Kirby's Dream Land 3 - Nice graphics, but otherwise nothing special!
The Hanabi Festival ends with its last two games.
The UK's Official Nintendo Magazine has once again spilled the beans on tomorrow's update in advance, although there's really only one game we didn't know about yet. As was pretty much guaranteed to happen, tomorrow sees the release of the final two Hanabi Festival games. They're accompanied by another two WiiWare games and one DSiWare game.
Kirby's Dream Land 3 is the third game in the Kirby's Dream Land series, which is quite odd, because both previous games were on the Game Boy! Any hardcore Kirby fan will obviously probably like the game, but if you're not a big fan you might want to look at the other options first - We think it's one of the worst games in the Kirby series. That doesn't mean it's completely terrible - But many of the other games are a lot more enjoyable. And since it's an import it'll cost you 900 Wii Points!
Detana!! Twinbee is one of many games in Konami's Twinbee series which was never released outside Japan. It's yet another shooter, but before writing off you should know it's a pretty unique one - Like Star Parodier, it's a lot more light-hearted. For example, one of your weapons are a set of boxing gloves you can shoot out! The game's main gimmick comes in the form of bells, which you will occassionally run into. Differently coloured bells will give you different powerups, weapons, invincibility or even simple points. If you'd like another shooter which stands out from the crowd, this is the one! Read our review for more. Of course the game will cost you 700 Wii Points.
WiiWare gets two games which were both already previously announced. ColorZ has already been compared to the popular shooter Ikaruga - You control up to 3 differently coloured UFOs as you fly through various levels. These levels are filled with flying orbs in the same colour as your ships - As you might've guessed, you can only get past the orbs with the ship of the same colour. This leads to a lot of hectic colour-changing and even combining UFOs to make other colours. The game looks quite fun and for 700 Wii Points seems to be decently priced as well. We'll have a review up soon, in the meantime, why not read our Exkee interview?
Heracles: Chariot Racing is Neko Entertainment's third WiiWare port and the first not to be part of their Cocoto franchise. As the title gives away it's a racing game set in ancient Greece, where you naturally race with chariots instead of the usual cars. It's not exactly a Mario Kart beater, but for 800 Wii Points it's fairly priced and could do well at parties. Our review will give you the lowdown!
Today's only new DSiWare game is yet another "little bit of" a retail DS game. A Little Bit of... Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training Sudoku contains over 100 Sudoku puzzles from the first Brain Training game. It's also a little cheaper than the previous Brain Training package, because it only costs 500 DSi Points. But Nintendo's really a bit too late with this release, as Hudson recently released Sudoku 150! For Challengers, which contains 150 puzzles and costs 500 points as well - I think it's quite obvious which one would get you more value! Nevertheless, we'll have a review of the game up soon.
So, now that the Hanabi Festival is over, will we be going back to continuous 1-game VC weeks or not?
1. Bass X0
23 Jul 2009, 14:16 BST
Will be downloading Kirby sometime.
2. Rum Rapture
23 Jul 2009, 14:25 BST
ColorZ looks really interesting, I'm holding out hope for that. Don't let me down, Exkee!
3. Golgo
23 Jul 2009, 14:28 BST
Yeah, ColorZ looks excellent from the vid.
4. Toad
23 Jul 2009, 14:28 BST
Maybe we get Monkey island in next week.
5. Mama Luigi
23 Jul 2009, 14:35 BST
But no Final Fantazy...?
Well, i'll download Kirby's Dream Land 3 for sure!
6. KnucklesSonic8
23 Jul 2009, 14:39 BST
Go ColorZ! Hoping for a good review on that one.
7. Nero
23 Jul 2009, 14:49 BST
Still no Bonsai Barber, wtf..
8. redflicky
23 Jul 2009, 14:51 BST
i just don't even know why kirbys dreamland 3 never even got to europe. :/ america & japan got it like months ago! i really don't like america & japan. i just like the UK better!
well atleast europe's gonna get kirbys dreamland 3 tomorrow!
