures to move into a goal.

On the Virtual Console, Square Enix delivers the second Final Fantasy game in as many months. Final Fantasy II was designed by Akitoshi Kawazu, who we just happen to have spoken to at E3! The other VC game is Wonder Momo, a cutesy side-scrolling brawler from Namco that presents itself as a stage play. We're a little embarrassed about liking it.

Virtual Console