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WiiWare First Look: Art Style series Light Trax, Rotozoa

Nintendo's house brand of "minimalistic mechanics" downloadables, the Art Style series, is growing its ranks with two new titles: Art Style: light trax and Art Style: Rotozoa, both for WiiWare. The games were present (and looking close to finished) at the Big N's media gathering in San Francisco, and I took both for a spin -- quite literally in one case. Catch my thoughts after the break.
WiiWare screens and trailers from Nintendo Media Summit
Nintendo had a few awesome new WiiWare announcements at its Nintendo Media Summit, most notably, Cave Story! Most notably in the field of games we didn't know about, new Art Style games! The series hasn't been on Wii since the DSi came out, but now we've got Light Trax (a Wii version of the original bit Generations game Dotstream) and Rotozoa (a game about multi-tentacled organisms absorbing creatures of the same color) to look forward to this spring.
Check out the trailer for Light Trax above, and see a trailer for Rotozoa, as well as screens of Max and the Magic Marker, WiiWare's WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase, Rage of the Gladiator, And Yet It Moves, Super Meat Boy, and Cave Story after the break. Oh, man, Cave Story!
Roundup: Wii and DS game release dates for 2010
Today's Nintendo Media Summit played host to a whirlwind dating game with quite a few players. If all the excitement got your heart thumping but left your head spinning, then you'll be relieved to find our list of matches -- each game paired with its release date (or release window ... or release season) -- posted just after the break. You're welcome!
NintendoWare Weekly: WiiWare demos, Pokemon Rumble, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures
NintendoWare Weekly: Overturn, Sexy Poker, Tecmo Bowl
This week is a special one for Nintendo fans. Not only do we finally see an end to the Virtual Console drought, but we also get fighting robots and a new Art Style game. Oh, and then there's Sexy Poker, Gameloft's odd strip poker game for WiiWare. We guess the company never heard of Google image search?
Gallery: Overturn
NintendoWare Weekly: NEVES Plus brings Art Style to SimEarth
This week's star of the show is undoubtedly WiiWare, which receives the very rare "three-title-update." Playing second and third fiddle are DSiWare and the Virtual Console, which both get the usual one new title. So, without further ado, let's check out what's available to download this week across Nintendo platforms in the latest NintendoWare Weekly.
Gallery: NEVES Plus
VC Friday: A 'sleeper' Art Style game
This week, another new DSiWare Art Style game appears on the PAL DSi Shop -- one that was overlooked upon its Japanese release, due mostly to the fact that it was released at the same time as the much more eye-catching PiCOPiCT. Somnium has been renamed NEMREM for Europe -- still sleep-themed, but ... weirder.On the Wii side, the arcade version of Space Harrier is now available on Virtual Console and the "arcade" fishing game Fish 'em All has been added to WiiWare.
Virtual Console:
- Space Harrier (Arcade, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
- Fish 'em All (1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
- Art Style: NEMREM (1 player, 500 DSi Points)
NintendoWare Weekly: Majora's Mask (and stuff that isn't Majora's Mask)
This week, NintendoWare Weekly brings us the second-most requested title for the Virtual Console: Majora's Mask. With its arrival today, that can only mean one thing: Earthbound is next! When is "next?" Well, yeah, that might be a problem ...
Gallery: Majora's Mask
VC/WiiWare Tuesday: Contra and more

Well, we're kind of assuming that Contra Rebirth is quality. Even if it's terrible, we know we're in for a $10 download of an original Contra game when it shows up here. We know that the WiiWare Art Style games are fantastic, because we've been playing them since last year.
On Virtual Console, the PC Engine CD-ROM version of SimEarth and the arcade release of the brutal Tower of Druaga pale before Downtown Special, a Japan-only sequel to River City Ransom starring Kunio and friends as samurai.
Virtual Console:
- Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zenin Shuugo (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
- SimEarth (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
- The Tower of Druaga (Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
- Art Style: CUBELEO (1 player, 600 Wii Points)
- Art Style: DIALHEX (1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
- Art Style: ORBITAL (1 player, 600 Wii Points)
- Contra Rebirth (1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
VC Friday: Majora's Mask, DSiWare available in Europe right now

