News MySims Head Ever Skyward with SkyHeroes
Copter no longer necessary
Those MySims sure do get into some scrapes, and their latest adventure MySims SkyHeroes is set to debut on Wii and DS. According to Scott Evans, General Manager of the The Sims Studio: We are thrilled to have many firsts with MySims SkyHeroes, like introducing epic boss battles, cooperative gameplay missions and online...
News 71 Million Wiis Sold Worldwide
Question mark block still full of coins
Though Nintendo's seeing its first profit decline in six years as we previously reported, their fiscal report isn't all bad news. Their home console hit a worldwide total of 70.93 million sales in its lifetime. Compare this to the 21.72 million units of GameCubes that sold before its time passed and just how...
Review 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection (DSiWare)
Chump's challenge
Every so often a developer realizes a concept so simple and fun that for as long as games are made, other developers will replicate and modify its formula again and again. Sokoban is one such game, and 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection is one such replication. Not that copying a classic design is inherently bad; Windows users of old...
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Bloons has already made an appearance on WiiWare, where it didn't exactly bowl us over. Now it reaches DSiWare with a few much-needed improvements, and in places it's quite the fun little puzzle game: it's challenging enough to captivate fans of the genre and other serious gamers, but might be a bit too difficult to...
News Nintendo Profits Fall for the First Time Since 2004
Still made a few billion, though
Associated Press recently reported the Big N's earnings for the fiscal year, which ended on March 31st. The company forecasts their first drop in profit in six years, at 230 billion yen (2.4 billion USD) profit, down from 279.1 billion yen (2.96 billion USD) profit in 2009. Analysts say that this is most likely due...
Review Ferrari GT Evolution (DSiWare)
Drivers may want to exercise caution
Ferrari GT Evolution is a decent arcade-esque racing game. It looks quite good, handles well and has enough gameplay variety to keep things interesting, but you'll have to return to certain tracks far too many times before progressing to warrant a stronger recommendation. The meat of the game is Career mode, in...
News Racers' Islands: Crazy Racers Zooms to WiiWare
A whole island of crazy characters awaits
Zallag recently announced its upcoming WiiWare title, Racers' Islands: Crazy Racers, to support play by up to eight competitors at a time with a focus on colourful characters and weapons. Each racer favours a specific tool of destruction, which from their descriptions we gather means that specific tools are...
News Call of Duty: Black Ops for Wii in Doubt
GameStop pre-order listing omits Nintendo's console
Those who have enjoyed the Call of Duty franchise's previous outings on Nintendo platforms will surely be disappointed to learn of retail outlet GameStop's omission of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops' Wii incarnation on its pre-order listing. Activision has yet to officially announce which...
News Teyon Releases A-Maze-ing Trailer for 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection
Richard O'Brien nowhere to be seen
Teyon recently announced a May 3rd release date for its upcoming 500 Point DSiWare puzzler, 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection, which predictably promises a collection of over a thousand crystal mazes. The company also published a trailer for the game, which you can watch below. The full press release is as follows:...
News Japan to Cool Off with Mario and Animal Crossing Fans
Club Nintendo Japan gets all the cool stuff - literally
While the rest of the world can satisfy itself with tiny cards and Wii Remote baskets, Japan just got an item to once again pique the rest of the world's envy – Mario and Animal Crossing themed handheld fans for 150 coins a pop at their local Club Nintendo. This is especially distressing news...
News Teyon Releases Teaser for Heavy Fire: Special Operations
A special treat for on-rail shooter fans
We previously reported Teyon's announcement of upcoming light-gun WiiWare shooter set in the Middle East, Heavy Fire: Special Operations. Now Teyon has released a teaser for the game that you can watch below, with more information available if you head over to the official site. The site describes it as...
News Earthworm Jim Creator Says Fourth Adventure Wii-Bound
New 2D game coming at some point
This is the age of retro sequels. With Sonic 4 on the horizon and Mega Man 9 and 10 nestled snugly on our hard drives, we're beginning to dream of which of our favorite games from the past might see the light of day again after all. That's why we're hoping that Earthworm Jim 4, recently confirmed to
News Final Fantasy V and VI Technical Problems Prevent DS Conversions
Fantasy not quite final
Those of you who have enjoyed Final Fantasy's previous reinventions on the DS may be dismayed to read a recent Twitter tweet from Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto regarding the (hopefully) upcoming remakes of the fifth and sixth outings: For FF5 and 6, there are technical issues as well, so at present these are also...
