Comments 368

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (13th May)

Djungelurban

Swedish top 20:
(1) 1 - Bit.Trip: Beat
(2) 2 - World Of Goo
(3) 3 - Bubble Bobble Plus!
(6) 4 - Onslaught
(10) 5 - My Aquarium
(-) 6 - Rainbow Islands Towering Adventure!
(5) 7 - Crystal Defenders R1
(9) 8 - Mega Man 9
(7) 9 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(8) 10 - LostWinds
(4) 11 - Adventure Island: The Beginning
(12) 12 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(11) 13 - Tetris Party
(15) 14 - My Pokémon Ranch
(17) 15 - TV Show King
(19) 16 - Bomberman Blast
(13) 17 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(14) 18 - Equilibrio
(18) 19 - Defend Your Castle
(R) 20 - Family Table Tennis

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (6th May)

Djungelurban

@Dawnclaude
Well, as a rule Swedes really don't love A2600 games, but at the same time I think that Swedish gamers in general are fairly educated and research the titles before buying them. And considering all the good press that BTB has gotten, well it's not entirely unexpected that it reached 1st place. Ok, maybe a little bit but I did expect it in the top 3 atleast.
And as far as I know there's no dedicated WiiWare site in Swedish. There's really no demand for one anyway, most Swedes just use the English sites with little to no hassle.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (6th May)

Djungelurban

The Sweden top 20:
(-) 1 - Bit.Trip: Beat
(2) 2 - World Of Goo
(1) 3 - Bubble Bobble Plus!
(5) 4 - Adventure Island: The Beginning
(6) 5 - Crystal Defenders R1
(3) 6 - Onslaught
(4) 7 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(14) 8 - LostWinds
(7) 9 - Mega Man 9
(12) 10 - My Aquarium
(11) 11 - Tetris Party
(10) 12 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(8) 13 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(13) 14 - Equilibrio
(16) 15 - My Pokémon Ranch
(15) 16 - Snowboard Riot
(20) 17 - TV Show King
(18) 18 - Defend Your Castle
(9) 19 - Bomberman Blast
(R) 20 - CueSports - Snooker vs Billiards

Sure, it did take longer for it to reach 1st than Bubble Bobble Plus! and odds are that it will fall back down to double digits within a few weeks but even so, BTB is the reigning champ of our local charts and that in itself is impressive. Especially considering that no one and their grandma has Atari 2600 nostalgia here.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (29th Apr)

Djungelurban

I'd argue also that interest in retro in general is as marginalised as Corbie makes it seem. Sure, it might not have the broad mainstream appeal that a fish tank sim might have but if we actually got to see the first day or first week sales of Mega Man 9, it would dwarf the first week sales of every other game. It's quite possible that by now it's been overtaken by other games but it still shows that retro gaming is not dead. And for the other games there are other more logical reasons why it didn't work as well as one could hope. Star Soldier R had there problem that it didn't seem to be a full game. I mean, only 2 levels and a time limit? What the..?! Gradius on the other hand had plenty of bad (or should I say unfair) press to deal with (I'm looking at YOU Corbie ) aswell as the fact that it was basically little more than a Gradius remix. Space Invaders Get Even "failed" because it was little more than a shell of a game really and people eventually found that out. And Alien Crush Returns failed because, well let's be honest here, apart from a few people here and there no one ever really cared about that franchise in the first place.

Let's not forget that alot of "retro" games has worked like gang busters. First of all Mega Man 9, which should have tapped out its entire market in the first week and yet spent 24 weeks on the US chart (still ranking in the top 10 in Sweden btw), but there are also games like Bomberman Blast, Tetris Party, Dr Mario Online RX and let's not forget that Bubble Bobble Plus! seems to have had a flying start out of the gate (3rd straight week in top in Sweden for example). Adventure Island is too early to call but it does seem to be doing pretty good atleast.

I wouldn't call Bit.Trip Beat a failure really. I mean, it charted fourth 3 weeks in a row in the US only behind a game that still will be remembered 50 years from now, casual bait extraordinaire and the game that basically created the entire modern puzzle genre and is quite possibly the most well known game in the world. That's a feat. However, I think BTB is a tough sell because its concept isn't immediately obvious and it looks, I think everyone can agree here, pretty damn weird. It's just a rather narrow game, at least at first glance, so if it's not doing as well as some people might have expected... Well, you really should have expected it. All in all though, I'm certain retro is not dead. In fact, it's more alive than ever.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (29th Apr)

Djungelurban

@osb1842
Since you asked... Apart from the fact that I couldn't play Bit.Trip Beat yet even if I wanted to (seeing is it isn't released here yet) here are the reasons why I don't wanna play it.

