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Contra Rebirth also headed to Europe

by JC Fletcher { Jul 3rd 2009 at 11:15AM }

We just told you that Konami's faux-retro Gradius Rebirth was added to the PAL WiiWare shop. If you've been playing for the past hour or so and have already moved on to dreaming about Konami's other WiiWare retro reinterpretation, you'll be happy to hear that Konami has announced a European release for Contra Rebirth as well, to be expected this August. This also gives North American readers cause for some measure of optimism.

In addition, Konami will release its top-down racer, Driift, later this month as DRiiFT MANIA. "DRiiFT MANIA" is also a condition in which someone is compelled to spell things with two lower-case i's.

VC/WiiWare Friday: Happy Hanabi Festival

by JC Fletcher { Jul 3rd 2009 at 10:15AM }

Nintendo of Europe's Hanabi Festival returns, bringing with it, of course, import games! Fantastic stuff is available this week on Virtual Console: Pulseman, a Mega Man-style platformer from a pre-Pokemon Game Freak, and Ogre Battle, the legendary strategy title from Yasumi Matsuno's Quest.

This week's awesomeness extends to WiiWare, with both Bplus's Bit Boy!!, the maze action game that shuffles between various levels of retro, and Gradius Rebirth, which settles at the 16-bit era. And on DSiWare, the Mario calculator and clock apps arrive. Roll your eyes all you want, but they're surprisingly delightful. Details after the break.

Nintendo also announced Hanabi Festival titles you can expect in following weeks: Bomberman '94, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, MUSHA, Detana!! Twinbee, and the NES Smash Table Tennis!

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Contra ReBirth footage surfaces, US release still up in the air

by Ben Gilbert { May 13th 2009 at 1:40PM }

Earlier this week, Contra ReBirth arrived on the Japanese WiiWare channel, and wouldn't you know it, tons of footage has been loosed into the wild (opening intro/first level after the break). While we'd love to get our hands on the title, we're not quite sure when it's landing on US shores. Last year, however, Konami set a precedent with Gradius ReBirth (released this year in the US) that we're likely to see repeated with Contra.

So we asked Nintendo of America what it had to say about the title and a representative told us, "A US release date has not been confirmed." He did, however, remind us that "A US release hasn't been confirmed either." While we'd be shocked if it never showed up over here, if anything, it's going to take quite a while. After all, it took nearly six months for Gradius ReBirth to hit the US WiiWare channel. Unfortunately, as of publishing, a Konami rep has yet to return our call.

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Wiikly Wares: Gradius Rebirth, Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Mar 9th 2009 at 10:15AM }

With the release of a glorious, space-faring shooter this week, we're subtly reminded just how much the Wiiware service has in common with the limitless and largely unexplored realm of outer space. Though there are several bright spots, most of it's just a cold, empty void. And you shoot everything in it.

Wiiware
Gradius ReBirth (Konami, 1 player, 1000 Wii Points): A retro and peculiarly capitalized side-scrolling shooter, Gradius ReBirth tasks you with dodging death and blasting all manner of deformed space monstrosities. Reminder: Bullets are bad for you!

Virtual Console
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (Sega Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): This is the one where Alex Kidd is searching for the twelve zodiac signs. It's easily confused with the one where he's searching for Matthew Fox and Terry O'Quinn.

Gradius ReBirth: U.S. to destroy the core soon

by Chris Greenhough { Oct 31st 2008 at 8:15PM }

Click to enter gallery.

Keen ESRB-spotter Spencer at Siliconera has located a welcome addition to the ESRB's database: Gradius ReBirth. While Japan has been pew pewing itself silly since early September, this is the first solid sign that the 1000 Point WiiWare game will be leaving its native country.

Input the code and shoot the core down the break for footage of the first two stages.

Gallery: Gradius ReBirth

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VC Tuesday: WiiWare dominates retro gaming

by JC Fletcher { Sep 2nd 2008 at 9:55AM }

This week on Japan's Virtual Console: Workjam's Tantei Jinguuji Saburo: Yokohama Minato Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Detective Saburo Jinguuji: The Case of the Yokohama Harbor Serial Murder), the second game in what we now call the Jake Hunter series. And nothing else. Even the US got two Virtual Console games this week -- two first-party Virtual Console games, at that.

Tantei Jinguuji Saburo: Yokohama Minato Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)

Luckily, WiiWare stepped in to make sure we don't get all smug about our downloadable games. Along with, well, Midnight Bowling and Saikyo Ginsei Reversi, Konami's Gradius Rebirth, which is either a remake of Gradius or a new game, is out. Either way, right now cores are being shot, and not by us. This is terrible.

Saikyo Ginsei Reversi (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
Hamaru Bowling (1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
Gradius Rebirth (1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)

Gradius Rebirth announced for WiiWare

by Andrew Yoon { Jul 17th 2008 at 11:00AM }

It looks like Mega Man 9 started something. A new retro-flavored Gradius title has been announced for WiiWare. Gradius Rebirth will strike Japanese Wii systems this Summer. That's pretty much all we know for now -- details about the game's content, like whether or not it's a remake of a previous Gradius game is still unknown. Considering Gradius (NES) lives on the Virtual Console, we'd be surprised if this wasn't a completely brand-new game.

[Thanks, Rlan!]

Gradius is reborn on WiiWare

by Candace Savino { Jul 17th 2008 at 10:15AM }

You can certainly make an argument that the Wii doesn't need any more digital side-scrolling shooters, since a plethora of options are offered on the Virtual Console. Yet, we think when it comes to the Gradius series, you might be willing to make an exception.

Konami announced that Gradius ReBirth will hit the Japanese WiiWare service this summer. We really don't know much about the game, but the lone screenshot (above) shows that the classic sprites will be returning. What else do you need to know, though, other than that it's Gradius? As long as the price is right, this is likely a "must buy" for shoot 'em up fans.

[Via Arcade Renaissance]