Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Japan hasn't received any new WiiWare content since the service's March 25th launch, with the exception of DLC for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King and Lonpos. It would appear that WiiWare is on a monthly release schedule, because one new game has been announced for release next Tuesday: Minna de Puzzloop (Puzzloop for Everyone).

The puzzle game, about shooting marbles at same-color marbles as they come down a looped path, was originally released by developer Mitchell as an arcade game in 1998, but most gamers are most familiar with it as Magnetica on the DS. This 1000-Wii Point version supports four-player simultaneous play (though it doesn't seem to be playable online), and of course it also supports being able to buy it from your couch.

[Via Famitsu]

The steady stream of Wii Ware news continues, this time with Nintendo's launch of its official Japanese site for the video game download service. So far, the hub lists almost a dozen upcoming titles, attaching new screenshots to some of the releases:

• FFCC: The Young King and the Promised Land
• StarSoldierR
• Word Puzzle Mojipittan Wii
• Pokemon Ranch
• Dr. Mario's Virus Buster
• Marubou Shikaku
• Magnetica
  
• Bomberman
• Okiraku Ping-Pong Wii
• Angels' Solitaire
• Joysound Wii

LostWinds and other western-developed games are noticeably missing, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't planned as launch or near-launch titles for other territories. Much to our disappointment, the page neglects to mention any specific pricing for the titles.

One worthwhile detail that we spotted is the above screenof Dr. Mario's four-player cooperative mode. The puzzler was already perfect before -- now it's even perfecter. There's also a multiplayer shot for Magnetica (Puzzloop) worth checking out!

[Via NeoGAF]

Though its potential can't be denied, Nintendo's Wii Ware channel, an upcoming download service for new Wii games, didn't impress us much with the seemingly low-budget titles announced for it so far. Nintendo amended that worriment today at its Tokyo conference by revealing a lineup of impressive projects in progress, turning our "Excitement Level" knob to eleven, one measure greater than what we previously thought the mechanism allowed.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King and the Promised Land (1500 Wii Points, March), a "country-building sim," stands out from the bunch, promising an exclusive side story which takes place after the original GameCube game. This marks the fourth entry to the series and the second Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles title announced for the Wii. Square Enix has already made a teaser site for you to load up and immediately close once you've realized that there's almost nothing there yet.

Hudson, having kept things on and poppin' on the Virtual Console side for some time now, demonstrated its commitment to the new service by announcing new games like Bomberman, Star Soldier R, and Joysound, the last of which will be a karaoke title. Namco Bandai also chimed in with Mojipittan, a Japanese word puzzle game.

As for Nintendo's contributions to the Wii Ware channel, the company announced Dr. Mario (!!!), Pokemon Farm, Puzzloop for Everyone, and Maruboushikaku, all of which appearing to have some form of Mii integration. You can preview screenshots for those titles at the Famitsu links below.

Read - FFCC: The Little King and the Promised Land teaser site
Read - FFCC: The Little King and the Promised Land screenshots
Read - Star Soldier R screenshots
Read - Mojipittan screenshots
Read - Dr. Mario, Pokemon Farm, Puzzloop for Everyone, and Maruboushikaku screenshots