There's nothing really big on DSiWare and WiiWare this week, so instead, Nintendo has chosen to release not 2, but 3 games for both services. The Virtual Console gets two well-known games, but both of them are of debatable quality.
Let's start with WiiWare - "Aha! I Got It!" Escape Game is a lot like certain flash games you can find on the internet - The objective is nothing more than to escape from a room by searching around and solving puzzles to eventually unlock a door. If this contained just one room, we would probably recommend you to stick with free flash games, but the game actually contains two, with the second having three exits (Each with a different ending), so it'll keep you busy for a decent while, and is very fairly priced for 500 Wii Points. Read our review for more.
Carnival King seems to combine arcade shooting games and mini-game collections - It offers a large amount of carnival shooting galleries in which the aim is nothing more than to rapidly hit all the targets that appear. If there's enough of them, the game could be worth it at 700 Wii Points, so keep an eye on our review.
Family Card Games is the seventh and seemingly, for now, the final game in the "Family" series. As the name implies, it's a collection of card games, three to be exact - Daifugo, Speed and Memory. All previous games in the series were of dubious quality, so we're understandably cautious about this one. It does, however, have online multiplayer, which could at least give it some replay value. We'll review it soon. It costs 500 Wii Points, like all previous games.
On the DSiWare side of things, we have Viking Invasion, the service's first tower defense game. Unlike most games in the genre, which opt for a medieval or fantasy setting, in this one you defend your lands against good old vikings, who will come down the river in their warships. It's fairly good, too, so if you're clamoring for a portable tower defense game it could very well be worth it at 800 DSi Points.
Battle of Giants: Dragons - Bronze Edition, which also costs 800 DSi Points, isn't recommended, though. This is a compact version of Ubisoft's retail game Battle of Giants: Dragons, and as such features the same gameplay, just with less content. It's a shame that that gameplay is so disappointing - As the name implies, you spend most of the time battling dragons, but these are seemingly so eager to lose that most of the time you can just win by repeatedly attacking before they get a chance to. After each fight, you run and fly around a nice-looking, but ultimately completely bare overworld before finding another opponent to battle. If you've got money to blow and really enjoy the concept of dragons fighting each other, then go ahead - But we warned you!
Sparkle Snapshots sounds very similar to EA's MySims Camera - It enables you to take photos and decorate them with slightly more advanced features than the DSi already has. It also costs 300 DSi Points more and thus goes for 500! We really doubt that this is going to be worth it unless you lack a PC with Photoshop or any other image editing software - Why pay for something the DSi can already do in some capacity? We'll have a review soon.
Today's Virtual Console "classics" are of shaky quality. Fighting Street is the Turbo CD port of the first Street Fighter, and it's pretty close to the original arcade version - It features the very same wonky controls, shaky animations and overpowered AI opponents. We'll review it soon, but again - There's a very good reason why everybody fondly remembers Street Fighter II and not this.
R-Type on the Master System costs 300 Wii Points less than the near arcade-perfect TurboGrafx-16 version, but obviously it comes at a cost - Yes, it has one extra level, but everything else looks and sounds noticeably weak. This is understandable since it's a weaker system, but throw in large amounts of annoying sprite flickering and we don't see why you would pick this up over the TG16 version, other than saving 300 points. You can read what we thought here.
Eight new games, although a lot of them might be underwhelming to some. Are you picking up anything? More from Nintendo's press release:
NINTENDO DOWNLOAD: THIS WEEK'S DOWNLOADABLE LINEUP TRULY SPARKLES
Nov. 2, 2009
Why just take photos with your Nintendo DSi™ system when you can have access to a virtual photo booth? Sparkle Snapshots™, a new Nintendo DSiWare™ application, lets you customize pictures with fun extras like fancy frames and stamps. On the other hand, if you're more of a fan of Nordic pillaging and/or dragons, you're going to want to check out this week's Nintendo DSiWare offerings of both Viking Invasion and Battle of Giants: Dragons – Bronze Edition.
Three fun WiiWare™ games are added to the ever-growing library, including Carnival King, which turns your TV into a carnival midway. And the Virtual Console™ delivers its usual quality classics, including Fighting Street®, a port of the original arcade version of STREET FIGHTER.
