WiiWare Launch List
Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 1:05pm by Will
With WiiWare launching right around the corner. Most of you must be wondering what titles will be launching and how many points each title will cost. To find out, come inside and have a look.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King
Square Enix, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - 1,500 Wii Points
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King, is a simulation game. You take control of a young king whose village is in shambles, and it is your goal to rebuild it. How you rebuild it defines what happens in the game and what adventures, mysteries, and challenges, you will uncover.
LostWinds
Frontier Development, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - 1,000 Wii Points
Lost Winds is a refreshing title for the Wii that puts you, the player, in total control over the wind. As the game progresses you have the ability to shape the wind with the Wiimote and be able to create peaceful breezes and powerful destructive tornadoes. With that power you will help Toku glide and defeat enemies as he adventures through the many platforming levels.
T.V. Show King
Gameloft, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - 1,000 Wii Points
TV Show King transforms your Wii and entertainment center into a real life quiz show. You’ll face up to 3,000 different quiz questions within six different categories of questions. A great Party game to compete against your friends and family, to see who is smart enough to make out like a bandit in “virtual” cash prizes.
Defend Your Castle
XGen Studios, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone – 500 Wii Points
A game where you have to defend your castle from hoards of invaders. Flinging them off your castle and sending them flying off to there demise. As you progress you can trade in the points you get from vanquishing the invaders for power ups. Those power ups range from fortifying your defense, to learning power spells to wipe out more enemies.
Pop
Nnooo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - 700 Wii Points)
Use your Wiimote to pop bubbles before the timer runs out. It’s a race to score as many points as you can with your you popping techniques. Easily enjoyable by many people, as you get more advanced in your popping placement you can create chain reactions and gain combo score multipliers.
VIP Casino: Blackjack
High Voltage Software®, Inc., 1-4 players, Rated T for Teen – 700 Wii Points
Recreating the casino experience on the Wii. Play Blackjack with many colorful and animated players as well as a realistic Las Vegas dealer. Single players can play to try and come out on top as a Blackjack expert winning tons of virtual cash. A great party game to go head to head with friends and family to have some fun Blackjack Tournaments.
So of all the possible WiiWare titles, what will you be getting at when they launch? I’m looking forward to Defend Your Castle, although, I could just go play a flash game of the same concept.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Shit.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
my life as the king and defend your castle
May 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
My Life As King and LostWinds looks pretty cool. Space on my Wii is going to become an issue D:
May 10th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Defend Your Castle for me. Can’t wait for Dr. Mario Online Rx, though!
May 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
prices are fine for the others, but pop and any card game where its only 1 game in the package should be $5.
pop looks fine, but whats with the $7, that $2 is a small, maybe trivial difference, but its the principle. still, i trust the developers who say they want to start out small to build funds for better ventures. rarely do indies disappoint.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
how did this info leak? i doubt this is the full lineup. Nintendo would probably include Dr. Mario for some 1st party goodness. other than that, the list seems about right. but we’ll see Monday morning!
May 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Hmm… the multiplayer offerings don’t look that exciting.
TV Show King looks like the best game so far IMO, but that’s probably just proof of how lame I am. I’m not quite sold on the $10 asking price though, unless there are going to be (cheaper) expansion packs of questions coming later.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Lost Winds and Defend your Castle for me.
Overall, though a good collection of launch games. Good variety with no overlap (so much for three launch shooters, heh). Also this leaves a lot for people to look forward to in coming weeks…
Speaking of which, smart move by Nintendo not to release with Dr. Mario at launch. They don’t need a beloved first-party franchise hogging the Wii points from the start. This way other developers will get a chance to shine and receive some assurance that their products will be given an oppurtunity to succeed. Besides, Dr. Mario will be a good game to release in a few weeks when WiiWare needs a booster shot.
I encourage everyone to support WiiWare by either buying games yourself or spreading the word to others. This sort of service is pivotal in expanding the creative potential of videogames. (The fact that 4/6 of these titles are being published by developers shouldn’t be lost on anyone.)
May 10th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Lost Winds and Final Fantasy.
