Escape, uh, shoot those viruses!
Music streaming, a Nintendo classic franchise and Namco arcade fun on the Wii and a murder mystery on DSi next week.
WiiWare releases in Japan next Tuesday include something new in the form of Game Sound Station from Gust Co., Ltd. For 1000 points you get access to a number of tracks from dozens of video game soundtracks. You can then purchase tickets for listening to a larger number of tracks for fixed time periods of 1 day (300 points), 3 days (500 points) or 30 days (1000 points). You can create a playlist, choose background art and manipulate aspects of the audio like echo and reverb. It will be interesting to see if there's a market for this service. You can view the full album list and more (all in Japanese of course) at the official website
We can hear you asking "when is this coming to NA/PAL-land?" already
The other WiiWare release is a game called Escape Virus from iPhone game developer Peakvox, which is only 500 points and looks like a mix of different arcade game types built around fighting viruses. There's what looks like a snake-style game segment and a Robotron-style bit with a fixed playfield and swarming enemies. Given the low price and accessible nature of the title, there's a strong possibility we'll be seeing First Impressions of this one in this fine digital publication next week.
Virtual Console releases include the Nintendo racing game that started it all: Super Mario Kart for the Super Famicom at 800 points, and Namco's classic dual-stick arcade tank game Assault also for 800 points -- there had better be proper dual analogue control implementation for the Classic Controller for this one! We can hear you asking when this will be released elsewhere already!
Wednesday is DSiWare-day in Japan and next week will see the release of what looks to be the latest in a series of Detective Saburoo games on the DS from Arc System Works called Tsubaki no Yukue & Murder Mystery for 500 points. The game is billed as a "Mystery Adventure" and may be along the lines of Another Code R or an "interactive narrative" like Sega's 428 on the Wii.
1. A-SWE
05 Jun 2009, 16:34 BST
sigh... the memories
2. SuperSonic1990
05 Jun 2009, 16:39 BST
THOSE JAPANESE ARE TOO SPOILED,DANG!!
3. WhoKnew
05 Jun 2009, 16:48 BST
Pokemon scramble coming to Japanese wiiware.
http://www.pokemon.co.jp/special/pokemonscramble/
4. WiiGuy
05 Jun 2009, 16:54 BST
[Nintendo]...."when is this coming to NA?"
how'd you know what i was going to say...
5. longtimegamer
05 Jun 2009, 17:15 BST
@SuperSonic 1990 - They don't seem too spoild THIS time.
I could care less about the Downloadable music you can "Rent". I don't rent music. I'd rather have games anyway.
6. Rapadash6
05 Jun 2009, 17:16 BST
Meanwhile Europe seems to now get 1 game every two weeks and the same fate may soon befall North America... not fair. Maybe we'll get Mario Kart and Smash Bros. sometime before the year is up... MAYBE!
7. Swerd_Murd
05 Jun 2009, 17:24 BST
We need a translated version of Takeshi's Challenge. Nuff Said.
8. TwilightV
05 Jun 2009, 17:40 BST
Nuuu! Dammit all! DX
9. Kelvin
05 Jun 2009, 19:02 BST
Music rentals? That's... odd.
10. Bass X0
05 Jun 2009, 19:46 BST
Hopefully we'll see it next week.
11. KnucklesSonic8
05 Jun 2009, 19:51 BST
I saw Escape Virus more than a month back and it looked boring and barebones... I'm hoping I'll be proven wrong if it does come here.
Assault? Control sounds like Cyber Sled and if it's anything like CS, I want it!
And ooh a Mystery game for DSiWare. Nice.
12. Tony
05 Jun 2009, 20:43 BST
Makes you wonder when if ever that Nintendo decides to release SMK. With their painfully slow release schedule it could be 350 or 400th game released. I'm prepared for a long wait
13. Adam
05 Jun 2009, 21:23 BST
When is this coming to NA/PAL-land?
14. Cheezy
05 Jun 2009, 21:44 BST
Wow.
15. Objection_Blaster
05 Jun 2009, 22:52 BST
Pay to rent music? Not many people pay for music at all.
16. Relevant Latty
05 Jun 2009, 23:53 BST
Looks like they have Super Mario Kart now...wish we'd get it soon but by the looks of Europe getting no VC titles for two weeks this is doubtful.