News Mega Man Zero Collection Announced for June Release
Spend $30, get Zero (now with trailer!)
We previously reported that this game was to be released in Japan, and Capcom just announced its Western debut on June 8th. You can preorder it now and pick it up for just $29.99. Mega Man Zero Collection encompasses all four releases in the Game Boy Advance series, originally introduced in 2002. Additional...
News Intellivision to Be Reborn on DS
It's still alive!
Earlier this year we quite favourably reviewed the GameCube release Intellivision Lives!, a collection of over sixty games from the presumed dead retro system. Among its catalogue were not only nostalgia-inducing favorites but demos and prototypes as well, including everything from Bomb Squad to Baseball and Thunder Castle to...
Review Don't Feed the Animals (DSiWare)
Un-bear-able
In Don't Feed the Animals, you play a child who, with his or her friends, has stored a bunch of candy at a fort. On your way to eat said candy, wave after wave of covetous animals bombard the clubhouse. You must protect the candy – all twenty pieces of it – with robots. There are three robots that you can use in your defence:...
News Nintendo Relicenses SC Texture Technology
Unwilling to let GameCube compression tech go
Nintendo recently renewed their license with S3 Graphics to continue using their S3 Texture Compression technology. They explain the tech as follows: S3TC texture compression uses an advanced compression algorithm that achieves up to six-fold compression of complex textures and images that are used in...
News BlazBlue Blows Overseas to Western Shores, Swaps Some Letters on the Way
Quirky brawler now known as BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale
We reported in December that the hardcore BlazBlue series was soon to make its debut on Nintendo's DSiWare service in the form of a cute, big-headed battle game with full free roaming for 500 Nintendo Points. Known as BlazBlue Battle X Battle in Japan, the ESRB has outed its...
Review Surviving High School (DSiWare)
If only the real thing were this much fun
With this downloadable title, EA provides a very entertaining and engrossing experience that many will unfortunately write off based on its name alone. The game is almost completely text-based, which means that there aren't any explosions or fancy graphics, but the story and characters are funny and...
News Sid Meier's Pirates! Pillaging Its Way Onto Wii
No buckle shall go unswashed
The ESRB recently outed the highly regarded Sid Meier's Pirates! as an upcoming Wii (or, possibly, WiiWare) title. Originally developed for Commodore 64, MicroProse released the PC version in 1987 and, in 2004, Atari published the Firaxis-developed remake. 2K Games then took the reins, porting the title to the Xbox and...
News JV Games Announces Frat Party Games: Pong Toss Pro
Not just for amateurs anymore
You may remember Frat Party Games: Pong Toss, released on WiiWare over a year ago. We gave the game a pretty unfavourable review, but instead of giving up, its developer has gone back to reassess, tweak and fix what went wrong with its debut release. The new WiiWare game, Frat Party Games: Pong Toss Pro, will be...
News Ghost Trick to Haunt the West This Winter
Capcom unveils a new Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
We previously reported in 2009 that this new game from the original director of the Ace Attorney franchise was in production and planned for a Japanese release. Even then, Capcom had translated the name into English, so it may not come as much of a surprise that the company recently confirmed its...
News BBC Study Suggests Brain Training Games are Ineffective
Grey (doesn't) matter
Have you been playing Brain Training (known as Brain Age in the U.S.) or its sequel on your way to work, feeling good about yourself as you utilise your DS for something useful? Have you outsmarted your friends recently and thought, "there's that grey matter at work!"? According to a study recently published by the...
News An In-Depth Look at Dive: The Medes Island Secret
Designer dives into the game's details with dswii.es
Recently, DSWii.es sat down with José A. Giacomelli of Cosmonaut Games to talk about its upcoming WiiWare release, Dive: The Medes Island Secret. Among the topics discussed were the dynamics of a platformer based underwater, the length of gameplay (ten non-linear levels clocking in at an...
