Nintendo Wii Fanboy

No Penny Arcade adventures for Wii owners after all

Alisha Karabinus — 2008-05-15T11:00:00 00:00

The dream was nice while it lasted, guys. It looks like that there's no chance for the Penny Arcade game to make it to us via WiiWare, at least, not unless something changes. After comic co-creator Mike Krahulik gushed about his hopes for the game to appear on Nintendo's service last November, Vlad Ceraldi of developer Hothead Games has axed the possibility. "Until the size restriction is increased, the game will not be going to WiiWare. Sorry."

Penny Arcade Adventures is apparently pretty large even among XBLA releases, so this isn't terribly surprising news, but it is a little disappointing to know we just missed bringing our Wii remotes to Gabe and Tycho's party.

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Surprise mahjongg game hits Japanese WiiWare next week [update]

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-14T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Imports, WiiWare

[Update: fixed the title. Thanks, Patrick!]

Out of nowhere, a new WiiWare game showed up on Nintendo of Japan's WiiWare page. Yakuman Wii: Ide Yousuke no Kenjou Mahjongg (Ide Yousuke's Healthy Mahjongg) is a Nintendo-developed, multiplayer mahjongg game with Mii integration and online play. It also features hints from a Mii of Ide Yousuke (who is apparently a famous mahjongg player, and whose name appears in countless mahjongg game titles).

Even though we just found out about it, Nintendo plans to launch it in Japan next week, at a cost of 1,000 Wii Points. However, because it's a mahjongg game, we would be even more surprised to see it released elsewhere.

[Via Gamespot Japan]

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Wii Fanboy Review: TV Show King

Eric Caoili — 2008-05-13T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, Screens, WiiWare

Gameloft's first WiiWare entry, TV Show King, might turn away most gamers with its casual premise and 1000 Wii Points tag, but the publisher has made an effort to pack value in the trivia title -- 3,000 questions, Mii integration, and a game show atmosphere complete with a smarmy host and a busty blonde. Is all that enough to warrant its $10 price? Read our review to find out!

Gallery: TV Show King

TV Show King starts with you selecting one of your Miis as your game show character, which is a nice, albeit expected, touch. Perhaps to make sure everyone is the same height, though, the implanted characters all seem to share the same body type, ignoring those extra pounds you specified when originally creating your Notorious B.I.G. Mii. The game also pulls from your Mii collection for the remaining contestant spots (four in total) and rustles a group of your system's wandering avatars into the studio as the audience.

You're given limited settings to adjust before the game starts, which is probably best considering TV Show King's casual audience. You can mark the amount of rounds you want to play -- three, six, or nine -- and your desired difficulty -- Normal, King, or Genius. For the purposes of this review and to make sure we felt smart at the end of it, we left the settings at three rounds on the King difficulty.

Keeping with its game show theme, TV Show King begins with its spinning logo and a clapping DJ while the camera pans over the studio set and audience. A spotlight scans the crowd before calling down your Miis to the podiums, just like in The Price Is Right, though the game's soundtrack never ventures from its bland music into anything iconic.

The host, Jerry, an uninspiring man with unfortunate eyebrows, leads you into the first round of questions grabbed from a range of topics from entertainment to science. Players use their Wii remotes to point at and select the correct answer from four options as a 15-second timer counts down. You can see what other players have picked, but TV Show King makes up for it by rewarding more money to the players who first select the correct answer. Depending on your answer, a pleasant or discordant noise will play on your Wii remote's speaker to notify you if you're right or not.

After a few questions, Jerry introduces a "special event" in which, for the remainder of the round, the first player to answer a question correctly wins a significant cash bonus. Once the round's questions have been exhausted, players are invited to spin a wheel that can just as easily reward you with bonus money as it can leave you bankrupt.

The wheel will be a controversial point for many from the beginning. as it's never explained how to effectively spin the wheel. Some might feel the rewards and the risks are too much -- it's possible to win $15000 from a single spin. The wheel can also make you hand over a a sizable portion of your savings to one of your opponents. Even if you opt out of spinning the fortune wheel, there are spaces on the circle that allow other players to grab your cash. Some will welcome the break from TV Show King's formula, though, and it's an opportunity for lagging players to catch up.