*First of all, the Atari 2600 was never a big hit i Sweden and seeing as I was born in 1983 I kinda would ahve missed the party anyway. Therefore this "homage" thingy graphically leaves me completely cold. Now I'm not a graphics snob by any popular definition (I mean Suikoden is my favorite game franchise ever and if its something that series is really NOT famous for it is pushing the envelope graphically), but let's just say that I'll never be able to play through Adventure cause the mere sight of it damages my soul... I like old school graphics, but that's just one step too far. So yeah, graphically Bit.Trip Beat is a huge turn off for em.

  • Secondly, I just don't get why this would be fun. As far as I can tell, BTB is sort of a cross-breed between Pong and a chip tune generator. And the best thing I can muster up about that is sort of like "yeah, that's kinda neat... maybe". To be clear, I'm not adverse to games that use music to generate or interact with gameplay in unconventional ways, for example I really like Audiosurf, even though puzzlers aren't really my thing. But on the other hand we have a game like Vib Ribbon where I sort get what they were trying to do but I just don't understand why they thought that specific game design would be fun. And from my PoV, BTB might be more of a "Vib Ribbon" than an "Audiosurf" if you know what I mean. I think I understand the idea conceptually, but I don't understand why the idea would be good. I mean, it's obvious that alot of people do think the idea is good seeing as it's getting raves from both fans aswell as press, but that only serves to make me more confused.

So basically what it all boils down to is that I just don't get it. I'm sure that this appeals to alot of people, I'm just not one of them. I watch gameplay vids of it and afterwards the only thing I'm left with is the question "Why?".

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (29th Apr)

Djungelurban

Swedish top 20:
(1) 1 - Bubble Bobble Plus!
(2) 2 - World Of Goo
(5) 3 - Onslaught
(3) 4 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(-) 5 - Adventure Island: The Beginning
(-) 6 - Crystal Defenders R1
(9) 7 - Mega Man 9
(7) 8 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(6) 9 - Bomberman Blast
(10) 10 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(11) 11 - Tetris Party
(8) 12 - My Aquarium
(4) 13 - Equilibrio
(12) 14 - LostWinds
(13) 15 - Snowboard Riot
(14) 16 - My Pokémon Ranch
(R) 17 - Toki Tori
(18) 18 - Defend Your Castle
(17) 19 - Family Table Tennis
(15) 20 - TV Show King

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (22nd Apr)

Djungelurban

The WiiWare chart never changes either. Each week these lists are becoming more and more pointless.
Actually, if you wanna see things changing you should keep a closer eye on the other charts on this site. I find the German especially fun cause they seem to have really crappy tastes. I really think our charts outta be appreciated more. They're much more fun than the US one.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (22nd Apr)

Djungelurban

Swedish top 20:
(1) 1 - Bubble Bobble Plus!
(2) 2 - World Of Goo
(3) 3 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(6) 4 - Equilibrio
(4) 5 - Onslaught
(12) 6 - Bomberman Blast
(7) 7 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(8) 8 - My Aquarium
(5) 9 - Mega Man 9
(9) 10 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(10) 11 - Tetris Party
(11) 12 - LostWinds
(15) 13 - Snowboard Riot
(14) 14 - My Pokémon Ranch
(19) 15 - TV Show King
(18) 16 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(13) 17 - Family Table Tennis
(17) 18 - Defend Your Castle
(16) 19 - Wild West Guns
(-) 20 - Family & Friends Party

Bubble Bobble retaining, Equilibrio peaking, Bomberman jumping, Mega Man dropping, F&F Party entering and SameGame leaving. Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (15th Apr)

Djungelurban

Yeah, I know... The NES version of Bubble Bobble has been on the VC top 20 since release pretty much too... Also it seems to me that Swedes in general just really likes retro gaming. I mean, just look at how Mega Man 9 is performing. More than half a year after release it's still in top 10 when it in most regions has dropped much further down, in many instances out entirely. Here it hasn't dropped lower than 6th as far as I can recall...

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (15th Apr)

Djungelurban

Swedish top 20:
(-) 1 - Bubble Bobble Plus!
(2) 2 - World Of Goo
(1) 3 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(3) 4 - Onslaught
(5) 5 - Mega Man 9
(-) 6 - Equilibrio
(9) 7 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(4) 8 - My Aquarium
(6) 9 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(7) 10 - Tetris Party
(8) 11 - LostWinds
(17) 12 - Bomberman Blast
(10) 13 - Family Table Tennis
(19) 14 - My Pokémon Ranch
(11) 15 - Snowboard Riot
(14) 16 - Wild West Guns
(20) 17 - Defend Your Castle
(18) 18 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(R) 19 - TV Show King
(R) 20 - Pop Them, Drop Them SameGame

Re: Some WiiWare Developers Won't Get Paid

Djungelurban

People wondering why we never got Gyrostarr, High Voltage Hot Rod Show, Planet Pachinko, all those awesomely crazylooking japanase games and possibly not even Gradius ReBirth? Well, now we know... As much as I love Nintendo games and consoles, the company itself is extremely dickish...

