If you were suffering from the full-fridge blues for the past few months, you've actually missed quite a bit on WiiWare—and we're not talking about the parade of quiz games and cell-phone ports. Since the service's debut with the delightful LostWinds, there have been a number of quality titles that might just be worth a spend of Nintendo-branded virtual currency.
We've picked out four of our recent favorites to share with you today, games you can load straight onto your friendly neighborhood SD card. There are certainly more than we've highlighted here, of course; but we've all got to start somewhere, right?
Orbient (600 Wii Points, 126 blocks, released 9/29/2008) is a very simple game, on its face; as a small planetoid, you cruise areas of space populated by other heavenly bodies both large and small, absorbing some to make yourself bigger and sliding alongside others to absorb them into your own orbit. What really makes the game is the control, though: Orbient is controlled exclusively by presses of the A and B button on the Remote, either attracting you toward nearby planets or repelling you from same. You're out if you crash into something bigger than you.
It's really easy at first, but the game's myriad levels ramp up to quite the challenge, including more complex arrangements of planets to buzz by and slingshot around in order to clear each level. As you pick up more satellites, the Orbient theme layers in beautifully, giving reward to your skillful navigation. Every level also has a bonus moon that appears near the end of the level; if you can grab it without picking up the yellow planet that ends the level normally, you'll get a bonus.
Unfortunately, one design choice saddles Orbient's longevity: you'll accumulate tons of extra lives in the easier levels which become very useful for later, but whenever you come back to the game, you start out with only a handful. Unless you're willing to replay easier levels every time to give yourself a stock, later levels can become very frustrating if your goal is to simply play through each level in turn.
The only Art Style game on the Wii that isn't based on a Bit Generations title, Cubello (600 Wii Points, 47 blocks, released 10/13/2008) combines the mechanical sensibilities of your traditional block-puzzler with visceral shooter satisfaction. Your sights are set on a slowly rotating mass of colored cubes, and you try to drill down to the core by firing and matching similarly-colored cubes with precision aim.
The trick is that each block you fire will spin the main mass upon impact, based upon where you aim. This isn't too important when the mass is rotating of its own accord in earlier levels, but later on you'll find yourself needing to shoot your cube just to turn the mass around, regardless of whether or not there are any viable targets for your current cube's color.
You have to continually manage to match and remove cubes, as doing so refreshes the contents of your cube magazine. If your magazine empties, it's game over. Each time you remove a group of cubes, though, you set off a slot machine of sorts that gives you the chance of not only accessing Bonus Time, but SUPER BONUS TIME. They are as exciting as they sound. Bonus Time gives you an infinite magazine of a single color of block for a limited amount of time, while Super Bonus Time fires a block that matches whatever color you're currently pointing at. Both help immensely at making significant progress through a level.
Cubello starts off pretty easy, with only three colors of cube in the first level, but the difficulty ramps as you unlock later levels with larger varieties of colors. It's fun to just aim and fire away early on, but you have to start to think pretty quickly when you near the end of a stage, as clearing every last block of a single color will only stop that color from appearing in your magazine if there are no more of that color in that magazine when you fire that final shot. It's a great mix of mindless shooting, fast-paced precision, and mind-twisting strategy—easily Cory's favorite puzzler of the past few years.
Let's get things straight: Space Invaders Get Even (500 Wii Points, 307 blocks, 12/1/2008) isn't as great as the DS's Space Invaders Extreme. But it's still an enjoyable game, in part for its theme, but also as an enjoyable romp through the skies carrying a payload of Invaders whose bag of tricks definitely isn't limited to "increase speed, drop down, and reverse direction".
You fly your saucer around with the stick on the Nunchuk, and unleash Invaders at your Remote-pointed targeting cursor from your stock of up to 100 in a variety of configurations: in straight lines, drill formations, as bombs or even as a big bouncing mass of destruction. Time limits (Earth air: toxic) and damage limits keep you on your toes to try to achieve each level's goal in the time set forth.
This one is a little tricky to recommend given our theme, since the basic WiiWare download is only the first part of the action; mission packs, available via Pay-to-Play, expand the game into its full experience but can currently still be only stored in internal Wii memory. You'll also have paid $20 by time you get it all, though it's only $5 to get in and you can buy as many mission packs as you feel like playing as you go. It ends up a decent value and good, mindless fun.
Aksys and Gaijin Games' recent WiiWare release is probably a bit more well-known than other WiiWare releases thanks to the advertising it received—but as far as how many people know what the game is, that's up in the air.
Bit.Trip Beat (600 Wii Points, 312 blocks, 03/16/2009) takes visual inspiration from the pre-Nintendo home video game era, notably Pong. The audio is very chiptune-y, and works with the game in a rather neat fashion: twisting the Wii Remote forward or backward in your hands operates an on-screen paddle in a way faintly reminiscent of an old-school paddle controller (which feels very good, by the way), letting you line up to hit incoming balls which form part of the musical score.
The balls don't just come in straight, either. Some arc back and forth, requiring you to catch them on both their upswing and downswing; others line up stationary then release one-by-one; still others come in lined up as a sine wave, requiring you to not just line up with one beat but move your paddle to catch them all.
Skillful play is rewarded with powerups. Losing strips you of the music and drops you into a black-and-white mode which is your last chance to recover and keep playing. Beat gets quite challenging as you get further, all in the interest of nabbing that high score.