The wheel spun and the damage done, the show's top-heavy presenter, Angela, directs you towards a board with the current rankings. Following that, you're taken through another similar round with the same "special event" and wheel-spinning.

The third round brings a random twist to how the answers are presented. Depending on which mode the game picks, Scratch Quiz or Light Quiz, players will have to scratch at buttons with their Wii remotes like a lottery ticket to uncover the answer underneath or use their controllers as flashlights to reveal the four options.

Once those shenanigans are out of the way, the two contestants with the highest cash count face off in a trivia duel. Whoever answers five questions correctly first steals half of the other player's money. Afterwards, all four players are ranked by how much cash was in their pot at the end of the game.

And that's TV Show King! There's also a single-player trivia mode that challenges you to answer as many consecutive questions correctly as you can, but it's hard to imagine anyone having fun playing this game without friends. Though your scores are tracked and saved, TV Show King doesn't offer any online features, so you won't be able to share any records with your crew of trivia-game-score-obsessed friends.

Where the game really suffers, though, is in its replayability. Even with its total of 3000 trivia questions, you've seen everything TV Show King has to offer in terms of presentation after two ten-minute playthroughs (which go by even quicker if you skip the segue cutscenes). More unique events, format variations, and an expanded audio track would have helped a lot to keep the rounds feeling fresh. Hearing Jerry's "Impressive!" compliments after each correctly answered question gets old quick.

Despite those flaws, is it worth the $10 Gameloft is asking for it? Only if you have a group of friends over who don't mind TV Show King's tiresome host and risking their earned lead to a wheel of chance.

Final Score: 6/10

With the recent launch of the WiiWare service on the Nintendo Wii, we've been busy getting our time in with some of the titles available for download. Be sure to check out our reviews of Defend Your Castle, LostWinds, and Pop, as well as our early impressions of My Life as a King. Also, be sure to keep an eye on our Reviews category for more as it goes live on the site and stay tuned to the WiiWare category for more on Nintendo's new download service.

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Joystiq talks with Strong Bad devs

David Hinkle — 2008-05-13T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Interviews, WiiWare

Our overlords at Joystiq managed to snag an interview with Telltale Games, the developers behind Sam & Max and the upcoming Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. They manage to get the lowdown on how long this project was in the works, as well as what to look forward to in each episode. It's an interesting read, so be sure to head on over there and check the interview out.

Gallery: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People

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Wii Fanboy Review: LostWinds

David Hinkle — 2008-05-13T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Without a doubt, LostWinds is like finding a diamond-encrusted Hummer in your box of corn flakes. Sure, the WiiWare launch line-up hasn't been as boring as corn flakes, but there are some titles we could do without. And, LostWinds is so good, we're wondering if there'll be anything besides Alien Crush that can stand up to it this year on Nintendo's download service.

Gallery: LostWinds

The game starts with you waking up the main character, Toku, and thrusting him into a nearby cave. Once inside, Toku discovers a Spirit Stone holding a secret. Once you pick up the stone, it starts talking to you and reveals that there is a threat looming over the world (when isn't there?). From here on out, you'll be doing some light exploration and platforming on a quest to save your home.

But, what about the meat and potatoes of the game? What about controlling Toku and using the Gust ability? Well, it's pretty fun, to be honest, but has its flaws. See, by pressing the A button, you'll slow everything down, and should you draw a line on the screen while holding that A button down, you'll direct a gust of wind there. This is how you make Toku leap across chasms and reach otherwise unreachable areas in the game.

There's a problem, though, that comes up fairly often. Sometimes, Toku just won't react to a gust of wind being directed at him. It's noticeable more when you try to take him straight up into the air then flinging a gust of wind at him horizontally, but it's an issue that comes up enough as to warrant frustration. This is really the only flaw in the game that I could find.

It isn't all platforming, however. You'll encounter several NPCs in the game and explore large environments. Here, the game almost exactly feels like The Legend of Zelda, showing the title's inspiration comes somewhat from Nintendo's long line of games. That isn't a bad thing, though, as the game never feels like it's a carbon copy of the exploits found in those titles.

And, as you explore these large environments, you'll be taken back by the sheer beauty of LostWinds' game world. Whether it's the rustling foliage that responds to your cursor or the bright light shining over a mountain during the morning, this game is a visual feast through and through. I honestly had to stop and stare at several locations in the game, just to take it all in.