9. calculon
23 Jul 2009, 15:03 BST
God what a crappy festival. Outside of M.U.S.H.A. and Twinbee (unless you've already got Star Parodier) and maybe Bomberman '94 (unless you've got Bomberman '93) there really wasn't much worth looking at.
Colorz looks pretty good, although in all honesty I'll save that one for a rainy day when there's nothing better to buy (next week probably
)
10. Drake
23 Jul 2009, 15:18 BST
@ Nero: 7th of August.
11. Bass X0
23 Jul 2009, 15:26 BST
"america & japan got it like months ago!"
We had to wait for the Hanabi Festival since its an import to us. It originally came out in America and Japan only so they were free to release it any time in their own regions. Well its here now.
12. warioswoods
23 Jul 2009, 15:30 BST
Sucks for that 3rd party, but I'm glad that Nintendo is putting out their own Sudoku from Brain Age, as their interface (and the sideways holding style) is perfect. It doesn't matter if the 3rd party offering includes 50 or 100 more puzzles, that can never hope to compete with an interface as streamlined as the Brain Age game, if you ask me.
13. Nero
23 Jul 2009, 15:36 BST
@Drake: Ooooh, thanks for the date.
14. jhuhn
23 Jul 2009, 15:39 BST
Download headline: You'll see Twinbees, Chariots and Sudoku in this Colorful Dream Land.
15. redflicky
23 Jul 2009, 15:48 BST
@12: yeah..
16. Jazzem
23 Jul 2009, 16:07 BST
Boo at DSiWare
I've already got Sudoku 150 dammit! WiiWare might be interesting though, looking forward to a review of Colorz.
VC is pretty great for me, I got Pop 'n Twinbee on the SNES sometime earlier this year and loved it, so I'm definitely interested in Datana. and I'll check Dreamland 3 out as I personally enjoyed Kirby 64 despite the mixed reception, I think I'll enjoy this one too!
Overall, pretty good week I'd say! Though DSiWare disappoints
17. Egg miester
23 Jul 2009, 16:14 BST
a good vc week for eu
18. Sneaker13
23 Jul 2009, 16:42 BST
Still no LiT. I really want to save my points for that game, but ColorZ sounds fantastic. I will buy Kirby's Dream Land 3 someday, but I still need to buy, play and finish the other games in the serie.
19. LEGEND MARIOID
23 Jul 2009, 16:43 BST
Well, for me there are FOUR games that I'm interested in! Two of them are insta-downloads. So good for me. There should be MORE Wiiware titles though considering that we were promised many others...but I'm happy enough...
Insta-downloads = Heracles (unique control mechanism which worls well) and BT Sudoku (best presentation of sudoku on ds, though they should've released 200 puzzles NOT 100 ffs and at 200 points!!!)
Need reviews: Colorz and Kirby
I haven't downloaded any games from the Hanabi festival, but aren't most of them very good?! Therefore its been a good festival hasn't it?
20. Gavin Rozee
23 Jul 2009, 17:40 BST
Weakest HF so far IMO.
Colorz looks... colourful. I'll wait for reviews.
Oh, and DSiWare is fail.
21. GabeGreens
23 Jul 2009, 17:40 BST
Kirby review is out you know?
22. Objection_Blaster
23 Jul 2009, 17:44 BST
Lol. Sudoku 100 vs Sudoku 150. Looks like Nintendo lost that one.
23. warioswoods
23 Jul 2009, 18:08 BST
@23
I don't think so. As I noted in #13, the book-style layout and smooth handwriting interface of the Brain Age Sudoku makes it the only one I'd ever consider buying, and having the Nintendo name will likely boost sales even further. I'm betting that the 3rd party dev is the one to lose here--quality over quantity any day on this kind of thing--but we can wait for the charts to settle and see who stays on top.
24. Jockolantern
23 Jul 2009, 18:16 BST
You lucky ducks finally get Kirby's Dream Land 3. One of my very favorite titles in the whole Kirby catalog. Simple and artistic platforming at some of its most enjoyable. Love the boss rush once you beat the game and the many Nintendo cameos throughout are a treat.
