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'Dr. Mario World' hits iOS and Android a day early (updated)
The doctor is in. Nintendo's latest mobile game, Dr. Mario World, has arrived a day early on iOS and Android. Several Engadget editors were able to play Nintendo's match-three puzzler before the expected launch date of July 10th. The new mobile title hit iOS early today before it became available on Android as well.
New Nintendo eShop releases: Sonic Lost World DLC, Dr. Mario, Clu Clu Land
March has been a busy month for gaming, and clearly the Nintendo eShop is all tuckered out and in need of a rest ahead of next month's Game Boy Advance rush. This week is so quiet that arguably the headline new release is the Zelda-themed DLC speeding towards Sonic: Lost World, and you can find more about that by heading over here. Outside of that, the re-release of Dr. Mario provides absolute confirmation the Year of Luigi is over and normal Mario-based service is resumed. The NES color-matching pill-dropper comes to the Wii U this week, while underwater gold-grabber Clu Clu Land is bound for the 3DS Virtual Console. Our favorite release of the week, however, has to be the simply titled I am an Air Traffic Controller Airport Hero Hawaii. "Let's try air traffic control in an atmosphere of a summer resort," its trailer cheerily exclaims, where we'll find "SEA," "SUN," and, er,"SQUALL." We're assuming that refers to sudden rises in wind speed and not the mostly mute misanthrope from Final Fantasy 8, although we'd very much like the 3DS game to prove us wrong. If the new releases are a bit of a wash, Ubisoft's sale might tempt you back to some older ones. The publisher has select games discounted until 8.59AM PT/5.59AM ET on March 31, including Joystiq faves like Rayman Legends, down from $40 to 28, and ZombiU, half-off at $30. The full list of Ubisoftened prices can be found here. [Image: Sonic Powered Co.]
Adorable Valentine's Day card templates from PaperRockScisorz
Despite previous indications to the contrary, the Joystiq Qrew is actually pretty keen on Valentine's Day. We're all hopeless romantics, but you don't need to be as in love with being in love as we are to recognize how precious, touching and clever these gaming themed Valentine's Day card templates are.Made by Etsy user PaperRockScisorz and available at her shop, these print-your-own card templates feature Pokemon, Dr. Mario, Sonic, Zelda and Portal motifs with cutesy sayings and pixel hearts at $2.75 a pop. It's an easy and inexpensive way to show your significant other that you care, assuming you're lucky enough to share your life with a person that loves games as much as you do. If you're not that lucky, well, maybe get them a gift card or something. Single people are advised to dress up like a member of their preferred gender and have a romantic candle-lit dinner with themselves in a mirror. Ain't love grand?
TUAW's Daily App: Ponk
At its core, Ponk plays a lot like Dr. Mario or Tetris. You have different colored balls falling from the top of the screen, and you've got to line them up with balls of the same color to make them disappear and score points. But Ponk takes its touchscreen placement very seriously -- touch not only comes into play as you actually maneuver the pieces into place, but you can also do things like freeze the screen to move already-dropped balls around. Something like that would be tough to do with traditional controls, but on a touchscreen, you're just dragging and dropping. There are three different gameplay modes to mess around with, and Game Center achievements and leaderboards to fight on as well. For just 99 cents on the App Store, Ponk is a satisfying puzzle/action game with a nice full feature set. Give it a shot if you want to try something new with the old dropping-block genre.
Video: Dr. Mario kinda doesn't know what he's doing
As much as we'd like to think Mario is an accredited doctor with the papers to back it up (that University of Phoenix diploma above might as well be toilet paper), the dude is just a plumber in a white lab coat. Unlike most practitioners, he's willing to throw pills at any problem and can only really deal with two issues: the chills and fever. Nothing makes this more evident than the video made by College Humor user Brentalfloss, which adds lyrics to the Dr. Mario theme ... and some kinda disturbing imagery, too. Check it out at your own risk![Thanks, Adrian!]Source - Dr. Mario with Lyrics (probably NSFW)
DS Fanboy's DSiWare screen round-up
Thirteen DSiWare titles will be released to Japan's DSi Shop on December 24, so we thought we'd construct a one-stop post where you can gawk at games most of us can't have. Past the jump, you'll find screens for all launch titles, as well as the price and size of each. How would you spend the free 1,000 DSi Points you get with the system? Because we love the series, we'll kick proceedings off with a look at A Little Dr. Mario (500 DSi Ware Points, 29 blocks required): %Gallery-39567%
DSi Shop opens Christmas Eve, new trailers available right now
Nintendo has released a new video advertising the downloadable offerings on the Japanese DSi Shop, which will become available starting December 24. This new trailer gives us a better look at a few of the games we knew about, and introduces a few we didn't. Thrillingly, we now have names for two of the Art Style games: Aquario and the very cool-looking Decode. There's a brief look at the Brain Age DSiWare games; Utsusu! Made in Wario, the 500-point WarioWare game that uses the DSi camera; and the separate WarioWare minigames like Paper Plane and Bird and Bean. Awesome new stuff includes Chotto Dr. Mario (A Little Dr. Mario), a 500 Point downloadable Dr. Mario game; single magic tricks from Magic Taisen/Master of Illusion; and Chotto Asobi Taisen Odegaru Trumps, which contains a small variety of card games from Clubhouse Games. Combined with the known offerings, this is the whole launch lineup, and it's all Nintendo! After the break, you can see a longer trailer for the downloadable Brain Ages, and a really, really cool look at Ugoku Memo-chou, the flipbook/notepad software. %Gallery-36348%
i am 8-bit show highlights
Though states or even oceans might separate you from walking through the fourth annual i am 8-bit exhibit in Hollywood, California, Wii Fanboy sister-site Joystiq has put up an image collection of its own with enough photographs from the video game gallery to make you feel like you're actually at the art house!We've picked out a number of notable pieces that we liked, such as the double framed Link and Zelda sketches above, but make sure to also check out Joystiq's gallery and impressions from the show's opening. It's enough to make you want to go out and buy some art supplies to create your own video game art!
