ware

Game video that'll burn in your retinas: Muscle March

Sometimes a video is so fascinating, so hypnotic, so awe-inspiringly strange, that it just doesn't leave your head. It stays for days and days, over a whole weekend, while the mind reels at the possibilities. Namco-Bandai's Muscle March is just such a brain injection of oddity.

Japan is a lucky country. It gets titles like Muscle March for WiiWare, while we get to watch YouTube videos instead.

Witness the rainbow-colored bikini briefs and posing polar bears...almost like Punch-Out!!, if Punch-Out!! involved slamming your shirtless body through walls while on psychedelics. The style is reminiscent of the best … Read more

DSiWare, WiiWare, and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week the Virtual Console celebrates its 300th downloadable game as a classic Zelda game finally makes its debut.

DSiWare Art Style: PiCTOBiTS (Gameloft, 500 DSi Points): This color matching block game is ready for download on the DSi Shop. Enjoy various levels of puzzle-solving fun and the occasional visit from a classic NES character. WiiWare Crystal Defenders R2 (Square Enix, 800 Points): Ward off the encroaching enemy fleet by deploying Fencers and Black Mages. Battle through various maps of combat and strategy. Silver Star Chess (Agetec, Inc., 500 Points): Finally you can ditch that cumbersome chess board and rely … Read more

Here comes the sun; keep your dessert cool

Ah, the sun. Warm, friendly, and inviting; when a sunny day beams down upon us, we celebrate by flocking in droves to parks and beaches. No matter if you gravitate toward green grass or sandy shores, warm days always go better with food. Consider a picnic spread: fried chicken, salads, maybe some grill action going on. And then there is dessert. A nice big piece of cake...with melted icing. No longer must this scenario unfold in parks and coastlines across the land. If you're out enjoying the sun and need to keep your consumables cold, check out the … Read more

DSiWare, WiiWare, and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings Dr. Mario to the DSi and Wonderboy to the Virtual Console. DSiWare Dr. Mario Express (Nintendo, 500 DSi Points): The classic color-matching puzzle game makes its way to the Nintendo portable in Dr. Mario Express. Play alone or against the computer in the race to fight off viruses. Master of Illusion Express: Deep Psyche (Nintendo, 200 DSi Points): Continuing the series of magic tricks for your DSi, Deep Psyche will ask you a number of questions in order to reveal a startling truth. WiiWare Crystal Defenders R1 (SQUARE ENIX, 800 Wii points): See how many encroaching monsters … Read more

First Take: Nintendo DSi

Updated Editors' note: Now that our testing has completed with the online functionality of the DSi Shop experience, we're able to give the DSi a full review.

Just four and a half years after its initial release, the Nintendo DS has sold more than 100 million units worldwide, solidifying itself as the best-selling portable video game console of all time. By comparison, the competing Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) has sold about half as many units.

The Nintendo DSi is the third iteration of the DS, which originally released in November of 2004. In June of 2006, the company refreshed the system in the form of the DS Lite, which dramatically changed the device's overall design and vastly improved screen performance.

Rumors of a second redesign proved to be a reality when Nintendo announced the most recent--and what we believe to be the final--rehash of the system, the Nintendo DSi. This upgrade adds two small-resolution cameras to the portable, slightly larger screens, and an SD card slot. The Game Boy Advance slot found in both previous versions has been removed.

While current DS Lite owners may want to think twice about upgrading, the DSi's innovative media features and online functionality (the DSi Shop) may warrant a purchase. But if you've been holding out on a DS purchase up until now and you don't need backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance cartridges, the DSi is certainly the way go.

First impressions: Dragon Age: Origins

One of the more interesting games we saw at the recent Game Developer's Conference was a large-scale RPG called Dragon Age: Origins, combining well-trod sword-and-sorcery clichés with an inventively twisting plot and an advanced branching dialog engine (where the main character often affects the story by deciding what to say to other characters).

If all that sounds too "hardcore gamer" for you, that's a shame, although understandable considering the dangerously nerdy Dungeons & Dragons vibe of the game's marketing pitch to date.

Despite the elves, dwarves, and renaissance faire outcasts that populate the … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings us every hair stylist's fantasy on WiiWare along with a boxing classic from the Super Nintendo era. WiiWare Bonsai Barber (Nintendo, 1,000 Wii points): The first barber game we can recall, Bonsai Barber has you designing hair cuts for a variety of different customers. Use countless salon tools at your disposal to keep the clients happy. Virtual Console Super Punch-Out!! (1994, Super Nintendo, 800 Wii points): The sequel to the NES classic, Super Punch-Out!! has you reentering the ring to battle familiar foes such as Bear Hugger, Bald Bull, and Super Macho Man.

What games … Read more

Nintendo Wii storage solution is here

Last year we reported that a Nintendo Wii storage solution was upon us that will allow you to store and load games directly off of an SD card. At today's Nintendo press conference at GDC 2009, the company has just announced that an SD menu has been added to the Wii software, and is actually available right now for download via a system update.

The new feature will allow for SDHC cards up to 32GB to be used to store and play games. You'll also have the option to download games directly to your SD card via the … Read more

DSiWare: Pricing, browser, promotion revealed

Two weeks ago, we gave you an exclusive hands-on First Look at the Nintendo DSi, the company's second refresh of the DS portable gaming system. While we had to hold back some juicy details about the DSi, we can now let you in on all the fun.

The DSi Shop, which will go live April 5, will offer downloadable games and applications via the DSi Shop that you can store on either the 256MB of internal storage or on an SD card. When Nintendo visited us a few weeks ago, we got to play some DSiWare titles like WarioWare … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings a color-matching puzzle game on WiiWare, along with two titles from the TurboGrafx 16 era. WiiWare Pop'Em Drop'Em SAMEGAME (Hudson Entertainment, 500 Wii points): SameGame is a puzzle game that combines color-matching and reaction time. Enjoy various gameplay styles and modes along with up to four total players. Virtual Console Bomberman '94 (1993, TurboGrafx 16, 700 Wii points): Bomberman must reassemble the planet after it's been split up. Along with the nine members of the Bomber Family, you'll be tasked with restoring the world's peace.

Detana Twin Bee (1992, TurboGrafx 16, 700 … Read more