Wii-kly Shopping List: And the 300th Virtual Console game is ...

by: Cyril - posted: 5/18/2009 4:40:00 PM

After more than two years of supporting the Virtual Console, Nintendo has finally hit their 300th retro release!  300?  There are almost enough Virtual Console titles for you to play one game a day.  Unfortunately, at the rate Nintendo is going (one game a week) it will be a full year before we can actually hit that magical 365 number.

So how exactly do you celebrate your 300th Virtual Console game?  In the past Nintendo has celebrated by uploading a BIG game that everybody wanted.  Unfortunately Nintendo doesn't have many of those left over.  They've already released most of their biggest hits, and the only game Nintendo fanboys want is a release of the Mother series, which isn't going to happen ... at least, not like this.  So what did they give us?  The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the black sheep in the Zelda family.  Released two years after the groundbreaking Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask dramatically changed the Zelda formula.  The game has an intriguing enough gimmick, you play Link on what appears to be a repeating three-day cycle.  It's sort of a Groundhog's Day approach to The Legend of Zelda franchise.  But this gimmick wasn't enough to sway people, and Majora's Mask has remained in the shadows ever since.  Perhaps this is the perfect time to play through it again and determine whether it was ahead of its time or, more likely, just an out of tune note after Ocarina of Time.  You can pick up the game right now for 1,000 points (or $10).

Moving away from Zelda, Nintendo has games for both the DSiWare and the WiiWare.  On the Nintendo DSi we get yet another Art Style game, this one annoyingly called Art Style: PiCTOBiTS.  Note to Nintendo, just because your system has the lowercase "I", that doesn't mean that your games have to follow suit.  The WiiWare is getting Crystal Defenders R2, which I am 100% sure I have talked about before.  Thankfully that's not the only game, because Agetec is unleashing Silver Star Chess, which sounds really exciting ... even though it's probably just a chess game.  Both Art Style: PiCTOiTS and Silver Star Chess retail for 500 points (or $5) and Crystal Defenders R2 will cost you 800 points (or $8).  All of these games are available now, so go check them out.