25. SonicMaster
23 Jul 2009, 18:43 BST
KDL3 can't be that bad. I know for a fact K64 isn't.
26. Jolted85
23 Jul 2009, 19:02 BST
the US got these games awhile back, Kirby is pretty good, I never downloaded Twinbee so I can't say if it's good or not.
27. NeoRausch
23 Jul 2009, 19:16 BST
ah! where is my CORE?!?!?! i start shaking....sob
28. Ratengo
23 Jul 2009, 19:25 BST
It should be noted that ColorZ isn't coming to Australia. The game's official page doesn't mention about release 'down under' and there isn't any OFLC rating either.
29. Amorous Badger
23 Jul 2009, 19:26 BST
Is Hannabi Japanese for 'overpriced overrated old toot bought by guillable Westermers'?
30. Tony
23 Jul 2009, 20:02 BST
It's all about colorful games for Europe this week.
31. LEGEND MARIOID
23 Jul 2009, 20:25 BST
Oh yes, I've read the Kirby DL3 revw. I'm still probably going to download it.
32. Prochnow
23 Jul 2009, 21:50 BST
@warioswoods The Sudoku games from Hudson are very good. Hudson produced Nintendo's Sudoku DS (Japan) & Sudoku Gridmaster (Europe), which are both quite good (although the european version doesn't support left-hand mode). I'm just saying that Hudson is not simply a "3rd party dev" like Gameloft, for example.
Kawashima & Hudson are two different modes of playing Sudoku at your DS, but a true Sudoku fan will gett both, I hope - so will I at least...
33. KoKoO_Psy
23 Jul 2009, 22:35 BST
Any of this downgrading to 50hrz bull? Otherwise count me out.
34. Twilight Crow
23 Jul 2009, 23:30 BST
Nice update EU! I hope we also get ColorZ soon.
35. JTCPingas09
23 Jul 2009, 23:52 BST
I think Kirby's Dream Land 3 is awesome.
36. touffeboy
24 Jul 2009, 02:59 BST
We already have this game, but NOA have to waited 1 - 2 more Months to get the bests nintendo game
_37. Kobayashi
24 Jul 2009, 03:31 BST
Detana Twin Bee is a very good shump. Now, I´ll be waiting the NES version of the first game.
38. Sean Aaron
24 Jul 2009, 07:50 BST
I'll be doing the Colorz review and I bought and played a bit last night.
It's brutal with a single player; that's all I'll say for now. I need more time with it to fully develop an opinion, but trying to control multiple ships at the same time is rather challenging since they're all mapped to different controls. The visuals are excellent, the sound is good and the mechanic is sound. If you're only going to play by yourself though, well, I find Bit.Trip BEAT an easier game to play!
39. mrPlow
24 Jul 2009, 08:25 BST
Arrr!!! no Monkey Island
, maybe next week.
Sean Aaron wrote:
Say no more, if it's brutal I'll get it
. Seriously going to wait for your review before buying the Colorz.
40. Bass X0
24 Jul 2009, 09:01 BST
Can't australians just switch their region to Europe and keep it that way? It sucks for them not getting every game we're getting.
41. legochesser
24 Jul 2009, 09:32 BST
Nintendo is 1 week too late with releasing their Sudoku, if I knew this, I didn't download A little bit of...Puzzle League. Now all my points are gone so I can't download it!
42. Rum Rapture
24 Jul 2009, 11:47 BST
@Sean Aaron: It's harder than Bit.Trip Beat? Then it would undoubtedly break my brain!!
43. Pj
24 Jul 2009, 14:49 BST
When do we get Super Mario Kart?
44. LEGEND MARIOID
24 Jul 2009, 21:36 BST
Colorz sounds brutal! Aaarrrggghhh!!
45. Alexei123
26 Jul 2009, 01:38 BST
Yay! EU have been getting great games lately! I want at least 1 from all the releases: Bomberman 94, FFCC:MLAADL, Kirby! Yay! Keep it up Nintendo!
46. winter123
27 Jul 2009, 03:19 BST
probably not the first to say... F*** the little bit of.... type games!
Leave A Comment
Please login to post a comment.