Fourth Hanabi Festival, Gradius, Bit Boy and more on Nintendo downloads
| Date Posted | Author |
|---|---|
| 3rd July 2009 | Matt Bailey |
The fourth Hanabi Festival on the Wii Shop Channel has launched, bringing to Europe more Virtual Console titles that haven't previously been released outside of North America or Japan. Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, a classic strategy game from the SNES era. It was well received when it arrived in both Japan and North America, but was never released here until today, where it can be yours for 900 Wii Points (£6.30), which includes that 100 Wii Points "Hanabi Premium" for translation work. Game Freak are pretty much just known now for making lots and lots of Pokémon games, but over a decade over they used to make over things. Even things not for Nintendo. One of these was Pulseman, a Mega Drive platformer starring Pulseman himself. It was Japan-only, but is now available for 900 Wii Points too.
There's also interesting WiiWare releases, with Konami's Gradius Rebirth finally appearing here in Europe. The updated version of the classic shoot-'em-up has had reasonable reviews Stateside, but the best news is that it's available for 40% cheaper here - 600 Wii Points (£4.20) instead of 1000. Also on WiiWare is a rather curious title; Bit Boy!! is a game that takes you through the different generations of gaming from the 8-bit era through to 128-bit with visuals and gameplay representative of each. It's also available for 600 Wii Points if you want to try it, as unfortunately - as ever on the Wii Shop Channel - there are no free demo versions to try.
Over on the DSi there's not much to be excited about. Gameloft's WiiWare title Brain Challenge is now available as DSiWare for 800 DSi Points (£5.60), and it's the only new game this week. Joining it are a Mario-themed clock and calculator for 200 DSi Points (£1.40) each.