We hope you find our recommendations worthy. Would you like to tell us about games we've missed? Send us a few paragraphs explaining what makes your favorite WiiWare (or VC) title so great, and if we get enough good stuff, we'll publish it at a later time. In the meantime, get to downloading!
We've picked out four of our recent favorites to share with you today, games you can load straight onto your friendly neighborhood SD card. There are certainly more than we've highlighted here, of course; but we've all got to start somewhere, right?
Art Style: Orbient
Orbient (600 Wii Points, 126 blocks, released 9/29/2008) is a very simple game, on its face; as a small planetoid, you cruise areas of space populated by other heavenly bodies both large and small, absorbing some to make yourself bigger and sliding alongside others to absorb them into your own orbit. What really makes the game is the control, though: Orbient is controlled exclusively by presses of the A and B button on the Remote, either attracting you toward nearby planets or repelling you from same. You're out if you crash into something bigger than you.
It's really easy at first, but the game's myriad levels ramp up to quite the challenge, including more complex arrangements of planets to buzz by and slingshot around in order to clear each level. As you pick up more satellites, the Orbient theme layers in beautifully, giving reward to your skillful navigation. Every level also has a bonus moon that appears near the end of the level; if you can grab it without picking up the yellow planet that ends the level normally, you'll get a bonus.
Unfortunately, one design choice saddles Orbient's longevity: you'll accumulate tons of extra lives in the easier levels which become very useful for later, but whenever you come back to the game, you start out with only a handful. Unless you're willing to replay easier levels every time to give yourself a stock, later levels can become very frustrating if your goal is to simply play through each level in turn.
Art Style: Cubello
The only Art Style game on the Wii that isn't based on a Bit Generations title, Cubello (600 Wii Points, 47 blocks, released 10/13/2008) combines the mechanical sensibilities of your traditional block-puzzler with visceral shooter satisfaction. Your sights are set on a slowly rotating mass of colored cubes, and you try to drill down to the core by firing and matching similarly-colored cubes with precision aim.
The trick is that each block you fire will spin the main mass upon impact, based upon where you aim. This isn't too important when the mass is rotating of its own accord in earlier levels, but later on you'll find yourself needing to shoot your cube just to turn the mass around, regardless of whether or not there are any viable targets for your current cube's color.
You have to continually manage to match and remove cubes, as doing so refreshes the contents of your cube magazine. If your magazine empties, it's game over. Each time you remove a group of cubes, though, you set off a slot machine of sorts that gives you the chance of not only accessing Bonus Time, but SUPER BONUS TIME. They are as exciting as they sound. Bonus Time gives you an infinite magazine of a single color of block for a limited amount of time, while Super Bonus Time fires a block that matches whatever color you're currently pointing at. Both help immensely at making significant progress through a level.
Cubello starts off pretty easy, with only three colors of cube in the first level, but the difficulty ramps as you unlock later levels with larger varieties of colors. It's fun to just aim and fire away early on, but you have to start to think pretty quickly when you near the end of a stage, as clearing every last block of a single color will only stop that color from appearing in your magazine if there are no more of that color in that magazine when you fire that final shot. It's a great mix of mindless shooting, fast-paced precision, and mind-twisting strategy—easily Cory's favorite puzzler of the past few years.
Space Invaders Get Even
Let's get things straight: Space Invaders Get Even (500 Wii Points, 307 blocks, 12/1/2008) isn't as great as the DS's Space Invaders Extreme. But it's still an enjoyable game, in part for its theme, but also as an enjoyable romp through the skies carrying a payload of Invaders whose bag of tricks definitely isn't limited to "increase speed, drop down, and reverse direction".
This one is a little tricky to recommend given our theme, since the basic WiiWare download is only the first part of the action; mission packs, available via Pay-to-Play, expand the game into its full experience but can currently still be only stored in internal Wii memory. You'll also have paid $20 by time you get it all, though it's only $5 to get in and you can buy as many mission packs as you feel like playing as you go. It ends up a decent value and good, mindless fun.
Bit.Trip Beat
Aksys and Gaijin Games' recent WiiWare release is probably a bit more well-known than other WiiWare releases thanks to the advertising it received—but as far as how many people know what the game is, that's up in the air.
Bit.Trip Beat (600 Wii Points, 312 blocks, 03/16/2009) takes visual inspiration from the pre-Nintendo home video game era, notably Pong. The audio is very chiptune-y, and works with the game in a rather neat fashion: twisting the Wii Remote forward or backward in your hands operates an on-screen paddle in a way faintly reminiscent of an old-school paddle controller (which feels very good, by the way), letting you line up to hit incoming balls which form part of the musical score.
The balls don't just come in straight, either. Some arc back and forth, requiring you to catch them on both their upswing and downswing; others line up stationary then release one-by-one; still others come in lined up as a sine wave, requiring you to not just line up with one beat but move your paddle to catch them all.
Skillful play is rewarded with powerups. Losing strips you of the music and drops you into a black-and-white mode which is your last chance to recover and keep playing. Beat gets quite challenging as you get further, all in the interest of nabbing that high score.
We hope you find our recommendations worthy. Would you like to tell us about games we've missed? Send us a few paragraphs explaining what makes your favorite WiiWare (or VC) title so great, and if we get enough good stuff, we'll publish it at a later time. In the meantime, get to downloading!