Top 20 WiiWare Games in America (23rd July)

sad SPOGS is that high, I wish the game would just die!

Toki Tori! Nooooooo! I can't wait to see Mega Man pwn this list.

SPOGS at 8.
Just as crazy as our list.

Yup, too few pay attention to reviews or quality, they've only got the Wii Shop descriptions to go by. Thus Star Soldier R is doomed. SPOGS, the worst WiiWare has to offer, will continue to rise as it's the only racing WiiWare. Magnetica came too late... Dr. Mario stole all it's sales. Major League Eating isn't a bad game, so I'm not shocked to see it where it is, but I thought it'd be higher by now... I guess the digestive system stigma is hindering sales.

Hmm...I'm trying to decide what to get with my new Wii Points Card I just (literally) bought. I'll probably wait to see what we get on Monday, though, just in case. As for Star Soldier R...sorry, but you need to offer more than 2 levels. Just because a game is intentionally short, doesn't mean it isn't WAY TOO short.

Goddamnit! why is the ultra crappy My pokemon ranch #1?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

What exactly is with the writer's hate for Critter Round-Up? Your reviewer admitted as much in his review comments that the review grade was very much affected by the price. What happened to reviewing a game on its merits rather than on external factors? Talking about the price being too high (which I fully agree with) is one thing. Making that one of your biggest talking points is just irresponsible. Just trying to figure out the hate for a game most people really enjoy once they get their hands on it.

I like the site, but it's elements like this that bring this place closer to fanboy-hood rather than having actual journalistic, responsible reviews and commentary.

Wouldnt it be more accurate if this list is done every sunday instead so we can see how the new game did in its ENTIRE first week?

Holy crap, if SPOGS passes LostWinds...

Also @ Jogurt, I totally agree! I hope Mega Man 9 makes it into the top 5, that would definitely encourage other developers to make more new-old school games!

And like I said before, the only people who can truly enjoy star solider R are fans of the series.

All these Damn kids with their stupid Pokemon crap! I can't believe that's number 1. I guess people will buy anything. I suppose next week Spogs Racing will be at number 1. This list is insane.

@Dazza - I have reread the review. The main complaint is that the controls feel sluggish, a valid point. However, this is the only real negative in the review, yet it's called "a stinker". To me, the text does not match up with the review score.

Again, you mention outside influences affecting your review. If this game were not published by Konami and didn't cost what Konami is charging....if it were self-published by an independent developer at a cost of 500 points, would that have affected your score? If so, then you seriously need to reconsider how you present your reviews, as you're reviewing circumstances surrounding games rather than the games themselves.

I think Star Soldier R's big problem is the way people view games these days. They think of games as this big movie-like experience that you play through once to beat (and have your hand held the whole way). They can't wrap their heads around how you could get much value out of a 5 minute game. It's a shame. I liked Lost Winds, but I've easily gotten more enjoyment out of Star Soldier R, and I've mostly been playing the 2 minute mode.
But license seems to have a lot more to do with sales here. Lost Winds, Toki Tori and SSR are all lower then they should be. SPOGS racing? Whoever bought that and not one of these games, hang your head in shame.

I call them like I see them. Pure and simple. I left the last reviewing job I had mainly due to the fact that those above me thought it was okay to sugar-coat game reviews for companies that placed advertising on the site and to be overly critical of games from companies that didn't advertise with the site. Sometimes in a review I'll mention more good/bad points than other times, but at the end of the review, the number is the score I feel the game deserves. It's my opinion and my name on the review at the end of the day.

@Corbie - It's just clear to me that you went into that particular review with a sense you weren't going to enjoy it. Your overall tone suggests as much. But as you say, you call it like you see it, and you didn't like what you saw from the time you launched the game.

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I don't like to comment about a game until my very hands have played it. It's just like Pong Toss. Many have already written it off, but until I play it, I can't comment about it. I thought Critter Round-Up was bland and sluggish. Ultimately, there were too many flaws to get any type of real enjoyment out of the package, at least in my opinion.

@Corbie - Sorry for the double post. I just went back and read the rest of your reviews on this site (where did you write before?). In no way am I criticizing your writing or your critical eye, I just think it's very clear that you are a "core" gamer, and as such, you enjoy....and review...."core" games much more. Star Soldier/Gyrostarr/Final Fantasy/Lost Winds are all "core" games, which you clearly enjoyed. Are there many non-"core" games you like and play for fun?

@ Corbie.

Wait a minute.
Correct me if I'm wrong..
But wasn't it you, that said the score of a review isn't important?
I doubt I can find the link.
But we had a discussion about this exact topic.

I have to give it a score. That's the format this site uses. Doesn't matter if I like the way it's set up or not, it's not for me to say. I think people should read many reviews before they start making decisions. A review is still mostly opinion. And since we know everyone's opinion varies greatly, it's not fair to put your stock in any one reviewer or one web site for that matter. I just try to look at a game from an "every gamer" perspective. Sometimes these games aren't from genres that I particularly enjoy personally, but I can't go into the review with that attitude because not everyone share's my tastes in video games. Ultimately, you can read all the reviews you want, but until you play the game for yourself, you're never going to know how it stacks up in your own mind's eye.

