Latest Articles - Page 13 of 74

As intense as it is addictive

We've seen a wealth of "falling object" puzzlers since Tetris hit the scene in the 80's, some better than others. Data East's Magical Drop introduced a few new tricks to introduce a fun puzzler experience into arcades that turned quite a few heads during the time. As a follow-up, the company created two sequels on SNK's Neo Geo arcade system and the result..

Tetris, soccer and a VC double whammy!

Brace yourself for a truly rare week: Virtual Console receives two games today, putting it level-pegging with WiiWare and DSiWare for the first time in ages. What's occurring this week? Read on and find out. Virtual ConsoleMagical Drop II (NeoGeo, 900pts) – A cutesy colour-coded puzzler from way back, this one found its way to North America first so we'll..

Cave Story DSiWare is here

A little delayed but still delicious, it's this week's Nintendo Download for North America and a cracking week it is too. Let's get on with it. DSiWareCave Story (Nicalis, 1000pts) – The portable version of WiiWare's top notch Cave Story, this can hopefully live up to the standard of its home console predecessor whilst making some much-needed improvements. Our resident..

Zelda II's spiritual successor

Not many people outside Japan are familiar with the Dragon Slayer series. Created by Nihon Falcom, the great minds behind Ys, the first game enjoyed a good deal of popularity and got many sequels, though unfortunately, almost all of them remained exclusive to Japan. The second Dragon Slayer game, Xanadu, actually branched off into a seperate series of its own and also..

Hudson and Capcom serve up some more games

Japan maintains a small lead on the rest of the world next month, by both catching up on two titles that were already released in Europe, and releasing three new games which everybody else will also likely see. There's nothing really surprising here this time! The games Japan will be getting next month are:...

Bloody beaches, dying dodos and Faxanadu

As Advent draws near, it's truly the season of giving, with Nintendo joining in the festive spirit by giving Nintendo download fans 50% price cuts on two WiiWare titles finally making their way across from North America. Elsewhere, fans of NES side-scrolling RPGs are well catered for, and DSiWare gets the week's only genuinely new releases. WiiWareBlood..

Darius Twin, and two Lufia games if you must know

If Taito's latest filings at the United States Patents and Trademarks Office are anything to go by, we might well see a number of its Super NES titles on their way to the Wii Shop Channel. Darius Twin, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom, and Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals have all had trademarks applied for recently, suggesting they might appear on..

Demos, penguins, portable Tetris and VC

Getting in there early to beat the cold weather, here's this week's Nintendo Download complete with list of downloadable demos at long last. WiiWareSnowpack Park (Nintendo, 800pts) – Befriend penguins in this left-field release from Nintendo. A cross between the pet and adventure genres, Snowpack Park sees you exploring a range of islands in order to rescue..

Not masterful, but still pretty good

With probably about half of the Neo Geo's library of games consisting of fighting games, it's always nice to see another platformer for the system released on VC. In Spin Master, you take control of either Johnny or Tom as you try to recover five pieces of a lost treasure map and rescue Johnny's girlfriend. It's a pretty straight-forward game, in which you..

A little bit more for every service, plus a new demo

With five new games and a demo on offer this week, you'd think that it would be pretty good overall. Unfortunately, only the Virtual Console game and the demo make up most of this week's goodness - The other four are all games North America already got, and none of them were very good. WiiWareCruise Party (Enjoy Gaming, 800pts) – A small..

Is it a-you?

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Super Mario Bros. and the North American debut of the NES, we ran a competition to give away a free 500-point NES title for Virtual Console to each of twenty-five winners, the selection of the game being their choice. Almost a thousand users entered, so we'd like to congratulate the 25...

Keeping the download service strong

As revealed at Comic-Con, New York this year, Capcom is planning on bringing some previously Japan-only Virtual Console titles to the West and, if all goes well, we will be tucking into some retro classics this Winter. Currently, there are six titles scheduled for release in North America and Europe, and from the most recent press release, here are some summaries..

Robot boxes, genetic manipulation, super-powered babies and men dunking balls

If your trick-or-treat bag didn't have a Nintendo Points Card by the end of the night, well, you might want to look into buying a couple packages of toilet paper and retracing your steps. Just sayin'. WiiWareRobox (DreamBox Games, 1000 Points) — A gorgeous Metroid-style adventure game starring a bipedal box. It hit..

Emergency on planet earth

Back in the 16-bit wars, the SNES was unquestionably the comfortable winner when it came to RPGs. Sega’s Mega Drive (or Genesis, depending on where in the world you’re reading this) was completely and utterly outclassed in this area, despite the presence of brilliant titles such as Shining Force, LandStalker and Light Crusader. It’s one of those debates that really..

Three more classics, and one not-so classic

Japan's doing its usual job of getting games just before everybody does: three of the games they're getting this month have already been officially announced for release elsewhere and will be coming in the next few months. The fourth game they're getting is more of a Japanese thing, and won't be too sorely missed anywhere else. The four games Japan will..

Fishing, lasers, chicks, sleep and more

God bless the Nintendo download for bringing us another bounty of bizarre treats. If there isn't anything that tickles your fancy this week, we'd be very surprised. WiiWareReel Fishing Challenge II (Natsume, 500pts) – The follow-up to – you guessed it – Reel Fishing Challenge, this is a virtual recreation of the world's most popular participation sport..

Slam dunk or flagrant foul?

While many of the other consoles of the time were receiving a good variety of basketball offerings, the Neo Geo system was relegated to just one. Data East's Street Hoop passed over the traditional basketball experience in favour of a more playground-esque 3-on-3 style, complete with backboard shaking dunks and a wealth of influences from many of the other arcade hoops..

Nice and early this week

Europe comes through with a bumper crop of downloadable delights for release this Friday. Shall we see what they are? WiiWareMy Starry Night (Hudson, 500pts) – Known as My Planetarium in North America, this is essentially My Aquarium for stargazers, with around 20,000 stars, planets, asteroids and more for your observation, education and maybe even a little entertainment..

Happy holidays and mystic quests

The past two weeks have seen high profile downloadable releases in both shapely and spiny forms, so whilst this week lacks a true flagship title it does offer two new Nintendo-published titles and the scheduled Virtual Console download. WiiWareThruSpace (Nintendo, 800pts) – Formerly known as the far more descriptive ThruSpace: High Velocity 3D Puzzle, this is all..