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NintendoWare Weekly: WiiWare demos, Pokemon Rumble, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures

This week, we get our first taste of Nintendo's new WiiWare demos. Surprisingly, it didn't take Nintendo that long to flip the switch for North America, considering the company revealed the long-overdue feature -- and day-one annoyance -- only earlier this month. And on top of the free trial versions of select WiiWare titles (five total this week!), there are also two new Virtual Console titles to enjoy, as well as three new DSiWare games. Hit the break for the full list.


WiiWare

  • Pokemon Rumble (Nintendo, 1 - 4 players, 1,500 Wii Points; 0 Wii Points for demo): Nintendo's latest entry in its long-running series features arena combat revolving around robotic Pokemon. While one could argue the regular Pokemon should be just fine with duking it out, we offer that 800 games over the last 12 years have probably taken their toll. Let the little critters have some time off, will ya?

  • Bit.Trip Beat demo (Aksys Games, 1 - 4 players, 0 Wii Points): Gaijin Games' quirky, retro-inspired and quite difficult first entry in the Bit. Trip series fuses chiptune beats with the nostalgia of gigantic, bright pixels. You can check out our review here.

  • FFCC: My Life as a Darklord demo (Square Enix, 1 player, 0 Wii Points): The follow-up to My Life as a King features tower defense in the most literal sense; as the head evil dude in your tower full of other evil dudes (and evil things, as most evil dudes often find make for good company), you must defend your structure from invading heroes.

  • NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits demo (Over the Top Games, 1 - 2 players, 0 Wii Points): This side-scroller with 3D graphics has generally received good marks since its release and now you'll be able to see if those scores are warranted.

  • World of Goo demo (2D Boy, 1 - 4 players, 0 Wii Points): You'd have to be damaged in your brain to not try this demo out. World of Goo is one of the best games on WiiWare!

DSiWare

  • Art Style: Digidrive (Nintendo, 1 - 2 players, 500 DSi Points): Nintendo's latest Art Style game focuses on ushering along traffic by directing cars and avoiding gridlock at an intersection. Sadly, we doubt the game will feature the Police Academy method, but we've got our fingers crossed!

  • Arcade Bowling (Skyworks Interactive, 1 player, 200 DSi Points): Activision founder David Crane helped come up with Arcade Bowling. In short: it's skee ball for your DSi.

  • Robot Rescue (Teyon, 1 player, 200 DSi Points): In a bizarre twist on the inevitable future, players must save robots trapped inside of an evil labyrinth -- instead of, you know, fleeing from them in terror and sending Kyle Reese into the past to defend our unborn human leader.

Virtual Console

  • Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures (SNES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Before Lego Indiana Jones took a stab at the three original films, there was this SNES classic. You'll play through classic moments from the movies, such as the boulder chase from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the mine cart chase from Temple of Doom.

  • Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (TG16, 1 - 2 players, 700 Wii Points): This 8-bit PCEngine port of the classic 2D fighter features all original 12 characters and a VS mode for taking on your soon-to-not-be-friends-because-you-won't-stop-being-cheap-with-Vega.