This week's games all originate from Japan and are now playable on your Nintendo Wii console.
Virtual Console
- Dig Dug (1985, NES, 600 Wii points): Dig Dug is the classic digging game where you must destroy underground monsters all while making sure not to get caught by them. Originally released in 1982 as an arcade game, the NES version of Dig Dug can now be enjoyed on your Nintendo Wii.
- Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa (1993, NES, 600 Wii points): Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa is a Japanese import that was originally made to run on the Famicon Disk System. In the game, you'll play as baby Upa and use your rattle to defeat enemies in seven different worlds.
WiiWare
- My Pokemon Ranch (Nintendo, 1,000 Wii points): Allowing for your Miis to interact for the first time ever with Pokemon characters, My Pokemon Ranch can also sync up with Nintendo DS Pokemon games. Take pictures of Pokemon and share them on the Nintendo Wii message board.
What games do you think are missing from the Wii virtual console? Sound off here!
This week's downloads feature a classic Pokémon puzzler and a beat-'em-up game from 1988.
- Pokémon Puzzle League (2000, Nintendo 64, 1,000 Wii points): Departing from the usual Pokémon game formula, Pokémon Puzzle League combines fast action puzzle games along with battling. Players must match like-colored blocks in order to gain an advantage over their opponent.
- Renegade (1988, NES, 500 Wii points): Renegade tells the classic video game story of one-man-versus-everyone. Fight against bikers and gang members as you attempt to restore peace to the city.
What games do you think are missing from the Wii virtual console? Sound off here!
A new feature of the Wii Shop channel beginning this week is the ability to send a friend a Virtual Console title as a gift--just in time for the holidays. There is a catch, though; gift giving will require you to start learning and trading those 16-digit friend codes.
- Pokémon Snap (1999, Nintendo 64, 1000 Wii points)--A game that helped launch Pokémon into mainstream American culture, Pokémon Snap had gamers capturing Pokémon "virtually" on film. New to the Virtual Console version of the game, players will now have the option of sharing their Pokémon photos online via friend codes.
- Ghosts 'n Goblins (1986, NES, 500 Wii points)--What debuted as an arcade game, Ghosts 'n Goblins soon made its way to the Nintendo Entertainment System providing a thrilling platform experience unlike ever before.
- Baseball Stars 2 (1992, NEOGEO, 900 Wii points)--Baseball Stars 2 is the sequel to highly addictive NES title. Who doesn't remember playing as the "American Dreams?" The sequel added even more arcade-style action along with more gameplay modes.
(Credit:
Akihabara News)
As it turns out, Homer doesn't have a monopoly on yellow game boxes. Nintendo has answered the doughnut meister with a special edition of its own in the same color, albeit a portable one.
A limited number of DS Lites will be available in a glossy "Pikachu yellow" with a matching stylus and the prototypical Pokemon rodent's face etched in the lid's corner. It goes for $139, but Akihabara News says there are a few small catches: It's being sold at the Japanese Pokemon Center and, even then, only through a lottery. Good luck catching them all.
I want to come clean about something. Not many people know this about me. It recently came out at work, and it's caused no end of grief from my co-workers. Still, I refuse to be ashamed of it anymore, so here it goes.
I like Pokemon. And I'm not the only one.
Before you judge me too harshly, I want to clarify this: I like the Pokemon games. That's it. I don't watch the anime or collect the toys or anything obsessive like that. I just really enjoy the game itself. I've been playing Pokemon Diamond over the past week. It's a fun little game, and I'm not ashamed to like it. I'm not alone, either; I personally know at least half a dozen people to pick up Diamond or Pearl over the weekend, not counting the thousands to go to the release event at the Nintendo World Store.
Pokemon gets a lot of guff for being hypercutesy and perpetuating Nintendo's image as a company that makes "kiddie games." Part of that is well justified, as the decade-long cartoonish hype hasn't exactly fostered an all-ages image for the game series. However, once you chip away at Pokemon's cute, colorful exterior, you'll find a solid, entertaining game that will provide many, many hours of gameplay. Pokemon might be really cutesy, but it's still a great game. I'm not the only one who thinks so, either; while GameSpot hasn't released their reviews of Diamond or Pearl yet, they've consistently given Pokemon titles scores of 8.0 or above since Pokemon Blue/Red (Of course, I mean the actual Pokemon games; side stories like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Pokemon Ranger don't really count).
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl don't really change much from their predecessors. They add better graphics and a few more features (most important, voice chat-enabled online play), but they still use the same 10-year-old formula: capture monsters, collect badges from eight gyms, beat Team-Whatever-The-Villains-Are-This-Time, etcetera. It's repetitive, but not necessarily a bad thing; Castlevania hasn't significantly changed its successful formula since Symphony of the Night. Both game series figured out exactly what works and ran with it. As long as the games are still fun, I'm perfectly fine with it.
Family-friendly games have a pretty terrible stigma attached to them, regardless of whether they're actually any good. Besides Nintendo's main, age-neutral properties, most kids' games are outright horrible adaptations of animated movies put out by Disney and Pixar. They take the property and turn it into a game with as little effort as possible. Let's face it, there hasn't been a really good Disney-branded game since the days of Ducktales on the NES and Aladdin on the Sega Genesis. To this day, Ducktales is a fun game that most post-adolescent gamers can admit is still enjoyable. And if you can't admit that, you're a liar. Uncle Scrooge using his cane as a pogo stick to jump on yetis was and always will be awesome.
I stay away from terrible kiddy games for the same reason I stay away from terrible violent games: because they're terrible. The age range shouldn't have anything to do with it. If a game is good, then play it whether it has colors and shapes or blood and guts. Of course, blood and guts can still be fun; I'm as excited about Suda 51's ultraviolent No More Heroes as I was about Pokemon Diamond/Pearl.
Any other adult Pokemon players who want to admit their guilty pleasure, then please sound in with comments! And if you're interested, share your Friend Code too. I'll go first:
Name: Will | Code: 3265 1484 1390
I have a Rayquaza, a Heatran, and a Giratina I'm willing to trade for an Arceus/Aruseus. Any takers?
A few years ago, Sony made a pretty big splash with that advertisement for its Bravia HDTVs that showed a zillion colorful bouncy balls roaming the streets of San Francisco:
It kind of got old when people started spoofing it in Halo (and also when some second-rate nightclub DJs began spinning a lame techno remix of the Jose Gonzales song playing in the background), but now the "colorful balls fall from the sky" ad trend has really gone over the hill. One word: Pokemon. Check out this promotional ad for the new Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl games for the Nintendo DS, due out on April 22nd:
They could've at least used paint geysers.
(Via Joystiq)
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