WiiWare Reviews - Page 5 of 20

You cannot do that!

Jewel Keepers: Easter Island owes a debt to Bejeweled, falling within the range of 'match three' games which have sprung up over the last few years. Popcap's game had been around for a while but became a huge success on ITunes and Facebook, creating scores of imitators in the process. So where does this particular imitator fall? For the uninitiated, the game mechanics of the..

The revolution has now been televised

According to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, roller derby is one of the fastest-growing sports in the US right now, and anyone that's ever been to a bout can see why: hard hits, lots of action and ladies on wheels. Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore even got in on the action in the movie Whip It. What's not to like? So making the leap to video games is a..

Can you spot the fun?

Spot the Differences! is a new WiiWare entry from Sanuk Games, a developer whose focus on Nintendo consoles so far has largely been downloadable puzzlers. This release follows the same standard modus operandi as Cosmonaut's 5 Spots Party and Enjoy Gaming's Spot the Difference – look at two images side by side and identify differences, both large and small. It's a simple..

Shark sandwich

In November of 2009, Stickmen Studios brought us Dragon Master Spell Caster, and we figured, at least, that its next game couldn't get any worse. In May of 2010, it released Kung Fu Funk for the sole purpose of proving us wrong. But that was the distant past. We're older now. Wiser. Could Doc Clock and the Toasted Sandwich of Time turn back time for Stickmen Studios? Doc Clock..

Are you ready for this jelly?

Ports can be a tricky business. Change too much about beloved game and fans of the title will likely gripe, while not adding any new content earns the moniker “lazy port.” Still, lots of games on WiiWare have managed to straddle this fence successfully, like Lilt Line and Crystal Defenders, while others like Space Trek fail miserably. Disney's platforming racer..

This tractor's a little bit rusty

Nordcurrent don't have a great record when it comes to WiiWare, having brought us the some stinkers such as Robin Hood: The Return Of Richard and 5 Arcade Gems. Now we have Urbanix, where you play as a tractor who is simply trying to build a town on an empty field, while cloning the gameplay of arcade classic Qix. However, while it's a marked improvement over..

Reach for the stars

Astrology has been around for a very long time now. With records of its existence dating all the way back to 5,000 years ago, it comprises a group of methods and systems examining the relative positions of astronomical objects to provide information about an individual's personality as well as make predictions about their future. There are many different ways this is done, most..

Bustin' makes us feel meh

Ghost Mania is the WiiWare reincarnation of an iPhone game called Spooky Spirits: Puzzle Drop!! This new version of the game features updated graphics and sound in addition to redesigned levels and an additional multiplayer mode, but was it worth exhuming those old bones? Is there life in this one yet, or is it an emotionless, shambling zombie? And, most importantly, will..

Tourist trap

Modern education generally reduces geography to simple memorisation, divorcing the subject from a sense of physicality and instead having students label countries along political boundaries and identify their capitals. Around the World takes a step in an alternative direction by challenging players to locate different things on an unlabelled illustration of the globe, and never..

Oy vey Maria

Hey, kids! Have you ever dreamed of being a professional violinist? Of feeling the stagnant air of a concert hall in your hair as you perform selections from Swan Lake with a string quartet composed entirely of your closest friends? Of screeching your way thanklessly through Ave Maria before an audience of nearly a dozen, most of whom are dozing senior citizens? No? We didn't think..

These tubes are fit to be tied

Tower defense games have enough in common that one pretty much knows how much he will or won't enjoy the game before he even plays it. The core concept is addictive and appealing to a certain subset of gamers, and a complete turnoff to others. This is not a bad thing; in fact, it saves both parties a lot of time. Very, very few tower defense games manage to..

It's dy-no-mite!

It's been a fairly long wait for Fugazo's first WiiWare offering – the game was announced over a year and a half ago – and while Frobot initially looked extremely simplistic and basic, it's now evolved into quite a polished and well-designed release for the service. Craftily combining both shooting and puzzle-solving elements,...

Meet Commander Video's less-confident little brother

There's a reason Gaijin Games, as young as it is as a developer, already has a strong and devoted following, having taken addictively throbbing beats and married them to some of the most intense gameplay we've ever seen. It takes periodic trips to a sunnier, much simpler era of gaming, and redefines the experience as a plunge into dangerous and..

Toilet paper edition

A pen and a sheet of paper. Are there any two instruments on the face of the planet more conducive to unrestrained creativity? Think about it. Take a moment to consider all of the things you can do with either one. Think about the worlds that you can sketch out, or write about; think of the games you can play, think about...

A tidal wave of fun

WiiWare is no stranger to quirky, innovative games, with the platform delivering such wonderful titles as World of Goo, Lost Winds and the BIT.TRIP series. These titles all take full advantage of the Wii Remote, pairing novel gameplay concepts with smooth, accessible motion controls. Yet such stellar releases don't come along all...

Something to sneeze at

iPhone ports are happening so often these days that they should barely come as a surprise anymore. Sneezies is yet another one of these titles, and like many other games, we can't say the transition has really been all that useful. Sneezies is pretty much yet another arcade-esque highscore game. There are four different game modes, but they pretty much all boil down to the..

Own goal

Icon Games haven't had a good track record with WiiWare games so far, with poor attempts in the form of Stunt Cars and Arcade Sports. This time around, they've attempted to combine one of the world's biggest sports, football (or soccer), with the classic brick-breaking arcade game Breakout, resulting in Soccer Bashi. So is this third time the charm? Disappointingly, it's not even close..

IT BURNS!

At last, the do-nothing, poorly-constructed, mindless fireplace simulator of your dreams has come to WiiWare. The only explanation: we've all been very bad boys and girls this year, and Santa's relying on digital download services to distribute his coal. Let's face facts: if you're reading this review, you already know full well whether...

A discontenting discappointment

The sport of "disc golf" (so named here to subtract the more well known trademark, “Frisbee”) is perhaps played more often on the Wii than in real life. Even so, the sport itself is an obvious good fit for Wii owners as the entire sport essentially boils down to players standing in place and taking turns swinging their arm. Past iterations include a..