But don't feel let down again, because it's actually quite a solid week this time. With DSiWare still being almost completely taken up by Electroplankton rereleases, there's only one real "new" game for each service, but all of them are (or seem to be) good picks.
Possibly to tie in with today's release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Capcom has released Street Fighter Alpha 2, Capcom has released Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the SNES for download. It's frequently mocked for its long loading times (in fact, it's one of the only SNES titles to have loading times at all), but don't let that be the judge of the game's quality - it's actually quite an impressive port of the arcade version and still very playable. We'll let you be the judge on if it's better than Capcom's newest fighter, though!
WiiWare's single new pick is a pretty high-profile one. Developed by Intelligent Systems, the guys behind Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, 530 Eco Shooter is an on-rails shooter in which you quite literally take out the trash, by shooting the various tins and soda cans that come at you. It's a bit short with only three levels, but it's still very enjoyable, especially for high-score maniacs, who will likely come back to the game time and time again to beat their old records. It costs 1000 Wii Points.
This week's new DSiWare game is quite a rare sight, because it's an RPG. The first one on the service, in fact! Developed by Gameloft, Legends of Exidia looks like a rather succesful attempt to mimic the style of Japanese RPGs. Since it is of course a DSiWare game, the only thing we're a bit worried about is the game's length, but hopefully Gameloft have managed to squeeze a good amount of content in there to make it worthwhile. It costs 800 DSi Points, and we'll have a review soon.
And as already mentioned, there's also two more Electroplankton titles on DSiWare. This week's picks are Luminarrow and Sun-Animalcule. Just two more weeks of this left! You can read what we thought of these two here and here.
A bit of a step up from the last few weeks in terms of quality, but still not quite up there with what the rest of the world is getting. You can do better still, Nintendo of Europe!
Comments (35)
A new VC game and finally a good DSiWare game. I ain't complaining this week.
I'm curious to see how Legends of Exidia is. Definitely on my watch list now.
You watch, it'll all start again when we don't get a VC title next week.
Fatal Fury 1 and Mickey Mania on the SNES had loading times as well.
Well, things are finally starting to look up, eh?
Looking forward your"Legends of Exidia" review, my purchase is hanging on it.
Oh God, I'm going to give Gameloft yet another chance.
Will I be disappointed? No doubt. Every other game they've produced has been cheap and nasty knock-offs of far better games.
But on the other hand, this is a RPG.
Congrats EU on getting dsiwares first RPG, hopefully it was worth the wait...........enjoy
Downloaded "Legends of exidia" right away. It's an old-school action RPG, not easy but also not hard, at least in the first stages.
least you guys got a VC game, SFA2 isn't bad at all, it's on par with the arcade (CPS2); version, really would recommend it
Seems better than the games you got last week anyway.
.....er.....Legends of Exidia? sure finally having an RPG on DSiWare is awesome,but..... THIS GAME IS THEIR MIGHT AND MAGIC 2 FOR MOBILE, but with a different name.
Gameloft is cool and all but they're just porting old mobile phone games to DSiWare now.
If you're wondering about the length of this game, it's incredibly short. there are some sidequests but they're completely optional and don't really offer good rewards. if they decide to expand this game and make it 3 times longer than maybe it's worth a purchase, and hopefully they get better animation and framerate.
if they don't do any of that stuff, well then that's just too bad
I'm definitely gonna keep my eye on Legends of Exidia and hope it comes to the States.
Great a VC game! (and good one at that)
bout time .
Nothing im interested in but Uk/Europe is on its way to catch up to NA.
Exidia is an action RPG so lenth is as important as a turn-based story driven one. I imagine it could be about as long as Neutopia.
Nothing for me this week. The Eco Shooter doesn't sound that great. Really short but expensive. Street Fighter Alpha 2 sounds awesome, but I still have two real SNES Street Fighters to play. I really dig the graphics though.