Nintendo DSiWare
Sparkle Snapshots
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Take photos and embellish them to your heart's desire with Sparkle Snapshots. Choose from a large variety of fancy frames, backgrounds, stamps and funny outfits to decorate your photos, or use the powerful paint program functions to manipulate them in detail. Want to take a new photo and add it to your collection? Adjust the lighting conditions and lens type to match your subject and even use a shutter timer to allow yourself some extra time to get everything perfectly in place. Save your favorite snapshots in your Nintendo DSi Camera album and use Nintendo DS wireless communications to send your masterpieces to your friends. It's all the fun of a photo booth – and more – in the palms of your hands.
Viking Invasion
Publisher: BiP Media
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: They come from the North, and they're about to invade your Nintendo DSi system. Beware of Olaf the Viking and his motley crew. Even now, their drakkars are sailing up the rivers to attack your castles. It's up to you to construct fortifications to prevent them from pillaging everything you own. The more you defend yourself, the more ferocious they'll become. Before you know it, they'll be invoking legions of fantastic creatures straight out of the mythical land of Asgard. Fortunately, the experience you gain will help you to build even more powerful defenses. Thwart all your assailants' ruses and unlock new kinds of buildings: tornado-blowing windmills to repel the ships, monoliths that strengthen your fortifications or canons that shoot studded shells. Discover more than 10 levels, tons of units, a Campaign mode, a Survival mode and three difficulty levels. There's even a little surprise at the end. Can you rise to the challenge and stop Olaf from taking your treasure home to his sweetheart Olga?Battle of Giants: Dragons – Bronze Edition
Publisher: Ubisoft
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: As last of the noble and rare Bronze Dragons, you must defeat the evil SALMU dragons and reclaim the 25 exclusive bronze gems they stole. Explore 10 maps and travel through the great jungles of Earth, the scorched grounds of Fire, the frozen wastelands of Ice and the floating islands of Wind. Customize your dragon's appearance by changing its body, wings, tail shape and colors – even add stripes. Test your dragon's fighting skills against your friends in head-to-head combat or four-player tournaments.
WiiWare
Carnival King
Publisher: Incredible Technologies
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 700 Wii Points™
Description: Carnival King is a fun-for-all-ages video game that brings the spirit and energy of competitive carnival games to the screen. Players compete for top scores and prizes while visiting three different amusement parks: Arcadia, Dreamland and Lagoon Park. Each park has four sets of games and a Bonus Round to test players' speed and accuracy. For novices or sharpshooters, the games are continually challenging, and the difficulty level can be adjusted to match each player's growing confidence."Aha! I Got It!" Escape Game
Publisher: Ateam Inc.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Play alone or with family and friends to solve this puzzling adventure game. Today is Milo's birthday, and he just got an amazing present from his dad: a room full of puzzles. Milo needs to solve all the puzzles to escape from the room. Shake, push and twist the Wii Remote™ controller to collect and use in-game items. There's plenty to solve – see if you have what it takes to figure it all out.Family Card Games
Publisher: Aksys Games
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Suggestive Themes
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy are back for some good ol' card game action. Try your hand at one of three card games: Daifugo, Speed or Memory. Family Card Games offers appealing cel-shaded graphics, endearing music and friendly, competitive match-ups. You can play one-player Daifugo or play against up to three other random players in an online match. You can also view your ranking and see how you match up with players around the world. Test your reflexes against another player in Speed and see who truly has the fastest hands. Memory will test your mental capacity as you try to remember where cards and their respective matches are.
Virtual Console
Fighting Street
Original platform: TurboGrafx16 CD-ROM
Publisher: Capcom
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Blood, Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: A port of the arcade version of STREET FIGHTER, the legendary fighting game that started it all. Players control RYU or KEN and battle against unique fighters from all over the world. The first fighter to knock out an opponent and win two rounds is the winner. Power up your attack to three different levels – the longer you hold a button, the stronger your attack. Input commands to perform special attacks and deal serious damage to your opponent. Combine your normal and special attacks effectively to fight your way to victory.
R-TYPE™
Original platform: SEGA Master System
Publisher: SEGA
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: R-TYPE is a classic, side-scrolling arcade shoot-'em-up that was developed by Irem in 1987. It's the 22nd century, and you are humanity's last hope against the evil Bydo Empire. Your ship is called the R-9a "Arrowhead" and comes with a standard gun, but power-ups and upgrades are available in each mission. Navigate through eight challenging levels that will test even the best gamer's reflexes. The SEGA Master System version features an exclusive secret level not found in any other release.
[source press.nintendo.com]
Comments 93
So many releases... but none for me. Nice to see a week with that many releases though.
