ONE WIIWARE GAME AND ONE VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAME ADDED (AND ONE SURPRISE COMING) TO WII SHOP CHANNEL

Feb. 16, 2009

Outer space meets inner space at the Wii™ Shop Channel this Presidents Day. A new WiiWare™ title will have you soaring across the astral plane, while a vintage NES™ shooter for the Virtual Console™ invites you to battle your way through the innards of an alien creature. Choose a hot new WiiWare game or a Gradius spin-off. It's what the presidents would have wanted.

In other news, the Wii-kly Update has a fun surprise coming soon for all our fans. We can't tell you the secret just yet but maybe we'll offer you some hidden clues. From AZ to NC, if you're a fan, your applause could rattle your walls, windows, door. You might enjoy this news whether you live in a brick house or Vanderbilt dorm. Even people living along Route 286 in rural Pennsylvania ought to be excited. It'll feel like a bunch of birthday greetings and, really, who could ask for more? But that's about all we can say for now, so be sure to check future Wii-kly Updates.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

WiiWare

Evasive Space™ (Yukes Company of America, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Launch a one-of-a-kind mission to rescue the stars. The universe is going dark, and it's up to you, Konki the Stellar Guardian, to set things right. Dr. Dark Matter and his roving band of space thieves have stolen many of the Constellation Stones that make up the heavens. It's time to suit up, power up, recover the Stones and once again bring light to the night sky. Using the Wii Remote™ controller's unique pointer capabilities, simply point and thrust Konki through 20 dangerous time- and collection-based missions in the harshest of environments. Navigate through narrow, mazelike astral caves riddled with space worms, steam pipes and mining drills. Explore vast space stations while avoiding turret fire, mines and huge crushing gears. Weave through cluttered asteroid fields and gaseous planetary rings. Evade the hazards, pick up precious items and ship upgrades, and save the Constellation Stones before the night sky is lost forever.

Virtual Console

Life Force (NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): This classic shooter, originally ported to the NES in August 1988, is a spin-off of the seminal Gradius series. Pilot the Vic Viper through six stages of intense action, alternating between horizontally and vertically scrolling environments, and take on wave after wave of enemies. Destroy particular enemies throughout the game (which takes place within the body of an enormous alien) to release power-up capsules and equip your ship with your choice of more powerful weapons, extra speed and shields. Utilize the power-ups carefully, though, as a fearsome guardian lurks at the end of each stage and won't be easily defeated. You can go it alone or bring along a friend to take on the challenge simultaneously. Do you have what it takes to save your planet?

phantom_leo said:

GIGA. MUST. DIE.

Ravenprose said:

Is Life Force one of those ridiculausly hard shooters that only crazy hardcore shooter fans can beat? I've wanted to play that game for a long time now, but me sucks at shooters.

Think of the game as Contra. In space. With ships. And Giga. If you can handle Contra without putting the KC, you can handle this one.

Alas, I couldn't. I always had to put the code to beat the game, lol.

*hugs Konami Code*

*realizes he's humping Leo's leg instead*

Oops. My bad. o_0

SteelAttack said:

Ravenprose said:

Is Life Force one of those ridiculausly hard shooters that only crazy hardcore shooter fans can beat? I've wanted to play that game for a long time now, but me sucks at shooters.

Think of the game as Contra. In space. With ships. And Giga. If you can handle Contra without putting the KC, you can handle this one.

Alas, I couldn't. I always had to put the code to beat the game, lol.

*hugs Konami Code*

*realizes he's humping Leo's leg instead*

Oops. My bad. o_0

 Yeah, I was never good at Contra games either.  I always had to resort to the Konami code. I may give Life Force a try anyway; it's only $5, and it's considered a classic.

phantom_leo said:

Fully erect snakes...



Bulging, purple veins...



Wide open mouths...




Just watch those teeth, please...



Penetrating foreign bodies...



Hands reaching out, grabbing for every last inch of you...



Inspired, naked dorm-room rampages courtesy of this mutha'



Just some good, clean, flamin' fun, all Thanks to Gradius and LifeForce.

God I miss college this game!

Dvader said:

OMG Lifeforce! Loved that game.

So whats this special secret game, get anything from the hints.

Nah, no secret game, it apparently is the announcement of games from the Commodore 64 for the VC.

Yipee.

SteelAttack said:

Dvader said:

OMG Lifeforce! Loved that game.

So whats this special secret game, get anything from the hints.

Nah, no secret game, it apparently is the announcement of games from the Commodore 64 for the VC.

Yipee.

The way GG is with 8-bit games (which I think is crazy), I am with anything pre NES, YUCK.

SteelAttack said:

Same here. My yipee was rather sarcastic, and I hope Raven's was as well.

  No mine wasn't. I like retro games. I have a 150 old Atari 2600 games that I still play every now and then. I never had a C64, and I've seen quite a few cool games on it over the years that I'd like to play. It may be ancient in video game terms, but those simple games still have their charm.

Oh, and I wish they'd release Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Intellivision, and Colecovision games on VC someday too.  And sell each game for $1 or 100 Wii points.

Yes, I'm serious. 

SteelAttack said:

That's not going to happen. You know you will be getting the shittiest C64 games at 500 to 1000 points or else, the microtransaction economy wouldn't be able to sustain itself.

The C64 has been available for the VC in Europe for about year now, and I've seen several Youtube user reviews that had a lot of positive things to say about most of the 18 games that have been released so far. 

Also, this is from a recent IGN article regarding the possibility of C64 coming to North American VC soon:

"The selection has been mostly solid there so far -- their Day 1 line-up of scrolling shooter Uridium and fighting game International Karate may not have been explosively exciting, but since then some truly excellent C64 efforts like the platformer Mayhem in Monsterland, puzzle game Boulder Dash and isometric action Last Ninja trilogy has made the cut. It'll be interesting to see which, if any, of these same games Nintendo of America selects to offer to us in the U.S. But it's a safe bet that we'd see all of them eventually"

Based on this info, I'd say that we won't just "be getting the shittiest C64 games."