@Roland - I missed your post when I posted this so I'll update it. I'm not sure what you mean by "core" games. I like lots of games dating back to Atari 2600 to present day PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. If you mean more casual games, I like those too.

@Corbie/Dazza - My original point, though it got a bit sidetracked, is that I'm just asking why the weekly dumping on the game on your weekly updates. There are much, much worse games on this list selling much higher quantities...games created by essential factories, and I wondered why the constant bashing of Critters.

@Corbie - You should have some sort of contact info on this site other than through the contact page. I'd like to talk with you some more about some things.

I don't control that contact info, but you can always visit my Super NES site and find my email. And I don't recall bashing Critter Round-Up since the review to my knowledge.

@Corbie - I was referring to the weekly "...let’s see Critter Round-Up fall into the abyss first!" statements on a weekly basis on the WiiWare chart posting. Cool SuperNES site by the way.

Why is Spogs so high? More people need to check out this site before downloading games. Maybe they can skip bad games and purchase Star Soldier R.

Buy Star Soldier R! Its a good game

Also buy Alien Crush when it comes out! It will be good

I think SPOGS proves to never doubt adding 'this is a must have game' to your description. Or perhaps people see that its so bad and just have to play it. Or maybe their gifting it to enemies as a joke. Or maybe people are just actually having fun with it? I mean, after all, I liked My Pokemon Ranch.

@ Dazza.

Konami SNES ERA they were amazing. Now, they're still my faves devs, but I'm noticing a lot of poor quality crap coming from them.

However CAPCOM always try there best, so MM9 should rock.

I'm so sick of every Wednesday the writer that posts the Top 20 has to keep complaining about Star Soldier R being so low. We get it already, you like it!

I blame SPOGS' high sales on all the websites reviewing them.

C'mon y'alls, let's not bash the sites for making little blurbs for the games they like. I personally don't agree with them myself, but then again, I don't dwell on them either. Just skip the info if you don't like it.

I have to say though, I would like to see SPOGS get knocked off the list before Star Soldier. We need Hudson's support!

I really hope Megaman 9 tops the charts. I never really liked Mega Man (because I used to think it was too hard), but I've had the Anniversary Collection on my shelf for a few years. I pulled it out today and tried Mega Man 1, and I was blown away. I love it! I can't wait for MM9! The 8-bit graphics make it that much more awesome. Toki Tori also deserves to be higher... like #3.

I bought pOp, Dr Mario, and TokiTori, and have not regretted any of those at all.

I thought SPOGS was a unique concept - riding inside a giant tire could have been really cool. The talk of power-ups made me think it was one of those fun "blast away your opponents" style games, like Mario Kart.

I don't rank the graphics very high on my priority list. If it had N64-ish graphics, so be it. It could still have been fun. So like a buffoon, I download on Monday without waiting for a rating. Badd mistake! I played two races, which were three minutes long each, but those three minutes were so bland, it felt like two hours. If I play a three minute race on Mario Kart Wii, it actually feels like three minutes joyfully well spent, rather than two hours of boredom.

So horrible, it almost didn't seem worth backing up to the SD card before I deleted it - So yes, I got duped. So did many others, judging by the stats. Life goes on. Screw the rankings. The USA rankings are radically different from that of Europe, or even Brazil. Something could be near the bottom on one list, near the top of another. So what? Enjoy your games, hate your games, they are yours because you spent money on them...

Star Soldier R is an excellent little shmup, it's sad to see all this other crap above it.

Well I am sorry, but Hudson should of knew better than to offer only two modes. Not worth it in my opinion when I get a SHMUP around the same price more or less on the VC that offers more than a 2 and 5 minute mode.

Damn straight! A shooter isn't worth playing if it doesn't even have a normal campain mode. A 2 and 5 minute time limit and that's it? What the hell were they thinking? I can't even name one old school shooter that limits your play time. IMO that is un acceptable. Star soldier R deserves it's low position. Unless you're really into getting that high score. It's not even a full game. I just wanna blast everything in sight and fight cool bosses. Who cares about the score?

I actually wanted to download My Pokemon Ranch: it's a shame Nintendo did such a lazy job on it. Of course, they know that they can put minimal effort into a product, slap the word "Pokemon" on it, and presto, a #1 seller. I mean, would it REALLY have killed them to make the graphics at least on a first-Pokemon-Stadium-on-the-N64 level? Nope, they simply chose not to. I hope the people profitting from that "game" choke just a little bit while eating lobster tails and caviar.

And SPOGS Racing - I really wanted to download that one at first, but thank God for reviews. How does Nintendo sleep at night, knowing that they're profitting from selling shoddy titles to the unsuspecting public? Answer: on top a pile of money and many beautiful ladies.

