News Article

Nintendo Download: 5th February 2010 (Europe)

Posted by Marcel van Duyn

Two anticipated titles finally arrive.

The Virtual Console seems to be in full swing in Europe again, after a rather lackluster period - We got Street Fighter Alpha 2 last week, and we're getting Sonic & Knuckles the next. The space inbetween isn't empty either, because Capcom has chosen to release two games in a row. Meanwhile, on WiiWare, we've finally gotten a certain racing game from Nintendo.

Final Fight 3 for the SNES is without a doubt the best game in the Final Fight series. With four characters to pick from this time, a ton of stages to go through, branching paths, and great visuals and sound, it's actually good enough to rival the sublime Streets of Rage 2. It's also one of the rarest SNES games, because it was released incredibly late and in fairly limited quantities - So being able to get it on the Virtual Console for a mere 800 Wii Points makes it an absolute steal. You can read our thoughts here.

Without a doubt the more interesting WiiWare release this week is Excitebike: World Challenge, the latest in the Excite series. In a return to the basics, it's pretty much a remake of the original game, including the track editor, although it does incorporate some small elements from later games in the series. Of course, the biggest addition is the ability to play online against others - And it's just as fun as you'd imagine. At 1000 Wii Points, it's double the price of the original, but trust us, it's worth it!

"Aha! I Got It!" Hidden Object Game is the second game from Ateam, who previously brought us the moderately fun "Aha! I Got It!" Escape Game. This time, you're not trying to escape from rooms by solving puzzles, but trying to find certain objects in large pictures. With a list of items to find on hand, you must scour every little detail of each picture, trying to find everything you need. Good luck doing that though, because the game is a bit sloppily made - It can be very hard to make out certain objects, and certain items you need to find have very specific names which you might not be familiar with (Just tell us what a kakekiju is without looking it up!). All in all, we don't think it's worth your time and money, even with its low 500 Wii Point price.

Apparently Nintendo's taking a little break from rereleasing segments of Electroplankton on DSiWare, because there's no new ones this week. The only new DSiWare title is Snakenoid. Shamelessly taking its name from a combination of the games Snake and Arkanoid, it's an arcadey game in which you control a snake on the bottom screen, who must bounce balls upwards in order to take out everything on the top screen. We weren't very happy with the developer's last DSiWare release, so hopefully this one will be a bit better. It costs 500 DSi Points.

Just four games this week, but at least two of them are great. Will you be getting anything?

More Stories

Related Games

"Aha! I Found It!" Hidden Object Game
"Aha! I Found It!" Hidden Object Game (WiiWare)		 Excitebike: World Rally
Excitebike: World Rally (WiiWare)		 Final Fight 3
Final Fight 3 (SNES)		 Snakenoid
Snakenoid (DSiWare)

User Comments (50)

nintendogamerftw

#2

nintendogamerftw said:

Nice week you got here Europe. Why can't NoA be just as good? sigh

BTW: This is my first post with my new avatar. What do you think?
DISCLAIMER: My avatar is not a rip-off of anyone elses.

KeeperBvK

#8

KeeperBvK said:

Where's that Drill Sergeant thingy? Wasn't it supposed to be released today, as well? Not that I miss it, but it would be nice to have it out of the way...

Jeroen1

#11

Jeroen1 said:

Surely I can't be the only one who keeps thinking "where the hell is Castlevania Rebirth"? It's been 6 weeks now since it was released in the US. We're not talking about an obscure DSi Ware game that hasn't yet been released elsewhere.

gabikun

#12

gabikun said:

We Spanish people also got "english training" in DSi ware this week. Maybe because we are bad at english??? (of course, in the UK is pointless to have that app)

Sneaker13

#17

Sneaker13 said:

Yes, Excitebike: World Challenge. I've been waiting for this. I hope this game will sell fantastic. Maybe that will convince NoE to release ExciteBots in Europe.

KeeperBvK

#20

KeeperBvK said:

Why should that influence Nintendo's decision the slightest? Besides part of the name and the vague direction of the genre, the two games have nothing in common.

Luigi-La-Bouncy

#21

Luigi-La-Bouncy said:

This is crazy. I've been waiting ages for a decent update for the Wii Shop or PSN and it's like they all come at once. Should I get Excitebike, Final Fight 3 or Final Fantasy 8. I want them all but what to get first? I don't know.

