USA WiiWare Update: Sandy Beach

Crab Battle? Is it a reference to that MGS3 parody? Its made by Konami, so I guess so! Wow! First comment! On one of my first posts too!

It's crab people!

interesting but a summer game in winter? well i suppose you could go down to the beach right now if could and build sand castles but it wouldn't be that enjoyable.

I'm glad we've been getting some 5 dollar games lately. This actually looks like it could be interesting. I wonder what the deal is with the treasure finding. Makes me think think of that nes game where you put up walls around you and defend your territory from boat attacks (Cant think of the name right now.)

I hope to hear about this from someone soon, though I may not wait too long. Thank God it's something other than a puzzle game.

Kirby's Dream Land 3?! No way! FINALLY! Thank you Nintendo!! All I need now is Sonic and Knuckles or SSB and I'll regain confidence in the VC Release Schedule.

What a great start to the new year.

As for WiiWare... I'm a tad disappointed. I expected something with a little more substance, I suppose. I may wait to hear what you guys think about it before I consider spending precious points on it. Also, like I said before when it was first announced, Crab Battle sounds kinda fun as it appears to bear some resemblance to DYC.

BassXO:

Winter? Here is summer.. don't forget that the Earth is round

Hm, SB sounds interesting as a tower defense game, especially since it seems to support the use of 3d terrain on the fort. The effect isn't very pretty but for 500 points I don't think expectations are very high anyway. I wonder how it plays out, whether they treated that mode as a small bonus feature like the fly swatting game in Mario Paint or if they treat it as 50% of the game (or more)...

The CB mode castles seem much more primitive than the sandbox (lol pun) mode castles.

@SonicKnuckles: I'm sensing a bit of sarcasm.

To stay on-topic, Why would we need to get this? Wait 6 months, build a sand castle, then throw your brother in the tide whenever he gets too close. XD

@ thor27:

Yeah, but the game is being released here, where it is winter.

@ Bass XO:

Actually, it is a pretty good strategy. You release the season themed games/movies/whatever during the opposite season. You get so sick of the current season, that the opposite is really appealing.

Remember how "March of the Penguins" was released in the summer? Research on it showed that it did the best in the areas that were REALLY hot that summer.

@Nobarai: Well... no. I've been waiting for AGES for this game. So it's nice to finally see it come to VC. But I was being sarcastic about the VC Schedule but who knows... it's a new year, and since this is a great start, let's hope they're finally smartening up. Let's HOPE....

Also lol @ your end statement.

Well, I still wanted Castlevania 3, but I've wanted Kirby's Dream Land 3 since it was rated last Febuary so I'm pretty happy today.

Of course as usual, the WiiWare game looks stupid. Next week on WiiWare, get ready for Dogs Love Us, a game where you use the Wiimote as a virtual leash to walk your virtual dog. Plus, Garbage Bag Toss, a game where you use your Wiimote to toss virtual garbage bags into garbage cans. Nintendo needs to stop the shovelware from appearing and just focus on making great games like when the WiiWare service launched. They're letting any developer make any kind of garbage for WiiWare, and that sucks.

Though I don't like this title from the screenshots, many parents will probably get this for their little kiddies.
I'm still waiting for Ubisoft or another company to announce a holiday-themed resort island building simulator for WiiWare. I'd love that. SimCity for holiday resorts!

1. Stopping "shovelware" wouldn't help their third party relationships, especially since everyone defines that differently and would consider many decent games shovelware (how many of us would approve of the release of My Aquarium? Yet blocking it would have been blocking a crapton of sales).
2. They already made a game about walking your virtual dog and all that, it sold 21 million copies or so on the DS and was one of the deciding factors in the system's huge success.

Hopefully this is the only time Nintendo introduces one WiiWare game a week.

I'm with you gameking. Though it WILL probably happen again. I just hope we don't have a day where we dont get one at all. That happened on the playstation network last week, nothing at all.