Re: Konami Announces Driift for WiiWare

Djungelurban

Looks pretty good, sorta like Sprint or GeneRally... However, considering there's no online there's just no good reason to chose this over a game like GeneRally considering that that game, besides from being awesome to play, has excellent local multi-player, has about the world's easiest level editor for a racer and is, you know, free. And where the hell is my Gradius ReBirth Konami?!?!

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (8th Apr)

Djungelurban

Don't ask why I'm up still...
Here anyway is the Swedish top 20:
(3) 1 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(1) 2 - World Of Goo
(2) 3 - Onslaught
(4) 4 - My Aquarium
(6) 5 - Mega Man 9
(5) 6 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(9) 7 - Tetris Party
(10) 8 - LostWinds
(11) 9 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(7) 10 - Family Table Tennis
(8) 11 - Snowboard Riot
(12) 12 - Toki Tori
(14) 13 - Art Style: Orbient
(17) 14 - Wild West Guns
(19) 15 - Cocoto Fishing Master
(R) 16 - Midnight Bowling
(13) 17 - Bomberman Blast
(16) 18 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(20) 19 - My Pokémon Ranch
(15) 20 - Defend Your Castle

Re: Talking Point: Copyright and Video Games

Djungelurban

Excellent article there. Personally I think a large portion of the problem when it comes to rereleases on the VC for example is a lot of the time rating fees. I'm sure that many companies would love to release their entire back catalog there but since the rating fees is so high they just don't expect to turn a profit on a lot of them so they just don't bother... Wouldn't surprise me too if Nintendo is doing its best to choke the distribution channel, they do suffer from serious arrogance issues.

The concept of copyright IIRC was originally introduced as a way to hinder intellectual theft and promote creativity. Basically instead of having people going around the lands trying to sell the same goods as their own it forced people to come up with new things. Sound in theory sure. But there are problems, cause as time went by inventions started to build on other inventions that in turn built on other inventions and thus we have the current rights chaos. Copyright doesn't even really promote creativity these days, it stifles it. I mean, who knows how many inventions and other creative/intellectual works that hasn't happened due to the inventor either not being able to acquire or could afford the rights for some part of their construct. And also, how often isn't it that some one or some company does not develop new products/material because they still make money alot of money from their old rights.

So this is what I would suggest. The current length of for how long a copyright is in effect for a specific entity is reduced to only 5-10 years after publication (or possibly after it start making money). This cannot be extended. Afterwards your creation, and all info concerning it, will be public domain. However, in addition to this there would be a "conceptual copyright" (don't know how to else explain it) that should be valid for 30 something years. And with that I mean that for example in another 10 years Flower is released from copyright and may be distributed freely, however a third party wouldn't be able to develop another Flower and sell it as their own for another 20 years on top of that. I think this would would give people enough opportunity to make money of the things they do while at the same time promoting them to come up with new things while at the same time give others the opportunity to use some of the good ideas to develop their own works and also making it quite easy to archive the works for the future.

Also, this would mean that in 2012, Nintendo for example would lose the rights for Mario and while I love the Mario games, I'd love even more to see what would come out of them when trying to replace him.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (1st Apr)

Djungelurban

Swedish Top 20:
(2) 1 - World Of Goo
(1) 2 - Onslaught
(-) 3 - Texas Hold'em Tournament
(6) 4 - My Aquarium
(4) 5 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(5) 6 - Mega Man 9
(3) 7 - Family Table Tennis
(7) 8 - Snowboard Riot
(8) 9 - Tetris Party
(9) 10 - LostWinds
(13) 11 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(14) 12 - Toki Tori
(10) 13 - Bomberman Blast
(R) 14 - Art Style: Orbient
(11) 15 - Defend Your Castle
(12) 16 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(18) 17 - Wild West Guns
(R) 18 - CueSports - Snooker vs Billiards
(19) 19 - Cocoto Fishing Master
(15) 20 - My Pokémon Ranch

Re: Japanese Releases 31 March 2009

Djungelurban

Hey, I have an idea... How about losing the ratings for downloadable titles, alright? That way anyone can download any game from any region. How's that? Yeah... I'm getting so sick a tired of things like this. I'm like this close to giving up and going pirate all the way. Not because it's cheap, but because it's user-friendly... Unlike some other things... I know I sorta digressed there but I felt like venting. Seriously Nintendo, get your frakking act together...

