Wii U eShop Game Reviews
Review Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Wii U eShop / NES)
Blood relative
After the success of the original Castlevania title on the NES system, Konami decided to change things up quite a bit for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Gone was the straight-ahead platforming action of the original, replaced with a much more rpg-flavored approach that placed more emphasis on item collection and exploration. While...
Review GAIABREAKER (Wii U eShop)
Shoot meh up
Although there are plenty of shoot 'em ups to pick from on the Wii Virtual Console, new games in the genre tend to be quite rare; as a result it's always exciting to see a new addition to a challenging field. Developed by a relatively unknown developer that's only dabbled in mobile phone games before, this particular shoot 'em up is of...
Review Pop'n TwinBee (Wii U eShop / SNES)
WinBee
It's not particularly well known outside Japan, but for a while TwinBee was one of Konami's main shoot 'em up series. A lot more cutesy than Gradius and the like, its colourful graphics and characters were its biggest appeal. A while back the original TwinBee was remade as a 3D Classic, but now here we have Pop'n Twinbee, one of the few...
Review My Arctic Farm (Wii U eShop)
Feeling frigid
If you read our recent review of BiP Media's pet management sim My Jurassic Farm, you'll know what to expect with its sister release, My Arctic Farm: the exact same experience, but instead of T-rexes and triceratops (triceratopses?) you'll be raising penguins and polar bears. The long-running "My ____ Farm" series began humbly enough...
Review The Letter (Wii U eShop)
Return to sender
In The Letter, players take on the role of Michael Kennedy as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of his father. Through a series of hidden letters left by his dad – these are actually labelled “Hidden Letter” despite their pronounced placements in the landscape – Michael receives clues which he follows in his...
Review Mario Power Tennis (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Raising a racquet
Originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2005, Mario Power Tennis is unusual in that it takes the tennis simulation genre and embeds it into a role-playing game experience. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well, with the biggest success being a player progression system which allows you to level up your character and...
Review My Jurassic Farm (Wii U eShop)
Different skin, exact same game
My Jurassic Farm is an exciting concept. Everyone loved Jurassic Park back in the day, right?! It would make a great video game! Sadly, the dino-management genre has been left relatively barren since the wondrous days of DinoPark Tycoon back in 1993. Is BiP Media's My Jurassic Farm the answer? No. No it's not. My...
Review Internal Invasion (Wii U eShop)
Terminal
Imagine a future in which all disease is cured through the aid of tiny nano-bots flowing through your bloodstream. There would be no need for medicine or doctor visits, as all illness would be taken care of internally. It's an incredible proposition that makes for an interesting sci-fi storyline that can be taken in so many directions,...
Review Adventure Island (Wii U eShop / NES)
Skate and die
Adventure Island started life as the SEGA-produced arcade title Wonder Boy, which itself was ported to several different home consoles and spawned a popular series of sequels with show-stealing box art. NES-owners missed out on the title, and would have to wait until Hudson Soft teamed up with original developer Escape to release a...
Review Bombing Bastards (Wii U eShop)
Da bomb or just a bomb?
Sanuk Games' Bombing Bastards isn't so much a Bomberman clone as it is an evil twin; it's an evil twin that is fun to be around and easy on the eyes, but it's evil nonetheless. Everything from its subversive premise to its ironically cheery visuals add to Bombing Bastards' slightly off-kilter feel, but it's the gameplay that...
Review Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (Wii U eShop)
A luchador's life
There have been a few examples, so far, of titles making their way to the Wii U as a 'definitive' version. Few have done so with a name quite as tongue-on-cheek as Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition, with the game quite literally yelling the extravagant name at you when loading it up. This version — also on PS4 and Xbox...
Super Sonic Puzzle Galaxy
There's been a lot of great eShop content as of late, but not many examples have been in the works for as long as Armillo, which was first announced way back in 2011. Now that it's finally here, were those years in development well spent? In Armillo, you take the role of the titular character, a space armadillo, who is...
Review BrickBlast U! (Wii U eShop)
Bricked
The Wii U's compatibility with tool-sets such as Unity and the Nintendo Web Framework has made the platform accessible to small, independent developers whose games would otherwise not be available on consoles due to high costs and other barriers. While this has made for some wonderful eShop experiences — Ittle Dew and Stick it to the Man...
Review Wii Sports Club: Baseball + Boxing (Wii U eShop)
Swing and a miss
Wii Sports Club has had a rather odd history to date. Released in increments that have been surprisingly spread out, it's attempted to recapture the magic of the Wii bundle title while throwing in Miiverse, MotionPlus controls and GamePad features. Online play has also been a vital inclusion, yet the piecemeal distribution and...
Review POKER DICE SOLITAIRE FUTURE (Wii U eShop)
No poker face required
POKER DICE SOLITAIRE FUTURE (or PDSF for the remainder of this review) is essentially the digital equivalent to one of those electronic pocket poker games that your parents or grandparents were hooked on during the ‘90s. Designed to be played on the Wii U GamePad, this budget download offers a solitary take on poker to...
