WiiWare Game Reviews
Review Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 (WiiWare)
Is Guybrush Threepwood still the wannabe pirate king?
The 'point and click' adventure has been clinically dead for quite a while now, largely because it seemed impossible to make a good example of the genre in 3D. Many developers tried, but almost all of them failed, mostly due to clunky controls or annoying moving cameras. To be honest, there’s...
It’s a colourful world we live in.
ColorZ is a game whose trailer captured the attentions of many with its vibrant colours against light backgrounds and novel colour fusion mechanic. The sight of gently drifting UFOs floating through groups of stationary enemies accompanied by an ambient/trance techno soundtrack and no shooting in sight created...
Battle Poker? I hardly battle know her!
There are a few things about Battle Poker that you will notice as soon as you start playing the game, and one of them is that at no point do you actually play any poker. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not, but it does lead to a slightly schizophrenic experience. Basically, Battle Poker is a collection of...
Review Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord (WiiWare)
Here's your chance to try out life as a Darklord!
As a launch title for the WiiWare service in all regions, the long-titled Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King was highly anticipated by fans of the famous series and city-building enthusiasts alike. Having received positive critical acclaim from the gaming world, which appeared to...
An antagonizingly good game.
Konami returns to Wiiware with another semi-strategy game. This time instead of reactively fending off crabs, you’ll be proactively leading a nation of ants in a war of senseless aggression. Finally, those ladybugs will get what they deserve. But is this nation worthy of a leader such as you? Ant Nation is...
Beware of incoming duds.
Welcome to Incoming!, a game of projectile combat. You command a tank (or a small group of tanks), and you will be expected to demolish the other tank (or small group of tanks) by adjusting the angle and velocity of each shot. You've played games like this before, and you've probably enjoyed them. In fact, the first time...
Review 5 Spots Party (WiiWare)
Can you spot the difference?
5 Spots Party is based upon the tried and true pen and paper game "Spot the Difference," a staple of children's activity magazines since forever where the object is to compare two pictures (usually drawings) and identify a set number of differences between them as a means of passing the time. This game...
Review Karate Phants: Gloves of Glory (WiiWare)
A fighting game based upon a licensed property -- what could possibly go wrong?
As a general rule video games based upon licensed properties tend to be bad. For every decent game you'll find dozens of hastily churned out movie show tie-ins where the license is more important than the underlying game. The fighting genre has had some notable...
Review Heracles: Chariot Racing (WiiWare)
Will Heracles slay the Titan of Nintendo racing games?
Due to the space constraints that Nintendo places on WiiWare games, most games on the service are short, simple, and lacking in the graphics department. One certainly would not expect a complete port of a PlayStation 2 game on the service. But that is exactly what developer Neko Entertainment...
Review Bit.Trip Core (WiiWare)
Gaijin Games are back with the second game in the BIT.TRIP saga
The original BIT.TRIP BEAT took the old-school play control of Pong and created a unique and more modern spin on it. It was a bit like the original Pong games, but with far more charm and visual flair. Now Gaijin Games has taken that successful formula and bumped it up a level to give...
Will you want to join Kubi on this totally crazy pixellated retro journey?
There has been a fair amount of hype surrounding the release of Bplus’ Bit Boy!! which is understandable as it taps into our love of retro gaming in much the same way as Mega Man 9 and Bit.Trip Beat did. Bit Boy!! offers a puzzling experience not unlike Pac-Man and adds a...
Review Silver Star Reversi (WiiWare)
It’s Reversi on WiiWare: what more do you want to know?
Similar to its sibling Silver Star Chess, the latest game from Agetec is a decent but barebones take on a classic board game. The game of Reversi dates back to late 19th century England and has been known in modern times as Othello. Two players take turns placing black and white dots on an 8...
Review Reel Fishing Challenge (WiiWare)
Keeping it reel.
There are some sports that seem tailor-made for video game translations, but fishing is arguably not one of them. A pastime that centers around patience rather than action or skill does not seem like the sort of thing that most people would be interested in experiencing indoors. Yet strangely enough the genre has existed for some...
Review Water Warfare (WiiWare)
Fill up your super soakers and prepare for a drenching in Hudson’s second WiiWare FPS game.
Earlier this year, Hudson released Onslaught, WiiWare's first FPS which proved that Japanese developers can actually make good FPS games! One of the only complaints with Onslaught was that it only featured online co-op and versus modes; there was no...
Review Puzzle Bobble Plus! (WiiWare)
The third Bubble Bobble series remake to hit WiiWare. Is it any good after the somewhat disappointing Rainbow Islands?
Puzzle Bobble - or Bust-A-Move as it's known in North America - is perhaps the most well-known game in the Bubble Bobble series. Almost everybody's played it in some way or form, with multiple versions and a ton of rip-offs over the...
Review Drill Sergeant Mindstrong (WiiWare)
Look alive, maggot!
