A little bit of madness and some exciting Arcade Classic surprises coming to the Japanese Wii next week, whilst the Japanese DSiWare service comes out of a dry spell.
On the WiiWare front we have four titles coming out next Tuesday:
Muscle March from Namco Bandai for 800 points features body builders and a...polar bear...trying to catch the people who stole their protein powder by matching various poses so they can walk through walls after them!
Arkanoid Plus! from Taito, also for 800 points seems to be a remix of the Arkanoid and Revenge of DOH arcade block-breaking games. There's a WiFi PNP icon, so expect extra levels to buy for this like every other retro Taito game on WiiWare. Hopefully they've made good use of pointer or motion for paddle control because I'm definitely ready to break some blocks! Also includes a 2-player battle mode a la Arkanoid Returns.
Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle Wii from Try First for only 500 points is a puzzle game using triangles and various trapezoidal pieces to completely fill in various shapes -- basically it's like a Wii version of Tanagrams (anyone else have those as kids?).
3°C from Kemco is 700 points and looks very much like Samegame or something else in that vein with little coloured blocks that seemingly need to be removed from a 2-D playfield to score points. Guess even Japan gets it's share of "me-too!" puzzle games.
On the VC front we have a couple of golden oldies:
Final Fantasy for the Famicom for 500 points -- note the absence of any numbers, yep, it's the one that started it all!
Splatterhouse for the VC Arcade for 800 points -- much preferred over any of the console ports available.
DSiWare has six new releases lined up for the following day (27th):
Chotto Magic Taisen Nensha Camera for 200 points -- looks like another in a series of Chotto Magic Taisen titles for the DSi from Nintendo.
Puzzle Magazine Crossword House for 500 points -- a crossword title from Nintendo (with vols. 2 & 3 coming in June and July apparently).
Mr. Brain for 500 points -- a collection of logic puzzles from Square-Enix.
Rizumu de Kitaeru Atarashii Eigo Duke Yasashii Kaiwa Hen for 800 points -- appears to be a title for learning conversational English from Nintendo.
Pocket Rurubu Tookyoo and Pocket Rurubu Kyooto for 800 points each -- these are both from Nintendo and are DSi versions of the Rurubu travel guides for Tokyo and Kyoto, respectively.
Comments 45
Blimey, what an update!
I would have to invest in the arcade version of Splatterhouse. What a game.
Also Muscle March looks so bonkers that I would have to download that too!
Yes, I'm very glad I bought 3000 points this week since I'm getting Muscle March, Arkanoid Plus! and Splatterhouse. The tangrams title looks like it could be decent, but that kind of logic game really doesn't hold my interest on a tv screen, so I'll pass.
How about more of that arcade magic over HERE Nintendo?
Dang. I need to get DOH out the door before Nintendo eats my lunch!
(Still very cool to see Arkanoid show up, though. )
Japan got 11 games...why does this not surprise me?
Who wants to bet we're getting Final Fantasy next Monday?
"3C (you'll have to imagine a degree symbol separating those characters) "
Don't have a degree symbol on a Japanese keyboard? At least in word or some similar software you should be able to find the symbol. Or just copy and paste mine into teh news if you wish... °
@KeeperBvK - Good catch! Now we no longer need to imagine lol
Mr. Brain isn't part of the 6 DSi games deal. Not from what I can see. Also I just noticed the Tanagrams puzzle is really NEVES Plus.
Unless NoJ have a series of errors on their website Mr. Brain is indeed coming next week: both the DSiWare index and the Mr. Brain page state 27/05 is the release date. And, whilst it may be getting called Neves Plus outside of Japan, that's not what it's called over there (and to me it will always be tanagrams!).
And KeeperBVK, I don't know if there's a degree symbol on a Japanese keyboard because I use a British one myself .
Splatterhouse arcade? Damn those lucky Japanese.
Oh, and damn Sean while we're at it.
Come ON Nintendo. We need some arcade titles too. At least it only costs $5 over here.
Good grief! The Japanese should not recieve anymore games for a year because they have TOO dang much! I think NOJ hates us Americans and Europeans,and they are prejudice!
Jesus Christ! lol 11 games!? SIX DSi games in one week!
What the hell is wrong with NOA!? I'd be amazed if we get 5 games across ALL their systems....
Wow, the proper, real uncensored "Splaterhouse" for the VC Arcade! Really good week for Japan, I would say.
Just throwing it out there. WHY do arcade titles cost 800 points over in Japan? That's extremely steep!
@ Sean: Well, then, don't British keyboards have a ° on them? ^^
@JTCPingas09: Maybe it's because arcades have historically been more popular in Japan than in other territories (for the most part), meaning they would still see 800 points as a bargain because they've spent more money on arcade machines than we generally would have. Just a wild theory.
