WiiWare Game Reviews
Review Eco Shooter: Plant 530 (WiiWare)
A shooter with can-do attitude!
Without question, lightgun games have become a Wii staple. Between standalone disc releases, original WiiWare titles and mini-game compilations you've really got your pick when it comes to games you can play whilst pretending your remote is a gun. Now developer Intelligent Systems, of Fire Emblem and WarioWare fame,...
Review Eat! Fat! FIGHT! (WiiWare)
Sumo-riffic!
It has been more than 20 years since Tecmo released the first sumo video game on the Famicom, so whilst this goofily named WiiWare update (we guess the original Japanese "Tsuppari Big Sumo Wii Stable" didn't have enough pizzazz) seems a bit overdue, it has most certainly been worth the wait. Your life as a sumo starts when you...
Review Pole's Big Adventure (WiiWare)
Big, crazy, amazing
This game has garnered some attention - partly because it's from Sega and it's an 8-bit retro platformer, but mostly because it's filled with the wacky humour the Japanese have come to be known for. Despite having a large amount of Japanese audio text, the humour is mostly in the form of visual video game gags that should be...
Murky Moki jokey
If there's a common complaint heard in these parts it's that there's too many puzzle games on the WiiWare service. Well, we take issue with that. Yes there are lots of puzzle games, but as long as a game has merit there cannot really be too many, can there? Moki Moki is a game that suggests maybe there can be too many puzzle games...
Diabolic.
The first time many saw images from Diatomic one word was in their head: Geometry Wars (okay, that's two). The similarities in appearance are definitely there: closed-border shooter (attention: new term coinage alert!) and old-school wire-frame graphics. This isn't a bad thing though, with imitation being the best form of flattery and all...
Rolling, rolling, rolling, keep that ball rolling...
Nintendo's WiiWare service has had some good platforming games on it right from the start and Pallurikio is the latest entry in the genre. While it's certainly a well-constructed game featuring a round protagonist without legs, it lacks sufficient personality to stand out in an increasingly...
Crash and burn.
We've already seen a few racing titles released on the WiiWare service, although, to be fair, many of them have been fairly substandard. So any time a new racing title is released, it's generally met with not only a small degree of anticipation, but also a solid helping of caution and scepticism as well. Stunt Cars brings yet another...
Review Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH (WiiWare)
You should all RUSH to buy this charming WiiWare puzzler.
After the excellent WiiWare launch title Toki Tori, everybody was hoping Two Tribes would create more games for the service. It took a while, but their second title is now finally available! Based on just one part of their retail Wii title Rubik's Puzzle World, the gameplay is not unlike that...
Review Stop Stress: A Day of Fury (WiiWare)
Stop Stress and cause stress at the same time!
If you've ever had a job interview, you know that one of the most popular questions employers like to ask is "how do you respond to stressful situations?" Odds are good if you answered "run amok with an axe until everything in the entire building was destroyed!" you probably...
Now you’re playing with power. Dolphin power.
My Dolphin is the dolphin training simulator for the Wii for which everyone's been clamouring for years. Using the Wii Remote, players guide their aquatic pal through a performance to carry out jumps, spins, back flips and other tricks in order to perform for your audience like…well, like a trained...
Gardening and fireworks combine in an orgy of floral destruction!
Normally, flower gardens and fireworks don't mix - unless you're trying to destroy the neighbour's petunia beds with roman candles - but Aussie developers Nocturnal have managed to turn what could have been a horticultural nightmare into a fun, happy game about making pretty...
Review Happy Holidays: Christmas (WiiWare)
We must have been very naughty indeed...
The holiday greeting card is normally innocuous enough. Often purchased with a feeling of obligation to declare one's genuinely heartfelt feelings via a mass-produced combination of sentimental/humorous messages and art/photos, they've been a staple of the holiday season for decades. For nearly as long as...
A decent first effort at a classic patience game
If you saw the name of this game and thought it was going to be that game your grandmother played with her friends a la "The Joy Luck Club" you'll probably be disappointed to find that this is just a solitaire matching game. The blame lies with the fact that the programmer who first created...
Review Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 (WiiWare)
Setting up for the grand finale.
The Monkey Island games have never really been dark. There's been some grim moments here and there, but they always had their fair share of humour and weren't really depressing or anything. Well, if you play this chapter, prepare to have your mind blown! As goes without saying now, this chapter is a no-no unless...
Review Christmas Clix (WiiWare)
Will Clix click with puzzler fans?
With the holidays fast approaching, we always seem to see at least a handful of aptly-themed games to go along with them. This year is no different on the WiiWare service with the release of JV Games' new puzzler Christmas Clix. Christmas Clix takes the classic "falling blocks" idea and combines it with a...
