Today, Nintendo’s long-awaited WiiWare service debuted, with six titles available to choose from. Like the Virtual Console (which is taking a week off), new titles will be added to WiiWare on a weekly basis, and the Nintendo Channel will offer information on these new titles as they come. Any of these can be downloaded by going to the Wii Shop Channel.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King – 1,500 Wii Points
You are the son of an exiled king, and upon returning to your abandoned castle, you find a magical crystal that bestows upon you the power of architek. With the help of your friends and subjects, you can use your abilities to create reality from memories and rebuild your once-glorious kingdom. As you build on, you’ll recruit soldiers to explore dungeons and bring back spirit energy, as well as construct certain things in town to please your residents.
Defend Your Castle – 500 Wii Points
The popular Flash game hits WiiWare. As barbarians swarm your castle trying to destroy it, you’ll have to use a variety of tools to keep them from destroying it, including weapons, magic spells, and simply flinging them upward to their doom. At night, you can upgrade and repair your castle, and during the day, you can even convert enemies into defensive soldiers. The visuals have also gotten a significant overhaul.
LostWinds – 1,000 Wii Points
In this game, you play as Toku, a young boy aided by the spirit of wind, Enril, who quests to save the land of Mistralis from the evil Balasar. You’ll use the Wii Remote’s IR pointer to create gusts and tornadoes, or defeat enemies, to help carry Toku to his destination, or solve some clever environmental puzzles.
Pop – 700 Wii Points
Created by Australian developer Nnooo (think Darth Vader in Episode III), Pop challenges you to get the highest score you can by popping bubbles before the timer runs out. Each bubble you pop gives you more points and time, and you can use other techniques, such as pumping up bubbles before popping them) to collect more points on a more massive scale. Pop offers four-player multiplayer support as well, including items such as a lightning bolt that prevents your opponents from popping anything.
TV Show King – 1,000 Wii Points
You and your friends compete as Miis on this WiiWare trivia show. As you try to answer questions from various categories as quickly as you can, you’ll also be challenged to use your Wii Remote in certain ways as well. See if you can make it to the final round for a decisive duel, with the winner earning a huge amount of virtual cash.
V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack – 700 Wii Points
The final title this week bills itself as "the most realistic blackjack game ever made". Using a 3D animation style instead of 2D, players will use motion controls to hit, stay, double, what have you, as they try to earn achievements such as High Roller. There is also a four-player multiplayer mode, as players play against the dealer and try to accumulate larger amounts of cash than their opponents.
Starting next week, both Virtual Console titles and WiiWare titles should come on Mondays.
This looks like a pretty good lineup, all things considered. I wonder if WiiWare will be subject to the same iffy games that the Virtual Console gets from time to time, but in general I suspect the quality will be higher.
