It's that time again, North American gamers, for the Nintendo Download Update line-up to tempt you ahead of the weekend. It's a busy line-up this week with a glut of varied releases on the Wii U eShop, the arrival of a classic Mario sports game and the rather impressive 'Epic Indie Sale'; the 3DS is limited to a HOME theme and some discounts this time around. Let's get to it, shall we?
Missed the European Nintendo Download Update details earlier in the week? Fret not, the information you need is right here.
Wii U eShop
KEYTARI: 8-bit Music Maker (Famous Gamous, $7.99) - This is an intriguing title, as it's essentially a virtual keyboard on the Wii U GamePad (it's exclusive to Nintendo's system) which allows you to turn the controller "into an 8-bit jamming machine". You can add backing beats and change the main instrument, while racking up a score 'for fun' which may or may not prompt something to happen if you reach 9999 points. We'll get jamming and bring you a review.
Dare Up Adrenaline (Be Studios, $9.00) - A title that's previously been released as a web game and on smart devices, this is all about wingsuit diving and stunts through various challenges. This Wii U version also includes two player splitscreen and an alternative view on the GamePad when trying to clear stages. We'll dive in for a review.
Land it Rocket (Petite Games, $2.99 / $3.99CAD) - A colourful and potentially tricky game in which you manoeuvre a rocket past plenty of dangers to a landing area; this promises 28 levels (with up to three stars to be earned in each) and an endless mode. We'll dig out our old rocket piloting gear and take this for a flight in a review.
Neon Battle (Helix Games, $1.49) - This appears to be a re-imagining of Shatter, as you move a paddle around a circular rail to bat a ball back and forth, while battling a second player if you so choose. It seems a little slow paced in the trailer, but we'll bash a review into shape and let you know what we think.
DON'T CRASH (RCMADIAX, $1.49) - This is a simplistic experience in which two cars zip around an oval track and you hit A to change lanes and avoid collisions. That's the whole premise and, unfortunately, we were left very unimpressed with the content and value on offer in our DON'T CRASH review.
Asteroid Quarry (Hero Work Studios, $1.00) - This appears to be a rather simple expansion of the core Asteroids game, but with exploration, resource gathering and aggressive pirates to deal with. We'll launch into a review right away.
Santa Factory (Xiness, $7.99) - We're going to try and ignore the fact that this is a festive game coming out in July; perhaps it's a commentary on the modern realities of a capitalist manufacturing process. Or not. This looks like a very basic puzzle platformer designed to teach young children words and the joys of Flash-style visuals. We'll try to get jolly for a review.
Wii U Virtual Console
Mario Tennis (Nintendo, $9.99) - The first entry in this particular spin-off series in which multiplayer played a big part; we recall everyone trying to choose Boo because of his annoying trickshots. With chunky polygons typical of the N64 era nostalgia is certainly strong with this one, but we'll give it a fresh look for review; in the meantime you can check out our Wii Virtual Console Mario Tennis review.
Wii U eShop 'Epic Indie Sale'
The offers in this promotion (60% off each game) are applicable if you already own one or more of these Wii U eShop downloads on your system.
BIT.TRIP Presents: Runner 2 Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (Choice Provisions, on discount until 23rd July)
EDGE (Two Tribes, on discount until 23rd July)
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (Black Forest Games, on discount until 23rd July)
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (Drinkbox Studios, €5.59 / £4.79 until 23rd July, normally €13.99 / £11.99)
Mighty Switch Force! 2 (WayForward, on discount until 23rd July)
Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition (WayForward, on discount until 23rd July)
RUSH (Two Tribes, on discount until 23rd July)
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (WayForward, on discount until 23rd July)
Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party (KnapNok Games, on discount until 23rd July)
Swords & Soldiers (Two Tribes, on discount until 23rd July)
Toki Tori (Two Tribes, on discount until 23rd July)
Toki Tori 2 + (Two Tribes, on discount until 23rd July)
Trine 2: Director's Cut (Frozenbyte, on discount until 23rd July)
Trine Enchanted Edition (Frozenbyte, on discount until 23rd July)
Wii U eShop Temporary Discounts
Frenchy Bird (Carbon Fire Studio, $0.99 until 16th July, normally $1.99)
TNT Racers - Nitro Machines Edition (Keen Games, $4.99 until 23rd July, normally $7.99)
3DS eShop Temporary Discounts
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (Atlus, $29.99 until 20th July, normally $49.99)
AeternoBlade (Corecell Technology, $7.99 until 5th August, normally $14.99)
Snow Moto Racing 3D (Zordix AB, $3.99 until 23rd July, normally $7.99)
3DS eShop Permanent Discount
Pyramids 2 (Enjoy Gaming, $3.00 from 10th July, was $4.99)
3DS HOME Theme
Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: Story Theme (Atlus)
That's the full North American line-up for this week - let us know what you'll be downloading in the poll and comments below.
