Filed under: WiiWare

VC Friday: Pop-Up Onslaught!

by JC Fletcher { 8 months ago }

It's a pretty cool WiiWare day on the PAL Wii Shop. Hudson decided to spring its WiiWare FPS, Onslaught, on an unsuspecting audience. Somehow, we doubt PAL gamers will mind waiting an extra month or so for Snowboard Riot and playing an online FPS in the meantime.

The other game up today is something that we personally think looks delightful: Pop-Up Pirate!, the WiiWare version of the classic toy in which players stick swords into a barrel until someone accidentally stabs the imprisoned pirate. Fun for the whole family!

Onslaught (1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
Pop-up Pirate! (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)

Onslaught footage can be viewed after the break, along with a commercial for the Pop-Up Pirate toy (since we couldn't find any video of the Wii game).

Gallery: Pop-up Pirate Wii

Gallery: Onslaught

Continue reading “VC Friday: Pop-Up Onslaught!”

Nintendo publishing World of Goo in Japan [update]

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

Update: Tom Prata, Nintendo's senior director of project development, said that "Nintendo will distribute World of Goo for WiiWare in Japan starting in the second quarter of 2009." Confirmed!

Siliconera found a new Japanese trademark registration, for something called ... hmm, "World of Goo?" Oh, wait, that's probably just that WiiWare game, World of Goo, that came out in other territories last year and was loved by all. 2D Boy's puzzle masterpiece has yet to hit Japan, but it could soon, judging by this registration. Surprisingly, Nintendo is the registering company, meaning that it may choose to publish World of Goo in Japan. That's a testament to Nintendo's ~~high estimation of the game's quality~~ belief that it will sell!

World of Goo isn't the first Western WiiWare game from a smaller developer to be picked up by a huge publisher for Japanese release. Square Enix released Frontier Developments' LostWinds in December.

Gallery: World of Goo

VC Tuesday: Bubble Bobble Wii rises to the top

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

There's a lovely selection of retro gaming available on the Japanese Virtual Console today, including Ogre Battle and one of Falcom's myriad Dragon Slayer games, but the real retro hotness is found on WiiWare. Lucky Japanese Wii owners will get to play Bubble Bobble Wii, and we certainly hope it isn't terrible. The last Bubble Bobble on Nintendo hardware wasn't so great, but that was back when Taito was licensing its properties out to whomever. We also hope Okiraku Slot Car Racing isn't terrible, if only because a game about slot car racing sounds kind of hilarious. After Family Glide Hockey, we're not holding out too much hope.

Tactics Ogre (Super Famicom, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (Mega Drive, 1 player, 700 Wii Points)
Winning Shot (PC Engine, 1-4 players, 600 Wii Points)

WiiWare:

Okiraku Slot Car Racing (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
Let's Play with Kappa: Kappa and the Three Kittens (1 player, 600 Wii Points)
Board Warriors (1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
Bubble Bobble Wii (1-4 players, 800 Wii Points)

Cave Story's graveyard reborn in new screenshot

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

Nicalis is still cruelly doling out Cave Story screenshots one at a time, and those screens continue to be gorgeous enough to be absolutely worth posting on their own. The latest image features the Mimiga graveyard, home of the marketably adorable Pignon mushroom creatures, in both normal and Giant varieties, and the Gravekeeper, whose duties seem limited to attacking people with a knife.

According to the blog post preceding this screenshot, Nicalis's Tyrone Rodriguez went to Kyoto this weekend to meet with Pixel and do something secret. Kyoto happens to be the location of Nintendo. Could there be some more wonderful Pixel projects on WiiWare, or even DSiWare, in the future? Or, you know, maybe they're doing something else in Kyoto. It is, like, a whole city.

Gallery: Cave Story (WiiWare)

The Conduit coming June 9th, Animales de la Muerte no longer WiiWare

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

Talking to Nintendo World Report, High Voltage's Eric Nofsinger officially dated the now officially not-terrible The Conduit. The hyped FPS is scheduled for release in North America on June 9. Unfortunately, the company confirmed that the game will not include local multiplayer. However, that news may be overshadowed (for us, at least) by the mere mention of High Voltage's other game.

Normally, with a game as scarcely covered as Animales de la Muerte, we'd say something like "Hey, remember Animales de la Muerte?" when news about it finally pops up. But of course we all remember Animales de la Muerte. There is no way anyone could have forgotten a game about a Mexican zoo full of zombie animals. And now we have some news to report about the game that is, more than anything else, the reason we're looking forward to The Conduit (when it's out, High Voltage can put more resources into this!).

