Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The Wii is the best system in history for scrolling shooters, thanks to the Virtual Console. While companies like Treasure and Cave have developed new subgenres of the shmup, the basics of classic shooting gameplay haven't changed much, and a good shooter is still as enjoyable now as it was when games like Gradius and Blazing Lazers were new. Chances are nobody but the most devoted shmuppers has mastered every available shooter on the system -- or even all of the really good ones. For most gamers, there are at least five excellent shooters available on the VC that are completely unfamiliar.

The preponderance of excellent shooters means that there's really no reason for anyone to buy a mediocre one -- especially not when it costs more than every other shmup on the system. There is even less reason to buy Protöthea. If you're thinking about putting ten bucks into this, stop and go buy Blazing Lazers or Lords of Thunder instead.

When a video detailing the technology inside the Balance Board hit the Japanese Nintendo Channel early this year, we envied the ability to see original behind-the-scenes content on the Wii. Now, a mere five months later, the video is available on the North American channel, dubbed into English. It's also available right here, in this very post!

Other new videos include trailers for this week's WiiWare releases, video of Super Swing Golf Season 2 and SNK Arcade Classics, and a lot of DS content -- more "I Play for Me" videos featuring America Ferrera, and the excellent English Bangai-O Spirits trailer. Watch it if you haven't yet! The full list of videos follows the break.

Just as expected, we're given some WiiWare love, as well as a Virtual Console download, this week. There's also Ubisoft's Protothea, which you know we've had our eye on. If WiiWare doesn't tickle your fancy, there's also a NEOGEO game up for grabs. So, who's going to download what?

WiiWare games available for download:

• Protothea (Ubisoft, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Toki Tori (Two Tribes, 1 - 2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)

This week's Virtual Console game available for download:

• Ninja Combat (NEOGEO, 1 - 2 players, 900 Wii Points)

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.


[Via GoNintendo]

Ubisoft has finally announced its first contribution to Nintendo's forthcoming WiiWare service, and it's a remake of 2005 PC shooter Protöthea. Supposedly, there are a lot of additions, but whatever Argentine developers Sabarasa (Mazes of Fate) and Digital Builders added, it hasn't made the game interesting.

It's not just the laggard enemies and humdrum soundtrack that have us yawning -- even the heads-up display is enough to put SHMUP fans to sleep. But that's alright, as the last thing we needed was more must-buy WiiWare games.

Protöthea is scheduled to debut with WiiWare's launch on May 12th alongside (more interesting) shooters Star Soldier R and Gyrostarr. Ubisoft will be asking 1,000 Wii Points for the game. Bring a pillow and blanky past the break for another Protöthea video and a list of new features for the remake.