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has arrived! And we don't even have to make any disclaimers about making sure you have space to download it.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask -- N64-- 1,000 Points
Art Style: AQUITE -- DSiWare -- 500 Points
Art Style: CODE -- DSiWare -- 500 Points
Birds & Beans -- DSiWare -- 200 Points
DSi Browser -- DSiWare -- free!
Paper Plane -- DSiWare -- 200 Points
WarioWare Snapped! -- DSiWare -- 500 Points
Nintendo reveals early DSi Shop titles
With the release of the Nintendo DSi mere days away, we imagine many folks have chewed their fingernails right to the bone. Here at the office, we're mostly concerned with the DSi Shop and how we're going to spend those free 1,000 Points. Thanks to Eurogamer, we know of at least three new games that will be available in Europe and (hopefully) North America, adding to the games we already know about.
The first title is from the Art Style series of games, called Art Style: Code. The game released in Japan under Art Style: DECODE and is a puzzle game that tasks players with correctly organizing a series of numbers. Next is Pyoro (Bird and Bean), a game where you catch fruit falling from a tree with Pyoro's long tongue. The other new game is Paper Plane, where players must successfully guide a paper airplane through a series of mazes.
Sadly, a price or US release date has not been mentioned for any of these titles, but the fact that they're leaving Japan is a very good sign for the future of DSiWare in the US.
The first title is from the Art Style series of games, called Art Style: Code. The game released in Japan under Art Style: DECODE and is a puzzle game that tasks players with correctly organizing a series of numbers. Next is Pyoro (Bird and Bean), a game where you catch fruit falling from a tree with Pyoro's long tongue. The other new game is Paper Plane, where players must successfully guide a paper airplane through a series of mazes.
Sadly, a price or US release date has not been mentioned for any of these titles, but the fact that they're leaving Japan is a very good sign for the future of DSiWare in the US.
Gallery: Art Style Decode
Australia's DSiWare launch lineup
The Nintendo DSi has officially launched in Australia, and with it, the DSiWare service! Six downloads are already available, including, of course, the free web browser. This may be a hint as to upcoming content in other regions' DSi Shops, but it's definitely a hint that awesome times have started for Australian DSi owners. We wish we could be playing WarioWare:Snapped! right now! We've linked to Nintendo of Japan's site for each game so you can see screens and video.- DSi Browser (free)
- Pyoro (200 Nintendo Points)
- Paper Plane (200 Nintendo Points)
- WarioWare: Snapped! (500 Nintendo Points)
- Art Style: Aquite (500 Nintendo Points)
- Art Style: D-Code (500 Nintendo Points)
Not invited to GDC 2009? Don't worry -- we've got you covered on your DSi needs. Check out our unboxing of a Japanese system for a hands-on rundown of features, and have a look at the awesome DSiWare downloads that have come to Japan. Then torture yourself with the limited-edition FFCC: Echoes of Time DSi that probably won't make it here!GDC09: Nintendo confirms DSiWare titles for US

Art Style: Aquia and WarioWare: Snapped! are among the first titles mentioned for the US DSi Shop, along with Moving Memo (tentative titlel). A date for these titles has not been set, but we're hoping they'll be available around the launch of the DSi in North America on April 5.
Gallery: GDC09: DSi Screens
Not invited to GDC 2009? Don't worry -- we've got you covered on your DSi needs. Check out our unboxing of a Japanese system for a hands-on rundown of features, and have a look at the awesome DSiWare downloads that have come to Japan. Then torture yourself with the limited-edition FFCC: Echoes of Time DSi that probably won't make it here!DSiWare Master of Illusion, Brain Age, Art Style rated by OFLC
While we can't be sure what the launch lineup for the DSiWare shop outside of Japan will look like, we can guess that the Australian shop will feature at least one of these games, thanks to OFLC ratings:- Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games
- Master of Illusion Express: Funny Face
- Master of Illusion Express: Deep Psyche
- A Little Bit Of ... Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: Maths Edition
- D-Code (probably Art Style: Decode)
Also found on the OFLC: The WiiWare version of Rainbow Islands (yay!) and Adventure Island: The Beginning. Also, Karate Phants.
Gallery: Art Style Decode
Two new Art Style games lead Japan's February DSiWare lineup

Here's the rundown on each title:
- Nintendo DSi Calculator (200 Points) A simple calculator app, which is sold separately in Famicom Mario style and Animal Crossing style.
- Nagameru Dake de Kashikoku Nareru! Mojipittan Shiritori Tokei (200 Points): The title translates to "You can become wiser just by looking! Shiritori Clock." Shiritori is a Japanese game about spelling a new word from the final character of a previous word. This clock app puts a constant scrolling display of words and their definitions on the top screen, along with adorable Mojipittan characters.
- Art Style: Nalaku (500 Points) A puzzle game about guiding a little character around structures made of cubes, and painting the surfaces by contacting them. Sort of like Q-Bert, but with moving stages in which blocks fall out of and drop into the stage.
- Art Style: Hacolife (500 Points) Literally "Box Life," this game involves taking groups of six contiguous squares from flat levels and folding them into cubes. It also manages to be super cute.
- Chotto Asobi Taizen: Onajimi Table (500 Points): A selection of games from Clubhouse Games including reversi, hasami shogi, go, shogi, and hanafuda.
- Chotto Bungaku Zenshu: Sekai no Bungaku 20 (500 Points): A selection of 25 books in the style of the Japanese version of the 100 Classic Book Collection. This pack includes 20 translated versions of foreign works, and five Japanese books. Reading is fundamental!
- Ide Yousuke's Kenkou Mahjong (800 Points): What is in one way one of the most boring releases this month (it's a mahjong game!) is also one of the most exciting: this mahjong game features cross-platform online play with the WiiWare version of the same game.
- Sakutto Hamareru Horihori Action Mr. Driller (800 Points): This downloadable version of Namco's puzzle franchise features the Mission Mode, Time Attack Mode, and Dristone mode from the DS launch title Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits.


