Animales isn't dead! It remains undead, of course, but High Voltage is actually planning on releasing it -- on a disc! High Voltage scrapped plans to deliver the game via WiiWare when it became apparent that it wouldn't fit in the 40mb limit set for WiiWare games, due to its "focus on comedy and its accompanying large quantity of audio".

Gallery: Animales de la Muerte

[Via WiiWare World]

Hudson confirms new Adventure Island and online FPS for WiiWare

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

This June, none other than Hudson's Master Higgins himself, Takahashi Meijin, revealed early plans to make a new Adventure Island game for the Wii. We've heard almost nothing since then, until today!

Hudson has told WiiWare World that a new Adventure Island is on the way to Europe for this April. We can assume it'll show up worldwide at some point as well, like every other Hudson WiiWare game.

In addition, the company has announced a new WiiWare FPS called Onslaught, whose defining characteristic is that it isn't Adventure Island. We're willing to look past that flaw, however, for a four-player online multiplayer WiiWare FPS (seriously) about "blasting a massive number of enemy creatures to feel the exhilaration". Onslaught is set for European release in March.

VC Tuesday: Super Pole 'n Ghosts

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

Though we aren't monitoring an actual Japanese Wii to be sure, we're quite confident that the SuperGrafx version of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, originally slated for October, will actually be available today on the Virtual Console in Japan. Hudson is totally not making much of a big deal about it, labeling it as a plain PC Engine game and selling it for 600 Points -- not the 800 that CD-ROM titles command! But we think it's really cool to see a representative from such a rare and obscure system on the Virtual Console.

It's joined by some shmups: L-Dis, a cute-em-up from Cho Aniki developer NCS, Formation Z, a Famicom shooter from the late Jaleco, and Galaxy Force II, which might as well not exist without the super-fun arcade machine.

Formation Z (Famicom, , 500 Wii Points)
Galaxy Force II (Mega Drive, 1 player , 600 Wii Points)
L-Dis (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
Dai Makaimura (SuperGrafx, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)

The one WiiWare game this week is the fantastic-looking retro-parody game from Sega, Pole's Big Adventure.

Pole's Big Adventure (1 player, 500 Wii Points)

Rating suggests that Bubble Bobble Wii will journey out of Japan

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

We knew if we believed hard enough (and probably also if we didn't), Square Enix would bring Bubble Bobble Wii to the world. Now it is the beginning of a fantastic story! The first evidence of SE's plans to release the WiiWare game outside Japan has appeared in the form of a rating on the German USK database.

The game, which we had no idea used 3D character models until just now, is listed under the new title Bubble Bobble Plus!, with that very appropriate exclamation point. Of course, this rating is no guarantee that the game will be released in Germany, nor is a German release firm confirmation of a release anywhere else, but it certainly seems likely! Besides, those "world rankings" work a lot better if the "world" isn't limited only to the area within Japan.

Gallery: Bubble Bobble Plus!

[Via Siliconera; screens via Inside-Games]

February 9th: the LIT release date at the end of the tunnel

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

WayForward Technologies has announced a North American release date and price point for their horror action puzzler LIT. One week from today (barring any interference from Nintendo, of course), on February 9th, the 3D WiiWare title will be available for just eight dollars. That's right, 800 Wii Points, the same amount you could pay for Pong Toss: Frat Party Games, for an original action game from the developers of Contra 4. We won't expect Contra 4 levels of awesomenes -- but the level designs were extremely well-thought-out in that game, which bodes well for this title's puzzle setups. And if this game turns out as hard as Contra 4, you can justify your tears by saying that you're roleplaying the emo protagonist!

According to the website, LIT features "light puzzling" as well as "5 boss battles against dark faculty members, an unlockable challenge mode, multiple endings, level select mode, and a second playable character." That sounds like an awful lot of content for a relatively cheap downloadable game.

Gallery: LIT

[Via WiiWare World]

VC Friday: A new day for Samegame

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

This week on the PAL Wii Shop, it's WiiWare's time to ... uh ... "shine", with two new family-friendly multiplayer experiences -- one of which may be fun! Arc System Works' Family Glide Hockey is pretty much a non-starter, but Hudson's Pop Them, Drop Them SameGame might be of interest, should you be able to surmount the mental hurdle of oh come on another puzzle game. The core gameplay is, shall we say, proven (read: old), and the "Fame Game", "Shame Game", and "Blame Game" multiplayer modes are certainly named cutely enough to attract our attention.