Back to back weeks of 2 VC games is fantastic, maybe Nintendo's finally decided to give us more than 1 VC game a week.
Be glad this lot didn't get spread over two weeks.
^^This. It's much easier to take a crappy week if a lot of crap gets out of the way. Psyched that they're releasing more games though! Good news!
This is the most releases that I can ever remember.
I was hoping we would get a Final Fantasy game every month but in this case it's quantity over quality so it's a win-win situation.
Much better update for the US than we got last Friday imo barring Lit. Can't wait for the Cranival King revw...on my insta-download list
1337 2 VC Weeks in a ROW!
Well, it seems my prediction was partially wrong. Carnival King was mentioned by Nintendo Week about three weeks ago (alongside Tales of Monkey Island, which funnily enough came out last week). Following that, Bit.Trip VOID should be next week alongside Excitebike, and the week after that will have Castlevania Rebirth. Won't happen, though.
@LEGEND MARIOID - Incredible Technologies (The developers of Carnival King) still haven't released their previous game, Target Toss Pro: Bags, in Europe yet, so I wouldn't expect this to arrive anytime soon. Sorry
The correct title for this update is Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, and Crap. Wow who knew an 8 game update would be a completely disposable waste of time and money?
Nintendo... I have lost all hope in you...
I hope they keep launching at least 2 VC games from now on. But there are better options of greater quality... What about Super Mario Kart, for example?? Or Final Fantasy VI?? Did somebody know Crystalis?? That was a very good one...
@0-Watt: i hope you are right with Bit. Trip Void
anyway, a great week but its the first time that nothing interests me, lets hope that Excitebike, which comes next week, is any good
I think they are releasing some of the repeat games (Golden Axe, R Type) for 2 game weeks. I am sure we will return to 1 game week eventually. Anyway if Fighting Street is not your thing check out Fighting Street 2: Edition of the Champions with added Speed Boost already availible on the Virtual Console.
Nothing for me this week. A couple games sound mildly interesting, but not worth paying for.
On the upside, I finally picked up Zombies Ate My Neighbors in time for Halloween, and that game blew me away. I was worried that my good memories were just nostalgia and wouldn't hold up... but the game is just as charming today as it was years ago on the SNES!
I am not so convinced that they will release two great powerhouses like Void and Excitebike both in the same week. I imagine they will spread it out.
The correct title for this update is Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, and Crap.
But its still better than Crap times 4 this week and Crap times 4 next week.
Lots of titles, but still no Cave Story.
Nothing like usual, but again kudos for releasing so many games.
Nothing that great but the fact that there were two VC games again is enough to get me excited. Two weeks in a row! Hopefully this is going to become more the norm as we have a lot of catch up games in the que but we are down one today at least. _
I loved "Aha! I Got It!" Escape Game, so I'm glad you guys can enjoy it now too.
Well, at least it was a large update.
I predict one or two of the following will appear next week in America - Shinobi, Pilotwings and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. Its got to be a "catch-up" week again soon..
Not too bad. The VC games are not bad games, but they are nothing special. But I'm just glad that we are now finally getting two VC games a week. The WiiWare and DSiWare games look meh.
I'll take the Vikings, myself. Nothing like a bit of looting, plundering, and tower defense to brighten my day.
I don´t like any of this games. I think i can search some other i left behind to download, but first i have to finish some games and not to get full of games unfinished.
No thanks. ZAMN and Final Fantasy are gonna keep me busy for a while. Its nice to see two VC games in a week again though. Hopefully they'll keep that up.
So many releases and yet pretty much all of them... suck. Still no Void? Still no Castlevania? Still no Cave Story? Screw you, Nintendo of America. Absolutely pathetic.
If there's one bright side to this, at least every single one of these craptastic releases are out of the way.
I shall call this update "Flushing the Toilet." And like others have said, I'm glad they got rid of so many unremarkable titles in one sitting.
Fun Fact: We got more releases this week then Japan. I don't think that happens too often.
cannot wait for Master System R-Type--already own the TG16 one. The Master System version was the one I played as a kid..also more familiar with MS variations of the music--my killer playthrough was MS version! So excited. Who woulda thought this update would contain a game I actually want?
Wow, we got 8 games today but unfortunately most them are crap. I guess today is garbage day for Nintendo.
Nice to see Nintendo charging us for updated to their photo system instead of just updating it for free.
