Nintendo Download: 30th July 2010 (Europe)

The Virtual Console takes another expected break to focus more on WiiWare and DSiWare this week, with five releases total spread across the both of them. All of them have already been released elsewhere, including a few in North America only a few days ago, so you can expect reviews for them all very shortly.

WiiWare

Dive: The Medes Islands Secret (Cosmonaut Games, 1000pts) – Called a mixture of Metroid and Endless Ocean by those eagerly waiting for it, it's a Metroid-like exploration game set entirely underwater. The review should be up soon, but in the meantime, why not check out our First Impressions?

Family Pirate Party (Aksys Games, 500pts) – Released over a year ago in other territories, this is a party-based installment of the series not unlike the Mario Party franchise. However, like most of its related games, we didn't think too much of it, as our Family Pirate Party review will tell you. There's even purchasable DLC if you're crazy enough!

DSiWare

Mega Words (Digital Leisure, 500pts) – Another typical Digital Leisure title, this is not a word searching game as you would probably expect: it's actually more like hangman, as you have to guess random letters in order to fill in the blanks. If you get too many wrong, the helpful professor character offering you information is strung up in his own home, how pleasant. You can read what we thought in our Mega Words review.

Crystal Monsters (Gameloft, 500pts) – Another mobile phone conversion, this one has you running through a dungeon attempting to catch 160 different monsters, which is obviously a completely new and never-before-seen concept as we're used to from Gameloft by now. We should have a review available soon.

Puffins: Let's Race! (Other Ocean Interactive, 500pts) – Another Puffins title, this one's a racer with up to four-player multiplayer. It's local-only though, as you might have guessed. The review should be done soon.

Here's the whole press release if you want to read it:

PIRATES, MONSTERS, PUFFINS AND PUZZLES!

30th July 2010: Explore the great secrets of the seven seas this week when Dive: The Medes Islands Secret makes its way onto WiiWare. Players will have to face ocean dangers from sharks to giant squid and upgrade your equipment on your quest to find hidden treasures of immeasurable wealth. Or you can become an extraordinarily cute swashbuckler yourself and compete with your loved ones in the action-packed board game Family Pirate Party.

If you’re not pirate-mad, don’t worry, there’s more variety on offer for your Nintendo DSi. Explore a vast world to collect and train your own monsters in Crystal Monsters, test your vocabulary against Mega Words or race against your friends with super quick puffins in Puffins: Let's Race!, all available in the Nintendo DSi Shop this week.

WiiWare – Dive: The Medes Islands Secret
(Cosmonaut Games, 1,000 Wii Points)
Over the past five centuries, hundreds of ships flying every ensign have succumbed to the power of the ocean. Merchant boats, pirate ships and navy vessels have all ended up covered with coral at the bottom of the oceans around the planet. All of them guarded secrets that remained hidden over the years - secrets that have always been a mystery until now.

WiiWare – Family Pirate Party
(ARC SYSTEM WORKS, 500 Wii Points)
Daddy, Mummy, Sarah, and Billy make their return as pirates sailing the seas and skies.

Roll the dice and sail through the islands to gather the treasures each island holds. The person with the most gold at the end wins. Family Pirate Party shines with its appealing cel-shaded graphics and endearing music.

Challenge up to three other players, be they friends, the CPU, or both, for some four-player board-game fun. Do you have it in you to defeat your opponents and become the king of Family Pirate Party!

New maps and more are available as WiiWare Pay & Play add-on content with the release of the game.

Nintendo DSiWare – Crystal Monsters
(Gameloft, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
As a Neo-Seed with the power to see and train monsters, it's time to set off on a journey to collect over 160 monsters and become the greatest Monster Breeder.

Explore a vast world, meet new friends and rivals and battle with skill and strategy to win. Master the nine elemental types, train your monsters through battle, teach them new moves and team attacks and fuse them together to unlock their true potential. You can even customise three of your favourite monsters using the inner camera.

Nintendo DSiWare – Mega Words
(Digital Leisure Inc., 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
It’s time to put your thinking cap on and see how many of the hundreds of puzzles you can solve in Mega Words. With Mega Words you can play three classic puzzlers - Word Scrambler, Anagram Hunt and Hangman - all included in this puzzle pack. No need for erasers here. These portable editions feature extensive dictionaries to challenge both the novice and expert player. See how fast you can unscramble words, sharpen your vocabulary, and stretch your mind today with Mega Words.

Nintendo DSiWare – Puffins: Let's Race!
(Other Ocean Interactive, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
Get ready to challenge the speediest puffins on the island for the title of Fastest Flyer in PUFFINS: LET’S RACE. Go head to head with your opponents in a battle to the finish line or alone against the clock. You can race through four different game modes on eight different tracks to prove your flight skill or challenge up to three of your friends in local wireless play. Do you have what it takes to become the race champion of Puffin Island or will you be left behind with the rest of the flock?

As the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop are continually updated with exciting and refreshing games and applications, make sure you keep checking the Nintendo Channel, Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop for all the latest news and releases on already available and upcoming Virtual Console, WiiWare and Nintendo DSiWare titles.

Be sure to also check out Nintendo of Europe's WiiWare portal, which functions as the main hub for the latest WiiWare news and game sites, while at the same time providing the perfect entry point for newcomers to the service. Weekly and all-time Top 10 lists show which WiiWare titles the UK Club Nintendo members are currently downloading most, and which are the most popular of all time.

The portal also provides step-by-step tutorials explaining how to connect the Wii console to the Internet and how to download WiiWare games, as well as a video showing how to use Nintendo Points. Visit www.wiiware.co.uk for all the details. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii's internal memory or SD card and added to the console's Wii Menu or SD Card Menu for anytime easy access.