MAYBE TV Show King.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
i’m actually more curious about file sizes. i made about 400 blocks free by deleting some VC games. but i’m thinking FF:CC might take that up easily!
May 10th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I agree with Matt. A list with the file sizes would be very helpful. I have almost reached my limit and need to determine if it’s worth it to break an SD card before I delve into WiiWare.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
i’m wonder what Nintendo has in mind for a storage solution. i know Iwata commented on it a few weeks ago, but was extremely vague. i assume a firmware update with hard drive functionality would be the easiest, but who know!
May 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
@Matt - the news came via VC-Reviews. They are extremely reliable in breaking the Virtual Console updates on Friday, long before Nintendo actually announces them on Monday. I have no clue how they get their info, but I can tell you that I’ve never found them to be wrong.
That said, some bad news: no Virtual Console games on Monday; just WiiWare this week.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
@David: thanks for the tip! i’ll have to add that site to my Google Reader (like i need any more gaming news sites!!)
May 10th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
trading club nintendo stars for wii points FTW!!
lol
May 10th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Defend Your Castle, no doubt.
I am also considering Pop and Lost Winds. Pop is a likely purchase, but I have too much on my “gaming plate” to commit to another lengthy single-player affair, so I may wait on Lost Winds.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Lost Winds isn’t supposed to be length. I believe I heard from some podcast or another that Lost Winds can be completed in about three hours. I’m waiting on the VC games until I read reviews about what is the best bang for my buck. Considering the quality of Square Enix games, however, I may jump on My Life As King immediately.
Nintendo needs a storage solution. This isn’t even a joking affair anymore.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
hmmm they all sound pretty good, but pop sounds like crap. i think probably the most interesting is defend your castle. i’m not too sure about the FF title though. i’m going to have to wait for the review. lost winds sounds interesting, but i need to see some reviews.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I’m getting Lost Winds for sure, as it seems similar enough to Zak & Wiki to help fill the gaping hole in my soul that awaits a sequel to that game.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
for me - Nothing, My wii has no space left and I’ve already deleted a few VC games… nintendo need to sort it out fast… When they do that however, LostWinds
May 10th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
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May 10th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
i’m definitely pretty disappointed with storage space, too. but, if all of us have the Nintendo Channel and submit our gameplay specs, maybe the Big N will realize how many of us there are. i doubt the common Wii Sports player won’t be downloading that channel anyways.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I still don’t understand all the complaints about storage space. Sure, it would be more convenient to have a hard drive or something, but as far as I’m concerned SD cards offer more than enough storage space. Sure, maybe you can’t play games directly off the cards, but then again how many games do you intend to be playing at any one time. The internal memory for the Wii can easily hold several to a dozen+ games on it. Just back up the games you aren’t actively playing on the SD.
I just did a search to throw up some numbers for how many games that oh so horribly tiny internal Wii memory can hold onto, and instead of posting the numbers here is the link: http://web.mac.com/stewart.lawrence/iWeb/wii/VC%20Stuff.html He/She has even got charts! Sure, WiiWare will likely be larger for most games, but again it comes back to how many do you really need to be playable at any one time?
May 10th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I just don’t get all the complaints over storage space on the Wii. Sure, it would be more convenient to have one large hard drive, but as far as I’m concerned SD cards offer more than enough storage for now. It’s true that you can’t play the games straight off the cards, but who cares. The Wii’s memory can hold several to a dozen to hundreds or even thousands of games at a time, depending on which system the games are for. Are you really intending to be playing that many games at once? Is it a pain that you can’t have all your Wii games loaded in the system at the same time? No, because you will play a couple at a time, shelf the majority, and be moving on to newer titles.
I just did a search to find some numbers to post on just how much that 512 mb can hold. Instead of just giving the numbers, here is a link to a website with all the averages calculated out. He/She even has charts and graphs! I might worry about larger storage solutions once we see disc based systems joining the VC lineup.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Forgot the link:
http://web.mac.com/stewart.lawrence/iWeb/wii/VC%20Stuff.html
May 10th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Okay, it seems I can’t post the link. If you care to see the numbers, just do a google search for “average virtual console game sizes.” It’s the first result.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I recall when I first red about Pop and how Nintendo sent them a development kit. All I could think, was WTF!