I doubt the 2 VC game weeks will continue indefinitely, but I think they may just continue through the holiday season, which would make me happy.
a pretty good week but getting 2 vc weeks in a row worrys me when it wares off are we going to have 2 weeks of no vc
@24. Bass X0
SSB should come before any of those other crappy games you mentioned, since we are way overdue for SSB.
That's right, Nintendo of America, get it out of your system, make room for all the good games that have to come eventually...though you can speed up the process, you know? No reason to make us wait; we won't mind if next week is Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island and Star Fox...
Keep dreamin' Feenie, keep dreamin'...
SSB should come before any of those other crappy games you mentioned,
I mentioned those particular crappy games like... Pilotwings (?) because they came out in Europe recently whereas NoA seems to be holding SBB back until some specifc date unknown to us.
LOL at Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, and Star Fox all in the same week
Great update today.
I'm fairly certain we'll get Smash Bros sometime in December. I mean Japan got it at the beginning of the year and Europe got it about half way through. So if they are just keeping the release of this game evenly spaced among territories, for whatever reason, that would place a North American release in December. If we don't get it by 2010, I think it might be possible that North America just won't get this game period.
LOL I bet everybody is calling all games crap without even checking what they're about, but I understand, you're mad that the games you want didn't show up.
In fact this is a decent, nothing extraordinary but quantity, catch up week. Viking Invasion and Carnival King seem good, the VC games have its fans, and the only absolute crap I'm sure about is Sparkle Snapshots .
Actually, I've been looking for a decent horizontal shooter, since this R-type version is also cheap, it may be the one.
the only absolute crap I'm sure about is Sparkle Snapshots
Which will no doubt do better in the charts than all the other games released today.
@Bass X0
Most Probably!
Some people doesn't get to know if they already have some kind of photo shop on their computer, nor that you can actually use paint to retouch photos.
"And the Virtual Console™ delivers its usual quality classics, including Fighting Street®, a port of the original arcade version of STREET FIGHTER." AHHAHAHAHAHAAH!
But seriously...I'm glad they're getting a lot of "meh at best" games out of the way at once. And hey, for some strange reason, Swerd_Murd WANTS to play the inferior version of R-Type, so that's an upside, I guess!
I agree with Twilight Crow, most people probably call it crap because they didn't get what they hoped or expected. But "Aha! I Got It" Escape Game is a good adventure and Viking Invasion looks cool too if I would have a DSi. I'm not sure about Carnival King though. Need a review for that one.
8 games, and they all suck. You amaze me sometimes, Nintendo...
No Castlevania is disappointing, but seeing an update with 2 VC games again is cool.
I'm with everyone else, especially V, lol. Hopefully this means we'll get something great next week now that this is outta the way. :3
R-Type and Sparkle Snapshots i might consider purchasing however the rest are shovelware.
Very surprised to see 8 games, but it's too bad I see them all as poop. Oh well, better luck next week
Well, at least we might all agree that the music in Fighting Street is pretty good.
Well?
@Marktheshark
I downloaded Fighting Street and the music is good in fact better than the arcade version, but still not as memorable as the Street Fighter 2 tunes.
Fighting Street, awesome, I am going to be getting that when I get home this evening.
Now now. The Escape game is apparently pretty good, and only 5 dollars. And note that Carnival King is a lightgun shooter that was made for arcades way before all the causal crap happened. They aren't super hardcore, but they don't suck.
i love north america
Not a bad update, but not as good as it could've been. I'm still waiting on Castlevania ReBirth.
ZOMG! That's a lot of games!
WiiWare interests me this week.
@vendetta and i'll call it extremely random games with no corrolation what so ever ie dragons vikings cardgames and carnival games....yeah real similar lol
Definitely wasn't expecting this. At all. Good job, Nintendo.
SMS R-Type? Ehhh, maybe I'll settle with Super R-Type instead. Still, so many releases in one day. Looks like NoA is trying to catch up.
At least NoA got rid of the crap first. And the wait for Cave Story & Bit Trip: Void continues...
On the bright side, we do get Excitebike World Rally next week.
I can't believe all the complaining today. In my opinion, with this week and last week's releases, Nintendo has really stepped up their game regarding the VC. I guess people would complain no matter what though.
blaaaaargh on the dsiware end
What an embarrassment. Another week, another pile of trashware.
Let this be a sign of things to come (not quality-wise; quantity-wise).
Looks like i'll be saving my points yet another week...
Funny how North America vs/dsiware/wiiware news gets more comments than japan and europe news in one day.