Comments 93
Where's Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon?
The 3DS....didn't even get a single new game....
@TeeJay Indeed, I don't remember that ever happening before.
I'm broke until NEXT Friday. Still, I'm going to check out the prices on those discounted indie titles. Lots of good stuff there!
Ninty should have asked the G.G series guys to space those releases. Could have padded things out a bit and avoided this week of no new releases on 3DS.
Yikes! Nothing for me. That Indie sale is nice but the only games I do not have yet are Spin the Bottle and Edge.
And as for the VC. Man, they could at least give us two games per week!
I had so much fun with Mario Tennis back in the day. Might pick it up for the feels. Keytari intrigues me too. Any word on a share option?
@LordFamicom Indeed where? Even worse though, where is Advance Wars 2? Judging by the EU->NA delay for FE:SS, I think it will be quite a while - if ever =/
@ThomasBW84 Hmm, is Nintendo doing any streams for SDCC like last year?
I'm getting the Giana Sisters and Etrian Odyssey theme! Etrian Odyssey is AWESOME!!
@Grumblevolcano Nothing mentioned as yet as far as I know.
I'm probably not going to download anything new this week, I already have everything that I want that's in the epic indie sale though I might upgrade Mario Tennis which I got the Wii vc version from Club Nintendo.
The epic indie sale is full of awesome games. Don't waste this chance, people!
ok bye, nothing
Mario Tennis again it is. I've always enjoyed it, and now I can play it with my wife on the Wii U. Too bad the connectivity with the GBC game no longer works, even though it's even on the 3DS VC
That is the game that spawned Waluigi...
I will go with the indie sales this week.
Alright, seriously now... Where is SIN & PUNISHMENT 2!? We North Americans gots to have it!
Its been about 4 months since the 3DS got a new Virtual Console game, while the Wii U has gotten two new platforms added(three if we count the Wii) and at least a new VC game every week.
Honestly, this is even worse then the VC drought the Wii suffered a few years ago. The NES, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color have hundreds of games that could potentially arrive on the 3DS VC and yet week after week, the 3DS gets screwed over.
Can anyone at Nintendo explain why we did not get Earthbound Zero? How about putting a team on translating the first Fire Emblem for the Famicom? How about finally adding SNES and GBA games to the 3DS?
There is no excuse for the recent drought of VC games on the 3DS. If the issue is that Nintendo has already put up all the games that they published on those platforms( which is not true given some Nintendo published NES and Game Boy games are missing) then get third-parties back on board.
Come on Nintendo, do something!
@sinalefa What's wrong with Waluigi?
Persona Q for me this week. Sad for anyone who actually bought that game day one at full price.
Might get one of the indies but I'm not sure yet.
Another bad week....
The Wii U life cycle is up in about a year or so, and there are TONS of games left to be added to the Virtual Console... I fear we won't be getting many of them
Being a musician I'll for sure be getting keytari. Seems interesting
I guess I voted Mario Tennis, because thats the game we really all wanted right? Heh... or is it the Club Nintendo reward thats only a few dollars to "upgrade?" Oh wait... I have Mario Tennis already. On that system nobody likes to talk about.
Nothing for me.
Keep the N64 games coming NoA!
I guess it would be too much to ask for a single VC game for the 3DS. Even Bases Loaded 2. Actually that was a good NES game but dated.
@TwilightAngel Gamestop has Persona Q used for $27.99 and if you have a member card 10 percent off. I am getting it today.
What a great week for the 3DS! Looks like I'm going to be broke by the end of the day!
Wow, nothing for 3DS, again!
It appears that Nintendo has bowed to the inevitable and conceded defeat in the hand-held gaming genre to phones and tablets. They're not even trying anymore.
How come some of the prices are in Euros when this is the North America update? o-o
Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission. Zero Mission Zero Mission. Zero Mission.
I wish they'd get the old AKI wrestling games. I'd LOVE to play No Mercy or WrestleMania 2000 again! Hell, even a remake tgat was hinted for the Wii eshop before would be awesome. They could add it to the 3ds vc too! Also, when is the 3ds virtual console gettin any new games? Seems it's been empty for a bit.
@grumblebuzzz I didn't see that one. Lemme guess... you like that game, right?
Nothing for me..
@JudgeMethos I do! It's actually my favorite of the series. And I've never had the opportunity to play it all brightly-lit and crisp on a television set; however, the rest of the world has for months now. You'd think with how angry fans were about Federation Force that Nintendo would be like "Here's Zero Mission! We're sorry!" but it's obvious that they could give two flying figs about Metroid in general.