Gameloft is cool and all but they're just porting old mobile phone games to DSiWare now.
I don't see how that's a bad thing since that just means more exposure. A lot of their WiiWare and DSiWare titles started as mobile phone games in the first place.
Seeing as I don't have a cell phone, I'm HAPPY to see cell phone games ported to DSiWare! Keep it up, dudes!
DSiWare RPG...never thought I'd see it happen, really. DEFINITELY going to keep my eye on this one now.
not a bad week
So I have given Legends of Exidia a few hour's whirl, and I can already tell, based on its technical merits, this game is in the running to be the worst-ever on the DSiWare.
Why?
1) The plot is terrible - it's a generic "there's an evil army and you rescue this princess and so on and so forth" tripe - which, in itself is bad, but not unbearable. The quest structure is actually embarrasing, though. I physically cringed when the following exchange happened early on:
The hero approaches the Witch
Witch: "Ok, I'll brew you a potion, but first I need a RARE insect. Go speak to the treasure hunter."
So you find the treasure hunter.
Treasure hunter: "Oh no, I lost my RARE insect. Find it, and you can keep it"
I kid you not - that's the "quality" of the plot.
2)the graphics are cheap, mobile phone style,
This is typical from Gameloft, so I expected it, but there's frames of animation missing, backgrounds and character portraits look like B-grade SNES characters, and interfaces are ugly.
Oh, and there's loading times. Quite long loading times. Intolerable for a game SITTING ON THE CONSOLE'S MEMORY.
3)the collision detection when it comes to melee is poor, it's impossible to cast magic with any accuracy
There's a huge lag when pressing the spell button to when the spell is cast. Because of the screen size, - it means you're hit numerous times before the spell is cast, or the enemy's long moved out of the spell's target line. Sword swings are also laggy - if the game even chooses to recognise you're mashing the attack button.
4) Level design is terrible. Can't reach the top of a cliff? Stand on a block and another block will fall FROM THE SKY to let you climb up higher. Terrible.
Music is cheap, and so on and so forth.
Basically it plays like a very cheap, very poor Secret of Mana knockoff. It's seriously terrible.
If the DS itself didn't have a few million really good RPGs already, this would be forgivable, as we'd have something to play, but as it is, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to get this game, especially considering you can get DS RPGs second hand or on discount for the price of this.
Well i'm still gonna buy A Legend of Hexidia. SFA2 I may get aswell.
I got Legends of Exidia right away in the night and played it quite a bit already, it's a tiny bit lineair, but there are enough (small) side-quests and the graphics are okay as well. Only problem in my opinion is the camera, it wiggles all over the place..
mario kart??????????????????
wow does wiiware suck compared to dsiware or what.
I was just wondering if you all get your downloads at or around 12am GMT Friday morning?
On topic: Boo to dsiwares first RPG and Enjoy up some more electroplankton
I'm spotting a double mention of SFA2 (Sentence error in second paragraph.)
No Super Mario Kart! what a shame, I might down load Street Fighter 2 Alpha...
@WaltzElf +1 , totally agree
I will be downloading Luminarrow. Maybe Street Fighter Alpha 2 one day as well.
I`ve downloaded the snes street fighter alpha 2 a short while ago. and, tbh, I really don`t get why people complain about the load times of on each match.
seriously, it`s like, less than a second. ok, it`s nor got the ps1 graphics, but at least it doesn`t have the stupid load times for every single section of the game.
but, hey, i just wish capcom would start supporting the VCA with games like this. it can`t be that hard can it?
Marginally better update this week with Eco Shooter and SF Alpha 2 being insta-downloads. The RPG on DSiware isn't for me, but interesting nonetheless
Excitebike next week & maybe Castlevania the week after?
i downloaded legends of exidia straight away and i love it, its a great game, defintly recamended for fans of rpg's.
LOE is a not so good game its way to short for a rpg beat in 1 day i know its only a dsiware game but could be a little longer.
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