Objection

#23

Objection said:

@Luigi-FF8 is on PSN? I gotta remember that for when I get a PS3 this summer. VII and VIII will be among the first things I download, along with MvC2.

As for the week, its a catch-up week mostly, but still a pretty decent one, as well as VC.

Big_A2

#25

Big_A2 said:

When it said "Two anticipated titles finally arrive" I imediatly though Super Mario Kart. :(

fatlittlenick

#26

fatlittlenick said:

Just bought ExiteBike, only played 10 mins of it and got my ass kicked by two japanese people online but its been fun so far!

Ezekiel

#27

Ezekiel said:

Some noobies starting to play ExciteBike huh? May as well start pwning them!

Roopa132

#28

Roopa132 said:

Nothing for me, like most friday updates...

Oh, and in the "Aha! I Got It!" Hidden Object Game section:
It says "kakekiju" but it should be "kakejiku" ;)
And yes, I looked it up :P

Kelvin

#31

Kelvin said:

of course, in the UK is pointless to have that app

Oh I don't know. Judging from what I see in the street some days, some of us have a shaky grasp of the mother tongue, and could probably do with the help! ;)

KDR_11k

#32

KDR_11k said:

Nice week you got here Europe. Why can't NoA be just as good? sigh

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, let's trade. Look up the last few NoE weeks and weep.

Surely I can't be the only one who keeps thinking "where the hell is Castlevania Rebirth"? It's been 6 weeks now since it was released in the US. We're not talking about an obscure DSi Ware game that hasn't yet been released elsewhere.

True but how long did Gradius Rebirth take to arrive?

3230ru

#34

3230ru said:

looks like NOE ran out of Electroplankton. so today only one cheap looking sellphone style game, kids. maybe next week they will find another retail release to rip it into peaces and sell to us... it looks like its time to delete my dsiware account because its useless.
@dom77 I wonder where this screenshot in your avatar is from?

Sean_Aaron

#36

Sean_Aaron said:

@KDR_11K: You're not kidding, I was going to hold off on buying the Japanese version (of course the site admins at the time were keen to get a preview of it online which nixed that), but it took what, a whole year practically before it came to Europe? Contra ReBirth was speedy by comparison!

@dom77: No?

Cipher

#39

Cipher said:

Europe also gets a game only available in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Luxembourg:

"New English Training: Learn with Tempo - Starter Edition"
Genre: English course
Publisher: Nintendo
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points

Plenty of fun exercises help you pick up enough English to communicate in everyday situations. Speak out loud and master the basics in this edition for beginners!

Sounds like a cut-down version of the English Training game released a few years ago to me.

VilicoBRA

#40

VilicoBRA said:

Yes! More noobies for Excitebike. Now I'll get mine! I'll not feel so alone... :p

Dude, Excitebots is so good! Why NoE does this to you? Are you not behaving well or something?

KeeperBvK

#42

KeeperBvK said:

@ 39: I know. So what? Mario Galaxy garnering success doesn't have any influence on a potential Mario Pinball sequel...Excitebike and Excitebots have next to nothing in common, as I said.

nasachi

#43

nasachi said:

i donwloaded Excite Bike, great game :)

Nintendo -> quality >>> quantity (opposite of Sony ^^)

Sneaker13

#45

Sneaker13 said:

@43. If Mario Pinball was just a Pinball game without Mario, it would probably go unnoticed. And Excitebike, Excitetruck and Exitebots are all fast paced racing games and all games lends certain aspects from one another. So I really hope that we will get Excitebots if this WiiWare title sells well enough.

Guybrush_Threepwood

#46

Guybrush_Threepwood said:

Nothing for me again since I'm not interested in Final Fight 3 (fighting games are not one of my preferred genres). I'm happy that Virtual Console is finally back in Europe. But a year ago I would have been outraged about one game weeks. Nintendo really knows how to lower my expectations (especially in the last year). :D

I pass on the Excitebike remake since I already own the NES original. And I'm still playing Trials HD on XBLA constantly (which is pure genius in my opinion). But I would be excited seeing Excitebike 64 on Virtual Console. I can't even remember when the last Nintendo64 game was released on Virtual Console. :(

Guybrush_Threepwood

#49

Guybrush_Threepwood said:

@Ezekiel: Yes, I don't because the last Nintendo64 game was released in Europe over half a year ago. The release date of Super Smash Brothers 64 was for PAL regions on 2009-06-12.

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