Nintendo Download 12th March 2010 (Europe)
The Hanabi Festival kicks off, but sadly not with its most anticipated game.
It seemed quite likely that Nintendo of Europe would be starting the fifth Hanabi Festival with some Castlevania goodness, but as it turns out, this is not the case! At least there's two different import games instead, one of which is another highly recommended title...
Review Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Eureka!
Although four installments long already, the Ace Attorney series has never really changed much in terms of gameplay. Every previous game consisted merely of showing the right evidence to the right people, or at the right time, with only very minor additions or alterations between each title, like the Psycho Locks in the second and third...
News Last Ninja 3 Refunds Going Out Now
Keep an eye on your inbox
If you were among the unlucky people who purchased Last Ninja 3 on Virtual Console, you were no doubt quite annoyed that the game would, without fail, freeze after the first level, making any further progress impossible. Nintendo recently announced they would be removing the game from the Wii Shop, and have since done so...
Review Flips: The Bubonic Builders (DSiWare)
More of the same
The first Flips story on DSiWare was a fairly decent reading experience for young kids, so it should come as no surprise that this second one provides more of the same. Just like Terror in Cubicle Four, The Bubonic Builders is one single story taken from the retail "game," Flips: Too Ghoul For School, which contained eight...
News Hanabi Festival 5 to Happen Soon?
Nintendo of Europe's site seems to suggest so
A handful of new import titles were recently given ratings by the OFLC, leading many to believe that Europe and Australia would be on their way to the fifth Hanabi Festival, and thus another nice batch of import Virtual Console games. Nintendo of Europe has now practically confirmed that this will be...
Nintendo Download 5th March 2010 (Europe)
"Retro" delights from Capcom, along with plenty of other things.
There's quite a lot to downloads to pick from this week. The Virtual Console makes yet another return after being nowhere in sight the past two weeks, while Capcom has released not one, but two new "retro" games at once. Also finally available in Europe is the third...
Review Dracula: Undead Awakening (DSiWare)
Pretty much exactly the same, but cheaper
Seeing the same game released on both WiiWare and DSiWare is pretty strange. Both being released in the same week is even more strange. But the fact that both games are also nigh-on identical just tops the weirdness scale. Again, you play as a Van Helsing look-a-like running around a large arena of sorts,...
Another odd mix of different genres from Gameloft
Gameloft is rather fond of porting their back catalogue to Nintendo's download services. This time, however, it seems that they've created an entirely new game specifically for DSiWare. An odd mixture of simulation and strategy, with some light RPG elements thrown in for good measure. The premise is...
News Japanese Virtual Console list - March 2010
Even Japan seems to be getting several VC-less weeks from now on.
Things are moderately bad for Virtual Console in Europe and North America at the moment, with each month having several weeks without a new release for the service. But now it's really time to worry - Even Japan seems to be getting several of these now. March only sees three new...
Nintendo Download 26th February 2010 (Europe)
The Virtual Console is still nowhere in sight, but at least there's Castlevania!
Believe it or not, this is the sixth week of this year in which we haven't gotten any new Virtual Console games. The amount of weeks in which we have is actually lower! Nintendo partially makes up for it by releasing a ton of games on the other services, but the...
Review Flips: Terror in Cubicle Four (DSiWare)
Reading fun for the young kids
Digital books seem like a pretty obvious thing to sell for just about any handheld. Strangely enough, we didn't really see any notable ones on the DS until 2008 when Nintendo released their 100 Classic Book Collection. At the end of 2009, EA released a set of five Flips games, each featuring a number of decently sized...
Review Puzzle to Go Wildlife (DSiWare)
Puzzling
DSiWare's got more than enough puzzle games already, so we can't say it was unexpected that the service has now finally gotten one based on the traditional definition of the word. Based on nothing more and nothing less than jigsaw puzzles, all you'll be doing here is dragging around pieces of a puzzle in an effort to snap them all together...
