Wii Rally

Greetings everyone, I must again begin by apologizing for the lack of recent updates. I have been going through a difficult situation with my home life for the past couple of weeks. Said situation has finally come to a head and I have had to move out of my house on very short notice which has afforded me little time to update. Things should be back on track soon so bare with me. However I digress, on to the virtual console titles.

Super Metroid (Super NES, rated E, 800 Wii Points)
Neutopia (TG-16, rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii points)
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Genesis, rated E10+, 800 Wii Points)

I don’t have time for comedic anecdotes regarding today’s games but I do recommend giving Super Metroid a download, I don’t think I need to explain why. It’s Metorid and it’s super, ’nuff said.

I hear the train a commin’
It’s rollin’ round the bend
and I ain’t played some Metroid
since I don’t know when.
I’m stuck in Folsom prison
and time keeps draggin’ on.

This week the Metroid train keeps on thundering down the tracks. Nintendo has declared this the “Month of Metroid” and is celebrating the late Gumpei Yokoi’s masterpiece on all fronts. First Metroid Prime 3: Corruption gets its own preview channel on the Wii menu. So far Wii owners have been treated to some gameplay videos a trailer and some back-story on Corruption. Also there is more content coming on the 16th of August. Monday also marked the release of the classic NES version of Metroid on the Virtual Console.

Metroid (NES, E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points)
Originally released for the Famicom (NES) Disk System (a Famicom add-on which used 3/4″ floppy disks instead of cartridges) in 1987. This game did two things, it attracted an older demographic of gamer to the NES with its challenge and a more complex, more mature story than most other games available at the time. It also had a strong female character in the lead role, a welcome change from your standard save the damsel in distress which had become somewhat of a staple at the time.

Shining in the Darkness (Sega Genesis, E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points)
If a guy has “Dark” in his name does that make him evil? Well in the world of game design the answer is most certainly yes especially if he has vowed to reign over the enchanted kingdom of Thornwood. I tell you all this game needs is a protagonist to adventure through dungeons solving puzzles and defeating monsters. What’s that? Oh! It has one of those? I see, well enjoy!

Cratermaze (TG-16, E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points)
How many times has this happened to you? You and some friends are casually travelling through time when some Mongolian zombie cohort traps you and your buddies in a never ending maze of traps, ninjas and adventurer eating dinosaurs. Man, it’s like last Thursday all over again.

Featuring Euro and North American Virtual Console Updates.

My European friends forgive me for not posting your Virtual Console update on Friday.

4 new games hit the European Virtual Console last Friday featuring a Ninja, a toy, a troupe of brave warriors and dream warrior named Takashi.

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Mega Drive, 800 Wii Points)
The 3rd installment of the Shinobi series has ninja master Joe Musashi battling the evil Neo Zeed crime syndicate once again. Throwing stars go!

Dynamite Headdy (Mega Drive, 800 Wii Points)
A game based on a Metallica album? Well maybe not but as Headdy you must defeat the evil “Master of Puppets” (Get it?) to save your friends in North Town from a life a servitude and no one wants that.

Shining Force (Mega Drive, 800 Wii Points)
Why is that every time a Lord amasses a significant amount of dark power some sort of hero or party of heroes needs to be dispatched to stop him? Live and let live that’s what I say.

Drop Off (TG-16, 600 Wii Points)
Don’t let those apples and watermelons push you around. Show them who’s boss by dropping a ball on them. Take that you lousy fruit.

Check out the North American Virtual Console update after the jump.
(more…)

Monday morning once again as I struggle to write this post. I struggle because I mangled my right index finger. I know it sounds silly but you try and type with a big fat band-aid on your finger. Anyway your guys don’t care about that you care about the new virtual console titles.

I know that in the past I’ve made jokes about the abundance of scrolling space based shooters available for the Virtual Console. Well since there have been so many I must say that I am effectively out of material. So I’ll just give it to ya straight. Star Soldier is a vertical scrolling where you fly inside a giant space station with your space ship named Caesar. No matter how you word it it still sounds like something you’ve done a billion times before.

The other game I’m going to talk about today offers something a little more unique in regards to gameplay. In Dynamite Headdy you play as Headdy a toy with a detachable head. You with me so far, Headdy must save all his toy companions in North Town from the evil Dark Demon before he turn all the puppets in North Town into his evil minions. To be honest they had me detachable head. With games like this appearing on the Genesis back in the early 90s it’s no wonder the Genesis started to pull ahead of the SNES which seemed to be over producing the same crap at the time. Anyway Headdy seems like it could be more fun than lighting a Teddy Ruxpin on fire and watching the evil bear wriggle in pain. Muahahaha! Take that you mechanical demon who plagued my nightmares as a child!

