Gallery: Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars
Retail and download releases for the week of December 1st
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Life Force, Nobunaga, more on Japanese VC in December
The Virtual Console offerings for Japan in December are fairly lean once again. It's fairly depressing to see Nintendo of Japan adopting Nintendo of America's stance toward the Virtual Console (that stance being "there probably don't need to be many games on it.") At least the ones coming out are reasonably interesting! Well, except for another Wonder Boy. We're definitely excited about Konami's Salamander on the Famicom, because it means we may see the American version, Life Force, soon! One of the other Famicom releases, Atlantis no Nazo, is featured in the latest Famicom Dojo video.
Other interesting additions include Nobunaga's Ambition on the Super Famicom (what a coincidence!) and a Taito platformer called Jigoku Meguri whose title translates to Tour of Hell. The full list is after the break!
Continue reading Life Force, Nobunaga, more on Japanese VC in December
VC Friday: A question of value
This week's PAL Virtual Console line-up isn't short on quality, but it represents fairly awful value. As dreamy as we find any Metal Slug title, there are cheaper ways to play all three of this week's offerings.
Want Metal Slug 2? We'd recommend picking up this. Fancy having your delicate gamer's ego rudely kicked in by Forgotten Worlds? There's an excellent compilation out there for a bunch of platforms that costs peanuts and comes with another 20 or so games. If you can't find Space Invaders for less than £6/€8, you're probably reading the wrong website. Better still: lavish those points on Space Invaders Get Even!.
- Metal Slug 2 -- Neo Geo -- 900 Wii Points
- Space Invaders: The Original Game -- SNES -- 800 Wii Points
- Forgotten Worlds -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points
Koei strategy pair rated by ESRB
The ESRB has rated a pair of Koei games that aren't Dynasty Warriors for release on the Virtual Console. Both are historical strategic RPGs, though with very different settings. The first, Nobunaga's Ambition (top screens above), tasks players with conquering feudal Japan, while Uncharted Waters: New Horizons is based more on life at sea, and lets you indulge in sailing, trading, and even piracy.
We assume these are the NES versions, though could be wrong -- there were versions of each on the Genesis and SNES. Considering a boxed of copy of either goes for about $20 or $25 on eBay, we could be in for a bargain when these appear.
VC Tuesday: Pop-up Ping-pong
The Virtual Console releases are pretty slim this week in Japan, but still just unlikely enough to show up outside of Japan to make them super interesting. First, Smash Ping Pong, a Nintendo-published Famicom Disk System version of the arcade Konami's Ping Pong. There's something hilarious about playing retro sports games, with their archaic button controls, on the Wii. Maybe it's just us.The other game is one of the many entries in Falcom's Dragon Slayer series, Legend of Xanadu. It's a "ram into enemies" action-RPG like Ys -- and a side-scrolling RPG like Ys III.
- Smash Ping Pong (Famicom Disk System, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
- Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu (PC Engine CD-ROM, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
- @Simple Series Vol. 2 THE Number Place Neo (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu Wii (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
- Pokers Wii (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
Gallery: Pop-up Pirate Wii
Retail and download releases for the week of November 24th
Gallery: Ultimate Band
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Wii Points up for grabs in Tetris Party tournaments
Those online Tetris Party tournaments won't just enhance your fearsome internet reputation -- they'll also offer Wii Points as prizes, a pretty awesome way of keeping player interest high. The first tournament kicks off December 1st, and contains four rounds, each featuring one of Tetris Party's eighteen variations. After you complete a round, the game will give you a rank and confirmation code, which you can register at the official Tetris Party tournament site. Perform strongly over all four rounds, and you could win!
Five hundred prizes are up for grabs (though how many points will be given away isn't known), and we're fairly sure this is a global contest -- there's no mention of regional restrictions in the press release. Skip past the break for start dates, end dates, and other details of the first tournament, then get practicing!
Gallery: Tetris Party
Continue reading Wii Points up for grabs in Tetris Party tournaments
VC Tuesday: Pre-blast processing
The Japanese Virtual Console releases this week are all relatively obscure. The most recognizable name in the lineup is Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and even that is the Master System version. These Master System Sonic games, by the way, aren't just ports of the Genesis games. They're basically original Sonic games from back when it was possible for those to be good!The other games are a very early (the arcade version predates Super Mario Bros.) sidescrolling platformer-RPG and an upgraded Qix game.
- Dragon Buster (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Volfied (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
- Cue Sports Wi-Fi Taisen Billiards (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
Retail and download releases for the week of November 17th
Also, our apologies. There likely won't be a VC Monday Madness video today, but we'll try to get it up as soon as we can. Sorry!
Continue reading Retail and download releases for the week of November 17th
VC Friday: Mega Phriday
Unless you've got a PS2 or a PSP, there's really no excuse to miss out on downloading Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, a game that is treated with justifiable reverence by fans of the franchise's early years. Mega Man 3 might not represent the peak of its respective series, but it's still worth a punt for 500 points. Especially as you don't have to look at this.- Mega Man 3 -- NES -- 500 Wii Points
- Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points
Gallery: Mega Man Boxarts
VC Tuesday: Whack an Ogre
The biggest news for Japan's downloadable Wii games this week is the debut of an excellent Square Enix series on the Virtual Console. While it's awesome that the VC will be graced with the first Ogre Battle game from genius creator and Queen fanboy Yasumi Matsuno, it's basically confirmation that Square Enix doesn't care about the series -- like ActRaiser and King's Knight. And Mana. This is no surprise, really, since Matsuno all but disappeared during the development of Final Fantasy XII and isn't at Square Enix to work on more Ogre Battle. The other VC game, Cadash, is a pretty good side-scrolling action RPG type thing from Taito. It's a fantasy game that's got a ninja in it!
- Densetsu no Ogre Battle (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
- Cadash (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
- Bakutan (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Tataite! Mogupon (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
Retail and download releases for the week of November 10th
Gallery: Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- Lightsaber Duels
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VC Tuesday: Capcom rocks
Capcom traditionally lends lots of support to every system, no matter how well or poorly they are doing. Games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Mars Matrix, and Power Stone helped make the Dreamcast worth owning, for example. So it's no surprise that the Wii, which is actually very popular and enables companies to easily lend support in the form of direct ports of old games, is the recipient of some of Capcom's favor. It's an especially good week in Japan for Capcom fans, with both Rockman 3 and Mercs, the sequel to the classic Commando.We're very curious about this CD version of Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu. It looks pretty much like a PC Engine version of Nintendo World Cup, but ... maybe it's got good music?
- Rockman 3 (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Senjou no Okami II (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
- Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu CD Soccer Hen (PC Engine CD-ROM, 1-4 players, 800 Wii Points)
- Tokyo City Nights (1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
- Saikyou Ginsei Gomoku Narabe (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
Retail and download releases for the week of November 3rd
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November's Japanese VC lineup: Ogres battle Mega Man
It's a pretty light month for releases on the Virtual Console in Japan, but it's still a good month, mostly for one reason: Mega Man 3. Even though we'll be happy with any Mega Man games that Capcom decides to put on the Virtual Console, Mega Man 3 is, generally speaking, from the period before Mega Man games started to go downhill. So it's actually good! We'd love to see how new Mega Man 9 players react to a game designed with sliding in mind.The other really big news is Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the first Ogre Battle strategy game, and a classic of the genre. Personally, we're happy to see Mercs, Cadash, and the CD version of the Kunio soccer game! The full list is after the break.
Gallery: Mega Man Boxarts
Continue reading November's Japanese VC lineup: Ogres battle Mega Man