Anyway, I note that there are several games releasing in Japan that should not release in other territories: Muscle March (gross!) and those English-learning and map-type DSiWare titles. Also, how does a crossword puzzle work in Japanese? Or do they just use English for those?
Anyway, @pixelman: If I was a betting man, I'd bet we WON'T get Final Fantasy next week, because Nintendo just LOVES to delay much-anticipated releases. But I'm not, so I won't. Actually, I do believe there's a small chance we'll get it, though I'll still be surprised if we do.
Looking forward to hearing impressions for Muscle March!
Unless NoJ have a series of errors on their website Mr. Brain is indeed coming next week: both the DSiWare index and the Mr. Brain page state 27/05 is the release date.
I didn't realize what I said could be taken TWO ways. I meant the 6 DSi game deal Square and Intelligent Systems had.
Wow, look at all that.
Why haven't we had any Arcade games yet to add in our collection?
You mean Nintendo added a service where arcade games are brought to the Virtual Console? Are you serious or is that a joke?
companies need to make their own emulators for each of the arcade boards their games run on?
I'm so envious, japan always gets so many games and aps to choose from every week, What about NA?
My guess: Nintendo won't release any good stuff here until after the E3.
Does anyone else wish they lived in Japan right now?
japan ownz, wish I could move there if I spoke the language.
Arkanoid is sweet !
@JTCPingas09: Originally I wondered the same thing, but actually the 800 point cost for VCA titles makes sense when you consider that the often inferior console ports for most of these games are 500-600 (for Famicom, Megadrive and PC Engine games). So you have a choice of getting a port for less money or the premium price for the emulated original.
I'm actually expecting that future VCA releases outside of Japan for games which already have ports out will also cost more; after all why would you pay 600 points for the TG-16 Splatterhouse when you can get the arcade version for 500?
Crossword, Tana, Mr Brain and Arky Plus are exactly my kind of thang.
Awesome update!! I knew Splatterhouse Arcade would come one day!
(Sorry I don't care about Final Fantasy XD)
Hooray Final Fantasy, hopefully that comes out here soon!
Yay Final Fantasy.
And Arkanoid Plus looks great. My favorite WiiWare games are ones that are remakes/deluxe versions of older games. =D
Arkanoid Plus sounds interesting. Can't wait for Final Fantasy.
It is interesting that Namco is going for the emulated arcade games whereas Konami and Taito are doing homages in new packaging. I'm not sure which I prefer, but I expect Namco's way involves less work.
Arkanoid Plus has Wi-Fi
It's WiFi PnP (red logo rather than blue one); just means there's pay-to-play downloadable/unlockable levels I expect.
I would also like, that Arkanoid Plus and Super Bubble Plus gets to Europe ...
I wish we could get an update like this.
Tony United States 22 May 2009, 20:27 GMT
You mean Nintendo added a service where arcade games are brought to the Virtual Console? Are you serious or is that a joke?
Yes Nintendo did start an actual Virtual Console Arcade section sometime late last year way before the SD card storage update that we just recently got.
@43. Ratengo: eh, I did want to write Bubble Bobble Plus. But now I see, that this one is already out in EU... silly me.
Yeah, I saw what looked like a new channel there in the updates. Somehow I don't think it'll work for me in the UK sadly...
I downloaded Arkanoid Plus!, Muscle March and Splatterhouse before breakfast and read the manuals of the first two.
Arkanoid Plus! sadly doesn't seem to use any kind of analogue input at all. Support is wiimote on it's side using d-pad to move your Vaus or the Classic Controller doing the same. Very disappointing; hopefully they've adapted the control well to the d-pad, but after Block Breaker Deluxe and Geometry Wars showed us how well the pointer could work for analogue input and Bit.Trip BEAT demonstrated the same for twisting, it's sad to see that Taito didn't follow suit. Unlockable content consists of Zone 2 for 200 points. Looks like all the power-ups from Arkanoid and Revenge of DoH are present; two player battle mode has some additional ones specific to that mode.
Muscle March uses four different motions; has more than a half-dozen selectable characters and three stages: city, country and space.
I'm keen to get my hands on them tonight!
No, Muscle March is clearly a "nunchuck required" game.
Motions are both controllers up, both controllers down, one up one down for a total of four combinations. Hopefully they got the sensitivity right!
This is absolutely outrageous. NOE and NOA are gonna have to start pulling their socks up!
Jeesh , How Many Games In Dsi Ware Does Japan Got Anyway ? Omg Can't Wait Till We Get The Moving Memo Pad! What A Rip Off
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