Wii Warm Up: Born for WiiWare
There are two things that led to this particular question of the day: our new column, Born for Wii, and the release of expanded games like Dr. Mario Online Rx. Are there other properties you'd like to see get this kind of enhancement for WiiWare? Or maybe you'd be more interested in something like the direction Square Enix went with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- in that it's a nice break from the typical with the Final Fantasy franchise.There are tons of original games for WiiWare, sure, but there are equally as many possibilities for things like this, from board games to expanded online mini-games based on popular characters. What would you pay for?
Wii Warm Up: How about that flow?
Wow, we've been happy with WiiWare. You all have been happy with the titles, correct? Well, regardless of how you would rate the service so far, we have a tough question to ask.Do you think the steady flow of new titles will remain constant going forward? Would you expect at least one new WiiWare game each week, or do you think that the well is getting close to dried up? Sure, there's Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People to look forward to, but what else? Will the flow continue?
VC Monday Madness: WiiWare and VC team up yet again
Now, this is something we can get used to. Both WiiWare titles and Virtual Console titles releasing together, side-by-side? Totally awesome, if you ask us. And, on top of it, both of Nintendo's services are hooking us all up with some solid downloads today. With it being a holiday and all, we're glad Nintendo is providing us with some stuff to do during our downtime. Virtual Console games available for download this week: City Connection (NES, 1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points) Metal Slug (NEOGEO, 1 - 2 players, 900 Wii Points) WiiWare games available for download this week: Dr. Mario Online Rx (1 - 4 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Family Table Tennis (1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points) As always, be sure to stop back here later for our video wrap-up of today's Virtual Console releases, as well as a review for Family Table Tennis. For those of you interested in Dr. Mario Online Rx's features, give our review a read. %Gallery-23089% %Gallery-23707%
Dr. Mario prescribes Family Table Tennis for WiiWare
Here we are in the third week of WiiWare and we still feel like we aren't able to equip you guys and gals properly for your buying decisions. We feel pretty confident about Dr. Mario, if you aren't burnt out on it, but we have literally no clue about Family Table Tennis. Let us know in the comments if you give either one a spin. Dr. Mario Online Rx (Nintendo, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points): It's the classic Dr. Mario that you have played a thousand times love, wherein an Italian plumber tosses more pills then Amy Winehouse to practice medicine completely without a license. But Nintendo has added new multiplayer modes, including a Friend Battle Demo that you can play with someone who doesn't own the game. Family Table Tennis (Aksys Games, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): You can probably figure out what to expect here. It's table tennis (though we don't know if it uses the Wiimote's motion sensing). What we'd like to bring up is this line from the press release: "Just like a real family, choose your character from a cast of four, which includes Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy." What sort of Cold War-era ethics are you trying to impose on our families, Nintendo? Even more sinister is the release's insistence that the game includes "four table tennis-tastic stages." Table tennis-tastic? We don't care what anyone tells you, that collection of words and punctuation means nothing.
