OMG Nintendo

What do you say about a game like Arkanoid? As one of the chief innovators of block-breaking games, Arkanoid’s game play has not needed to change much over the years. This has lead to the existence of a slew of imitators and knock-offs which can easily be found on pretty much any format available. To regain the spotlight, the newest version of the game for WiiWare, Arkanoid Plus! would need to do something very innovative.

Does the game do so?

No.

The graphics have been made brighter and the controls are decent enough for control pad use, but those are the only notable changes. If you have played any other version of Arkanoid before, then Plus! brings nothing especially new to the table. Time Mode is arguably an interesting addition, as it requires you to clear a set amount of mini-stages in a certain amount of time with only one ball.

Unfortunately, Time Mode does not stay interesting for very long. It also does not compensate for the fact that the core game play mode is exactly as you remember it from back in the arcade days.

If you have never played any version of Arkanoid (or any block-breaking game) before, then Plus! is not the worst way to get acquainted with the franchise. However, if you have played any other version of Arkanoid, or even any of its imitators, then there is no reason to invest in Plus! as well. So feel free to give Arkanoid Plus! a minus amount of your Wii Points.
 

When you first start this game and hear the calming music, the soft, gentle visuals and the Mii-like characters, you can be forgiven for expecting this game to be a light-hearted experience. You would still be very wrong, but you can be forgiven for it.

In truth, You, Me, and the Cubes is a game about the fragile balance of life. A lot of effort is put out with small returns and, even when you succeed, you may just be co-signing much of what you have created to an endless pit of darkness anyway.

Welcome to the Contra Experience. You are going to die. You are going to die a lot. Be prepared for that and you can handle what this game offers.

Following repeated, underwhelming, performances after the end of the 16-Bit Era, it seemed as if Contra was doomed to fade away like many of its side-scrolling brethren. Konami’s attempts to adapt the series to more modern sensibilities only seemed to distance the games from what made them fun. Then Contra 4 on the Nintendo DS was a rousing success and Konami realized that letting the game stay close to its roots was not a bad thing at all.

Now we have Contra Rebirth for WiiWare, and, aside from a few minor quibbles, it stays true to form and can serve as a good introduction for those unfamiliar with the series.

When a game is homage to elements, both good and bad, in the history of game systems, how many bad elements are you willing to forgive for the sake of that homage? When a game is purposefully trying to mimic the bad camera work and occasionally sluggish controls of certain generations, does that forgive it?

This is one of the questions to ask when playing a game like Bit Boy!!, which professes to be a look back at the styles of each generation of game systems. Of course, other questions about the game arise as you guide Kubi on his quest. While you try to rescue his friends from the monsters that have kidnapped them, you may discover that these other questions overshadow the initial one.

There is something to be said about independent games. Since they do not have the resources to advertize on the same level as bigger companies, they have to find other ways to draw attention. One way to do this is in the form of unique game play, like World of Goo or Bit. Trip Beat. Another way is to take familiar game play and then wrap it up in the most bizarre package possible. Semnat Studios’ Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, if the title alone is not a big enough hint, falls into the latter category. An incredibly competent Metal Slug clone, Eduardo still manages to be unique thanks to how it is stylized.
 

These last three weeks on the WiiWare front have been extremely interesting, as they have all seen the release of at least one "A List" level title.

It started with the double-team of Adventure Island and Bubble Bobble Plus!, followed by FFIV: The After Years the next week. While not all of those games have lived up to their expectations, it is nice to see a steady flow of titles that people could be interested in playing. Now another WiiWare title that looks to have actual effort put into it, Ronimo Game's Swords & Soldiers, joins the fray.

Square-Enix usually puts a lot more effort into its WiiWare releases than a lot of other publishers… but maybe not this time. Final Fantasy: The After Years is a port of a cell phone game released in Japan early last year. Just as on WiiWare, the port was released in a series of small, price gougey DLC chapters. On WiiWare, a player is looking at 3700 points to buy all of the game’s chapters. This week’s 800 point release is really a double-sized chapter set to be followed by seven 300-point chapters that focus on various members of the FFIV cast, with another 800-point double-size chapter finishing off the story. 

If this week’s chapter is anything to judge by, the double-size chapters offer roughly 4-8 hours of gameplay (depending on how quick you are), while the 300-point chapters offer about 2-4 hours. So in all, the usual 20-40 hours of gameplay you’d expect from a Square-Enix game on DS. Every chapter even has “Challenge Dungeons” similar to the ones from the GBA FF remakes to allow for extra dungeon crawling between releases. What is so baffling about Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is that it isn’t a portabl game, really. The graphics are blurry and lose some charm on a television screen, especially when you realize the game’s localized text is running at a higher resolution than the graphics.

What a week for WiiWare, huh folks? We have not one, but two classic games reborn in new forms. Hudson has seen fit to give us Adventure Island: The Beginning and Taito (with an assist from Square-Enix) gives us Bubble Bobble Plus!. Either one of these games would have been enough on its own to carry a week as a big release, but together they make for something that feels much bigger. It will make the inevitable disappointment when we hit a week where the only release is some kind of cell phone game port a little more painful, but let us enjoy what is in front of us now.

Fair warning: You will enjoy one of these games much more than the other.

Before we begin, let me say three words to those thinking of skipping the first game in the Crystal Defenders series and going right for the sequel: Don’t do that.

Aside from depriving yourselves of a decent Tower Defense Game, you will also find yourself unprepared for the immediate ramp-up in difficulty. While the game gives you the basic tutorial notes when it introduces something, the stages require more thought-out tactics and failing to do so can result in an early game over.

Fortunately, R2 is merciful enough to give you the option of a difficulty select, so if you are having a hard time you can scale things back a little if necessary. It also introduces a new mechanic halfway through by way of crystals that enhance the abilities of nearby units. This may make up for the fact that the promised “new units” are just the same units from the previous game with different names and costumes.

This is definitely a game for those who have played the first chapter and enjoyed it. If you have and did, then pick this one up with no worries. If you have not or did not, then R2 will not change your mind or worth skipping R1 to reach sooner.