Basically, LostWinds needs to be downloaded. There's no getting around how valuable an experience this is. LostWinds serves as both an example of how smaller developers can use WiiWare to present viable titles to an otherwise unreachable audience and proves that in this new age of downloads and micropayments, Nintendo is not be counted out. We're hopeful that more titles with the high level of quality in LostWinds make its way onto Nintendo's download service in the future. Until then, we'll be playing LostWinds.

Final Score: 9/10

With the recent launch of the WiiWare service on the Nintendo Wii, we've been busy getting our time in with some of the titles available for download. Be sure to check out our reviews of Defend Your Castle and Pop, as well as our early impressions of My Life as a King. Also, be sure to keep an eye on our Reviews category for more as it goes live on the site and stay tuned to the WiiWare category for more on Nintendo's new download service.

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LostWinds sequel plans already aloft

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-13T12:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, WiiWare

Frontier Developments' LostWinds seems to be one of the standout WiiWare titles, judging from the discussion around the site (and in the comments for other WiiWare game reviews). We're glad you like it, and, we assume, so is Frontier Developments, because otherwise they stand to lose a bunch of money.

Their website features a link that allows visitors to "REGISTER FOR ADVANCE INFORMATION on Frontier's forthcoming LostWinds sequel containing amazing new gameplay as Toku and Enril's incredible adventure to save Mistralis continues."

That doesn't really leave much room for misunderstanding, does it? The sequel's on the way. No hinting, no teasers, just "Hey, guys, we're making another one." Having a quickly-announced sequel makes it seem like an episodic title, doesn't it? We guess there isn't really that much difference between an episodic game and a game with really quick sequels.

Gallery: LostWinds

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Nintendo reveals first WiiWare titles for Europe

Chris Greenhough — 2008-05-13T11:45:00 00:00

Filed under: News, WiiWare

Nintendo has released a list of eight games described as "launch window" titles ahead of WiiWare's debut in Europe on May 20th. Included are four games that the U.S. is still waiting on -- Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, Star Soldier R, Toki Tori, and Pirates: The Key of Dreams -- though it looks like Europe will be waiting a little longer for Defend Your Castle and V.I.P Casino: Blackjack. Frankly, we'll live without a blackjack game.

Once again, note that these are "launch window" games. How long is a launch window? No idea. "Launch window" is one of those infuriatingly flexible terms beloved by PR types. Anyway, the list of WiiWare games that Europe will be getting kinda near the launch is as follows:

There's currently no news on pricing, but we'd fully expect European WiiWare prices to match those of other regions, assuming Nintendo hasn't found a totally new and unique way to rip European gamers off.

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Virtually Free: Slightly to the left of normal

Alisha Karabinus — 2008-05-13T10:15:00 00:00

Filed under: Contests / Giveaways, WiiWare

This week's a little different for the Virtual Console, so it's a little different for Virtually Free as well. What's new? Well, for starters, we're not giving away a Virtual Console game. Instead, we're celebrating the release of WiiWare by giving away LostWinds (1000 Wii points/$10)!

So what do you have to do to win? First of all, you have to leave a comment (with a valid e-mail address) on this post telling us what you're looking forward to most of the announced WiiWare titles. Second, you must be a legal resident of the United States with an American Wii (sorry, Canadians, we have to leave you out of this one; blame the gifting system and not us!) and 18 years of age or older. You may enter once per day between now and Monday, May 19; the contest comes to a close that night at 11:59 PM Eastern time, and we'll select a winner in a random drawing the next day. Questions? Check out the official rules.

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My Impressions as a King

Alisha Karabinus — 2008-05-13T09:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Like a child counting down the days until Christmas, I've been looking forward to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. I'm a sucker for Square Enix anyway, and the prospect of a $15 game (even if there is pricey DLC) was too much to resist. That's why it was so shocking to discover that my first few game days in Padarak were ... well, boring. Everything was very controlled and linear, and I couldn't run around and explore. Instead, I sat through cutscenes explaining more than I wanted to know at that point, when all I wanted to do was flex my new architek power. And then, once I was free, I had very little in the way of resources! Frustrating.

Several hours later, since I was still playing, I realized that maybe I wasn't so bored after all. The simple directive of get more stuff sucked me in as soon as I had a free hand with the game, and before I even had time to think, I was obsessed with building up my little kingdom. Without my even realizing it, My Life as a King had gone from boring to fun.

Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

While we have a full review of the WiiWare title coming later, initial impressions of the simulation are that it's a lot like MySims, but better. My Life as a King manages to be even cuter, but with a gloss that's unmistakably Square Enix, and the characters are engaging. Even the random chatter with the townspeople is somewhat interesting. There's no awkward building; once you have the ability to construct something with your power, up it goes as directed. While it means the buildings are somewhat lacking in variety, it's quicker and frees up more time to do the important things, like hunt down the darn moogle who makes your blueprints for new buildings.

Early impressions of the adventuring system are also positive; as soon as that opened up, it quickly became the most interesting part of the game (so far). Since you're limited, in the beginning, in what you can build. it's nice to know that you can easily multiply your stable of adventurers and send them out in search of knowledge and resources. Every time you build a house, you get two new people: one citizen, and one would-be adventurer. As soon as you can afford to commission them, they're able to head out to the surrounding dungeons in search of elementite, the material used for your architek power.

Here at the beginning, there isn't a great deal to do, other than marvel that there are only single parents here (several single moms and one single dad in my kingdom), and wonder where that damned Mogtillo gets off to when I need him, but the game days are short. Later, I'm sure managing everything will become a challenge of time.

Check back with us later for a full review, in which we'll also take a look at the already-available downloadable content!

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Wii Warm Up: Rate WiiWare

David Hinkle — 2008-05-13T08:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Wii Warm Up, WiiWare

So, WiiWare launched yesterday! We were all excited to see what we'd be getting, and we even found the time to check out a pair of the more casual titles on offer. But, who cares what we think, we're just a bunch of dumb jerks on a gaming blog.

We want to know what you think. Did you download any of the games? Read some impressions? What did you think of the overall WiiWare launch line-up? And, to make it simple, just go ahead and assign WiiWare's launch a score, like we do with our reviews (keep it between 1-10, makes it easier).

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Miyamoto talks WiiWare launch, American devs

David Hinkle — 2008-05-12T20:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, WiiWare

Now that the WiiWare service is up and running (and we got to play at least one game so far), you're probably as curious as we are concerning the lack of Nintendo games available for download. With an entire catalog featuring nothing but third-party titles, it might seem like a silly idea to launch a Nintendo service with no Nintendo games on offer. It's something that we thought was very much against what Nintendo's usual operational procedures are.

Then, like a knight in shining armor, Shigeru Miyamoto charges in and tells us why we need not be concerned. "I think America has always been better at creating unique products," he says. Wow, we're flattered! Miyamoto is a big fan of the North American indie game scene, commenting they are "able to let their own personality and their own kind of unique interests really flourish in the games that they're creating." This is one of the reasons why Nintendo felt safe with the WiiWare line-up unleashed on us today.

[Via Joystiq]

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Wii Fanboy Review: Pop

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-12T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Click for larger image

Nnooo's Pop is an unusual puzzle/shooter hybrid. It has a lot in common with matching-based puzzle games: activating multiple objects (in this case, bubbles, activated by tapping) of the same color as they fall builds a score multiplier, and gameplay-modifying items are found in some of the objects. However, unlike Columns or Bust-a-Move, there is little immediate penalty for missing. Bubbles don't build up and kill you when they fill up the screen -- they fly by at a constant rate regardless of your actions. You are required to pop consistently to fill a timer, but the lack of building stacks does change the character of the game a lot versus that kind of puzzle game.

Instead, Pop's tension is based more on recognizing the flying bubbles quickly, and popping as rapidly as you can with some semblance of strategy. There's no penalty for popping different colors, but popping the same color builds your score multiplier. Big bubbles add more time but less score, and small bubbles add more score but less time. Since all of these effects are still positive, the basic strategy of the game is to pop the hell out of anything that is a bubble. In this way, the game feels very much like a scrolling shooter.

Gallery: Pop

You lose time for touching a non-bubble area of the screen, which forces you to choose a bit more carefully -- this then makes you pay at least a little attention to the screen, and thus motivates you to start working on combos. And that interaction -- discerning between bubbles, but still popping as quickly as possible -- is what makes Pop interesting. The first couple of games consist of players killing the timer by missing almost instantly. Then Pop clicks (pops?) and you start rapid-fire popping, adjusting how carefully you look for combo opportunities, and seeking out items (score multipliers, bombs, slow-down items, but not the skull that stops your combo), and you start flying through the game's waves.

