2009 and beyond for Wii and NDS : Posted: 27th November 2009
You have to wade through an awful lot of rubbish (or head east) to turn up gems on Nintendo hardware these days, sadly. Now that the latest EAD titles are out, including the intriguing New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the promising Spirit Tracks to follow shortly, I'm going to point out a few titles that will appear over the coming months that might get missed.
Actually, one that might've already been overlooked is sequel to seminal N64 shooter Sin & Punishment, which dropped in Japan at the end of last month, due over here sometime next year, I suppose. Excellent. At the start of 2010, Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces will be released in Japan, which is a WWII-themed flight simulation from the Ace Combat team. It's based on the 2008 anime of the same name, and directed by Mamoru Oshii, who is said to have overseen the videogame adaptation.
For the DS before the end of the year, there is Kaijuu Busters, which is a wandering, co-operative, hack-and-slasher from Bandai, which, as the title suggests, involves killing a lot of massive monsters.
DSi region locking + DSiWare news : Posted: 15th November 2009
It turns out Nintendo's DSi system is region locked, something I wasn't aware of having never bothered to "upgrade" from the first DS model. Although this is essentially limited to games that use DSi-specific features, it's a disappointing revelation all the same, and one which is sure to prove more obvious to importers as the system matures.
Whether the new DSi LL model (released in Japan later this week) somehow rectifies the problem, we'll have to wait and see.
Staying in Japan, Nintendo is releasing a handful of DSiWare games over the coming weeks for something called "G.G Series". They are: Tetsubou, Drift Circuit (Thrash Rally?), Black X Block (N+?) and Vertex (erm, Fantavision?). All look curious, at least.
Also on DSiWare this month is another blumming version of Space Invaders Extreme, this one (Z) is really just a simplified version of Space Invaders Extreme 2. It's 500 points, but for a few pennies more, I'd probably advise picking up one of the full DS versions instead. Good, they are.