I’m getting Lost Wind.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
@xaviorq8: i agree with you to some point. true, you won’t play all of them all the time and it’s not too hard to transfer games or re-download them. but the point is, i shouldn’t have to. i pay good money for these games and i deserve to have them available to play whenever i want. i would probably play more VC games longer if i was able to keep them on the system all the time.
also, you forgot to post the link
May 10th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
@xaviorq8: i saw that site and that’s all based on if you were to use the 512kb for nothing but VC games. that means no game saves (not even VC games) and no additional channels. all that takes up room too.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
@Matt: I realize the site was neglecting game saves, channels, and whatever else. It was merely to illustrate how many of the games can fit into so small a space. I think many people have become too used to having gigs and gigs of space available, whether that be for personal storage or the size of game discs. Game developers fill up DVDs and the like often times not because they need to, but because they can. You can’t underestimate the value of compression. 512 mega bytes, or even just half that, can hold a whole lot of gaming, and with a 2 gig SD card as well I’m set for another year or two.
I understand that people don’t like the idea of having to do extra transfering of data to play a game. The further humanity progresses down the road of technology the more impatient we become. I’m just as guilty of it as the next person too, beleive me. I just try to step back and realize that honestly, it could very well take less time to swap games between an SD card and the internal memory than it would to get up and change the game disk in the system.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
One thing thing that needs to be remedied in my opinion is the fact that you can only purchase wii points in 2000/1000 increments, WTF is that sh*t?? If I want a game i’ll buy it, i don’t wanna have 200 wii points leftover and not be able to do anything with them.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
@ xaviorq8 It’s not that we can’t do it, we can, but the whole point of the wii is its simplicity in use, people should have the choice whether they want to store backups or not. The wii menu is intuitive but playing games has been intuitive since the early days where you just put a game in and start play. with VC it got easier, to a point. When you have yo not only put the game in and reinstall it, you’re going into PC teritory which is something I for one didn’t want to see in home consoles (even though the PS3 and 360 seem to have started it). VC games are relatively small but people should be able to just play their game when they want to without worrying they may have lost their tiny SD card for some reason.
It’s not that I’m lazy, I just think Nintendo should give people the option of atleast running VC games off of the SD card. I mean, it wouldn’t be hard to prevent people game sharing, simply place hooks in the Wii’s firmware that attaches a specific download of the VC title to the specific firmware ROM contained within the Wii, technology should be getting easier for everybody, having to reinstall a 10 year old game to your console just to play for 5 minutes isn’t really much help to anyone.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
@xaviorq8 & Jamie: yea, we’re definitely lazy nowadays! and we love our modern conveniences. what’s crazy is you can buy a 8GB memory stick for like $40 - $50. it’d be nice just to pop one in and be done with it. but, Nintendo has been doing this a long time. they don’t show all their cards at once like everyone else does. there’s a method to their madness and i trust them. they know us hardcore gamers are out there and have supported us through the years with some great games. i’ll stick with them until they give me a reason to think otherwise.
May 11th, 2008 at 2:27 am
I definitely have my eyes on My Life as a King and LostWinds. Beyond that, the others look a little different from my tastes, but I’m looking forward to what we will be seeing on the WiiWare service during its lifespan.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Where in the hell is Tetris and where is Dr. Mario? They should be on that list!
May 11th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Its either Lost winds, or Lost winds AND Defend your Castle.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:21 am
@lofax,
Buy a Mansion for your kingdom in Final Fantasy.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Lost Winds, definitely looking forward to it but I’ll wait for a few reviews to see if it’ll be worth it or if I should wait. Glad to see a decent starting lineup.
Screw Square, if they want my money then give me Mario RPG on the VC.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
A slight price drop and some of these titles would be appealing.
Much like the majority of VC titles, they interest me, but are a little overpriced, for what you actually get.
Thus, I will only be thinking of getting a select few games I think…
May 11th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
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May 12th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
wiiware is another great nintendo gateway…..the wii is on a roll.. im locked in.