by rbelmont - 03.30.08
Hudson has always been a big Nintendo supporter, and that tradition is continuing on Wii. The company already has tons of Virtual Console games and a few original Wii titles out, but it looks like WiiWare will be their main focus. All of Hudson’s offerings for the service seem to have some sort of Wifi integration, and a few of them have Mii support as well. And with the average WiiWare price point (with the exception of Crystal Chronicles) being between 500 and 1000 points, some of these look like sweet deals.
Read on to find out more about the six revealed WiiWare titles.
Star Soldier R (800 Wii Points)
The first out of the bunch is Star Soldier R. Unfortunately, it seems that Hudson went for a more competitive route with this one than a full game, as you go purely for highscores rather than playing through it level by level. Also, because of the competitive nature, there are only two levels in the game. It has a couple different modes (like 2 and 5 minute time attacks) with online highscore lists.
Bomberman
One of the titles I am looking forward to most. The talk around the web is that Hudson’s full Bomberman game will have this built in, but if you just want the multiplayer experience, you can download it via WiiWare. It will have 8-player online functionality, but the different modes and items haven’t been revealed, although it has been shown shown to feature Mii support.
Blue Oasis
Some sort of virtual aquarium with graphics that remind me of Endless Ocean. It also appears to have Wifi functionality.
Joysound
Basically turns your Wii into a karaoke machine. It’s not a Singstar clone, as it’s purely for karoke and doesn’t feature any scores, etc. Instead of having seperately priced songs, you will have to pay a monthly subscription fee. Hudson plans to have 20000(!) songs by launch, with a thousand added each month. And for those worried, it’ll be on its own seperate server.
Alien Crush
This is the game I am least excited about, mainly because it looks like a PSX game. It’s a sequel to the Alien Crush TurboGrafx-16 game that’s already on the Virtual Console.
Tetris
Saved the best for last, a multiplayer-focused Tetris. I played Tetris DS more than any other online multiplayer game ever, so I’ll be buying this game day one. It also looks like it has some sort of a co-op mode and, of course, a single player mode.
No word on the prices yet or info regarding the last four titles. I am hoping for an Adventure Island game. Master Higgins needs to make a comeback.
Alien Crush looks good, I was surprised to see it. Bomberman will be pretty awesome I’m sure. They did a great job with Bomberman LIVE and I’m sure they’ll keep it just as traditional here, which is how Bomberman works best.
I think Wiiware is in for some good things. I remember when XBLA started on the 360 (after doing rather iffy on the original Xbox) and it just seemed like most companies were unsure the concept was going to work… Obviously it did and then suddenly they were all rushing to work on it and the barren weeks eventually stopped.
Wiiware has the benefit of having several companies working on content for it from the start that know this is a beneficial business model. Hopefully that means it’ll be seeing new things all the time.
Tony - 03.30.08 12:22 am
PSX game!? Alien Crush is probably one of the most graphically advanced wiiware titles i’ve seen so far, just behind FFCC and Lost Winds.
It IS a weird alien digestive system thing..so I don’t think there going for nice cuddely looking graphics.
Still it’s pinball so doubt i’ll be getting it.
James - 03.30.08 1:16 am
PSX game!? Alien Crush is probably one of the most graphically advanced wiiware titles i’ve seen so far, just behind FFCC and Lost Winds.
It IS a weird alien digestive system thing..so I don’t think there going for nice cuddely looking graphics.
Still it’s pinball so doubt i’ll be getting it.
James - 03.30.08 1:16 am
If Bomberman has support for ai players (idk why it wouldn’t) I’ll get that over the disc version for sure.
peshue - 03.30.08 4:45 am
peshue, bomberman wiiware is the exact same multiplayer game as the disc version, but because its only multiplayer its alot cheaper.
we do not know if you can play against disc based players though, and of course the disc has the songle player stuff and mini games probably.
waltermh - 03.30.08 7:42 am
I would be suprised if disk players couldnt play wiiware players.
Bomberman Story battle mode on the DS can connect to players who own Bomberman Land 2, it’s basically the same multiplayer in each game so if they have done it before and on a DS, this should be no problem.
James - 03.30.08 1:10 pm
Interesting stuff! It actually looks like WiiWare has some potential, especially with how nice that pinball game looks. With the right sound system, karaoke could be fun. I hope they bring this sort of thing to North America, too.
June - 03.30.08 5:30 pm
Alien Crush and Star Soldier are looking pretty nice, but I was really hoping for just a standard shmup with one of those cheesy “THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY IS IN YOUR HANDS” stories.
Oh well, if it’s fun, I might still get it.
Alien Crush doesn’t look anywhere near as bad as a PS1 game, but I would love to see some more color in it aside from brown and a few sprinkles of red.
dfdfg - 03.31.08 1:32 am