NintendoWare Weekly: Bit Boy!! brings the bits

This week's biggest release is undoubtedly Bplus' Bit Boy!!, an odd title that pays homage to the various bits that make up gaming's past. Bit Boy!! runs the gamut from gaming's humble beginnings during the 4-bit era, all the way up to the last generation's 128-bit capabilities. The goal is to rescue Bit Boy Kubi's pals, who've been imprisoned across the various worlds.

DSiWare

• Brain Challenge (Gameloft, 1 player, 800 DSi Points): Brain Challenge is an eight-dollar experience featuring 48 different mini-games aimed at keeping your brain sharp. The game does this through exercises in math, but also focuses on four key areas: logic; focus; memory; and visual. There's also a Stress mode, which features a set of "authority challenges," so we assume you protest against cops or something. Weird that Gameloft would put that into a game aimed at keeping your mind sharp, eh?

WiiWare

• Bit Boy!! (Bplus, 1 - 2 players, 600 Wii Points): What? You didn't read the first paragraph in this post?

• Incoming (JV Games Inc., 1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points): Much like the name implies, you must defend against waves of attacking tanks, but as you progress, you unlock more complicated weaponry. The game also features a head-to-head mode, which lets you jump into the shoes of the valiant defenders or the attacking hordes against a friend. Now you can finally settle that dispute over which one of you would make a better French knight.

• Ant Nation (Konami, 1 player, 700 Wii Points): Not to be confused with the cinematic tour de force that is Antz, Ant Nation is Konami's latest foray into WiiWare and focuses on maintaining a colony of super ants. Players are charged with building character in their ants by zapping them with lasers, pitting them against other deadly animals such as spiders and ladybugs, and navigating their way through 100 different missions. Keep an eye out for the special Simon Belmont ant, which we're sure Konami snuck in somewhere.

Virtual Console

• Secret Commando (Sega Master System, 1 - 2 players, 600 Wii Points): This European import features a one-man army, sent behind enemy lines, tasked with rescuing his comrades. It's kind of like Rambo, mainly because it is Rambo.
  

• Pulseman (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 900 Wii Points): We have yet another import in Pulseman, which sounds like a really odd title. It's kind of a mixture between Lawnmower Man and Mannequin, as the game revolves around a man who creates artificial life, falls in love with artificial life, injects himself into a machine, combines with that life, and turns into a super hero as a result. We should also point out that the game was made by Game Freak, the same individuals responsible for the lovely Drill Dozer on the GBA.