Review ZaciSa's Last Stand (Wii U eShop)
Can hardly stand it
Last year's reveal of the Nintendo Web Framework was a welcome announcement to independent game developers interested in releasing their work on Wii U. The new platform was quiet at first, but in recent months we've seen an increasing number of games releasing on the eShop that were born of this development environment. Opening a...
Review Monkey Pirates (Wii U eShop)
Banana boat
Despite all the doom and gloom that currently — and unfairly — surrounds the Wii U at the moment, it hasn't stopped indie developers from flocking to the system to release their games. Moreover, a good proportion of developers have even designed their games to specifically take advantage of the system; one only has to look at...
Review Shovel Knight (Wii U eShop)
Digging for gold
Yacht Club Games' faux-retro platformer Shovel Knight has become one of the most anticipated titles to come out of the crowdfunding craze. It's frightening to think that Shovel Knight might not have come to fruition without Yacht Club Games' highly successful Kickstarter campaign — games like this don't come around often. Yacht...
Review Color Zen Kids (Wii U eShop)
Hopping into the kiddie pool
If you read our review of Color Zen last month, you'll know exactly what to expect from Color Zen Kids. The soothing, touch-based colour matching puzzler has gained a more kid-friendly coat of paint – the colours are all slightly brighter, the puzzles are a bit easier and shaped like cute animals, and the memorable...
GEOMdude used Rock Throw!
GEOM is another low-budget title on the Wii U eShop from a fresh studio — Andraconus — and brings to mind another relatively recent offering: RCMADIAX's Blok Drop U from earlier this year. Both are simple puzzle titles that don't really live up to expectations, but their price point being lower than the cost of a cup of...
Review How to Survive (Wii U eShop)
Island-hopping and head-popping
Zombies used to be so underground, man. Years ago the very mention of these rotted ghouls would have people scratching their heads in blissful ignorance, but now they’re shuffling, walking and running around like they own the place. The genre has been utterly exhausted to the point where now their inclusion in media...
Review Pac-Land (Wii U eShop / NES)
Pac your bags, man
Never before released for the NES in the west, Namco has dropped its Pac-Man platformer Pac-Land onto the eShop to celebrate the announcement of Pac-Man in the new Super Smash Bros. games. A departure from the simple, addictive gameplay the Pac-Man series is known for, Pac-Land attempts to expand the scope and appeal of its iconic...
Review Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition (Wii U eShop)
An indie trailblazer
If you want a cinematic, oblique, thought-provoking and relatively short-lived experience in the modern gaming age, digital stores such as the eShop and more notably Steam have plenty of content on offer. Independent developers — and bigger publishers that release smaller projects as downloads — now find it easier than ever...
Review Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain? (Wii U eShop / DS)
Brain food
It seems like only yesterday that we got Game Boy Advance games on the Wii U Virtual Console, but now DS games have also joined the party. Curiously enough, Nintendo has chosen not to start off with one of their classic franchises, like Mario or Zelda, but has instead opted to go with one of their best-selling titles, the original Brain...
Review Pac-Man Collection (Wii U eShop / GBA)
A Pac-aged deal
Pac-Man is a creature of classic longevity. We kindly submit as evidence to this claim the fact we’re reviewing a 13-year-old game compilation for a character who was a spry 21 at the time. The question now is how well the four games of Pac-Man Collection have held up since its 2001 GBA release. Do Pac-dots even have expiration...
Review Soccer (Wii U eShop / NES)
A well timed blast from the past
Just in time for the World Cup this week, Intelligent Systems' Soccer arrives on Wii U Virtual Console – but all is not well. One of the early titles in Nintendo's "Sports Series" on NES, Soccer seems to garner boatloads of hate from players compared to companions like Golf and Ice Hockey. These detractors are not...
Review 1001 Spikes (Wii U eShop)
All your spike are belong to us
Between the broken English text, 8-bit sprites and brutal, unforgiving difficulty, it's easy to think of the Nicalis-published 1001 Spikes as a long-forgotten NES gem. While certainly not for everyone, it's a rich, rewarding (and punishing) addition to the Wii U eShop library. This modern-retro platformer is certainly...
Review The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Capcom pulls a hit out of the hat
If it weren't for the fact that the Capcom logo appears each time you boot up The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it was in fact developed by a third-party company. That’s because this particular Legend of Zelda title – which originally released on the Game Boy...
Review Pushmo World (Wii U eShop)
Mo Push Mo Problems
Intelligent Systems' Pushmo World (known as Pullblox World in Europe) is exactly what you'd expect it to be: a Wii U sequel to the popular 3DS eShop puzzle titles Pushmo (Pullblox) and Crashmo (Fallblox) that predictably adds shinier graphics, more modes, and way more puzzles. It's a very safe sequel that doesn't take
Feelin' chubby
Developed by two-man studio Dahku Creations, Chubbins is a minimalist platformer all about jumping. So much jumping, in fact, that you're never not jumping. As an adorable, rotund rabbit named Chubbins, you must reach the end of each level simply by steering your automatic jumps through obstacles and out of the way of enemies, with...