Dare Up Adrenaline and Mario's Tennis are only ones interested me,
but i can't get them right away, so nothing for me this week
Mario Tennis for me.
Hopefully it won't be too long before Shadow Dragon releases
Mario Tennis and Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
ooooooh, wheeeen willlll we get us soooome meeetroid zero misssion!
@grumblebuzzz That's NOA for ya!
@Caryslan At least sega has more 3d classic's on the way. 3ds vc doesn't seem like a priority for Nintendo.
@ThomasBW84 Mario Tennis on N64 isn't the first in the series. The first one was on Virtual Boy.
@rdrunner1178 been saying that for 2 years!! How hard is at least 2 vc games a week!?!? Jeez!!
I think I'm seeing a pattern here with the VC game releases. They seem to be releasing VC games that are related to the ones that were announced during e3 (examples being the Star Fox and Mario & Luigi DS games).
Lots of great games on sale. But I already own most of them on Steam, unfortunately.
Since I have Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, I'd like to pick up Mighty Switch Force! 2, and Trine 1 & 2, but jeez, my BACKLOG, UGH! I will have to pass, but I'm not angry. In fact, I may just go ahead and pick up Attack on Titan:HiC since it's still on sale for a little longer (and while people are still playing it online... I simply MUST make it to world mode!)
The 8-bit music maker intrigues me, I may get it if its decent. It will probably be a while before I get Mario Tennis though.
@joey302 Too much to ask for apparently.
If I buy anything this week it'll be one of the Indie games for sale. I enjoyed Mario Tennis but not enough to upgrade from the Wii VC version I already have.
@Superryanworld Yeah, once again Sega beats Nintendo at their own game when it comes to the Virtual Console.
Let's see, Sega was the first one to fully translate a Japanese-only release for international VC consumers(Monster World IV), brought out two Wii Virtual Console games with online play, and now have kept alive the 3D classics line Nintendo let die.
Sega has tons of issues, but when it comes to getting their backlog out, they have made Nintendo look bad. All I see from Nintendo is excuses about the VC. They don't have a big enough team to port VC games, doing anything with VC would take away from their other projects.
If Nintendo does not care about the Virtual Console, then kill it. Then I won't have to waste time every week hoping Star Tropics finally makes it out.
What boggles my mind is how Nintendo just lets their single greatest advantage over Sony and Microsoft slip away, which is the massive backlog of games spanning generations. They treat the VC like its an afterthought.
How hard is it to have a VC team that goes out an gets old licensed games for the VC, translates the classics we never got like the older Fire Emblem games, work closely with third-parties to get their games on the VC.
Why does Nintendo not run VC game sales? I mean real ones, not the rare "we took a buck of Super Mario Bros" type sales.
I'm sorry, but this is just pathetic. What happened to the VC? Why does Nintendo not care about it anymore?
I love summer time. The backlog gets more attention because I'm not looking at anything new.
@grumblebuzzz <---- what he said.
Going to pick up Guacamelee and Trine
I would get Mario Tennis, but I have to get more money first.
@majinx07 So by that logic, Animal Crossing Wild World and Metroid Prime Hunters should be coming soon.
Nice deal on Persona
@Caryslan Ive tried to be patient with the drip feeding of vc releases since 3ds&Wii U launched. I'm pretty burned out at this point and don't see the big N improving the situation until the next console&handheld arrive.
@Caryslan They're probably not making enough profit for it to be worth the effort. That backlog shouldn't be used as an advantage - when old games are your main selling point, something's wrong. They should always be an extra.
I am just not ready..........
A decent week for Wii U owners, but just terrible for 3DS owners. (unless you really wanted one of those discounts or the Etrian Odyssey theme)
Oh well, I was planning to get Ace Attorney Trilogy this week, anyway.
@IceClimbers I've always considered VC to be a perk. Just like I consider ps1&2 classic's a perk on ps3's psn store.
Looking back the Wii had an impressive list of games. What happened this generation? Could the lack of vc be due to poor sales? Smaller install base?
Whatever the reason may be it really sucks for gamers who enjoy classic games and don't want to hunt down the original systems and software.
Yet another week I spend nothing on the eshop for my 3DS. Nintendo's effort really shines once again.
im very tempted to get shantae
A sad week for the 3DS indead...
Mario Tennis 64... really? There's so many other better versions of it including the newest one coming out this year. I don't understand why they don't release F-Zero or Pilotwings 64. Those games are unique in their style and gameplay, kinda essential to the era imo, and probably would sell more.
@ThomasBW84 I think they're doing it on Periscope this year.
