Review Crazy Pinball (DSiWare)
The only thing crazy is that nothing about this game is crazy
There aren't many pinball games on DSiWare. We have no clue why: they're pretty much perfectly suited to digital distribution. dtp Entertainment has given us Crazy Pinball, the second pinball title available, and its name seems to imply that it is quite crazy indeed. Upon first booting it...
Nintendo Download 30th July 2010 (Europe)
A bit of a catch-up week
The Virtual Console takes another expected break to focus more on WiiWare and DSiWare this week, with five releases total spread across the both of them. All of them have already been released elsewhere, including a few in North America only a few days ago, so you can expect reviews for them all very shortly. WiiWare: Dive:...
Review Aero the Acrobat (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
Will you go aerobatty for Aero?
Everybody into gaming at the time remembers the "cool mascot" craze during the early 90's; Sega was heavily in on it with Sonic and a whole bunch of other companies tried to cash in on it as well. Sunsoft's attempt came in the form of Aero the Acrobat – a bat with attitude who works as an acrobat in the...
Nintendo Download 23rd July (Europe)
Acrobats, skaters and more
While North America has now suffered three consecutive weeks without a new retro game available for download, we're about to get another. It's accompanied by a bunch of DSiWare and WiiWare games that might not be to the liking of everybody. WiiWare: Arcade Sports Air Hockey, Bowling, Pool, Snooker (800pts - Icon Games) –...
Review 2Puzzle It: Fantasy (DSiWare)
This being worth your time is a mere fantasy
DSiWare's already got way too many Sudoku games, so it's a nice sight when a developer releases a puzzle game that isn't something done to death already. The service has yet to get one traditional sliding puzzle game, so we had at least some hope for this first effort. Likely to be the first in a series,...
Review Zenquaria: Virtual Aquarium (WiiWare)
Not too deep
With a rather good and successful aquarium simulator already available and a sequel underway, it seems rather futile of Nintendo to release a version themselves at a slightly higher price. Created by Paon of DK King of Swing, Jungle Climber and Barrel Blast fame, Zenquaria's primarily toted feature is the ability to swim around an...
Nintendo Download 9th July (Europe)
Plenty for everyone
As with every week, DSiWare gets the lion's share of releases this week, although most of it is not too stellar, or at least not likely to be. WiiWare gets a long-awaited fighter plus an interesting Nintendo-published title, while VC gets another ninja action game. WiiWare: Toribash (1000pts - Nabi Studios) — A very strange...
Review Ufouria: The Saga (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Easy Mode Metroid
The original Metroid was a ground-breaking game for its time, but it feels incredibly dated to anyone playing it for the first time now. The lack of a map makes navigating the seemingly endless identical corridors way more annoying than it should be for newcomers, whereas those who know the game inside out can beat it within an...
Nintendo Download 2nd July (Europe)
DSiWare galore!
DSiWare gets another massive load of new games today, but they're probably not the things you'll mostly be wanting to pay attention to - Both WiiWare and the Virtual Console only get one game each, but they're both great and more than worthy of a look-see. WiiWare: Jett Rocket (1000pts - Shin'en Multimedia) — A 3D platformer with...
Review 24/7 Solitaire (DSiWare)
Solid solitaire
Relatively speaking, there's not too many solitaire picks available on DSiWare. Europe and North America each have two: one title created by Nintendo themselves is the only one shared, while North America has Digital Leisure's offering and Europe an Engine title. This new release has the most variety yet, not just offering about 30...
Review Hello Flowerz (DSiWare)
Hello averageness
There's a surprising lack of games on DSiWare that pretty much require you to play every day. Hello Flowerz seems to be the first, in fact. It does pretty much everything you'd expect from a flower-growing game: you have to take care of flowers by watering them, giving them fresh new soil every day and similar tasks. Each flower...
News Japanese Virtual Console list - July 2010
A fresh breath of life for Japan
The Virtual Console seems to have been winding down in its amount of releases worldwide as of late, but Japan seems to be the first region to stop that nonsense - Next month they'll bet getting six new retro games. A whole four of them are for the Neo Geo, but it's still nice to see the VC is not quite ready to die...
