E3 is well underway, and Nintendo’s press conference is due to occur today. The staff there will be posting E3 updates here (and presumably on their Twitters) all week, and you can also follow the announcements as they unfold here. In the meantime, there’s a big batch of Nintendo downloadables up for perusal. First off is the Virtual Console release, which, like the last Virtual Console release, was developed by Natsume (fancy that) and features… ninjas! Everyone love ninjas, right? I mean, it’s not their first appearance on the Virtual Console. Surely everyone on staff will have tons to say about it… right?
Shadow of the Ninja
Developer: Natsume
Publisher: Natsume
Original System: NES
Original Release Date: December 1990
Price: 500 Points/$5
Chris Bowen: We waited all this time for Shadow of the Fuckin’ Ninja?! Are you serious?
It’s a fifth rate Ninja Gaiden wannabe. Pass. The game was shit in 1990, and it’s shit now.
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Aileen Coe: See what I said above about the Virtual Console having plenty of options concerning games with ninjas, including the aforementioned Ninja Gaiden. By comparison, this is uninteresting and a rather lackluster choice of release after another week going by with none. A charitable spin would be that the good folks at Nintendo have been prepping for ways to knock people’s socks off at E3, but that wouldn’t explain all the previous dry spells long before E3 was on the horizon.
As far as the Wiiware service goes, three games have added. Bejeweled 2 costs 1000 Wii Points/$10 is as much of a time black hole as ever, though you can also get it for the same price through Steam or for $20 through Popcap. It’s also available on the PS3 and was bundled with other Popcap games on the PSN last month. If you own it on another platform, there’s no reason to get this unless you happen to be a Bejeweled fanatic who must have every form of it in existence, in which case you’ve already downloaded it. Arcade Sports goes for 800 Wii Points/$8 and contains pool, air hockey, bowling, and snooker. If you own WiiSports (which everyone and their mother likely does since it came with the system) and WiiPlay, you’ve already got a version of these except for snooker, so unless you’re desperate for that (and want the option to customize things like bowling balls and pool tables), I’d recommend sticking with those. Finally, Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville clocks in at 500 Wii Points/$5 and is a hidden object game. For the price, it’s not bad if you like hidden object games, though you wouldn’t be lacking for options on the PC.
The DSiWare service gets a whopping five games this week, three for 500 DSi Points/$500 and two for 200 DSi Points/$2. The first of the former group, A Kappa’s Trail, which seems to be a platformer controlled with the stylus that also has some minigames thrown into the mix. This is from the developers of Mother 3, Magical Starsign, and Blue Dragon Plus, so depending on how you feel about those games, this one could potentially be worth a look. Telegraph Crosswords is one of a number of crossword puzzle compilations (and compilations containing crossword puzzles) on the DS, with Puzzler World and USA Crosswork Challenge being just two examples. If you’re the type to burn through crosswords faster than… let’s stick with the fire metaphor and say fire burning through tissue paper, this might sate you. Flips: Silent But Deadly is another addition to the Flips series of interactive books. In the 200 DSi Points range, you’re got Music on: Electronic Keyboard and 16 Shot! SHOOTING WATCH. Music on: Electronic Keyboard is essentially a keyboard put into DSi form that lets you tweak various settings like pitch and chorus and bass parts. I question the compositional versatility of this when only two octaves out of six are visible at any given time and you can really only play one key at a time with the stylus (forget about chords, though it could be that they have some provisions to cover these issues), but perhaps some very talented and resourceful composers could do something with this. 16 Shot! SHOOTING WATCH consists of pressing one or two buttons at many times as possible per second. It also features a stopwatch and slot machine, but even then it seems mundane (and something that would leave you with very sore fingers).
That wraps it up for this week. I sure hope Nintendo has a good showing at E3, because this one was a mixed bag. Have a good week, enjoy our E3 coverage, and join us again next week for our take of the next group of Nintendo downloadables.
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