Yeah, I was expecting two releases today also. Yet another reason why I'm disappointed. At least VC helps rectify everything. Otherwise, I'd slouch for yet another week.

We got one game on Wiiware AND VC!? This sucks. God, I hope this doesn't become the new norm; It's bad enough getting one VC and 2 Wiiware games. This one doesn't even look good. I was really hoping for Animales too. Oh well...

I wonder what the deal is with the treasure finding.

I believe it's a way of finding cannon to mount on your castle. The cannon are then used to defend against the crab attack.

Kudos to Konami for making another 500 point game! After such a long dearth of inexpensive titles, it's nice to see companies step up to the plate.

"Hopefully this is the only time Nintendo introduces one WiiWare game a week."

Something tells me that is unlikely. And has the font changed? Its seems smaller.

Well, I will wait for the review but I will say that this game doesn't look that good.

I am a little surprised to see we are only getting one wiiware game this week. However, if there was another wiiware choice, I doubt that Sandy Beach would get much attention.

@Thewiirocks- Yea, I looked back at the treasure screenshot and it does have a meter with canons on it. I wonder if you can find other things too, besides canons.

"Hopefully this is the only time Nintendo introduces one WiiWare game a week."

June 23 - Sep. 08, that whole period only had 1 WiiWare game a week for NA.

Whaaat!!! One VC game and one Wiiware game and is not Niki , at least we finally got KDL 3; this sandy thing, nah, it doesn't appeal to me at all and I'm saving my last points.

Dunno, after playing Niki for the first 2.3 worlds or so the design got terribly annoying. World 3-3 (or so): A vertical tower with platforms on the side that mean you have to jump from one side to the other and back to get up if you fall down. The problem? Zero air control, once you bounce you either reach the other platform or fall down the whole way again. It's like we're back in 1980 again. The design is very tedious, you have to kill a number of respawning enemies and collect 6 pearls in order. The enemies have a tendency to come to you so you'll be in one place fending them off for a while, the pearls tend to remain uncollected until all enemies are dead and are often distributed so they require several trips through the level to get which is only difficult because it's hard to jump up to most platforms with the physics (walljumps are also pretty damn inconsistent).

Why... so... crabby?!

Guess we'll see what the review scores ends up being...

Defend your Castle transformed into sand and being attacked by crustaceans? Hmmm I don't expect too much of this but as I see in the screenshots, there's a co-op mode and it's 3D, sooooooo I might take a look at this when it reaches Europe.

@Wiiloveit- Yea, I looked back at the treasure screenshot and it does have a meter with canons on it. I wonder if you can find other things too, besides canons.
That was strange - this post here is my first one today - yet I've still been "quoted". Longtimergamer: you've officially lost it.

Don't forget that the Earth is round
You've just ruined Pirates of the Caribbean 3 for me - how can they travel to "de ends of de earth" now?!

We got one game on Wiiware AND VC!? This sucks. God, I hope this doesn't become the new norm; It's bad enough getting one VC and 2 Wiiware games. This one doesn't even look good. I was really hoping for Animales too. Oh well...
First of all: over the past two weeks, we've had to put up with this (2 VC games, then 2 WW games), just as we've had to do so many times before, so don't start complaining. Also: I wouldn't be hoping for Animales until there's a re-confirmation that it is actually on it's way, due to recent doubts. And it hasn't been ESRB rated yet, so I'd keep on waiting for that as well.
Not meaning to have a go at you there Mr Cheez... I mean Ricardo91, sometime when I type things, they sound angrier than when I think them.

@BassX0: I don't think so...

Also - I don't know what to think about this game. The concept sounds decent enough, but I can't see it lasting, and the graphics look a bit dull and samey from the screens. Still - I'll wait for the review and then decide whether or not I shall purchase it.

EDIT: And another thing: I'm likin' the image viewer, WWW

Huh. No one is complaining about this one game week.
SB looks like a decent game for 500 pts. I'll wait for the review.

