WarioWare addition sure to overflow Nintendo downloads

by: Tina - posted: 3/29/2010 6:42:00 PM

The highlight of this week’s new Nintendo downloads available on WiiWare, DSiWare, and (sigh of relief) the Virtual Console is WarioWare: DIY Showcase (800 points). Included are microgames, music, and four-panel comics with which to tinker into new content.

Nintendo has also announced their WarioWare: DIY “Big Name Games” series in conjunction with this new downloadable release. Designers in the industry will be using the software to make their own microgames added to the download roster every Monday until July 26th. Some of the big shots on the list to start making the microgames are Masahiro Sakurai (Super Smash Bros.) and Yoshio Sakamoto (Metroid). Let the judgment and creations begin.

Read on for the rest of the lineup in this week’s downloads.

WiiWare

WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief, Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points™
Description: The frantic fun of WarioWare is available for the first time on the WiiWare service! WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase shows off all the different elements found on the WarioWare: D.I.Y. game for the Nintendo DS family of systems. The WiiWare software includes microgames, music and four-panel comics – all with simple controls using only the Wii Remote™ controller. Use the Game Blender and its many modes to play microgames featuring Wario™, ninjas, animals and even classic Nintendo franchises. Check out the Music section to hear or play a selection of songs using a character from Balloon Fight™. In addition to the bevy of preloaded products, you can also receive content from friends, play with products made using WarioWare: D.I.Y. or download games from the NinSoft Store. Let your creativity run wild – even Wario would be impressed with the possibilities for new content!

Diner Dash®
Publisher: Hudson Entertainment
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Use of Alcohol
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: Diner Dash, a popular PC action-puzzle game, has landed on the WiiWare service. Guide Flo, an office worker-turned-restaurateur, as she builds up her empire over four unique diners. Go online to face players in head-to-head. If you feel up to the challenge, join up with a friend or another player online for a Team Dash game where your team will take on six other players to see whose diner is the best in town. (Broadband Internet access is required for online play.) Players take direct control of Flo as she runs around to seat patrons, take orders, deliver food, take payment and bus tables as efficiently as possible within the time allowed. Players who are fond of traditional control schemes may also use a point-and-click style with hotkeys to aid Flo in her quest for customer satisfaction, which is reflected in a heart meter that empties as customers lose patience. If the meter empties completely, then the customer will leave the restaurant.

Virtual Console

Ogre Battle® 64: Person of Lordly Caliber™
Original platform: Nintendo 64™
Publisher: Square Enix
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Mild Language, Mild Violence
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is a tactical RPG originally released for the Nintendo 64™ system. Featuring a gripping storyline with many possible endings, plus a genre-defining character class system, this strategic epic has rightly retained its place in the hearts of tactical RPG fans for more than a decade. The game tells the story of Magnus Gallant, a recently graduated officer of the Palatinean Army who is assigned to the troubled southern region of his native land. There he witnesses the plight of the lower classes – the victims of a tyrannical ruling elite whose only thought is for the preservation of its own lofty status. With civil war brewing, Magnus is faced with a terrible choice: to betray his own noble origins in the name of liberty, or to turn a blind eye to the evils of his rotten society.

Nintendo DSiWare

Disney Fireworks
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Light up the night with Disney Fireworks! Touch and flick to trigger a dazzling nighttime extravaganza of color and fun. Aim rockets to their matching colors in the sky to set off an explosion and score points. Time them perfectly to improve your Wow Meter and unlock special surprises and rockets. Disney Fireworks comes with five themed environments, original music, 15 challenging levels for each world, high-score tracking and much more.

Save the Turtles
Publisher: Sabarasa
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Save the Turtles takes players to more than 32 of the world’s most exotic beaches in a quest to help tiny turtles find their new home. Players must use the stylus to rub and tap the touch screen of the Nintendo DSi system, digging eggs from the sand and lining up cute reptiles while avoiding crabs, seagulls and litter on their way to the safety of the sea. The game features four modes, including a never-ending survival mode called Turtles Forever, plus several unlockable trophies. Give Mother Nature a hand and help save the turtles.

Nintendo DSi™ Metronome
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: The Nintendo DSi Metronome software can be used to help keep tempo –when playing an instrument, for example. It creates a rhythm by playing sounds based on beat and tempo settings, both of which allow a wide range of adjustments. Choose from three metronome designs (including one based on Nintendo’s Game & Watch™: Ball title) and record your own sounds for the metronome to use. Or, if you want to take a break, enjoy a unique minigame: Donkey Kong™ Metronome, in which you make sounds into the microphone to match the beat and have Mario™ jump over Donkey Kong’s barrels.

Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: The Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner software can be used to tune an instrument by aligning tonal pitches. The software offers two methods of handling this: feeding sounds into the microphone to measure the difference with a target pitch, or listening to a sample tone. In addition, the standard musical pitch and notation can be changed, as well as the design of the tuner (choose one of three designs). If you’re feeling especially in tune, test your ear by taking on the Tuner Fight minigame’s challenge: Pop balloons as they rise from pipes by making tones that match the displayed pitches.

Super Yum Yum Puzzle Adventures
Publisher: Mastertronic
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Super Yum Yum Puzzle Adventures is a multi-award-winning puzzle game starring a chameleon called Leon. Featuring 48 levels across four worlds and exclusive Nintendo DSi features, the game asks players to navigate many hours of mind-bending game play while trying to rescue Leon’s babies from the belly of Ms. Tum Tum. Leon must eat his way through fruity, fiendish puzzles, licking fruit to change color and choosing the right combinations of fruit to finish each level.