The waves each have a different color scheme, and alter the speed and direction of bubble movement, as well as bubble size. Between every few waves is a bonus stage -- like Galaga's "Challenging Stages" but with way more things to shoot and no expectation that you'll shoot them all.

Multiplayer falls somewhere between cooperative play and competition. Exclusive multiplayer items include a flashlight that restricts the view to an area around one player's cursor, and a lightning bolt that temporarily prevents the opposing players from popping bubbles. However, despite trying to outscore your opponent, causing them to fail is not advantageous to you, because you share a timer. It's an uneasy alliance!

Pop features online leaderboards for single- and multiplayer modes, but these leaderboards can only be viewed after you finish a game, or in tiny form on the title screen. In addition, players earn "badges" (like achievements) whose requirements flash on the screen when it is awarded. These can only be seen in a little window when you're choosing your player profile, and you can never read what they mean again after receiving them. You just end up with a collection of meaningless icons.

Pop contains one very important feature that will make many gamers' lives easier. When creating your profile, the game will display the four different-colored bubbles and ask if you can tell the difference. If you say "no," the bubbles will be different shapes as well! Color-blind gamers: welcome to puzzle games. We missed you.

I thought, at first, that Pop was an irritatingly random twitchfest, the "watch your timer count down very quickly" game, and then within about five minutes I just got it. I began clearing multiple waves and I just fell into it. Initially, I scoffed at the idea that something so frantic could be designed to put you in a trance. But that frantic quality is exactly what makes Pop so entrancing. Unlike other puzzle games, you have to let bubbles pass. You focus your attention on what you can, and let the sea of bubbles wash over you while delightful ambient music plays and your bubbles pop in changing rhythm.

It isn't perfect, of course. The game still has a heavy element of overwhelming randomness. And there's a waggle-based bubble-inflation maneuver that doesn't seem to be useful, ever. But none of this matters over the course of five or ten minutes, which is the sweet spot for this game. After that long, you definitely feel like you've had a full gaming session. And you may not even realize you liked it until it's almost over.

My opinion is fascinating and all, but Pop wasn't exactly designed for me. I wondered what a more casual gamer would think about Nnooo's puzzle-shooter. So I asked one.

My wife, Mary, is a longtime gamer who enjoys "Wii Sports, puzzle games, and platformers like Super Mario Bros.", but only plays games "less than once a week -- maybe a handful of times a month." Furthermore, she's likely driven away from games by living with an insufferable game nerd (not her words). I sat her down with Pop (it wasn't hard -- "Want to play this WiiWare game?"), and after some single-player and a multiplayer session or two, I asked her impressions. She obviously isn't the voice of all casual gamers, but I figured that she could at least have a more casual perspective than me.

NWF: What do you think of Pop?
MF: I think it's fun to play for about ten minutes. It's pretty repetitive, but it's fun to pop the bubbles.

Was it easy to figure out?
Yes, it's very easy to learn. There's a short training game, and then hints come up.

How well do you think you were doing?
I thought I was doing slightly below average. I wasn't very good at chaining them, and I missed a lot.

You stopped because your hand was getting tired. Were you also getting bored?
Yes. I don't think I'm interested in trying to get a higher score. It's boring to play for long stretches of time.

I like getting the badges. If only they'd tell you what they were and you could look at them.

Click for larger image

It is worth noting that her "slightly below average" was #37 worldwide, which grew the next time to #20. And that she started a new game immediately after we finished our discussion of her last session. She declined to provide a review score, but she enjoyed Pop at least that much.

As for me, I was pretty sure that I was going to give Pop a solid 6/10, but the uncomplicated, addictive quality of Pop and the ease of playing downloadable games makes it a 7.5/10, easily. It's just so appealing to jump in and lose yourself for a few intense minutes. Just don't expect to play it for hours or days on end.

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My Life as a King co-creators on WiiWare challenges, ActRaiser

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-12T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Interviews, WiiWare

In their GDC presentation, Square Enix's Fumiaki Shiraishi and Toshihiro Tsuchida described the new direction they were taking with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. They discussed how they were shaking things up at their company by making a small, low-budget game with no elaborate cutscenes. Brandon Sheffield and Jeremy Parish spoke with the game's co-creators about the advantages and challenges of trying to make a Square Enix game under strict financial and storage budgets.

