This week also marks the kickoff of Nintendo’s WarioWare: D.I.Y. “Big Name Games” series. Several of the industry’s most talented game designers are using WarioWare: D.I.Y. software for the Nintendo DS family of systems to create their own one-of-a-kind microgames. New microgames will be added every Monday through July 26, all available for download to anyone with broadband Internet access and a copy of either WarioWare: D.I.Y. for Nintendo DS or WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase software for the WiiWare service. The series gets underway with inventive new microgames from Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai and Metroid designer Yoshio Sakamoto.
Nintendo has now added these new/classic games to the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop. The games go live at 9AM Pacific time. Users with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points or Nintendo DSi Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo DSi Points can be purchased in the Nintendo DSi Shop. A Nintendo Points Card can be purchased at retail locations or Amazon.com.
Where available, we’ve included videos of each of today’s games. Either for nostalgia’s sake or so you can see if any new game is to your taste.
This week’s new WiiWare games are:
WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief, Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points = $8
Description: The frantic fun of WarioWare is available for the first time on the WiiWare service! WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase shows off all the different elements found on the WarioWare: D.I.Y. game for the Nintendo DS family of systems. The WiiWare software includes microgames, music and four-panel comics – all with simple controls using only the Wii Remote controller. Use the Game Blender and its many modes to play microgames featuring Wario, ninjas, animals and even classic Nintendo franchises. Check out the Music section to hear or play a selection of songs using a character from Balloon Fight. In addition to the bevy of preloaded products, you can also receive content from friends, play with products made using WarioWare: D.I.Y. or download games from the NinSoft Store. Let your creativity run wild – even Wario would be impressed with the possibilities for new content!
Diner Dash
Publisher: Hudson Entertainment
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Use of Alcohol
Price: 1,000 Wii Points = $10
Description: Diner Dash, a popular PC action-puzzle game, has landed on the WiiWare service. Guide Flo, an office worker-turned-restaurateur, as she builds up her empire over four unique diners. Go online to face players in head-to-head. If you feel up to the challenge, join up with a friend or another player online for a Team Dash game where your team will take on six other players to see whose diner is the best in town. (Broadband Internet access is required for online play.) Players take direct control of Flo as she runs around to seat patrons, take orders, deliver food, take payment and bus tables as efficiently as possible within the time allowed. Players who are fond of traditional control schemes may also use a point-and-click style with hotkeys to aid Flo in her quest for customer satisfaction, which is reflected in a heart meter that empties as customers lose patience. If the meter empties completely, then the customer will leave the restaurant.
This week’s new Virtual Console games is:
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
Original platform: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Square Enix
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Mild Language, Mild Violence
Price: 1,000 Wii Points = $10
Description: Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is a tactical RPG originally released for the Nintendo 64™ system. Featuring a gripping storyline with many possible endings, plus a genre-defining character class system, this strategic epic has rightly retained its place in the hearts of tactical RPG fans for more than a decade. The game tells the story of Magnus Gallant, a recently graduated officer of the Palatinean Army who is assigned to the troubled southern region of his native land. There he witnesses the plight of the lower classes – the victims of a tyrannical ruling elite whose only thought is for the preservation of its own lofty status. With civil war brewing, Magnus is faced with a terrible choice: to betray his own noble origins in the name of liberty, or to turn a blind eye to the evils of his rotten society.
This week’s new DSiWare games are:
Disney Fireworks
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points = $8
Description: Light up the night with Disney Fireworks! Touch and flick to trigger a dazzling nighttime extravaganza of color and fun. Aim rockets to their matching colors in the sky to set off an explosion and score points. Time them perfectly to improve your Wow Meter and unlock special surprises and rockets. Disney Fireworks comes with five themed environments, original music, 15 challenging levels for each world, high-score tracking and much more.
Save the Turtles
Publisher: Sabarasa
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points = $5
Description: Save the Turtles takes players to more than 32 of the world’s most exotic beaches in a quest to help tiny turtles find their new home. Players must use the stylus to rub and tap the touch screen of the Nintendo DSi system, digging eggs from the sand and lining up cute reptiles while avoiding crabs, seagulls and litter on their way to the safety of the sea. The game features four modes, including a never-ending survival mode called Turtles Forever, plus several unlockable trophies. Give Mother Nature a hand and help save the turtles.
Nintendo DSi Metronome
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points = $2
Description: The Nintendo DSi Metronome software can be used to help keep tempo –when playing an instrument, for example. It creates a rhythm by playing sounds based on beat and tempo settings, both of which allow a wide range of adjustments. Choose from three metronome designs (including one based on Nintendo’s Game & Watch: Ball title) and record your own sounds for the metronome to use. Or, if you want to take a break, enjoy a unique minigame: Donkey Kong Metronome, in which you make sounds into the microphone to match the beat and have Mario jump over Donkey Kong’s barrels.
Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points = $2
Description: The Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner software can be used to tune an instrument by aligning tonal pitches. The software offers two methods of handling this: feeding sounds into the microphone to measure the difference with a target pitch, or listening to a sample tone. In addition, the standard musical pitch and notation can be changed, as well as the design of the tuner (choose one of three designs). If you’re feeling especially in tune, test your ear by taking on the Tuner Fight minigame’s challenge: Pop balloons as they rise from pipes by making tones that match the displayed pitches.
Super Yum Yum Puzzle Adventures
Publisher: Mastertronic
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points = $8
Description: Super Yum Yum Puzzle Adventures is a multi-award-winning puzzle game starring a chameleon called Leon. Featuring 48 levels across four worlds and exclusive Nintendo DSi features, the game asks players to navigate many hours of mind-bending game play while trying to rescue Leon’s babies from the belly of Ms. Tum Tum. Leon must eat his way through fruity, fiendish puzzles, licking fruit to change color and choosing the right combinations of fruit to finish each level.