I'm suprised there have been no comments about:
"Konami, this isn't the 500 point game I wanted"
I'll have to head over to VC-reviews to see if anyone said it.

Sandy Beach: Meh
Kirby: YEAH ROCK ON!! One of my favorite Kirby games.

@WiiLoveit- Sorry, it was to thewiirocks comment.

I don't think I will get this, but I can't wait to read the review about it. I do like the beach. Hey I have an idea how about getting us North Americans California Games.

@Starwolf UK
This isn't the 500 point game I wanted from Konami
In fact, this isn't the 500 point game I wanted in any way, shape, or fashion.
Here's to the day Gradius: Rebirth drops, cheers!

I'll wait till the review, but I have little confidence in this one.

@longtimegamer: it's okay. Things like that keep me awake - although I was pretty confuzzled at first

I'll probably get this if the review's any good. I want to do Crab Battle, but I would prefer something with a better concept, like LIT or Gradius Rebirth.

Not an amazing update for the US but better than nothing. I'm with lockelocke on Gradius: Rebirth, should be something special.

As for Sandy Beach, seems like a hit or miss game and I will wait for the review before considering it. With a sandcastle game released in Winter, maybe a snowball fight game will arrive this Summer.

meh, i'll wait for a review of sb. oh and to anyone who has played the original kirby dl3 on snes, can kirby infinately float or is it a mistake in the vc version?

"CRAB BATTLE!!" XD

So anyone know who's reviewing this?

"oh and to anyone who has played the original kirby dl3 on snes, can kirby infinately float or is it a mistake in the vc version?"

It's infinite. The only traditional Kirby game with limited flight is Kirby 64.

@DEADCELL and Ferret75
Exactly what I was thinking.

Anyway, despite the bumming two-game release week, both games look good, and I'm looking forward to the review. If this game is remotely as good as DYC, I might get it. Still, I wonder if two-game releases will become the norm.

@sfog: thanks for the info. As it turns out, Kirby 64 is the only kirby game i have ever played!

Anyone played this yet, or is everyone waiting for the review?

They can keep this up for wiiware releases I don't care for wiiware's upcoming releases that much. Just give us two vc releases a week please.

Unless I missed it earlier, they didn't have the video when I first looked. I looked back recently and it's there now.

I'm still not sure about the game still. I heard the noise that the canons make, but they don't boom or explode. They make popping noises. I'd rather they sound more explosive. The popping noise sounds kind of weak.

@Longtimegamer....way back in post #5, the game you were talking about (I believe) is called, "Rampart". It is one of the best PvP games ever. That is actually the game that came to my mind when I read the review of this one. Rampart is one of my top 5 games I'd like to see on the VC.

Here's my prediction BEFORE the review:
5/10

Sucks, but not that much.

@Tasthomas-Yea. I played some of that game. It's not a bad game. Do you know if it has an ending or does it go on forever (as long as you don't die.)?

I hope Sandy Beaches is at least as fun. Still haven't heard from anyone who has played it. Someone had to by now.

I've played it . Yeah, Rampart is a good comparison. But I'd much rather be playing Rampart than this.

@Gabbo-Was it fun at all? Seemed that there was only one type of weapon. THAT doesn't sound too great.

Well, it was a little fun. But it got old pretty fast. I also found the controls and perspective frustrating. This one is a bit hard to explain and may not be what people are expecting just from the screenshots. I would definitely wait for the review before getting it, which should be up sometime later 'today'.

Wow, noone complains anywhere near as much as over in vc-reviews GOOD! I'm predicting a 4, it's alright for a little bit but there's not much to hold your interest after a while. Not that I've played it that's just what I think the review will say. Hope I'm wrong though!

You were right.

@Chunky-Nice prediction.

lol go me!

@longtimegamer, no 1PL. Rampart had no ending.

games fo kids not a game for gamers

What? Since when are games for kids not games for "gamers"?