Time to download family cards and the carnival wiiware. Next week ill download the ecitebike wiiware then the next week pokemon rumble
Lots of releases this week. I'll be getting SMS R-Type and Viking Invasion.
@Odnetnin: Have to agree. Looks like Ninty is stepping up with the quantity
@StarBoy91
As a person who's played through Super R-Type, I'd say you'd be making a big mistake. The Slowdown ruins that game. I mean, usually slowdown can be helpful, but in that game it can throw you off so bad.
Hey, no problem. I played Super Earth Defense Force and SNES Gradius III many times, and I barely minded the slowdown.
@StarBoy:
Have you played Metal Slug 2?
I played Metal Slug in the arcades when I was little, and barely minded the slowdown back then. Now I play Metal Slug on SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1, and it's still fun to this day. Can't recall if it was Metal Slug 2, though...
Actually the slowdown in Metal Slug 2 helped me more than it hurt me. Sure its annoying but I made it through tough areas when the game started crawling.
I think Carnival King has a lot of potential, I am going to wait for the review before I buy it, however.
Gee.....I may be wrong but I would like to have Fighting street just because is a rare game and it amy be worth to have...
...but nah I rather wait for Cave story, castlevania, UNO and Sonic and knuckles =/
Althought none except Family Card Games and Fighting Street really interest me, I'm going to call it a good week. Why? We got back-to-back mutiple Virtual Console weeks! That's fantastic news considering that we've haven't received one since September of last year.
I really hope this means more two-game week for the Virtual Console, but knowing Nintendo, we might not get a game next week for the Virtual Console.
@brooks83: I wouldn't say NOA is stepping up, but it has improved. But here's to hoping for more frequent two-game weeks!
@TwilightCrow: Considering all the great games that Japan recently got in their last update, I don't see how anyone wouldn't be disappointed by today's update. I am just glad that Nintendo got all this stuff out of the way in one big update rather than put them out a few at a time over the next several weeks. Maybe now we will have a better chance of actually getting something good. Oh and yes, I did actually read up on all of today's releases so I did not just blindly pass judgement on them. I still think that the majority of today's releases are crap but that is my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
@ 12.
"Nintendo... I have lost all hope in you..."
I swear, you people think of more and more silly things to say about Nintendo in the comments sections of game websites.
So, the Virtual Console has a mediocre week, and what, you, "lose all hope" in Nintendo??
As if you were honestly going to run out to the store and buy a Wii Points card to get whatever good would've come out today anyways...
Unless Hudson made the controls easier than the arcade Street Fighter, then its really not worth downloading. It really does not play anything at all like the later games and the three special moves depend more on luck than accuracy. Now I can do these moves anytime in the later games without any problems. But playing Street Fighter 1 on the PSP is really frustrating. And even basic attacks feel really clumsy and ineffective. Trying to play SF1 is like a pair of two year olds punching and kicking each other (or if you're fighting against Sagat, a two year old trying to knock out a six year old). I've never played the TurboGrafx version admittably so I'll be interested in reading the review to see what the differences are.
fighting street is the first street fighter, but this port has cd audio, and it's probably better than the arcade version
The music is much better but the sound effects and voices are the same as the arcade. Actually as a port its very good, but still clunky to play. Still its cool to have such a rare game on the VC.
I see there is a cheat to allow easy special moves. i suppose if a player tries to fight normally and doesn't rely on their easy special moves then it would probably be more fun than trying to pull off the special moves every time you needed to do so.
i'm just glad we got more games than japan for once
Yay, another two-game week for NA Virtual Console. It's about dang time Nintendo picked up the pace
When I saw "Vikings" in the title, I thought we'd be getting one of the Lost Vikings games.
I hope we get Excitebike wiiware along with Bit.trip void and Uno next week; maybe tomorrow Ill buy two 2000 point cards for it.
Actually, Escape Game looks pretty cool based on the Nintendo Channel info video. But as is usually my problem with Nintendo downloads, I can't afford to buy twice the points necessary for this game at this time. Stupid point system...
looks like PAL folks can expect this Friday as the wiki (not saying wiki is a reliable source, but it's been accurate lately); says it's coming out the 6th
Edit: meant fighting street comes out the 6th
Yeah. Apparently Hudson's website confirmed that although I've not read it personally.
What's Cave Story?
I dunno Starfox it can't be an insanely popular freeware game that will be ported to wiiware right so......hmmmmmm..........
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