Star Soldier (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)
Dynamite Headdy (Genesis, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
Drop Off (TG-16, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)

Hello once again to all of you out there in rally land. Sorry I didn’t post the new Virtual Console titles yesterday but I had a lengthy interview for a day job I’m trying to acquire. Regardless not much was missed; this weeks VC titles are far from stellar but the bunch does have some promise.

Kirby’s Dream Course (Super NES, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
I have a soft spot for golf games especially those that have a different and often more amusing take on the game. Which is what can be found in playing Kirby’s Dream Course. Starring that cuddly yet voracious carnivore Kirby, and some of his friends. Your mission is to get the little pink puff ball [Kirby] from the tee blocks into the hole. Set on a course high in the sky. Kirby’s Dream Course may have some very unique gameplay in store for those who give this alternative golf game a whirl.

Devil’s Crush (TG-16, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)
The sequel to Alien Crush which was released on the North American VC sometime ago. The “Crush” games are an interesting take on the grandfather of modern video games…Pinball! Use flippers and a table bump to keep your ball on the table all while avoiding enemies and trying not to get distracted by all the 8/16 bit special effects that may come your way.

Shining Force (Genesis, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
I’m not too familiar with Shining Force, having never owned a Genesis but from the description it sounds an awful lot like a Final Fantasy rip-off. I could be wrong though.

That wraps up the North American Virtual Console releases for this week and don’t forget that if you live in Europe or any other of the PAL regions I’ll have an all new Euro VC Update for you guys on Friday.

Hooray!! It’s virtual console Monday and I didn’t have to wait very long to get my hands on Paper Mario. It’s only been 1 weekend since the game dropped onto the Wii Shop channel across the pond in Europe and PAL regions.

Now you guys read what I had to say about Paper Mario on Friday so I won’t bother to reiterate it here today. Anyway I’d rather talk about another game that hits the North American Virtual Console today, Balloon Fight.

Balloon Fight is is an oldy but a goodie and seriously who can resist popping balloons I know I sure can’t.

Paper Mario (N64, E for Everyone, 1000 Wii Points)
Balloon Fight (NES, E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points)
Silent Debuggers (TG-16, E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points)

Now I know this may seem like a pretty lackluster list but don’t count these titles out yet. As a matter of fact Air “Zonk” sounds like it might be a real nice edition to any one’s Virtual Console. A spin-off of the Bonk series (of which I am a fan) only instead of being set in the pseudo-time* period when dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth. Set in a cyberpunk like future; yet still done with the artistic aesthetic of the Bonk series. With that said, it [Air “Zonk”] seems to be one of the more promising VC titles to be released as of late.

Mach Rider (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)
Yoshi (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)
Air “Zonk” (TG-16, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)

*It is a well known fact that dinosaurs and humans never existed at the same time, although such a fact has been ignored by games for quite some time. See Turok, Super Mario, etc.

The Virtual Console gets some nice updates this morning. Today marks the release of the “good” souped-up version of Street Fighter 2, too bad I’ve already downloaded the original. The N64 version of F-Zero is also available today along with something called China Warrior. Funny thing about China Warrior is that according to MobyGames.comit doesn’t exist. Hrrrm interesting a game that either doesn’t exist or nobody has played in a long time. On another note the wait for Mega Man here in North America continues.

F-Zero X (N64, 1000 Wii Points)
Street Fighter II Turbo Edition: Hyper Fighting (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
China Warrior (TurboGrafx-16, 600 Wii Points)

Fore! Why do golfers say that anyway? I heard that the saying used to be “Look out beFORE you get hit by the ball.” Often the ball would strike it unintended target long before that sentence was uttered, so it was shortened to just fore! Why am I talking about golf you ask? Because NES Open Tournament Golf lands on the North American Virtual Console today. NES Open was a pretty decent attempt at a golf game on the NES, something I feel was perfected by Konami in 1990 with Jack Nicklaus’ Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf. I spent many hours with my uncle playing skins for quarters and every so often my dad would come in and ask “Why can you shoot 5 under par in a silly game but when I take you to a real golf course you shoot a score in the high 150s?” That’s my dad, I thank him for trying to understand technology but this is the second year I’ve had to re-connect his surround sound system because he went and played with it. So this year I gave him a standing order not to touch the cables with out my supervision.

Happy Fathers Day Pop!

NES Open Tournament Golf (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)
World Sports Competition (TG-16, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)
Bloody Wolf (TurboGrafx-16, Rated E10+, 600 Wii Points)

Beware the sequels! Yes that’s right a couple more sequels hit the North American Virtual Console today at 12:00pm PST. Today’s releases are.

Lode Runner (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
Golden Axe II (Genesis, Rated E10+, 800 Wii Points)

You may or may not have noticed that Nintendo has started putting the ESRB ratings in the Virtual Console games. I shall maintain this because I feel that it is important to follow the ESRB ratings on all games. Some games like films or certain magazines are not for children’s eyes. So if you have kids around make sure to note the ESRB rating before you have little Johnny waking up screaming at night because he thinks a chainsaw armed monster is after him.

