Author Profile
- Username
- Sean_Aaron
- Articles
- 350 (105 reviews)
- First Article
- Sat 20th, December 2008
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.3
Another great old-school shooter for WiiWare
Most of you will probably remember Phalanx as a SNES game, however that was just a port of a game that was developed for the Sharp X68000, a home computer sold exclusively in Japan from 1987-1993. The Sharp X68k (as it was commonly known) used hardware similar to arcade systems of the time; as a result it...
Nintendo Download 25 December 2009 (EU)
Not much in the Wii's stocking this year, but DSiWare users must have been very good indeed!
Well, after North America's big release Monday this week, it has to be said that Nintendo of Europe are coming off a little like Ebenezer Scrooge with this week's European download offerings on the Wii: just two WiiWare offerings and no Virtual Console...
Nintendo Download 21 December 2009 (North America)
Eco-shooting, arcade ninjas, Super Smash Bros., Dragon's Lair and more in this week's download offering.
Nintendo are putting out a decent number of titles in North America with the end of the year rapidly approaching, with a nice mix of new and catch-up titles on offer. Todays VC and WiiWare offerings mean that there's now 500 titles to choose...
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 Space Manbow (Virtual Console / MSX)
Old school shooting fun on the PC standard that wasn't.
Don't feel bad if you've never heard of the MSX. It was an early-80s Microsoft-driven initiative to create a hardware standard for home computers to transform software development in the same way that the VHS standard transformed home video: by removing the need to develop for multiple hardware...
News Furry Legends coming to WiiWare in 2010
Fuzzy platformer getting final polish
Gamelion have kindly informed us that their colourful platformer Furry Legends is being submitted to Nintendo for approval for a 2010 release in both North America and Europe. They could have submitted it earlier, but they're keen to ensure a quality presentation and are doing some more playtesting to squash any...
Nintendo Download 22, 24 December 2009 (Japan)
WiiWare catch-up and more MSX games for the Virtual Console.
The Wii gets the lion's share of Japanese downloads next week with four new WiiWare and three new VC titles. DSiWare gets a couple of games and two more Rurubu travel guides to round things out. Note that the DSiWare releases will be on Thursday the 24th rather than Wednesday due to the...
News Square Enix to Publish LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias in Japan
Impressive British downloadable title keeps the attention of the big guns of Japanese RPGs.
The LostWinds WiiWare games from Frontier have gotten loads of praise around the gaming industry and are two of the strongest selling titles on WiiWare. Noteworthy for containing boatloads of character, great design and compelling play mechanics which take...
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...
News Just What Is The Nintendo Zii?
A new trademark registered in Japan is fuelling speculation on the internet
Silicon Era has reported that a new trademark registration has appeared in the Japanese trademark database for the word "Zii." Nintendo submitted the application on the 30th of October, though there's no indication of what it's for. It could be trying to block the...
Nintendo Download 14 December 2009 (North America)
A Sunsoft classic and wormy sequel on Virtual Console; cooking, sims, little pet shops, magic and Bejeweled on DSiWare; and puzzling, racing and retro arcade action on WiiWare this week!
Virtual Console: Blaster Master (500pts NES - Sunsoft) -- Regarded by many as amongst the best shooters on the NES, this is apparently the first of many Sunsoft...
Review Ironclad (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
A rare Neo Geo CD gem comes to the Japanese Virtual Console
You can be forgiven for not having heard of Chotetsu Brikin'ger (often referred to as Ironclad Brikin'ger on the web) as it's one of a handful of Neo Geo CD titles that was never released in MVS cartridge form for arcades or outside of Japan (though according to message boards this VC...
Nintendo Download 15-16 December 2009 (Japan)
The focus is on DSiWare this week
After bumper crops of WiiWare and Virtual Console titles on the Wii in Japan recently, this week will only see one for each service. The DSiWare service, however, will have a fairly typical seven releases to choose from. WiiWare: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (900pts - Capcom) - Everyone's favourite trial lawyer...
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...
Interviews Nocturnal Entertainment's Flowerworks
We chat with Nocturnal Entertainment CEO about its WiiWare debut, Flowerworks.
We recently reviewed Flowerworks, a strange but very enjoyable gardening-and-fireworks combination, but we wanted to find out more about the game and its developer, Nocturnal Entertainment. So we got chance to sit down with Nocturnal's CEO Michael Shamgar and pitched him...
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 Ultimate Shooting Collection (Wii)
A 3-in-1 tour of Milestone's vision of Bullet Hell
Milestone is a pretty rare beast: a company completely focused on arcade shooters (well, other than that hula game) at a time when arcades and the old shoot 'em up game genre are both practically extinct. They were putting out Dreamcast games after that system died, so perhaps they just have a...
News Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: Rush Coming to Euro WiiWare This Friday
North American release to follow on the 14th
We've just been informed that Rubik's Cube-inspired puzzler Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: Rush is coming to European WiiWare (and presumably other PAL territories) this Friday (11th). The North American launch is scheduled for 14th. We'll naturally be reviewing this as soon as possible but in the meantime here's...
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...
Nintendo Download Rayman, Notebooks, Stress Busting and Ninjas! (US)
Another bumper crop of downloads for North America
Nintendo continues to flood the North American market with new titles; amongst them a few catch-up releases. WiiWareFlowerworks® and MAGNETIS™ comprise the puzzle contingent on WiiWare this week. We'll be reviewing the former in due course; the latter was reviewed some time ago, so be sure to...
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...
