WiiWare

Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen Games, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone Mild Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Pirates: The Key of Dreams is a frantic nautical shoot-’em-up. Sail your way across the Caribbean, cannons blazing, looting booty, running blockades and ultimately battling Blackbeard himself. The player takes control of a navy captain sent deep undercover as a ruthless pirate in order to seek out and retrieve the Key of Dreams, a valuable and dangerous cursed artifact. Rescue castaways to bolster your ship’s crew, gaining performance increases to your navigation, weaponry, structural integrity and cartography skills. Collect increasingly powerful weaponry including rockets, mines, chain shot, saw blades and a flamethrower to hurl destruction into the path of your enemies. Play against three of your scurvy friends or A.I. opponents in pitched multiplayer battles over 35 levels, set in seven themed environments. Choose from different ship types that reflect your play style. Play in turbo mode if you’re pirate enough.

Virtual Console

Super Fantasy Zone (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone Mild Cartoon Violence, 900 Wii Points): The last entry in the Fantasy Zone series, this side-scrolling shooter puts you in the shoes of main character Opa-Opa, who is on a mission to avenge the death of his father. To do so, you’ll have to battle a variety of Enemy Generators to clear out the various levels and finish off the Menon Guardian at the end of the level. Eliminating your enemies will let you rack up some gold, which you can use to buy even better weapons, upgrades and other equipment. Spend your gold wisely, as each different boss you need to defeat presents a unique challenge.

Gley Lancer (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older Mild Suggestive Themes, Mild Fantasy Violence, 900 Wii Points): In the year 2025, a war breaks out between humans and a hostile alien race, and 16-year-old Lucia and the rest of the starfighter pilots in the Earth Federation must join the battle. When Lucia’s father is kidnapped by the aliens, she decides to take action and hijacks a brand new prototype starfighter, the Gley Lancer, in order to try to save him. In this side-scrolling shooter, step into the cockpit of the Gley Lancer as Lucia, rescue your father and destroy the evil aliens that are bent on destroying the human race.

Northamptonshire, UK. 21st July 2008– Oxygen Games™, is pleased to announce that Pirates: The Key of Dreams, an exciting action adventure game, is now available exclusively on WiiWare™

Pirates: The Key of Dreams is an exciting naval ‘shoot-em-up’ adventure game where players sail their way across the Caribbean as a Navy Captain sent deep undercover as a ruthless Pirate in order to seek out and retrieve The Key of Dreams, a valuable and dangerous cursed artifact. Gamers will be able to play against three of their scurvy friends or AI opponents in multiplayer battles with over 35 levels in seven themed environments. In addition, players can choose from different ship types that reflect play style, including an all-new turbo mode.

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Virtual Console

1 - Super Mario Bros. 3
2 - Super Mario Bros.
3 - Super Mario World
4 - Super Mario Bros. 2
5 - Mario Kart 64
6 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
7 - Punch-Out!!
8 - The Legend of Zelda
9 - Super Mario 64
10 - Donkey Kong

WiiWare

1 - My Pokemon Ranch
2 - Dr. Mario Online Rx
3 - Defend your Castle
4 - Gyrostarr
5 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
6 - TV Show King
7 - LostWinds
8 - Cocoto Fishing Master
9 - Family Table Tennis
10 - Block Breaker Deluxe

Link

Would you pay $20, $30 or even $40 to play Mega Man 9?  Well you won’t have to, Capcom will release Mega Man 9 on  WiiWare for 1,000 Wii points, or $10.  This is indeed good news, because honestly I’m not sure how much I would be willing to pay.  Because $30 for a WiiWare game is a bit crazy.  But at $10, Mega Man 9 is a great deal.

Link

VC

1 (1) - Super Mario Bros. 3
2 (2) - Super Mario Bros.
3 (3) - Super Mario World
4 (4) - Punch-Out!!
5 (7) - The Legend of Zelda
6 (6) - Super Mario Bros. 2
7 (8) - Mario Kart 64
8 (10) - Super Mario 64
9 (9) - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
10 (5) - Double Dragon
11 (11) - Donkey Kong Country
12 (12) - Pac-Man
13 (13) - Donkey Kong
14 (14) - Paper Mario
15 (16) - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
16 (17) - Star Fox 64
17 (N) - Metal Slug
18 (18) - Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
19 (19) - Kirby’s Adventure
20 (15) - River City Ransom

WiiWare

1 (5) - Dr. Mario Online Rx
2 (1) - Defend your Castle
3 (2) - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
4 (4) - TV Show King
5 (3) - LostWinds
6 (N) - Family Table Tennis
7 (6) - Pop
8 (7) - V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack
9 (8) - Star Soldier R
10 (9) - Critter Round-Up

N refers to new title

Link

IGN has just posted an interview with NOA’s senior director of project development, Tom Prata, about the recently released WiiWare download service:

IGN: How many WiiWare games do you have the queue?

Tom Prata: Currently, there are about 100 games in development for WiiWare at various stages of completion.

IGN: Can WiiWare developers use all of Wii’s abilities? For instance — connection between Wii and DS, WFC, online, etc. — if they want? What about Miis?

Tom Prata: Developers have the ability to utilize the same Wii features for WiiWare games as they do for disc-based games, including Wi-Fi Connection, WiiConnect24 and variety of controllers and peripherals. What is important is providing developers the freedom to use the features that are most valuable to express the characteristics of their game. Regarding the use of Miis, Mii characters are included in games like TV Show King and Dr. Mario Rx.

Check out the link for the full interview, including the guy dodging the question about the lack of storage space on the Wii.

Full interview here

Shantae DS: In 2006-2007 we hit pretty hard, with a massive undertaking to redo the cast of hero and enemy sprites, and about half of the sequel’s backgrounds were created by the legendary Henk Nieborg (who then shifted to Contra 4). As you can see, the handheld market is again flooded, which is why we intentionally never made a formal announcement. But, you can see a first look here! Just be aware that this game exists as design, artwork, and tech only. Unlike the GBA game, there is no 2 hour long gameplay demo. 

Shantae WiiWare: Informally (and inadvertently) announced at GDC, this is an ongoing experiment in 2D on the Wii. As it currently stands, the game is very traditional as an action/platform game (no Wiimote Wagging) with its main draw being 480P 2D artwork. If the project gets legs, we’ll have more to say in the next newsletter. For now, it just looks cool! 

Shantae GBA: The 2 hour long demo of Risky Revolution exists in a near-polished state. Because there is high demand for the release of this rom, our hope is to eventually move it to a suitable platform and release it as bonus content, cleaned up and presentable, able to stand on its own as a video game “short”.

Link