Family Glide Hockey -- WiiWare -- 500 Wii Points
Pop Them Drop Them SAMEGAME -- WiiWare -- 500 Wii Points

Glide past the post break for videos of both games.

Gallery: Pop 'Em Drop 'Em Samegame

Continue reading “VC Friday: A new day for Samegame”

Bring a friend to the latest Tetris Party tournament

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

Tetris Online is gearing up for a Tetris Party ... party. It's announced the second in its series of tournaments, this time featuring the WiiWare puzzler's co-op mode. Between February 1 and 15, registered teams of two will be able to compete to get the highest score and fastest time to 150 lines. The top 100 teams will receive 1200 Wii Points, just enough to get that copy of Tetris Party they clearly already have.

These tournaments finally justify all that time and effort most of us have put into Tetris. Extreme line-clearing skill always seemed like the kind of thing that should help people get ahead in life, but until these tournaments, it just hasn't.

Gallery: Tetris Party

Toribash taking a turn on WiiWare

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

The World of Goo Gold Rush (Goold Rush?) has enticed another indie game developer to adapt its work to WiiWare. Swedish developer Hampa has revealed an upcoming WiiWare release of his fighter Toribash, one of Wired's "Best Indie Games of 2007".

Toribash is an exceptionally bizarre game: a turn-based fighting game controlled by positioning a fighter's limbs into an attack move and then unfreezing time. The resulting melee is stilted, awkward -- and unexpectedly, graphically violent. The version shown here and in the video after the break isn't the final Wii release, but it is a promising work in progress. Oh, and we feel obligated to state this explicitly, because it's often important to a lot of Wii fans: hey, check it out, it's a violent game on Wii.

Continue reading “Toribash taking a turn on WiiWare”

VC Tuesday: Japan's Theater

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

On the Japanese Virtual Console this week: two games we'll never see outside of Japan! Aw. Neither Konami's NES side-scrolling action game Getsu Fuuma Den nor Falcom's sidescroller/action RPG Legend of Xanadu II were seen in the West, and they're a bit too low-profile to warrant a release as an import. Of course, we thought that about Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, as well, and look how that turned out (hint: it turned out with Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa on the VC in the West).

Getsu Fuuma Den (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu II (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)

WiiWare this week holds significantly more promise for those of us speculating for future US/PAL releases. The video streaming service Minna no Theater Wii is launching with an already-impressive lineup of anime (including free episodes!), live-action sentai shows, and variety shows. Fujisoft has already expressed interest in releasing this service in the US. We can safely assume Crystal Defenders R1 from Square Enix will appear worldwide (and on every platform). And we are absolutely certain that Aksys will release every single Family series game Arc System Works puts out, even if it's based on a Japanese dice game nobody's ever heard of.

The only game in the group unlikely to see the world is Popple and the Magical Crayon, a children's adventure game. Oh, well.

Okiraku Sugoroku Wii (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
Crystal Defenders R1 (1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
Popple and the Magical Crayon (1 player, 800 Wii Points)
Minna no Theater Wii (0 players, 500 Wii Points)

Source -- Virtual Console
Source -- WiiWare

Retail and download releases for the week of January 26th

by David Hinkle { 9 months ago }

This week, Wii owners get some new, quality titles to play. On the retail side, we've got three new games on offer. On the downloadable side, it's slim pickings again with only one WiiWare game and one Virtual Console game up for grabs. Plan on treating yourself this week? Let us know what interests you in the comments!

Gallery: Rygar: The Battle of Argus

Continue reading “Retail and download releases for the week of January 26th”

Two Tribes Touts Trial of Toki Tori Toys

by JC Fletcher { 9 months ago }

This probably isn't the Toki Tori-related news at which Two Tribes hinted last week, but it's totally great for people who love a) Toki Tori, b) cuuuuuuute stuff, or any combination of the two. The developers have apparently desired the ability to produce toys of their WiiWare game's title character, but have been unable to do so due to prohibitive cost.

Enter Shapeways, a company that uses a 3D printer to make figurines to order. The resulting Toki Tori model is perfect, aside from a lack of paint, of course. Now, with the experiment a success, Two Tribes' Collin van Ginkel has solicited fans' interest in owning one of these wonderful little birds. If you dream of having your very own Toki Tori, let them know! It would be, as far as we know, the first tie-in item for a WiiWare game since Mega Man 9's E-tank beverage.

Gallery: Toki Tori