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Buy Dr. Mario, Majora's Mask with Club Nintendo coins
If you'd rather use your Club Nintendo coins to get actual video games than exclusive swag, you have some new choices, as Nintendo has cycled in some different 3DS eShop, WiiWare, and Wii Virtual Console games for redemption. For 100 coins, you can get Dr. Mario Online Rx (WiiWare) or the Virtual Console version of Kirby's Dream Land (3DS). For 150 Coins each, you can get The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Wii VC) or Dr. Mario Express (3DS). Note that Dr. Mario Express is actually a DSiWare game, but this offer can only be redeemed for a 3DS download code. If you're interested in turning your coins (which you got from buying games) into one of these games, you have until January 31. Nintendo will cycle in more games after that point. [Thanks, Alan]
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]
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.
Dubious WiiWare sales numbers
We don't know how a Ruliweb poster came across these statistics for Japanese sales of four WiiWare games. They could be inaccurate, they could be stolen from some analyst, or they could even be totally made up. Don't start writing any in-depth articles about these sales numbers or anything like that. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is the biggest surprise here. We weren't sure how a very nontraditional Final Fantasy game (with grating DLC) would sell, even in Japan. If this report is to be believed, we have our answer: very well! Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Wii: 72,971 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King: 129,904 Dr. Mario & Virus Buster: 43,354 Pokemon Ranch: 234,745 [Via NeoGAF]
A welcome dosage of Dr. Mario
Josh Thomas from WiiFolder has compiled an excellent two-part video tour of Dr. Mario's Virus Buster for saps like us who are impatiently awaiting WiiWare's arrival in the west. Sure enough, against all reasonable odds, the footage above and after the break has actually managed to raise our excitement levels for the game -- we now particularly want to try out the Wiimote-specific mode (especially with three other people), and were delighted to hear that online play is totally -- that's totally -- lag-free (despite Josh being based in the U.S. and his opponents being in Japan). Finally, we were less than delighted to learn about Josh's record online -- just four wins from 35 matches. We suspect our own tally will be crushingly similar come May.
Takahashi Meijin to show off Wii Ware in Japan
Hudson's Takahashi Meijin, the star of Adventure Island, will be a featured guest at a Wii Ware event hosted by Japanese cell phone company KDDI. The KDDI Design Studio will take place on April 1st and 2nd in Harajuku, and will feature playable versions of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King, Dr. Mario & Bacillus Extermination, and Hudson's Star Soldier R. Admission will be free. Plane tickets to Japan continue not to be. Takahashi will participate in a "talk show" as well as game demonstrations. He rose to fame with his Star Soldier shooting skills, so attendees should expect some feats of button-mashing from the Meijin on the new version.
Japanese Wii Ware page debuts
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Japanese_Wii_Ware_page_debuts'; The steady stream of Wii Ware news continues, this time with Nintendo's launch of its official Japanese site for the video game download service. So far, the hub lists almost a dozen upcoming titles, attaching new screenshots to some of the releases: FFCC: The Young King and the Promised Land StarSoldierR Word Puzzle Mojipittan Wii Pokemon Ranch Dr. Mario's Virus Buster Marubou Shikaku Magnetica Bomberman Okiraku Ping-Pong Wii Angels' Solitaire Joysound Wii LostWinds and other western-developed games are noticeably missing, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't planned as launch or near-launch titles for other territories. Much to our disappointment, the page neglects to mention any specific pricing for the titles. One worthwhile detail that we spotted is the above screenof Dr. Mario's four-player cooperative mode. The puzzler was already perfect before -- now it's even perfecter. There's also a multiplayer shot for Magnetica (Puzzloop) worth checking out! [Via NeoGAF]
Anniversary aftermath: Next year's awesome games that you forgot about
We spent yesterday going through the big releases that've been announced for next year so far -- Smash Bros. Brawl and/or Wii Fit likely topping your personal "must get" list -- but what about the second-tier games that don't usually receive much press or attention? Though we haven't forgotten about the low-key releases, we've collected a selection of games and media to ensure that these titles stay on your mind too! Read on for our top ten list of awesome 2008 games that you totally forgot about!
Nintendo unveils more WiiWare titles, new Dr. Mario details
Following last night's unveiling of upcoming Wii Ware titles, Nintendo has announced its first-party lineup for the downloadable service when it hits Japan in March. In addition to last night's Dr. Mario and Pokemon Farm announcements, Nintendo will also release Maruboushikaku and Minna de Puzzloop (known stateside as Magnetica). Maruboushikaku involves three screens displayed, each with its own pattern (circle-, line- and square-based). We don't yet know the objective of the game, but your actions in one window will affect the other two. The game previously known as Pokemon Farm is officially titled Pokemon Bokujou Channel (Pokemon Ranch Channel) and will let you take your Miis to the ranch to take pictures of your pokemon and send your friends. Pokemon management was mentioned, but no information on whether you level up your characters in the channel. Dr. Mario & Saikin Bokumetsu (or "bacteria extermination") will also feature your Mii characters in-game and has options for online multiplayer. Saikin Bokumesu is a minigame from the Japanese Brain Age 2 and will feature four-player online co-op. IGN has a handful of pictures from the game. Star Soldier R, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land and Moji Pittan Wii were also announced last night. Wii Ware is coming to Japanese consoles in March.
Slew of new titles announced for Wii Ware
Though its potential can't be denied, Nintendo's Wii Ware channel, an upcoming download service for new Wii games, didn't impress us much with the seemingly low-budget titles announced for it so far. Nintendo amended that worriment today at its Tokyo conference by revealing a lineup of impressive projects in progress, turning our "Excitement Level" knob to eleven, one measure greater than what we previously thought the mechanism allowed. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King and the Promised Land (1500 Wii Points, March), a "country-building sim," stands out from the bunch, promising an exclusive side story which takes place after the original GameCube game. This marks the fourth entry to the series and the second Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles title announced for the Wii. Square Enix has already made a teaser site for you to load up and immediately close once you've realized that there's almost nothing there yet. Hudson, having kept things on and poppin' on the Virtual Console side for some time now, demonstrated its commitment to the new service by announcing new games like Bomberman, Star Soldier R, and Joysound, the last of which will be a karaoke title. Namco Bandai also chimed in with Mojipittan, a Japanese word puzzle game. As for Nintendo's contributions to the Wii Ware channel, the company announced Dr. Mario (!!!), Pokemon Farm, Puzzloop for Everyone, and Maruboushikaku, all of which appearing to have some form of Mii integration. You can preview screenshots for those titles at the Famitsu links below. Read - FFCC: The Little King and the Promised Land teaser site Read - FFCC: The Little King and the Promised Land screenshots Read - Star Soldier R screenshots Read - Mojipittan screenshots Read - Dr. Mario, Pokemon Farm, Puzzloop for Everyone, and Maruboushikaku screenshots
Readers pick best webcomic: prescription meds
Scott Ramsoomair's VG Cats has caused more than a few commenters to overdose (har har) in dismay, but nonetheless it was the voted the best game-related webcomic this week. Second place goes to Hijinks Ensue, followed by Three Panel Soul in third. We're awarding Ctrl+Alt+Del an honorable mention since we should have put them in the running but subsequently overlooked them in the selection process. Thanks to everyone who voted and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!
