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VC Friday: Lonpos finally leaves Japan
Oh goody, Nintendo slashed the price of a WiiWare game in PAL regions. Oh, it's ... Lonpos. The only neat, semi-interesting thing we can bring ourselves to write about Lonpos is that it was a launch title for the Japanese WiiWare service (but for 1,000 Wii Points), and that buying the starter pack and downloading all of Lonpos' extra content would cost you 5,300 Wii Points. We kid you not. Good luck with that, Genki. Lonpos -- WiiWare -- 800 Wii Points There's a video after the break of the game in "action." In short, it's a tangram puzzler, in the vein of Neves. Anybody else detecting a lack of excitement in our tone?%Gallery-19077%
Big Beach Sports looks more like big bore sports
With all the multi-sport games on the market for the Wii, we haven't really kept tabs on THQ's rendition, Big Beach Sports. Since the software is releasing next week for the budget price of $29.99, though, it's time to give it a closer inspection.Looking at these new screens, we have to say -- ignoring it seems like the right choice. Perhaps we're being a little harsh, but that's why we're paid the big bucks, after all. We can see that the developers were aiming for "cute," but might have gotten a bit closer to "ew ew ew."We're not ones to nitpick about graphics if the gameplay is fun, yet performing things like "the bump" with the Wiimote seem too tedious to be a good time. Perhaps the oversaturated mini-sports market has made us too cynical, and hopefully we'll be proven wrong. Yet, for now, we'll file this game under "mehware."%Gallery-25676%[Via press release]
Wii Fanboy Review: My Pokemon Ranch
Another week in WiiWare, another new release. And, like the responsible folk we try to be, we're going to go ahead and review Nintendo's latest offering through their digital download service. Is it something Pokémon fans will enjoy? Is it something that those of you who could care less about the pocket monsters are going to like? Read on and find out!
Ubisoft forum moderator explains forthcoming shovelware
It was only a few months ago that Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot was promising us all "Nintendo-like quality" games. Since then, the company has announced Raving Rabbids TV Party, Babies Party, Shaun White Snowboarding, and much, much less. It's a line-up that has generated only ripples of laughter on the internetz, rather than tremors of fear in Kyoto.The snickering is not limited to NeoGAF. Ubisoft's own forums have come under attack from those who are disillusioned by the company's planned Wii output, so much so that UK Forum Manager "Raide" recently had to ride to Ubi's defense. The gist of his argument seems to be: because the best-selling games on the Wii aren't necessarily the best games, it's actually okay for Ubisoft to release stuff that, well, doesn't have "Nintendo-like quality.""If you look at the most successful Wii games, they are not amazing new AAA games, they are predominantly family-orientated games/alternative games," explained Raide, adding that Ubisoft is pursuing the casual dollar because "parents who are buying a console for their children do not really care about Prince of Persia, Rainbow Six or Far Cry on the box."On one level, Raide's logic is fairly sound; after all, games targeted at the casual sector do sell well (particularly in the UK and Europe), and it's understandable that Ubisoft has shareholders to keep happy. But promising higher quality Wii games and singularly failing to deliver on that pledge? That's just weak. Hit the "Source" link below for Raide's full defense.%Gallery-23883%%Gallery-23972%[Via Kotaku]
Protothea might not be terrible
Earlier this week, we shared with you videos from Ubisoft newly announced WiiWare title, Protöthea, and the game looked, at best, boring, at worst, awful. Seeing this trailer for the original 2005 PC game which the WiiWare release will be a remake of, however, has given us a new hope. This looks about a hojillion times more exciting than the clips IGN trotted out for us to preview!Further improving our opinion of Protöthea, the original PC game was Cartoon Network's Project Goldmaster winner at the 2005 Independent Games Festival, rewarding developer Digital Builders an opportunity to create a game based on a Cartoon Network license. Knowing all this, maybe the screenshots in the gallery we've included below will seem more interesting to you.Protöthea was supposed to launch with WiiWare, according to IGN, but we didn't see the title on the list posted earlier today, so who knows when the shmup will be thrown onto Nintendo's download service. While we wait around for someone to announce a release date, spend a moment to leave us a comment on whether or not this trailer has changed your opinion on the game. %Gallery-22560%[Via GoNintendo]