Hehehehe chainsaw arms. For more information on the ESRB and it’s game rating system please visit the ESRB website

Today’s Virtual Console update is a special one. Not because of any specific game being released, today marks the release of Virtual Console game number 100.

Nintendo has reached the 100th game mark in just six short months since the Wii Shop channel went live. The only thing is that the Zelda well is almost all dry including today’s release of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link there is only one Zelda game missing and of course it happens to be my favorite in the series LoZ: Majora’s Mask. When will we see this under-appreciated adventure? Only time will tell but seeing as how there are four other Zelda titles available it’s really easy to get your Link fix.

I know I promised everyone something special today and I will deliver but it will most likely be later in the day. I am still in my new home in St. Thomas, Ontario and all my files are back in Toronto. I will be heading back there later this afternoon and as soon as I get home I will get that special surprise up and running. Till then today’s VC update will have to tied you over.

Milon’s Secret Castle® (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (Genesis, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
Dead Moon (TG-16, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES, Rated E, 500 Wii Points)

I know I know it’s a day late but Monday was a holiday for those crazy guys in the states so let’s give them a break.

Anyhoo, 3 more goodies for the Wii Shop channel today, including one of my personal favorite SNES titles ActRaiser.

Now sure a lot of people like ActRaiser and they should it’s a great game. I can talk ad nauseum about the religious commentary and genre bending gameplay which combines side-scrolling action with god-like simulation but you’ve heard all that before. What does it for me with ActRaiser is the sprite work and overall art direction of the game, totally top notch.

Oh how I long for the carefree days of the 16-bit era where you didn’t need fancy dancy “core-processors” to make a game look good. Twas a simpler time, when game marketing was incredibly cheesy and people didn’t play videogames they played “Nintendo”.

ActRaiser (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
Kid Chameleon (Genesis, 800 Wii Points)
J.J. & JEFF (TG-16, 600 Wii Points)

Tis the week of the sequel, two to be exact. Also a little middle finger action at Microsoft.

This weeks biggest release is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. Now whats interesting about this title is that aside from the odd reference to Nintendo’s Donkey Kong this is pretty much developer Rare’s baby. Yes Nintendo owns the rights to DK but Diddy Kong his cart-wheeling chimp sidekick was created by Rare. Which as we know is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.

Rare has a long standing relationship with big N but in reality they are owned by the competition. Now this gives a slight glimmer of hope that we may one day see Goldeneye 64 or Perfect Dark (the good one) on the virtual console.

Also in the sequel department is Streets of Rage 2 for the Genesis, and rounding out the list is another spaced based scrolling shooter for the TG-16 called Blazing Lazers. Jeez! How much space combat does one console need?

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis, 800 Wii Points)
Blazing Lazers (TG-16, 600 Wii Points)

I would also like to extend some holiday wishes to my Canadian brethren. HAPPY VICTORIA DAY! Remember that it was Queen Victory who chose Ottawa as our nation’s capital all those many years ago. So what better way to celebrate than by shooting Roman Candles at your friends. Just kidding kids, fireworks are dangerous and should not be used improperly or by those not old enough to use them properly.

Hello everyone I have an announcement; it’s almost “Party Time!” and by that I mean Mario Party time. Yes the long awaited release date is fast approaching but does Nintendo have any surprises in store?

Gamers first learned about Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii when it was announced officially at a Nintendo press conference way back in September 2006, long before many of us had even laid hands upon a Wii.

Fast forward to March 2007. The long wait for mini-game goodness is almost over. Mario Party 8 is slated for a March 5th release and all seems to be going well. Then a day before the game was supposed to be on store shelves, Nintendo announced a delay the new release date? “Q2 2007″ I love it when they get specific.

Which brings us to the present. As of right now Mario Party does have a release date which is listed by GamePress, GameSpot and Nintendo as May 29th 2007. Will we see Mario and his game playing ilk on the Wii that day? I remain skeptical but if the “party” goes off without a hitch then I will be left wondering why was there a “delay” in the first place.

Or

It will be my party (or lack thereof) and I’ll cry if I want to. You would cry too if you had to play TMNT just for something to do.

Mario Party 8 releases in

North America on May 29th 2007
Europe on June 22nd 2007
Japan on TBA

A ninja vs. ninja fight would be entertaining but a ninja vs. Pac-Man fight would be down right hilarious. Speaking of match ups what about a game where a ninja teams up with a pirate to fight off hoards of skateboarding zombies? Now that’s a game I’d wait in line for. Anybody out there listening? Nintendo? EA? Activision? UbiSoft?

Ninja Gaiden (NES, 500 Wii Points)

Pac-Man (NES, 500 Wii Points)