Club Nintendo halves free game offerings. I was impressed that Nintendo was giving away a free game for each of its download platforms (eShop, DSiWare, WiiWare, Virtual Console) through its U.S. reward program during the past couple of months, but this time around it only has two titles available.
If you’ve registered enough games with Club Nintendo to earn 150 coins, you’ll be able to pick up Art Academy: First Semester for DSiWare (but only downloadable for 3DS owners) and Mario Party 2 for Virtual Console. It’s difficulty to justify arguing with free games, but neither of these are terribly exciting, and we’ve been spoiled by Club Nintendo’s recent selections.
Club Nintendo (U.S.) updated its selection of downloadable games, which you can grab by trading in the coins you receive from registering titles you’ve purchased.
The new rewards include Kirby’s Dream Land (3DS Virtual Console), Dr. Mario Express (DSiWare), Dr. Mario Online RX (Wii), and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (Wii Virtual Console), all available until January 31, when Nintendo will introduce a new set of games.
Cover for Gyakuten Saiban Sound Box, a new CD collection being published by Capcom on February 8. This set collects the music from Ace Attorney 1-3, specifically as it sounded through the “high quality” Wii hardware. Do I need to go back and get the Wii versions now?
I’m glad Capcom is still serving the fanbase for this series in Japan… :(
Nintendo just put out its North American launch schedule covering all its platforms for the first quarter of 2012. It’s not as promising as the European slate — which has The Last Story, Pandora’s Tower, and Inazuma Eleven 2 — but that seems to be the pattern lately. At least we’re getting Kirby’s Block Ball and Jett Rocket Super Surf on eShop.
The 3DS’s second analog stick add-on, the Circle Pad Pro, will make its debut in the States on February 7 with an MSRP of $19.99 through GameStop. :o/
We also have a release date now for Kid Icarus: Uprising. Here’s the schedule so far for retail 3DS games:
You can buy select downloadable games with Club Nintendo points now! Well, not now exactly, as North America’s Club Nintendo site is down for maintenance, but as this screengrab shows, you can soon choose to spend your points on a handful of first-party eShop, DSiWare, Virtual Console (on Wii), and WiiWare releases.
The initial selection includes the following:
3D Classics: Xevious (eShop) for 100 points
Super Mario Kart (VC) for 100 points
Fluidity (WiiWare) for 150 points
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (DSiWare) for 150 points
The games are chosen based on Club Nintendo member feedback, and are replaced with “a new surprise selection each month”. This is an obvious idea that I always assumed Nintendo would never implement because it’s too awesome, but here it is! The only problem is now I’ll never save enough points to get a Game & Watch: Ball.
In other digital download news, Pushmo is out on the eShop today or $6.99! Grab that shiz.
Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove figure, artwork, and papercraft. The figure, sadly, is a one-off, produced as a prototype for a potential UFO Catcher toy. It was posted on the Japanese site for the series, with some lamentations about its unreleased status.
The “Sorry” artwork was posted as an apology for the delay of the Japanese version of the WiiWare Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove: Monster Mix. While the game is out in North America, it won’t arrive in Japan until August 23.
Finally, the papercraft … is available right here! Enjoy!
Secret song in Cave Story WiiWare. If you loaded the game yesterday, which was creator Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya’s 34th birthday, you would have been treated to this special music track on the title screen. You can hear this pleasant tune if you set your system date back a day, too.
By the way, did you know the upcoming Cave Story 3DS remake will feature new arrangements by Dustin Kulwicki and Danny Baranowsky (Canabalt, Super Meat Boy)? Very neat! Hopefully, the game has an option for the old soundtrack and 2D visuals for those who prefer the classic style.
Trailer for Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove: Monster Mix. This is the first look at the WiiWare game based on the 3DS Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove (which used to be on DS!) The portable game is an Ouendan-style rhythm game, but this has players matching poses with the Wiimote and Nunchuk — like Just Dance, I guess.
Except the silhouette people in Just Dance creep me the hell out, and this is sooooooo cuuuuuuute. Somehow, I’ve gone from casual curiosity about this series to being totally into it…
Downtown Special: It’s Kunio’s Period Piece, Assemble Everyone!!, or Technos Samurai, patched with a new English translation released a couple months ago.
This Japan-only Famicom game was a follow-up to River City Ransom that had Kunio and friends acting out a period play taking place in Medieval Japan. I brought it up because, as you might have heard, Miracle Kidz is crafting a modern sequel to River City Ransom that will release for consoles in Japan this summer and on PCs next year.
Miracle Kidz, which is working with some ex-Technos staff, is the same doujin group that released River City Dodge Ball All Stars!! for PC and XBLIG not too long ago. The team is also releasing a WiiWare port for that dodgeball title to Japan in two months.
Here’s a chance to try one of the best-received games on WiiWare without having to admit to your hardcore gamer-dude friends that you used WiiWare. For Valentine’s week, Over the Top Games has discounted the PC and Mac versions of its Greek mythology-themed side-scroller, NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, to just $1.99. You can download the game DRM-free from the dev’s site. I believe the deal ends in a few hours, so act quick!
I’ll be taking advantage of this deal myself, having played the WiiWare demo and liked it, but never having picked it up because I’m a jerk/overloaded with games.
2D Boy’s World of Goo goes on sale all the time on PC, iPad, Mac, etc., but not ever on WiiWare, the platform with which it’s probably most commonly associated. This is because nothing ever goes on sale on WiiWare, ever. Seriously. Sega marked down some Virtual Console games in 2009, and as far as I can tell, no downloadable Nintendo game has ever been discounted before or since.
But thanks to Amazon and its tiny Wii download selection (search “Online Game Code” with quotes in the Wii section to find them all), you can get a pretty significant discount on the WiiWare version. It’s marked down on Amazon from its normal $14.99 price to $6.99!
I have no idea how long this discount has been active, but more importantly, I don’t know how long it’s going to be active.