The best way to describe Drill Sergeant Mindstrong would be to liken it to a military boot camp version of Brain Training. The game presents you with four basic mini-games, each with its own unique military theme complete with a Drill Sergeant barking commands and insults at you on a nearly continuous basis. While these...
Does this age-old puzzler still have what it takes?
Silhouette puzzles have been around since the early 18th century, and chances are if you're old enough to read this article, you're likely to have played one at some point in your life. The original Neves, which built an entire retail title around these silhouette puzzles, was released on the...
Review Family Mini Golf (WiiWare)
A little golf for the whole family.
The "Family" series of games has developed a reputation of being, well, a bit crap, really. They're bare-bones, budget versions of sports games you probably already have better versions of elsewhere, making you wonder why Arc System Works even bothers making them. This only serves to make the fact that...
Review NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (WiiWare)
Will you be a kindred spirit with NyxQuest or a mortal enemy?
WiiWare has introduced us to a lot of talented developers who seem to have sprung out of nowhere. Think of the likes of Gaijin Games with their Bit.Trip series, Ronimo Games with Swords & Soldiers, and of course 2D Boy with the sublime World of Goo. From the moment that NyxQuest:...
Review Eduardo the Samurai Toaster (WiiWare)
Let there be toast!
One of the benefits of digital media distribution is the chance developers get to stretch their limbs and explore some creative paths often overlooked or avoided. Step in Eduardo The Samurai Toaster, a game with a concept very much out of the ordinary. It’s in good company though, as Wiiware has certainly had its share of...
Let's not...
When Prope revealed Let's Tap to the world everyone though it would be yet another gimmicky Wii motion-based mini-game collection -- which it was, although a pretty good one. After that turned out surprisingly well, expectations of Let's Catch were a bit mixed: playing catch on your Wii sounds a bit goofy, but could it be a hidden gem...
Review Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (WiiWare)
Does this title retain the magic of the original 16-bit release?
We've already seen companies like Capcom and Konami resurrect classic franchises on the WiiWare service, many using the classic 8 and 16-bit visuals found in the original titles to give them even more retro appeal. So it should come as no surprise that Square Enix has also seen fit to...
A game about fishing that isn't actually a fishing game. A worthwhile catch or the one that got away?
WiiWare's already got a fishing game - Cocoto Fishing Master, which isn't exactly very exciting. So when another one was announced, we couldn't help but hope it'd be a bit better. It seems like our prayers fell on deaf ears though, because although...
Review Crystal Defenders R2 (WiiWare)
Does this second Crystal Defenders release bring enough new material to the table to warrant a look?
Whereas the Xbox Live Arcade and iPhone releases of Crystal Defenders came in one package, Square-Enix has chosen to split the WiiWare release into two separate parts. We've already seen Crystal Defenders R1 released on the service and now we've...
Review Silver Star Chess (WiiWare)
A silver star for a second rate Chess game.
As the world’s oldest game (except perhaps bowling...see the Bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri for a compelling argument that Bowling was invented by cavemen), Chess is the ultimate in public domain properties. Amazingly, Silver Star Chess is the first variant of the pastime on WiiWare and so...
Review Swords & Soldiers (WiiWare)
Has this much-hyped title been worth the wait?
The strategy genre has gone quite ignored on WiiWare. Aside from the launch title Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King the only other game was the recent Crystal Defenders R1. With Swords & Soldiers, Dutch developer Ronimo Games has taken a stab at bringing the RTS (real-time...
Review Family Pirate Party (WiiWare)
Does this new party title set sail for glory or is it forced to walk the plank?
Although some would argue that it flies in the face of common sense, Aksys Games has decided to continue their "Family" franchise with the release of Family Pirate Party. Previous games in the series received unanimous criticism. Unfortunately, Family Pirate...
Review Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! (WiiWare)
Is there a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow?
So there you are, transformed from a bubble-blowing dinosaur into human form again, ready to start your life afresh – maybe get a flat, a new car and settle into a good routine. But then, before you can say "9 to 5", you gain the ability to fire rainbows and have to use this skill to...
Review Penguins & Friends - Hey! That's My Fish! (WiiWare)
Cool as ice or a bit fishy?
What does a short supply of fish, a continually sinking ice float, and a bunch of greedy penguins have in common? They all star in the board game 'Hey! That's My Fish!' which was originally brought to the gaming scene by Phalanx Games and which is now available for WiiWare under the moniker Penguins & Friends. This...
Review Cocoto Platform Jumper (WiiWare)
Will Cocoto have you jumping for joy or off a cliff?
It's no big secret that WiiWare could use more platformers, . Cocoto Platform Jumper may count itself lucky then that this genre is relatively underrepresented at this time. Is it worth enough to spend your hard-earned cash, though? It just might be. The player is represented by the whimsical...
