Picross released, ready to puzzle players

Nintendo also released Picross today, a puzzle game which features your daily digest of Sudoku and Crossword puzzles. Picross is supposed to be more “fresh” than Sudoku DS (which only featured 80 or so puzzles and then it got boring) because it has puzzles that update everyday. Anyways, the game allows easy writing so you can easily fill in answers. Hopefully, it won’t get my 2′s mixed up with 4′s (even in the clearest of handwriting it still got mixed up) but I doubt Nintendo fixed that. Picross features the ability to make your own puzzles and share with friends.

No doubt is this a good game for newspaper puzzle addicts.

Mario Strikers Charged smashes in to stores

Nintendo has released the newest Mario soccer game today. Titled Mario Strikers Charged, the game is a half sequel/half modified port of the original Super Mario Strikers that was for the GameCube. Mario Strikers Charged contains many of the elements from the Nintendo GameCube version except this time the game is a bit more deadly (which makes it much more fun). Players and computer opponents can now launch thunderstorms, earthquakes, firestorms, shockwaves and other environmental hazards in their attempts to defeat the other team and win the game. How any of the characters survive such hazards is amazing (just goes to show you, this isn’t any old game of soccer).

The new sequel features 9 new stadiums, a ton of new characters, specialized WiiMote controls (flicking the WiiMote to block and steal) and Wi-Fi. If you are able to master Striker Challenges or the succeed in the tournament-styled Road to the Striker Cup you will be able to unlock new elements and cheats (as with all Mario Sports games) in Mario’s new soccer game.

For the new Wi-Fi multiplayer feature, players will be able to go online and battle it out against other Strikers players around the nation. However, in order to keep things “fair and friendly” there is a “positive” structured points-based system in place. But the odd side to this is that there is no way to be the best at this game point-wise as the game resets all points each week (that is so uncool, but I can see how it can be “fair and positive” this way).

Mario Strikers Charged is in stores now with an ESRB rating of E10+.

August Wii TurboGrafx-16 Virtual Console games revealed

Hudson Soft decided to start the month out early and put up their TurboGrafx-16 release list for the month of August. I love how they take away the surprise and let us know early. I wish Nintendo would do this.

One of the games coming next month is the Legend of Zelda clone, Neutopia. Neutopia actually looks like a good LOZ clone, so it might be a good pick me up. Neutopia will probably be released near the end of the month, while Cratermaze will be released somewhere in mid-August.

Cratermaze is a bit different from other Wii Virtual Console games, where the bosses kill you instantly and you dig holes to defeat enemies. The various levels are weaved together via the back story of you “traveling time” to various eras (each era is about 15 levels) trying to collect treasure and save your friends.

And the last (and the one to probably release first) is Galaga ’90 which is really a PC port of the Galaga ’88 game. However it’s not called Galaga ’88 but Galaga ’90 in the states because of release times. A bit confusing, but they are the same games. Galaga ’90 is an improved version of the original Galaga game. It feature better graphics, harder game play, more pickups, better bosses, and a bunch more. It’s kinda like the Deluxe version of Galaga. Basically you shoot bosses and bad guys in the scrolling arcade shooter style.

This week’s Wii virtual console list game are…

Sorry for not updating as much last week, ThunderBrowse (my current project) has been taking up way too much of my time. Wail was out on vacation and I was busy writing the biggest release of ThunderBrowse.

Anyways, this week Nintendo has the theme of “variety”, as they name the Wii Virtual Console as a box of chocolates. Apparently we are supposed to “savor” this week’s virtual console titles, and speaking of which, they are Star Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, and Drop Off. While some games listed (Dynamite Headdy) don’t look super great (you will love how cheesy the description is), but some other games look pretty good though. The games will appear on the Wii Virtual Console at 9:00AM today.

And to leave you off with tradition, here are the descriptions of the games from Nintendo:

Star Soldier (NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): The standard for vertically scrolling shooters, Star Soldier is the original game that spawned all of the titles in the long-running Soldier series. Go inside a floating space station inhabited by a giant computer known as Starbrain. Your mission: to stop Starbrain’s galactic invasion by piloting Caesar, a new, compact space fighter through 16 deadly stages. Collect power capsules to increase three different attributes of your ship: firepower, movement speed and defensive shields. Blast wave after wave of approaching enemies or use the innovative Trap Zone feature to fly beneath a land mass and avoid incoming fire. Conquer each stage to make your way to the final confrontation with Starbrain.

Dynamite Headdy (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Comic Mischief, 800 Wii Points): Headdy, a toy with a detachable head, arrives in North Town to find that the evil puppet king Dark Demon is causing serious problems. Dark Demon is gathering up all the puppets in town and turning some into his own evil minions, while eliminating the rest of the puppets that aren’t good enough to join his legions. Headdy is captured and is targeted for the incinerator, but escapes in the nick of time. Now he’s got to save the town. To do so, Headdy has to take on all manner of bad guys and even has to contend with his lifelong nemesis, Trouble Bruin the bear. Can Headdy overcome all his foes and take down Dark Demon?

Drop Off (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Brave five rounds of haunting, nightmarish dreams in this take on the classic arcade puzzler. To save his dearly beloved from the malicious demon that controls her dreams and holds her captive, our brave hero plunges himself into the nightmare to vanquish this evil foe. Deftly use the arrow items and control the angle of the ball to shatter the blocks that descend from the top of the screen. Set your sights on the joints holding the blocks together and knock off multiple blocks in one exhilarating blow. As you drop more and more blocks, their shapes will change, allowing you to earn bonus points. You must use your concentration and reflexes to defeat the demon and save your beloved.