Shiraishi described the limitations as an inspiring factor for the game's design, and also pats SE's artists on the back: "I don't think we would've had this game design idea if we didn't have the memory restriction to begin with. Once we had the restriction, we had... all our artists are veterans, so if you tell them the size, they'll hit it right on."

Another (very) noteworthy offhand statement comes at the end, in a discussion of Square Enix's attitude toward the Virtual Console. When the similarity in theme between ActRaiser and My Life as a King came up, Shiraishi said "I'd like to make an ActRaiser sequel. That would be kind of fun." Yes. It would.

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Wii Fanboy Review: Defend Your Castle

David Hinkle — 2008-05-12T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Click to see more screens from Defend Your Castle

The browser game that many of you have tried at one time or another has been revamped for Wii and launched alongside WiiWare earlier this morning. After spending a good bit of time with the game, we're confident that we can present a decent review of the title. With a price point of 500 Wii points, as well as a fairly addictive game just lurking beneath that small admission price, we're happy to report that Defend Your Castle is a good game and well worth your small sum of money.

Gallery: Defend Your Castle

First of all, we should explain what exactly the deal with this game is. If you haven't been paying attention, the object of the game is to defend your castle from the ridiculously large onslaught on invading armies that try to take it down day after day. While defending your castle during the daylight hours, you'll gather points, which can then be used at night to strengthen your castle or expand its plethora of assets. These assets include things from just strengthening walls (the castle's overall health), down to building a Pit of Conversion, which allows you to take enemy soldiers and convert them into followers that will do their best to protect your castle.

Click for larger image

It isn't as easy as just building the Pit of Conversion and calling it a day, however. Once you have a pit set up, it isn't going to help you until you fortify towers for different abilities, so that the converted units may be placed there for use. These different towers allow for you to place archers, which will kill enemies periodically, to a tower for stone masons who will repair your castle. There's also a tower that you can use to instantly pull out a unit that will destroy everyone around him, as well as the coveted Mage's Tower.

The Mage's Tower is the coolest ability in the game, because you can call on a variety of spells to dispatch the enemy troops. You can call on the pink eraser to automatically eradicate one foe, as well as a nice Instant Conversion technique that provides you with a new troop, yet isn't affected by the annoying wait time that comes from using the Pit of Conversion. And, once you get into the thick of it later on in the game, you're going to be depending on the Mage's Tower to get you out of a tough spot.

Visually, the game looks great. Small touches like the changing weather, as well as the unit variations, come together to make a very visually appealing package. The game has a lot of charm here and looks like the imagination of a 4-year-old child. If there's any landscape we wanted to pay home to our exploits of defending a castle from countless hordes of enemies, it's here.

For a 500 Wii Point game, you'd be insane not to give Defend Your Castle a download. The game is fun, very accessible and has almost no learning curve. We can't comment on the mutliplayer, but if the single-player is any indication, it will deliver there, too. XGen Studios have created a great WiiWare offering and we're sure your life will be better for having downloaded Defend Your Castle.

Final Score: 9/10

Hey, did you know that we like to review things? Sure, we do it all the time! Be sure to check out our Reviews category to stay current with our latest reviews and hands-on impressions.

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WiiWare goes live!

Chris Greenhough — 2008-05-12T10:15:00 00:00

Filed under: News, WiiWare

As we anticipated, Nintendo waited until the last possible moment to reveal the details on WiiWare's U.S. launch. In a press release which describes WiiWare as the "most democratic environment in industry history," Nintendo confirmed the six titles that launched with the download service today -- and it looks like the leaked information from the weekend was spot-on:

LostWinds -- 1000 Wii Points
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1500 Wii Points
Pop -- 700 Wii Points
Defend Your Castle -- 500 Wii Points
V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack -- 700 Wii Points
TV Show King -- 1000 Wii Points

So it's finally up -- hurray! Monday mornings haven't felt quite this optimistic in some time! Have any of you lot already downloaded yourself some WiiWare?