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (25th Mar)

Djungelurban

I don't understand why more publishers don't bring games over to Europe. Might just be me but I'm under the impression that most games have longer legs in European markets than in the US and something tells me that a game like LiT would do especially well.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (25th Mar)

Djungelurban

Since the other post gone bye bye in the other topic and since it really does belong here, here's again the Swedish Top 20:
(2) 1 - Onslaught
(1) 2 - World Of Goo
(11) 3 - Family Table Tennis
(4) 4 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(5) 5 - Mega Man 9
(6) 6 - My Aquarium
(3) 7 - Snowboard Riot
(10) 8 - Tetris Party
(9) 9 - LostWinds
(7) 10 - Bomberman Blast
(12) 11 - Defend Your Castle
(15) 12 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(13) 13 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(19) 14 - Toki Tori
(8) 15 - My Pokémon Ranch
(16) 16 - SPOGS Racing
(14) 17 - Dr. Mario & Germ Buster
(R) 18 - Wild West Guns
(R) 19 - Cocoto Fishing Master
(-) 20 - Jungle Speed

Re: Review: Detana!! Twinbee (TG-16)

Djungelurban

Hi... I just wanted to hi-jack this topic to say the atleast the PAL store got out of the blue 4 classic NES titles added to the store: Gaplus, Mappy, Starforce and The Tower Of Druaga... How about that, wasn't that nice of them?

Re: Legendo Announces The Three Musketeers: One For All!

Djungelurban

@Omega
Well, she likes "Mario & Yoshi" and "Freecell" aswell so I don't know really. On the other hand does like Lemmings and Bomberman also... Let's just say that her gaming record is kinda spotty... Maybe I should just be happy that my 57 year old mom even plays games at all, I bet that's rare... Heck I've even managed to get my 87 year old grandma into Rollercoaster Tycoon. Now that's something in my book.

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (18th Mar)

Djungelurban

Swedish Top 20:
(1) 1 - World Of Goo
(2) 2 - Onslaught
(3) 3 - Snowboard Riot
(4) 4 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(5) 5 - Mega Man 9
(6) 6 - My Aquarium
(10) 7 - Bomberman Blast
(9) 8 - My Pokémon Ranch
(8) 9 - LostWinds
(11) 10 - Tetris Party
(-) 11 - Family Table Tennis
(7) 12 - Defend Your Castle
(15) 13 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(12) 14 - Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (Dr Mario Online Rx)
(19) 15 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(R) 16 - SPOGS Racing
(16) 17 - Family Glide Hockey
(R) 18 - Space Invaders Get Even
(13) 19 - Toki Tori
(18) 20 - Pop Them, Drop Them SameGame

Re: EU WiiWare Update: Family Table Tennis and Jungle Speed

Djungelurban

@Starwolf_UK
New publisher. Both Aksys and 505 Games has to get paid I guess... I actually kinda do hope FTT is a hit in Europe. 505 Games has a history of picking up the slack from other publishers in the past, releasing stuff in the PAL region that would otherwise probably never get here at all and there are a few games that I really would like to see released over here where the original publisher doesn't seem to be interested to do that (especially Gyrostarr). So let's hope 505's first experience with the service is a positive one.

And in related news... WTF?!! Where's Gradius?! I mean, it's nice and all to finally fill a few annoying holes in the release history but none of that matters really when the US has Gradius and the PAL region doesn't!!! GRRRRR...

Re: Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (11th Mar)

Djungelurban

Swedish Top 20:
(2) 1 - World Of Goo
(1) 2 - Onslaught
(6) 3 - Snowboard Riot
(4) 4 - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
(3) 5 - Mega Man 9
(5) 6 - My Aquarium
(7) 7 - Defend Your Castle
(8) 8 - LostWinds
(12) 9 - My Pokémon Ranch
(9) 10 - Bomberman Blast
(11) 11 - Tetris Party
(16) 12 - Dr. Mario & Germ Buster
(15) 13 - Toki Tori
(-) 14 - Beer Pong! Frat Party Games
(10) 15 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
(17) 16 - Family Glide Hockey
(20) 17 - Wild West Guns
(R) 18 - Pop Them, Drop Them SameGame
(14) 19 - Pop-Up Pirate!
(13) 20 - TV Show King

Re: Review: Gradius ReBirth (WiiWare)

Djungelurban

Huh... That's interesting... I, on the other hand, have never really liked the R-Type series and it's the only shmup series off the top of my head that I wouldn't consider buying if I came across it in a store. To further emphasize my dislike for the series, personally I'd say that I like any version of the Gradius series (including the Gameboy games) better than any R-Type game. Perhaps I should note that I've turned my back on that series after III (and I didn't even give that one much of a chance either) so maybe it's improved but color me skeptical. So perhaps Gradius is your R-Type in which case maybe you were the wrong person to review it... I mean, I should never be given the job of giving a fair review to a R-Type game either... I'm just saying...

Re: Review: Gradius ReBirth (WiiWare)

Djungelurban

@Damo
I'd like to challenge that notion... Even though I suck at shmups I do love them quite a bit.
Even though I do see the absurdity that I'm sitting here defending a game I've yet to play... Oh well...