Take this one back to the lab
Here at Nintendo Life Towers we are quite partial to those Raving Rabbids: those mindless jabbering critters remind us of ourselves. Seeing the release of a scaled-down version of Rabbids Go Home’s In Ze Remote feature, however, gave us cause for concern: could this dress-up game justify the 500 Point price tag? For...
Review Copter Crisis (WiiWare)
What a load of cop(ter)!
There's something appealing about being a helicopter rescue pilot: it's one of those aspirations we have when we're children of what we'd like to grow up to be. Sitting at home pretending to be one via Digital Leisure's latest WiiWare instalment certainly doesn't sound the full realisation of such childhood pipedreams, but...
Loners rejoice!
It would be proper to regard any WiiWare program consisting of a game that's already pre-installed on every Windows PC in the universe as a complete waste of everyone's time. It would be about as pointless as releasing a poker game with rules for only one version of poker. The only way you could possibly justify putting out a...
Review Harvest Moon: My Little Shop (WiiWare)
Work sucks.
Farm life has always been the focus of the Harvest Moon series, and My Little Shop technically continues that tradition. You do live on a farm and have to knock out the daily rituals of watering crops, feeding the chickens and petting the cows, but that’s pretty much it and is accomplished in about one minute. Which leaves you plenty...
Review BIT.TRIP VOID (WiiWare)
Don't avoid the VOID
The third release (of six) in Gaijin Games' BIT.TRIP series has quite a bit in common with its predecessors. And that is a good thing. Even better, though, is just how much VOID manages to stand apart from its popular older brothers. Rather than striving to recapture their specific glories, VOID charts territory of its own. And...
Review Pokémon Rumble (WiiWare)
Rumble or fumble?
One thing we've learned time and again (sometimes painfully) is that when it comes to WiiWare there's no necessary correlation between quality and cost. Of the most expensive games available, for instance, one of them is arguably the best game on the service, and another is ...not. And so when a new release scurries into view...
Bigger animals, bigger features.
We thought quite highly of Hudson's last WiiWare game based on keeping animals, but we also warned potential buyers that it was not so much a game as an interactive screensaver. My Zoo is meant to expand on the previous game in many ways. Aside from the animals being bigger, there are many new features and things to...
Review Excitebike: World Rally (WiiWare)
Will this remake kick the tires out from under the competition?
Nintendo’s often-overlooked Excite racing series kicks in the turbo and has released not one but two new games this year. This time, the series returns to its roots with a remake of the original NES classic. But with so many other “excite”-ing options to choose from on the Wii, is...
Review Dragon Master Spell Caster (WiiWare)
Dragon Master Spells Disaster
In Dragon Master Spell Caster, you mount your pet dragon and take to the skies in search of thrilling adventure (or floating balls), engage in epic struggles with (or shake your Wii remote randomly at) elementally-themed opponents, and fly on into your new life of fame and fortune (or...turn your Wii off and think about...
Review Frogger Returns (WiiWare)
The return of an arcade legend.
It cannot be denied that Frogger is one of the original arcade hits. It was ported to pretty much every 8-bit console and computer system in the world, bootlegged numerous times and even immortalised in song on the seminal "Pac-Man Fever" LP by Buckner & Garcia. It's the only Konami arcade game from the...
Gameloft WiiWare card games, take two!
Like many American board games, Uno was started by your average Joe making sets in his house and selling them to friends and neighbours before getting picked up by a big outfit and made into a classic. It's a fun social game that's been around for nearly 40 years now and is played around the world. Given the...
Review Manic Monkey Mayhem (WiiWare)
A monkey barrel beater?
Manic Monkey Mayhem is a clear attempt by UK-based developers The Code Monkeys to make a straightforward multiplayer shooter that anyone can play. All you need is a Remote and a decent throwing arm to pick this one up, but does it have enough depth to justify laying out 1,000 Points? The controls are very straightforward:...
Review Carnival King (WiiWare)
Is this take on the old-fashioned carnival shooting gallery a hit or miss?
There have been quite a few games over the years that have made use of various carnival-style shooting galleries. Some have leaned towards an arcade feel while others have gone for a more realistic experience using a light gun. Intelligent Technologies, makers of Target Toss...
Review Family Card Games (WiiWare)
The family that plays drinking games together, stays together
Worn out from extended sessions of Table Tennis, Mini Golf and Slot Car Racing? Feeling like if you have to look at Mommy, Daddy, Billy, or Sarah’s plastic smiling faces one more time you will throw your Wii Remote through the TV? Why not unwind with a few pleasant card games?...
Review Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 3 (WiiWare)
A well-liked classic character returning makes everything better.
As you might have expected, it's a tad pointless to review this game. It's a direct sequel to the previous chapter, and plays exactly the same way. As it is not recommended to play this before playing the previous two chapters, you should already know what you're getting into when you...