Of course, if you're downloading ANY titles without reading reviews first, you should already know you're skating on thin ice. Did you download SPOGS solely because the channel description said, "It's a must-have for your collection?"

I think the warning before you download Star Soldier R is discourging people from getting this game. Give it a chance though you will be surprised

SPOGS in 8th, you got to be kidding me, and toki tori also going down, this is a disaster.

I don't know why you keep saying Star Soldier R will be history... does Nintendo plan on removing games from the download service if their sales are poor? Or if they drop out of the top 20? I seriously doubt it.... Look at all the VC games, I don't think any of them have been removed.

@ the guy who wrote this article. Earlier this week when you wrote the article about Pirates being released, at the end of the article, you put that probably Strong Bad's and Pong Toss would come out this Monday. Meaning, that both Star Soldier R and Critter Round-Up would probably both fall out of the Top 20.

you may think that only 2 levels is short, but the game is SO MUCH FUN!!!! there's tons of power-ups and a online scoreboard! its only 8 bucks, that's a good deal, buy it!

It's very likely that individuals such as myself are responsible for the perceived distortion of WiiWare sales.

As a casual gamer in my mid 30's with two children and a full-time career, I likely have more expendable cash than the average gamer, but substantially less free-time.

Individuals such as myself likely visit the Nintendo site and view the videos prior to making a decision regarding what to download. I think a majority of the above purchases are based on graphics or familiarity.

SPOGS Racing looks awesome in the video posted on the Nintendo site, while SSR looks more like a remake of 1942 or Zaxxon. If I didn't know any better, I'd likely purchase SPOGS Racing before SSR.

The Mario themed games have been around since we were kids, so we can pretty much assume they are decent.

Trivia based games require no investment of time to begin playing, yet they are challenging (i.e. TV Show King).

For our toddlers and pre-teen children, we purchase games such as Pokemon Ranch (which I''ve done). There aren't many games for young children, so we have to purchase what they give us (my 4 year-old loves the Pokemon Ranch game).

Unfortunately, I don't believe individuals such as yourselves (experienced gamers) account for the majority of comsumers purchasing WiiWare games. It is for this reason that games such as Pokemon Ranch will continue to be produced and remain best-sellers.

Sad, but true.

I still don't understand why Star Soldeir R is soo low ranked.... breaks my heart, it does. T_T

The main problem with Ranch is that it doesnt even deliver on what it should be, even taking what its idea is. The whole point is to import your creatures and interact with them on your ranch. Except Ninty forgot the interactivness. At least throw in some Stadium-esque minigames. The other point would be to dump your party onto the game so you can start over on your DS game instead of buying another copy (DAMN SINGLE FILE GAMES) but Ranch doesnt let you export to any game but the one the PKMN is from. Complete failure. And of course, no battles, but thats another story.

I'm one of those who is avoiding Star Soldier R because it's only 2 stages. That's the only reason I'm avoiding it. Okay, I have Defend Your Castle, and it's basically just as small-time as SSR, but it's an obvious quirky time-waster that you know you'll easily enjoy every once in a while. But SSR is based on a genre which generally has far larger games. I just don't see myself enjoying it as much.

Anyway, interesting to see how the list has been these past eight weeks until now. Basing off this list and going back to the first list you guys gave us, My Pokémon Ranch has been 1st for 6 Weeks Running (Top 3 since release), Dr Mario has been consistantly in 2nd and Defend Your Castle consistantly in 3rd only because Pokémon Ranched knocked them down a peg. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles has been shuffling about in the top 5 since you guys started this list. The rest of the list, not so consistant outside of titles slowly falling off the list.

Defend Your Castle seems to be a pretty good game! Ok so we've got Pokemon at #1 but Dr. Mario is ok on #2, and I'm actually surprised DYC is at #3, so it might actually be good... I'm dissapointed with the relatively low sales for 2 great games though: Toki Tori and LostWinds.

^Aren't we all?

One more Wiiware game and SSRs gonna be the first WW game not in the top 20.
SPOGS is even higher up now, which is just plain pitiful. Pirates has just passed Toki Tori (go figure), but still isn't doing that well. I think these articles should be created later in the week, as the sales constanly change on WW.

I think Pokemon's gonna be at the top of the list for a loooooong time.

It is nice though to see DYC, Lostwinds, MLaaK, and Gyrostarr holding their positions.

Looking at this list makes me fearful of the state of video gaming at the moment. And the fact that Star Soldier R is at the bottom of this list is just plain sad.

yea star soldier so be higher up than that and same with toki tori... its sad to see that list

I will use my all-seeing powers of observation past and future... Huuummmmmmm...

Megaman 9 .. will . be .. .. .. Number 1 .. there . will .. no longer ... be . a .. second .. or .. third . or . even ... a ...fourth .. for .. Megaman 9 . will .. command those . spots .. as ... well ... ... ...