Nintendo Download 19th February 2010 (Europe)
Another no-show for the Virtual Console.
Things were looking alright for a while, but Nintendo of Europe has gone back to their old tricks once again, as this week offers us no new Virtual Console titles. Not to worry too much though, because at least there's 7 downloads spread across the other two services! On WiiWare, the biggest release is, no...
Par for the course
On DSiWare, we very recently saw the release of A Little Bit of... Nintendo Touch Golf (Or True Swing Golf Express in North America), a slightly cut-down version of the retail game bearing the same name. We thought it was very competent, and as such felt that the "golf game" gap on the service had been filled. But here...
Nintendo Download 12th February 2010 (Europe)
Increasing the amount of games ever so slowly.
Nintendo of Europe's planned games for today seemed almost set in stone since last week, but over the past few days we suddenly got a handful of extra games to complement update, bringing the total amount of new things this week up to seven. Still not quite as much as elsewhere, but at least they're...
Combining two classics into one disaster
Cinemax's last DSiWare game wasn't too hot, so we didn't exactly have high hopes for their second effort. It looks like our assumptions were correct, because although it borrows heavily from classics Arkanoid and Snake, it just doesn't work. How does one combine Arkanoid and Snake, you ask? Simple: by taking...
Nintendo Download 5th February 2010 (Europe)
Two anticipated titles finally arrive.
The Virtual Console seems to be in full swing in Europe again, after a rather lackluster period - We got Street Fighter Alpha 2 last week, and we're getting Sonic & Knuckles the next. The space inbetween isn't empty either, because Capcom has chosen to release two games in a row. Meanwhile, on WiiWare,...
Review Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (DS)
Once you start, you'll need to call on the Ouendan to help you stop playing this game
In 2005, iNiS crafted Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for DS. Rhythm games were hardly being made for the system, but they instantly proved that it could have amazing results when done right. People spoke so positively about it that it was popular both in and outside Japan,...
Review Legends of Exidia (DSiWare)
DSiWare's first RPG doesn't set the bar too high, but it's still quite enjoyable
It's a bit odd that we haven't seen any DSiWare RPGs until now. You'd think that with the service's portable nature and the genre’s wealth of retail releases, it would be a perfect fit. Apparently developers think otherwise! Gameloft is known for their frequent...
Review Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 5 (WiiWare)
Another episodic adventure comes to an end.
It took a surprisingly long time, but the fifth and final chapter of Guybrush's latest adventure has finally hit WiiWare. Every previous chapter has been building up towards this supposedly epic conclusion, so was the long wait worth it? Considering this is the fifth and final part, spoilers for the series...
News Japanese Virtual Console list - February 2010
Three big-name titles. And one slightly less big.
Things are pretty bleak on the Virtual Console in Europe at the moment, but that isn't stopping Japan from continuing to bring more awesome downloads to the table. It's pretty easy to guess what game is being released to build up hype for Mega Man 10, and Nintendo will be releasing the Super Famicom...
Nintendo Download 29th January 2010 (Europe)
One single Virtual Console game in three weeks. Again.
But don't feel let down again, because it's actually quite a solid week this time. With DSiWare still being almost completely taken up by Electroplankton rereleases, there's only one real "new" game for each service, but all of them are (or seem to be) good picks. Possibly to tie in...
Review Max & the Magic Marker (WiiWare)
A beautiful piece of art or a worthless doodle?
Games involving drawing seem to be incredibly popular nowadays. With the DS's touch screen and Wii Remote's pointer both allowing rather precise drawing, it's pretty obvious to see why. Although it's a bit late to the party, Max & the Magic Marker keeps things pretty basic: it's a fairly...
Nintendo Download 22nd January 2010 (Europe)
The Virtual Console gets abandoned again.
You've got to wonder what's going on over at Nintendo of Europe. For the second time, we've now gone two weeks in a row without a VC title, despite knowing that there's still plenty of them upcoming. Come on, NoE! Just like last week, there's really only one noteworthy title - The rest is completely...
