First seen as a mysterious title in the ESRB's database, new screens of Wild West Guns show the game to be ... pretty much exactly what we would have guessed: a Western-themed light gun game. Like Mad Dog McCree, but with less grainy video and more blocky polygons.
The 1,000 Wii Point WiiWare game will support four players in cooperative and competitive modes, and will include Zapper compatibility (remember the Zapper?). It also supports feelings of guilt over the adversarial depiction of Native Americans, and rationalizations about such treatment being a staple of the Western genre. That will be somewhat less salient when Wild West Guns comes out in Japan on July 22. Maybe that's whyGameloft revealed it to the Japanese press first.
For the second time in three weeks, those rapscallions at Nintendo have decided to forgo releasing old, lovable Virtual Console games and have instead opted for WiiWare. Grr. Still, at least it means that Europe and Australia get Arkanoid-style puzzler Block Breaker Deluxe, which we deemed to be rather good, despite its cast of grinning, lifestyle pillocks. At the other end of the quality pool bobs the questionable floating object that is Cocoto Fishing Master, which we wouldn't buy for our worst enemies.
When Pong evolved, we got Breakout. When Breakout evolved, we got Arkanoid. Then, when Arkanoid evolved, we got ... Block Breaker Deluxe?
Not that we'd call Block Breaker Deluxe revolutionary in any way, even though it's fun to play. Take Breakout, slap on some tacky '80s visuals, then throw in '70s disco/porn music for good measure, and you pretty much know what to expect from Gameloft's WiiWare offering.
Another week means another double dose of downloadable goodness. We get two WiiWare games this week, along with one Virtual Console game that is likely to put a smile on your face. So, let's check out what's on offer:
Right on time, Nintendo has pulled the appropriate levers, flicked the necessary switches, and sent a whole world of WiiWare goodness down the pipes and into Europe and Australia. Here's what greeted this blogger on his local servers just now:
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!
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.
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:
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?
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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:
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?
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.
We know we had a WiiWare-centric Wii Warm Up recently, but with all the news of some new games hitting WiiWare that we weren't all aware of before (uh, hello Alien Crush sequel), we felt the topic needed to be revisited. Of course, we don't have to tell you how excited we all are for the sequel to Alien Crush.
What about you all, though? What WiiWare title excites you most? Are you down with the sequel like we are, or are you looking forward to something else? Tetris, perhaps? Dr. Mario? Block Breaker Deluxe? Where do you stand right now?
Well, actually, they're remaking cell phone games, but the title kinda works. We actually approve of the population of the WiiWare service with new games from anybody. Mobile developer Gameloft has announced three more WiiWare games in addition to Block Breaker Deluxe. TV Show King is actually an original made-for-WiiWare quiz show game. Midnight Pool and Midnight Bowling are, well, pool and bowling games that use motion controls. Gameloft intends to release games in Japan, Europe, and the U.S.
TV Show King sounds like a great idea to us -- a trivia game with a low barrier to entry (price). We could totally see ourselves downloading something like that while bored some night or in preparation for a party or something.
Gameloft Japan has announced a new WiiWare game, a Breakout/Arkanoid-style game called Block Breaker Deluxe, to be released in Japan in April, with U.S. and European releases to follow. It looks perfectly adequate for an $8 WiiWare game -- we like Breakout, and this one has powerups and stuff -- but two aspects of this game serve as sticking points.
First, Block Breaker Deluxe is a remake of a cell phone game. Is Gameloft really setting this precedent one day after the launch of the service? This is, frankly, alarming. Second, for whatever reason, Gameloft decided that eye candy, in the form of some "sexy" female mascots, would be a good idea for the Arkanoid knockoff. This only has the effect of making us feel uncomfortable about buying it.
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Right on time, Nintendo has pulled the appropriate levers, flicked the necessary switches, and sent a whole world of WiiWare goodness down the pipes and into Europe and Australia. Here's what greeted this blogger on his local servers just now:
