WII-KLY UPDATE: ONE WIIWARE GAME AND TWO VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAMES ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL

Aug. 11, 2008

If your idea of a superhero is someone with an invincible ego who can type e-mails while wearing boxing gloves, then the Wii™ Shop Channel has great news for you. The legendary Strong Bad (from the popular Homestar Runner Web series) makes his eagerly anticipated WiiWare™ debut this week. For even more laughs and clever gaming kicks, you'll also find a satirical space-age shooter on the Virtual Console™, along with a classic billiards game for those who prefer to keep their feet planted firmly on the ground.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

WiiWare

Strong Bad Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner (Telltale Games, 1 player, Rated T for Teen-Crude Humor, Mild Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 1,000 Wii Points): Charming. Suave. Awesome. These are the words Strong Bad would use to describe himself. In a world gone mad, only one man can be trusted to save the day. A man with an attitude. A man called Strong Bad. As the star of the Homestar Runner Web cartoons, Strong Bad has been answering e-mails (in boxing gloves), pranking his friends, pummeling his enemies, and making people with questionable taste snort milk out of their noses for years now. And he's branched out to star in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, a monthly five-episode series. In Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner, Strong Bad's plans to beat the snot out of Homestar backfire, and he ends up with an unwanted houseguest cramping his style. Now he needs to get life back to normal by any means possible. But wait, there's more: Teen Girl Squad comics, achievements, funny costumes and arcade games. You can even send pictures and messages to Wii Friends using Strong Bad's computer. So how about it? Can you handle Strong Bad's style?

Virtual Console

Break In (TurboGrafx16, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Tobacco Reference, 700 Wii Points): Gather up to four players for an authentic game of pool right in your own home. Choose from six billiards games including 9-Ball, Rotation and Carom (a game played without pockets). Use Simulation mode to calculate the perfect shot, or select Action mode and check out what went wrong with your missed shots. With all that to choose from, Break In gives players-from beginners to experts-all the elements necessary to enjoy a great game of pool. But it doesn't stop there. Select Technique to practice your angles or even go for a trick shot. Get some help from the CPU and hone your skills. With Break In, you'll be a pro in no time.

Star Parodier (TurboGrafx16 CD-ROM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Cartoon Violence, 900 Wii Points): Star Parodier is the hilarious spoof of the classic Hudson shooter Star Soldier. In this parody, there are three playable ships for players to choose from: the ingratiating PAROCEASER, the hot-headed BOMBERMAN, and the ever-so-introverted PC-ENGINE. Players control one of these unique and original ships and set off to blast their way through eight stages on the planet PAROSON. The comical characters take the color and flavor of the Soldier series to the next level and are guaranteed to leave players mesmerized. In addition to the normal game mode, there are also the familiar two-minute and five-minute attack modes, making Star Parodier the complete package that is sure to have players coming back for more.

North America - VC/Wii updates: Pirates: The Key of Dreams, Super Fantasy Zone, Gley Lancer

Which do you prefer: sailing the ocean or soaring through the sky? With the latest additions to the Wii™ Shop Channel, players can choose between seafaring action and high-flying thrills. Unleash your inner pirate with a new WiiWare™ adventure, or check out a pair of side-scrolling Sega Genesis classics making their Virtual Console™ debut. By air and by sea, big fun is on the way.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare

Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen Games, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone—Mild Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Pirates: The Key of Dreams is a frantic nautical shoot-’em-up. Sail your way across the Caribbean, cannons blazing, looting booty, running blockades and ultimately battling Blackbeard himself. The player takes control of a navy captain sent deep undercover as a ruthless pirate in order to seek out and retrieve the Key of Dreams, a valuable and dangerous cursed artifact. Rescue castaways to bolster your ship’s crew, gaining performance increases to your navigation, weaponry, structural integrity and cartography skills. Collect increasingly powerful weaponry including rockets, mines, chain shot, saw blades and a flamethrower to hurl destruction into the path of your enemies. Play against three of your scurvy friends or A.I. opponents in pitched multiplayer battles over 35 levels, set in seven themed environments. Choose from different ship types that reflect your play style. Play in turbo mode if you’re pirate enough.

Virtual Console

Super Fantasy Zone (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Mild Cartoon Violence, 900 Wii Points): The last entry in the Fantasy Zone series, this side-scrolling shooter puts you in the shoes of main character Opa-Opa, who is on a mission to avenge the death of his father. To do so, you’ll have to battle a variety of Enemy Generators to clear out the various levels and finish off the Menon Guardian at the end of the level. Eliminating your enemies will let you rack up some gold, which you can use to buy even better weapons, upgrades and other equipment. Spend your gold wisely, as each different boss you need to defeat presents a unique challenge.

Gley Lancer (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Mild Suggestive Themes, Mild Fantasy Violence, 900 Wii Points): In the year 2025, a war breaks out between humans and a hostile alien race, and 16-year-old Lucia and the rest of the starfighter pilots in the Earth Federation must join the battle. When Lucia’s father is kidnapped by the aliens, she decides to take action and hijacks a brand new prototype starfighter, the Gley Lancer, in order to try to save him. In this side-scrolling shooter, step into the cockpit of the Gley Lancer as Lucia, rescue your father and destroy the evil aliens that are bent on destroying the human race.

Feature: Megaman 9: Hit or Miss?

By Pierst179

More than ten years have passed since the last Mega Man game was released. Mega Man 8 came out for both the Playstation and the Sega Saturn and its sequel has finally been announced. One would rapidly assume that the whole Mega Man fan base would be extremely thrilled because Mega Man 9 is currently under production and its launch may be just around the corner. But one quick glance at the recently released screenshots of the game will allow you to notice the aspect of the game that is bothering many fans: the graphics.

I will have to agree that the decision of using 8-bit technology on a game that is going to be released at a time where high definition and games that are so realistic they could as well be considered movies is very strange and daring. And that is one of the main why reasons you need to love what Capcom has decided to do with one of its main franchises. It will make the game stand out among other current platformers, and playing a new 8-bit game on the 21st century is unique experience.

Creating it as an 8-bit platformer was a decision made because Capcom knows that the best games of the Mega Man series were released during the eighties. According to one of the companies executives, when asking fans which one of the Mega Man games were their favorite most of them would say that Mega Man 2 is the absolute masterpiece among so many adventures. Therefore producing a game that would feature simple commands and just a couple of buttons to be used was a non-brainer.

However, some fans think such a simple game would be a step in the wrong direction. After all, instead of exploring new areas the franchise would be returning to the exact same place it had reached twenty years ago. Particularly I think that Mega Man 9 will be a homage to the series itself, a modern game with an old-school look that will make fans feel like they are once again experiencing Mega Man for the first time in their lives.

It will remind us, and show new gamers, that games like Mega Man don't need fancy effects or a deep storyline to be fun and entertaining for long hours. All it needs is some great level design, and a bunch of exciting tunes being played on the background to get players excited about the adventure that is unfolding right in front of their eyes.

At first it looked like the game would be available to all the current gen platforms, but so far Capcom has only confirmed the WiiWare version. According to them the Live Arcade and PSN versions are false. Sadly I don't think this game will remain a Wii exclusive because Capcom is aware that there are fans of the series supporting all the systems of this generation.

Once again Mega Man will have to deal with eight different robot masters. This time around he will have to prove that Dr. Light - who is being accused for all the confusion - is actually innocent. No release date has been confirmed for the US but I believe we will be playing it before the end of the year.

And what about you guys? Are the 8-bit graphics a bad or a good idea?

Pre-E3 2008: Megaman 9

Nintendo Power's Megaman 9 Leak

News is slowly leaking out from the latest Nintendo Power, which (as last month's issue hinted) did say it would have a few surprises in it. And this might be one of them.

Nintendo Power leaks have just confirmed that Mega Man 9 is indeed heading to WiiWare, and it looks and plays like a classic NES game! Here's a tiny screenshot, but it's confirmation enough!

And the first details:

Robot Masters

Magma Man
Galaxy Man
Jewel Man
Concrete Man
Hornet Man
Plug Man
Tornado Man
Splash Woman

- Dr. Wily returns
- Story: Dr. Wily blames Dr. Light for robot master attacks
- various level hazards: lava, gravity-defying magnetic platforms, Mega Man clones
- attacks gained from Robot Masters: Galaxy Man’s Black Hole Bombs
- development handled by Inti Creates (Mega Man Zero, ZX, Battle Chip Challenge)
- controls: Wiimote NES style, just as you would expect it to be
- Rush returns
- 8-bit style was chosen to ‘please fans’
- 8-bit music
- 8-bit cut-scenes
- difficultly on-par with NES games
- return of classic enemies, as well as new ones
- Will Protoman be playable? “you’ll have to wait and see.”
- hopes in surpassing the quality of Mega Man 2

Wii Ware Review: Pop

Pop
Genre: Puzzle

Review by: Kenzo287

When it was first announced that Nintendo would soon allow developers to release stand alone Wii titles through the Wii Shop Channel in the form of the WiiWare service the first company to jump on board was Nnooo. The Australian based developer had this title ready months ago and it has been polished to a fine sheen. The concept is simple. Pop bubbles underwater. In fact forget the underwater part if you want, it is only implied. While you may think seven dollars is a little much for a game about popping bubbles keep in mind that for ten you can buy that N64 cartridge that's sitting in your closet collecting dust.

The game's graphics feature no flaws or glitches of any kind, mostly thanks to the lack of actual objects in the game. There are a wide variety of bubbles that show up in several different colors as you progress through the game. The backgrounds are also well done and are a smooth ocean gradient that changes colors as the game proceeds.

The sound is one of the best things about Pop, yet it is also one of the most disappointing. The ambient music is the constant theme. Everywhere you go in the game you hear some form of ambient music with a beat to it. It all works magically and is not in the least bit out of place. The music is also perfectly slowed down when the game slows down and picks up the pace when needed. The disappointing thing about the audio selection is when I went into the audio menu through the options menu. For some strange reason I though that this would be a game that would support a custom soundtrack off of the SD card slot similar to Excite Truck. I was saddened deeply when I found two volume meters which were thankfully turned to the maximum already.

There is online leader boards but I have yet to find a way to access them without going through and playing a game till the very end which can take upwards of 20 minutes plus at a time. There are two game modes that feature the leader boards. The first is Normal mode that is your basic get the high score type of game. Then is advanced in which you need to reach an insanely high score and at the time of posting there were only two people on that list, both of which being members of the development team. There is also a Chill mode in which you pop bubbles to your heart's delight. You won't be playing this mode too often as it is boring and provides no point to it.

All in all this is a good first stab at simple but fun games on WiiWare. The game is priced maybe two bucks too high but seven dollars is still a reasonable price to pay for a quirky fun game. Add in four player vs mode and this is a game that you could play for hours at a time.
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Graphics: [7/10]
Sound: [7.5/10]
Gameplay: [8/10]
Overall: 7.5

By Kenzo287

Wii Ware Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as King

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as King
Genre: City-building Simulation

Review by: Kenzo287

My question to you is did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a young King? To be able to build your kingdom as you see fit? If you said yes then you have a winner with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King. The game is actually heavily story oriented. You are the son of King Epitav, the founder of a Kingdom that you and your half Clavat half Selkie Chancellor Chime and your Lility guard Hugh Yurg come across. After the events of the first game the deadly Miasma has cleared and the creatures that were born from it have become organized as if they were an army. After discovering your father's lost kingdom you gain a mysterious power called Architek. With it you can build houses and other building out of thin air. The gameplay takes place during the day where you wake up and issue behests, or quests, to your adventures, or soldiers, and then you walk around and tend to the needs of every person in your kingdom. Around sunset though you are forcibly required by Chime to retire for the night.

Here's where the gripes begin. When first starting off with your settlement the day is excessively long and you can get done pretty much everything you need to. But soon you'll find yourself running around as fast as possible to get everything done. Although you can extend this time limit by making your villagers happier you would have to spend most of the day making them happy in the first place to get to stay up at night and while the alternate nighttime music and calming look of the kingdom at night are nice rewards for your effort you are not going to get much done this way.

Then the music. Oh the music. There are less tracks in this game than the fingers on your hand. There is about 5 different songs in the whole game. Which as far as they go they're alright. The theme that plays during the actual gameplay is repetitive and annoying after the first couple of in game days. It is memorable though and most like will be engraved into your head.

Now when Crystal Chronicles first appeared on the GameCube the graphics were pretty good. Definitely far from the greatest but we couldn't complain...then. Now however we can complain and I WILL complain. The graphics are good in the extent that it is a launch title for WiiWare and I can't expect mind blowing graphics right off the gate but maybe we could have some facial expression. Like Crystal Chronicles before it, My Life As A King features characters who are smiles all the time. Even when the Dark Lord is about to destroy you both you and your subjects are smiling like the price of oil dropped to 12 cents a barrel. This is really annoying especially in some of the more serious moments of the story. The only exceptions to this rule is Hugh Yurg and all of the Yukes in the game who all have helmets with face plating so you never really know what they look like. But overall the graphics are good enough that you can tell what everything is but they are a small improvement if any at all to the original Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube.

Similar to Super Smash Bros. Brawl you can use one of four types of controllers. First up is the Wiimote by itself. Holding it like a TV remote you move with the D Pad, summon Chime with either the - button or by shaking the Wiimote. The sensor can sometimes get in the way if you forget about it. The A button let's you communicate with people but only if they have a bubble over their head which usually expresses their mood. Holding the B trigger will set the camera directly behind the King and then moving the D Pad while holding it will allow you to rotate the camera. The benefit to using the nunchuck is that all the controls remain the same except you use the analog stick to move and rotate the camera with the D Pad on the Wiimote. The Classic Controller and the GameCube controller are also supported with the L button replacing the B trigger of the Wiimote and the Y button taking the place of the shaking motion. I personally found the nunchuck to give the best experience with the GameCube and Classic Controllers to be next in line followed closely by the Wiimote which is actually pretty good in this game.

Later on in the game you will gain larger houses and shops and training facilities for you adventures who can be one of four jobs. The jobs are warrior, the default class, thief, whose skills can be used to find shortcuts to explore dungeons easier, white mage, who uses holy spells to heal and protect, and the black mage, who uses arcane magics to harm and destroy. Every morning you issue a behest to your adventures and have them explore a dungeon in order to find the location of the dungeon's boss. The next day after fully exploring a dungeon your adventurers can fight the boss. Whoever dealt the final blow will be awarded a medal of your choice the next day. This is a system that I found enjoyable and easy to use as I focused on the building of my kingdom.

Unfortunately all of the fun in building you kingdom is lost when you start to get it to grow only to have the frame rate go down and the lag go up. It becomes ridiculous at some points. With dozens of people running aroud if you want to build a house you have to summon Chime whose animation take roughly five seconds to complete with the lag, you the have to wait for the three second lag on the speech bubble. Moving your selection in the menus take a little longer than necessary and then the whole game slows down during the dramatic building animation. That is why I will not give this game higher than an 8. It is because at some points it is barely playable and is far more trouble than it's worth. These experiences are frequent but they aren't as bad as the lag one would get trying to play a FPS online through a dial up connection. While the lag take some away from the experience it does not kill it completely. The lag is over in a couple of seconds and you will then rush to the next thing on your agenda.

One revolutionary thing about this game is the inclusion of the Pay to Play function. This is downloadable content that is optional. Among these are an alternate costume for your King and one for Chime, dungeon packs which if you install will allow you to level up more to take down his royal pain in the butt the Dark Lord that much sooner, and housing for the other races of the Crystal Chronicles series although they are limited to only five houses of each. While Pay to Play is a little late to the game, games like My Life As A King and the upcoming Samba De Amigo for Wii will show off what Wii can do with DLC. Now if only we had more storage. Speaking of which there is a serious problem with not only this but all WiiWare games being so large that you will have to delete channels in order to make room for them.

Overall you can't go wrong with My Life As A King. It is deserving of the Crystal Chronicles name and will hopefully give us some insight into the upcoming Crystal Bearers. Don't let the 7.0 confuse you. this is worth every penny DLC and all. Download it you won't be disappointed.
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Story: [8.5/10]
Graphics: [7/10]
Sound: [7/10]
Gameplay: [8/10]
Controls: [8/10]
Overall: 7.7

By Kenzo287

LostWinds II

What?! It's been out for... one day, and already a sequel is on its way! I know it may seem hard to believe but, Click here for the Link!

Wii Ware Trailers: Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People

The trailer tells all!

Wii Ware Review: LostWinds

LostWinds
Genre: Platform/Adventure

Review by: Pikaboo

WiiWare is the new service that Nintendo has given us to download new games that use the Wii's motion controls. Because of this, WiiWare differs from the Virtual Console. When WiiWare launched, it had six launch titles. One of these titles is LostWinds for 1,000 Wii Points. When I finally got some extra Wii Points, I immediately searched through the shop channel and downloaded it. Lost Winds is a basic Sidescroller with not-so-difficult puzzles and an unoriginal story. But does it disappoint?

The game starts with a basic tale told in a storybook-esque fashion. It tells that there were 12 Elemental Spirits and that one of the spirits, named Balasar, thought himself superior than the other Elemental Spirits. Balasar planned a way to rule Mistralis (the world of LostWinds) and be worshipped as a god. When the other spirits found out they forged a Spirit Stone to seal Balasar within it. When Balasar fought back, the brave Enril sacrificed herself to seal him, however Enril ends up getting sealed along with Balasar. Balasar soon discovers a way to escape the stone and claws his way out until the stone explodes in 7 pieces. It is by chance a young boy named Toku finds a shard of Enril and learns from her the peril awaiting Mistralis. They set out together on a journey to awaken Enril's fellow Elemental Spirits, restore her full powers, and so return the LostWinds to Mistralis.

LostWinds is very unique in itself. If you've played Kirby's Canvas Curse, the gameplay resembles that except with motion controls instead of drawing with the stylus. As Toku, you'll be adventuring caves, mines and temples. Toku himself doesn't seem very useful except for walking and picking up items. The most fun lies with Enril, the Wind Spirit. Using the motion controls, you can control the wind itself at your fingertips-- or your Wiimote. With the wind, you can blow Toku from platform to platform and reach higher places. You can also move around objects such as boulders and fruit, as well as make a path for fire (or water) to cross. Using the wind plays with most of the puzzles in this game. As mentioned above, the puzzles aren't very difficult, however it can be a blast to play them. Controlling the wind may take patience and practice to learn, but once you have that down this game flies by. Figuring out where you have to go can be a journey by itself. Since you have no map to help you out, you'll have to memorize where to go or just roam around until you get to where you need to go.

Since this game is a launch game for WiiWare, the visuals don't seem to compare to such games as Mario Kart Wii and Mario Party 8. LostWinds features nice looking scenery, as you would and should expect from a fiction and fairy tale game like LostWinds. Interestingly, LostWinds uses an odd look. The game looks cel-shaded and realistic at the same time. Almost like something out of a Pixar film, such as Toy Story. Artistically, the graphics are beautiful but does not look so good compared to other games. For a launch title, the visuals are good, but as a Wii game... well, not so much.

Unfortunately, the music and soundtrack do not necessarily fit in with the game in general. The music is soothing in the town, caves, mines, and temples, which should not be the case. In the dungeons, the music should be a little bit more upbeat, and go together with it's setting. Another thing about the music is that it can get annoying. One occurrence of this case is when an enemy is sighted. The song suddenly becomes darker and a lot more energetic. Now this may sound good, however, this is whenever an enemy is sighted, which can happen very often. You'll start walking, wit the music being peaceful and relaxing, then out of nowhere the music suddenly starts picking up its pace which can surprise you-- Well, I got surprised anyways. The only good thing about that happening is that you'll know when an enemy is near so that you can get ready to attack.

LostWinds provides a unique control scheme. You only have one option of control, The Wiimote and Nunchuk. You use the analog stick on the nunchuk to move Toku. You use the Wii Pointer functionality to control Enril, the Wind Spirit. To actually activate the wind, you hold down the A or B button depending on what you want to do witht he wind. If you want to propel Toku upwards you will use the A button. But if you wanted to create a path for fire you would use the B button. The controls may seem uncomfortable and awkward at first, but once you get familiarized with the controls, you'll be fine.

LostWinds is overall a very entertaining game, however, there is one big fault with it. The game is very short. Very short. The game will take approximately 2-5 hours to complete depending on your skill level. Because of its length, you may want to play through this game again, if you feel that it was too pricey for only 3 hours of play time. You may also come back to this game to collect all the statues, but since there are only about 27 (not sure of the exact number) of them, it should not take too long. Overall, LostWinds is a fun, quirky game with easy, yet enjoyable puzzles that is a good experience. For only 1000 Points ($10US) that's a bargain.
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Story: [7.5/10]
Graphics: [8/10]
Sound: [6.5/10]
Gameplay: [8.5/10]
Controls: [8/10]
Replay Value: [6/10]
Overall: 7.5
By Pikaboo