Wii Fanboy Review: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster
Reviving a seventeen-year-old puzzle game seems like a strange way of kick-starting a download service that promises "genre-defying gameplay." That said, we find it easy to forgive Dr. Mario & Germ Buster for its lack of innovation. While not the perfect version we had hoped for, Arika's Dr. Mario benefits from the kind of classic, timeless design that defines the very best puzzle games. Innovative or not, it's still every bit as addictive in 2008 as it was in 1990. %Gallery-23089%
Dr. Mario prescribes demo to WiiWare
What's this? A demo? That's right folks -- if you're lucky enough to be a Wii owner in Europe or Australia, you'll be able to download the WiiWare game that many of us in the U.S. have been coveting -- Dr. Mario. Are you still unsure whether or not you want to lay down 1000 Wii Points, though? Fear not, because there's a demo out there that'll let you test the waters. Interestingly, not just anyone can play it. A registered Wii friend who bought Dr. Mario & Germ Buster has to send you the free demo (we've tested this and it works). Once you receive and download the trial game, you can register the friend codes of people who've bought the full version and play against them over Nintendo's WFC. Unfortunately, deprived gamers on the other side of the Atlantic won't be able to download the demo. Even though Wii owners in the U.S. can recieve it from a friend, trying to download it will generate a message saying, "The software you selected is not available in this country." Sad times, indeed. Gallery: Dr. Mario Online RX
WiiWare lifts off in Europe and Australia
Right on time, Nintendo has pulled the appropriate levers, flicked the necessary switches, and sent a whole world of WiiWare goodness down the pipes and into Europe and Australia. Here's what greeted this blogger on his local servers just now: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster -- 1,000 Wii Points Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1,500 Wii Points LostWinds -- 1,000 Wii Points Star Soldier R -- 800 Wii Points TV Show King -- 1,000 Wii Points Toki Tori -- 900 Wii Points Expect reviews of Dr. Mario and Toki Tori in the very near future; in the meantime, let's hear what you've downloaded so far, PAL people! %Gallery-23089% %Gallery-20255%
Dr Mario: Take ten of these screenshots in the morning
Where in the world is Dr. Mario Online RX (besides Japan)? Despite our hopes and wishes whispered to falling stars, Nintendo of America didn't debut the Dr. Mario remake with this week's WiiWare launch, and it doesn't look like the puzzler is in the cards for next Monday, either. Nintendo of Europe has the game listed in its "launch window" agenda, so it's possible that our friends across the Atlantic will have the game next week. We're not sure how long we'll want to consider Europeans our "friends," however, if they get to play the new Dr. Mario game as much as they please while we suffer this cruel, unspoken embargo. While we wait for an open date to schedule an appointment with the mustachio'd medical practitioner, you can look over ten English screenshots (and a logo!) for Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, the European title for Dr. Mario RX. %Gallery-23089% [Via press release]
Nintendo reveals first WiiWare titles for Europe
Nintendo has released a list of eight games described as "launch window" titles ahead of WiiWare's debut in Europe on May 20th. Included are four games that the U.S. is still waiting on -- Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, Star Soldier R, Toki Tori, and Pirates: The Key of Dreams -- though it looks like Europe will be waiting a little longer for Defend Your Castle and V.I.P Casino: Blackjack. Frankly, we'll live without a blackjack game.Once again, note that these are "launch window" games. How long is a launch window? No idea. "Launch window" is one of those infuriatingly flexible terms beloved by PR types. Anyway, the list of WiiWare games that Europe will be getting kinda near the launch is as follows: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King LostWinds Pop Star Soldier R TV Show King Pirates: The Key of Dreams Toki Tori There's currently no news on pricing, but we'd fully expect European WiiWare prices to match those of other regions, assuming Nintendo hasn't found a totally new and unique way to rip European gamers off.
Dr. Mario charges $10 fee to play on WiiWare
Dr. Mario has been priced for WiiWare and given a new name. Dr. Mario Online RX will cost 1000 Wii Points ($10), but there's still no word of an actual release date. Wii Fanboy noticed the price and name while meticulously scouring the video introducing the Nintendo Channel. Now, would somebody please prescribe us a pill to get the "Fever" theme song to stop playing in our heads after someone so much as mentions Dr. Mario? Don't know what we're talking about? Feel our pain after the break.
Nintendo prescribes price, new name for Dr. Mario
Since the game was announced, we've heard sources cite Nintendo's Dr. Mario WiiWare game (bundled with Brain Age 2's Virus Buster minigame) with two different titles, Dr. Mario's Virus Buster and Dr. Mario & Bacteria Extermination, both likely direct translations of the Japanese title, Dr. Mario & Saikin Bokumetsu.If you kept your eye on the Digest Video that introduced today's Nintendo Channel release, though, you might have noticed Nintendo of America's official name for the puzzler: Dr. Mario Online RX. Not bad!The two-and-a-half minute clip also revealed pricing for the game: 1000 Wii Points ($10). Unfortunately, there's still no word on whether Mario Mario, M.D. will debut with the download service's launch.
Game Melody Oratorio Volume Two: More music to our ears
Fresh off his success placing fourth in Neoflash's Spring Coding Competition, homebrew developer Multiple: Option has followed up his Game Melody Oratorio software with a second volume, packing ten songs and new features into the virtual piano update.Here's your chance to learn classic melodies from a diverse set of games: Double Dragon Dr. Mario Duck Tales (a woo woo) Final Fantasy VII Halo Leisure Suit Larry Metal Gear Solid Outrun Streets of Rage 2 Super Castlevania VI Game Melody Oratorio Volume 2's new features include an extra piano key (C3), a new Practice Stage with hidden notes, a new Recital Challenge mode, improved flashcart support, and the ability to preview melodies on the song selection screen. Wow! All that for free![Via DCEmu]
