Wesbert

I thought the review was a little hard, but not unfair.
I got the impression that the developers had an interesting new idea (the twisting and painting), but when they executed it they realized it wasn't really challenging enough for a game, so they added additional, sometimes random elements which eventually clogged and maybe even ruined the entire game.
It really is a game that you'll either love or hate, and since the majority of gamers will fall into the latter category, the 3 is justified. After all, reviews are there to help us make decisions, not to make our decisions for us.

Could be fun. I'm just wondering whether the sandcastle-theme is merely decorative, or whether they will include other beach-type hazards (apart from crabs). Like the flood...

@ Abodi

Hmmm... now you mention it, it DOES rather give off that impression...

As for the game, I think the best words to sum up my first impressions would be "enthusiastic first-time effort", with all the positive and negative associations this raises.

I have tried Plättchen, and honestly, I think MaBoShi was better (Great, now all the Americans here will REALLY hate me...)
Seriously though, I think this game won't be for everyone. At it's core, it's a slow, deliberate game that forces you to maximize your score with as few moves as possible. To break up the deliberate pace, however, objects float onto the screen that interfere and can be shot down.
As you can see from these opposing concepts, the makers tried to cram a lot into this game, and I fear it might have been a little too much, because together with the gravity changes it can become a little intimidating and disorienting.
However, to fully do this game justice, one would have to spend more time with it, to get used to the concept and the (unfortunately a little hazily described) intricacies (it might have helped if the main menu was a little more intuitive), so anything less than a full review will, I fear, be of little help.

For all those crestfallen Americans: View it from a different angle. You might get Strong Bad Episode 2 (or some other great games) next monday, but we'll have to wait a full two weeks for our next WiiWare update.

It seems like the Bond license is the main problem here (otherwise Microsoft would merely have to release a remake that differs enough from the original, like Conker's Bad Fur Day, or Banjo Kazooie).

I think the reason the games didn't come out on monday was as not a matter of ineptitude, but a sort of "punishment" for the publishers, for flapping their mouths. It's obvious Nintendo doesn't want people to know the VC-releases in advance. And there's a possible reason: If a publisher announces "Hey, you're going to get XXX next week", then there's a good chance a lot of people won't bother to check the VC-shop this week, which means those games would be overlooked, no matter how good they might be.
Of course, this might annoy (or in this case, embarass) some publishers, but since their games eventually do get released, they eventually do get money for it, and money can buy a lot of forgiveness.
Leaving only the annoyed fans. But then again, the joy is all the greater when one's favourite game eventually arrives. After all, patience is a virtue

(Of course, I might be dead wrong; and I'm not saying it's the best policy. Just thinking aloud)

@RGVEDA: Nope, it's there alright. I just checked. But it wasn't there at 5 o'clock in the morning.