Maybe there is a pattern here. America didn't get LOZ:MM for at least a month after we had it. Maybe it's your turn guys!
17. Ricardo91
05 Jun 2009, 23:59 BST
Ooooh, that Escape Virus looks fuuuun, and SMK finally released somewhere! Could this mean a US release is soon to follow?
18. Terranigma
06 Jun 2009, 00:00 BST
Music Rentals will fail badly. Seriously, it seems like a serious waste of points, even for paying for a 30 day period.
19. morphballer
06 Jun 2009, 00:08 BST
Game Sound Station?
20. Fleeman
06 Jun 2009, 01:53 BST
the idea of Game Sound Station is good but would work better as a Karaoke service, if thay sold a micphone for it then just change the songs like every few weeks i think it would do really well
21. Pikamander2
06 Jun 2009, 02:07 BST
10 dollars to listen to some music for a month? What a rip-off.
22. longtimegamer
06 Jun 2009, 04:44 BST
@Pikamander 2- Be better if you could own it. Then again you could just play the origional game to hear it and record it from that if you wanted to carrie it around.
I'm curious to see how this does. But I doupt I'd use it.
23. Crunc
06 Jun 2009, 06:58 BST
Assault??? Yes, I want that!
24. Sean Aaron
06 Jun 2009, 10:12 BST
I could see using the service if I knew there was anything I wanted on it since I do have a mic/line in on my iPod nano 3G and a 3.5mm-RCA cable attached to the record out on my receiver, but it looks like it's all soundtracks to RPGs. If Project Driller was in there they'd have a sale because 1300 points would be way cheaper than tracking down that out-of-print CD. Then my only problem would be getting the time to record it since I'd have to have the thing on the TV the whole time!
25. City Of Delusion
06 Jun 2009, 10:38 BST
Considering the existance of Spotify, immem, Last.fm et al, I doubt it'll work at a profit. Presumably a prior shot to the 360's introduction of Last.fm.
26. MickEiA
06 Jun 2009, 11:14 BST
Great to see a Mario Kart but where is N64
27. mariofan5000
06 Jun 2009, 11:14 BST
Excuse me Nintendo but when the crap is Super Mario Kart coming to America & Europe?!
28. DEADCELL
06 Jun 2009, 19:08 BST
Um.... WTF? Don't they have enough trouble getting people to pay for music that we can own? Now they want to charge people to RENT music? The prices are crazy too. Plus, you have to pay ten bucks just to be able to pay to rent stuff?!?!?!? That would be like Apple charging people to download iTunes.
29. LEGEND MARIOID
06 Jun 2009, 21:39 BST
Assault? Hoh Boy!
30. JTCPingas09
06 Jun 2009, 22:33 BST
I officially hate Japan!!!!
31. StarDust
07 Jun 2009, 00:27 BST
SMK??? This is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very good news
32. mariofan5000
08 Jun 2009, 06:04 BST
JTCPingas09:I hate Japan too!
33. XD375
08 Jun 2009, 14:44 BST
I can just put .m4a files of all of those songs plus more on an SD card for crying out loud...
34. JTCPingas09
08 Jun 2009, 17:53 BST
when is this coming to NA/PAL-land?
35. Sean Aaron
09 Jun 2009, 12:44 BST
I downloaded Escape Virus this morning: it may only be 500 points, but it's 278 blocks, so there's a lot of content in there (or some high-quality audio tracks/png files!).
Assault appears to be the first non-SNES VCA game to require use of CC or Gamecube controllers, so dual-stick interface is a given! Woooo!
36. WolfLink22
10 Jun 2009, 05:06 BST
Nintendo is starting to make a lot of people in USA feel as if they should have gotten a Japanese Wii instead.
Sure i wish i had a japanese Wii as well.But since i got Clay Fighter and then got news of 2 new big Mario Wii Games plus Spirit Tracks coming this year i have 2 Nintendo based games i want this year.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Spirit Tracks are the 2 Games i want.
As for Japan getting Super Mario Kart it's all well and good.That to me just confirms that USA and Europe will be getting it in the future.
I have Clay Fighter for now so i can wait at least another month or 2 before i want another VC Game.I can wait another 3 or 4 months at the most before i will start asking for SSB or Super Mario Kart.
37. Xkhaoz
12 Jul 2009, 18:22 BST
STUPID JAPANEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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