Persona Q is tempting... I planned to buy the physical release one day (too many backlog right now), but this deal might be hard to pass. Decision, decision... :/
3DS VC is getting no more love I guess. At least Sega's still got some retro love arriving
This Epic Indie sale feels like an aftershock of the Humble Nindie Bundle. Tempting...
I have to buy Splatoon for my friend's birthday, so I'm not too broken up about the lack of interesting VC games, but it does hurt a bit that I'm gonna have to miss out on another sale for Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.
Nintendo you meanies just when I wasted money on Mario Tennis Power Tour.
Oh well seems like I'll be buying 3 Mario Tennis games this yearxD
@iflywright Absolutely, it's interesting that Pilotwings 64 never released as a VC title though on the Wii. I will still likely pick up Mario Tennis 64 at the $2 upgrade price. On the one hand it's nice that Nintendo is adding a few more surprise N64 VC titles (Ocarina of Time), but on the other there are better titles that should arrive first (F-Zero, WaveRace, Smash, Cruis'n USA, Kirby64, etc).
I was hoping Fire Emblem would be up this week. >.> But I'll download the Etrian Odyssey theme, but that's it really.
Why are't the discounted prices showing up for me? (Canada)
no 3ds games at all? this week sucks
@MrPuzzlez have you been able to find the theme? It doesn't seem to be on the theme store on my 3DS.
I hope they will slap us with some great releases/discounts/virtual console stuff after such a long drought on 3ds eshop... Can't find a more logical explanation.
@Grumblevolcano
I find him unoriginal, boring, ugly and unnecessary but that's just me.
Nothing doing for the 3ds....phew (thank goodness I think i spent 40 or 30 bucks this summer more than I needed to)..I mean ohh nooooo.
@Caryslan Yes. If the manual making on the wiiu is causing ya trouble big n then surely there would be time for them 3ds classics because they don't have a photoscan feature, hmm come to think of it don't they need to hire a separate team for the manual stuff?
@TwilightAngel I disagree, though I bought the Wild Cards Premium edition because of all the physical extras. Bought it on sale, so I feel where you're coming from, but it's a good game, especially as an Etrian Odyssey game (rather than Persona... I never played the originals, so I wouldn't know).
@grumblebuzzz you're not waiting on zero mission are ya?😃😃
@TwilightAngel I picked it up day one, getting the Wild Cards edition, and couldn't be happier with my purchase. Of course Etrian Odyssey and Persona and two of my favorite series out there, so I suppose it's no surprise that I would
I wish Nintendo Wii U would get the Resident Evil HD remake and allow access to all your weapons and items using the GamePad. Instead we get re-releases and not remakes. How sad. : (
@Eisenbolan Too late i already bought it digitally! Eh next time i guess enjoy the game tho!(if you bought it)
@thatguyEZ and @3DSWiiUFanatic Huh i forgot about the physical rewards.And i said that comment because it was 50 at launch and now a few months later it's cut down by 20 dollars. And that's why i think it's sad you guys bought it day one for the full price and i'm buying it for less.
I'm probably going to get Shantae, and I might get Trine 1. I have all of the other indies, except for Spin the Bottle. There's also a strong possibility that I'll get Ittle Dew, which is on sale all month.
@Crashervania heads up: Multi-player Guacamelee requires a Pro Controller...
@thatguyEZ Huh. I don't see it either... Just the Mystery Dungeon one...
@Platypus101 Thanks Man. Good to know!
@MrPuzzlez Yeah I mean I was looking around for info on it and I think sites were saying that they were going to be launched one theme a week for three weeks later this month. And they one that is in this article was offered to people who preordered at GameStop, so I think that might be what they meant.
Shantae is definitely on my radar, and with this discount maybe now I can take the plunge and try it already. The original GBC game was not my cup of tea, but Pirates Curse looked much better when I saw it years ago.
@Caryslan
My God, you really hit the nail on the head here on how I feel they're treating the VC service. I love Nintendo, but as you said they just don't seem to care about the Virtual Console anymore. Heck, Japan they have more VC games then us. (Including for 3DS, and their 3DS VC hasn't updated hardly for a year nearly, aside from adding "Pokemon Trading Card game.")
Sega may have a bad reputation with new games, but you're right they're great at remaking/porting their old games. (Though, technically, you should give M2 the credit for remaking the old Sega games in 3D)
Ever played any of the Game Gear Virtual Console titles on 3DS? They have screen options, custom button options, multiple frame options, even multiplayer game link-up options. Many things the NES & Gameboy games on VC DON'T have, and should have. (And they don't even take up to many memory blocks like some VC games do. How they cram all those features in, is amazing.) Sega seems to put more effort in their remakes/rereleases then Nintendo does.
If Nintendo's not going to do anything with VC hardly, they should just outsource them to Sega, M2, or somebody else and let them handle the VC service for them.
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