Gallery: LostWinds

Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

[Via press release]

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Protothea might not be terrible

Eric Caoili — 2008-05-10T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Video, Screens, WiiWare

Earlier this week, we shared with you videos from Ubisoft newly announced WiiWare title, Protöthea, and the game looked, at best, boring, at worst, awful. Seeing this trailer for the original 2005 PC game which the WiiWare release will be a remake of, however, has given us a new hope. This looks about a hojillion times more exciting than the clips IGN trotted out for us to preview!

Further improving our opinion of Protöthea, the original PC game was Cartoon Network's Project Goldmaster winner at the 2005 Independent Games Festival, rewarding developer Digital Builders an opportunity to create a game based on a Cartoon Network license. Knowing all this, maybe the screenshots in the gallery we've included below will seem more interesting to you.

Protöthea was supposed to launch with WiiWare, according to IGN, but we didn't see the title on the list posted earlier today, so who knows when the shmup will be thrown onto Nintendo's download service. While we wait around for someone to announce a release date, spend a moment to leave us a comment on whether or not this trailer has changed your opinion on the game.

Gallery: Protothea

[Via GoNintendo]

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Nintendo reveals WiiWare launch List

Candace Savino — 2008-05-10T14:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Rumors, WiiWare

The North American WiiWare launch is almost upon us, and instead of the stealth releases that we thought were coming, Nintendo's press release of WiiWare games debuting this Monday (along with their point values) was recently leaked. While we can't be sure this list is 100% valid, it looks like we can expect the following:

Defend Your Castle -- 500 Wii Points
Pop -- 700 Wii Points
V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack -- 700 Wii Points
TV Show King -- 1000 Wii Points
LostWinds -- 1000 Wii Points
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1500 Wii Points

Although we're disappointed by the lack of Dr. Mario, this looks like a pretty solid launch list to us. It'll be difficult to pick and choose exactly which titles we want, but there are definitely some that stand out more than others.

How about you? Do you plan on downloading any of the above, or are you going to wait for impressions and reviews first?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Block Breaker Deluxe breaks out onto Japanese WiiWare

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-07T13:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Imports, WiiWare

In what may be Japan's only WiiWare release for May (much like Minna de Puzzloop was the only April release), Gameloft's Block Breaker Deluxe is now available for download in Japan. For 800 points, Japanese gamers can now play a decent-looking Breakout/Arkanoid clone with a neon visual theme and goofy images of "cool" people that make it look so much like a cell-phone game (which it was). Or Miami Nights.

We'd like to see this one soon within the U.S. launch of WiiWare, because we're perfectly willing to overlook all the posing jerks -- and the inauspicious origin of the game -- for a chance at a new big-screen Breakout game.

[Via Inside-Games]

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Nintendo prescribes price, new name for Dr. Mario

Eric Caoili — 2008-05-07T11:15:00 00:00

Filed under: WiiWare

Since the game was announced, we've heard sources cite Nintendo's Dr. Mario WiiWare game (bundled with Brain Age 2's Virus Buster minigame) with two different titles, Dr. Mario's Virus Buster and Dr. Mario & Bacteria Extermination, both likely direct translations of the Japanese title, Dr. Mario & Saikin Bokumetsu.

If you kept your eye on the Digest Video that introduced today's Nintendo Channel release, though, you might have noticed Nintendo of America's official name for the puzzler: Dr. Mario Online RX. Not bad!

The two-and-a-half minute clip also revealed pricing for the game: 1000 Wii Points ($10). Unfortunately, there's still no word on whether Mario Mario, M.D. will debut with the download service's launch.

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Nintendo holding back WiiWare launch list

Chris Greenhough — 2008-05-06T13:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, WiiWare

We have a rough idea of which software is coming to WiiWare, but when it's coming is a different matter. Apparently, Nintendo doesn't want to help us find out either. Game|Life's Chris Kohler recently spoke to a company representative, who revealed that there may not be a list of WiiWare launch titles until the launch itself, on May 12th. Why? We've no idea, but it's a mighty strange way of getting consumers excited, Nintendo.

A few games (including Hudson's Star Soldier R, Konami's Critter Round-Up, and Two Tribes' Toki Tori) have already been confirmed for a release on May 12th by their publishers, but we're largely in the dark here. As Nintendo of America is planning to model the WiiWare release schedule on that of the Virtual Console, does that mean we'll be getting far fewer games than we originally expected when we turn our Wiis on next Monday morning?

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