Review Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects - Revenge (DSiWare)
If only we could squish this game under our shoes
Ubisoft seems to love its Combat of Giants series. With three retail DS releases and two DSiWare adaptations based on two of those retail titles already available, it was quite obvious that they were going to go for the full set. The third and hopefully the last, Mutant Insects Revenge very...
Nintendo Download 25th June (Europe)
Hidden gems galore?
A lot of today's game titles might not say much to some people, but rest assured there's some good picks in this bunch. WiiWare gets three games, two of them great, and one not-yet-reviewed-but-very-likely-also-great. DSiWare's got five new titles of which the only reviewed one is good as well. The rest of the bunch could be more...
Nintendo Download 18th June (Europe)
Nintendo serves up a certain ace
It's the week of E3, and what better way to celebrate than by finally releasing another N64 Virtual Console game? And an extremely well-liked one, at that? WiiWare gets one great and one good game as well, but DSiWare seems fairly uninteresting this time. WiiWare: Ant Nation (700pts - Konami) -- A simulation title...
Nintendo Download 15th and 16th June 2010 (Japan)
Not much during the week of E3
We got so mixed up in the goings-on at E3, that we almost forgot to update you with what was released on the Japanese download services earlier this week. Relax, there's no need to get too jealous this time - Most of the stuff is extremely unlikely to see a release elsewhere. And with what Nintendo of Europe has in...
Review Illusion of Gaia (Super Nintendo)
This being a great game is no illusion
In the early days of the SNES, Enix made the beloved action RPG Soul Blazer. A strange but incredibly effective mixture of RPG and very light town-building elements resulted in one of the system's most underrated games. Although the game itself did not sell too well, Enix decided to try again, making a...
Nintendo Download 11th June 2010 (Europe)
Plenty of puzzling, some strategy and racing, and an import
Despite the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 today, Nintendo of Europe isn't neglecting their download services. The Virtual Console gets a new one-off import game while WiiWare and DSiWare get a whole bunch of catchup titles, plus one completely new game. WiiWare: NEVES Plus: Pantheon of...
It is indeed crazy that we're still getting Sudoku games on DSiWare
Counting this new release, there are now nine Sudoku games available on DSiWare in Europe. Some offer a little more than others, but all in all it tends to come down to the price and amount of puzzles available. Crazy Sudoku does well in both areas, but with so many other choices...
Review Hero of Sparta (DSiWare)
God of War for cheapskates
Gameloft is often panned for making games that look, play and feel similar to other titles, and its latest is no exception. Taking obvious inspiration from Sony's God of War series, this is a fairly linear 3D beat 'em up with a Greek mythology theme. As King Argos, who has washed up on a beach somewhere and lost his entire...
Review Animal Color Cross (DSiWare)
Picross with a twist
Despite there being so many different number-based puzzle games, some publishers seem to love putting nothing but Sudoku games on DSiWare. Nintendo has sadly not delivered a download for "A Little Bit of Picross DS" yet, so for now, this is the only game of its sort available on the service. Based on a fairly recent DS...
Bad mojo
Developed by Exkee, the guys behind the rather average ColorZ, Voodoo Dice is a puzzle game in which you control a large yellow die, attempting to reach the end of every stage in order to earn gemstones used to proceed further into the game. Of course, it's not a matter of simply rolling over to the exit: each level has various dice-related...
News Japanese Virtual Console list - June 2010
More Neo Geo support
There's not much of note for Japan next month on the Virtual Console. Nintendo's only title is a Super Famicom game we'll likely never get. Aside from that, there's just two NES and Neo Geo games to pick from. The full list for June is as follows: Famicom: Meta Fight (The original Japanese version of Blaster Master. The...
Nintendo Download 28th May 2010 (Europe)
The Virtual Console returns in style, WiiWare gets arty and DSiWare gets a bunch of random stuff
There's plenty to pick from this time. You can either go with one of Kirby's best outings or a new Art Style game on the Wii, or Picross and God of War knock-offs on DSiWare. The choice is yours! WiiWare: Art Style: Penta Tentacles (600pts - Nintendo)...
