This marks the second week in a row that we've seen no classic games added to Nintendo's Virtual Console, but with Guybrush Threepwood making his WiiWare debut in the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island (1,000 WiiWare points) it's certainly not a crippling omission. Once you've exhausted Monkey Island you can find more high adventure in The Three Musketeers: One for All from Legendo Entertainment (900 points), a platforming game featuring Porthos...which technically makes it The One of Three Musketeers. Once your blood pressure has been raised by all of that swashbuckling, relax with HB Arcade Cards (500 points), which brings Rummy, Hearts, Euchre, Canasta, Cribbage and of course Solitaire to WiiWare.

The strong WiiWare line up this week is counterbalanced by the lone DSiWare offering, Sudoku Student (200 DSi points), which is the classic number-crunching puzzle game for beginners.

I guess we've just run out of classic games. Oh well. Check out the official descriptions through the hazy veil of tears.

WiiWare

Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1
Publisher: Telltale Games
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) - Alcohol Reference, Comic Mischief, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
Price: 1,000 Wii Points™
Description: Join Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate, in this first chapter of an epic five-part saga, filled with humor, romance and piratey swashbuckling. When a showdown with the demon pirate LeChuck goes up in flames, Guybrush gets marooned on a strange island. How will he escape? Where is Guybrush's beloved wife, Elaine? And what's up with the voodoo pox spreading through the isles? Jump into Tales of Monkey Island today to find out!

The Three Musketeers: One for All!
Publisher: Legendo Entertainment
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Cartoon Violence
Price: 900 Wii Points
Description: The Three Musketeers have been imprisoned by the treacherous Count Xavier and his sinister lieutenant, Count Orsini! Well, almost - take on the role of Porthos, famed member of the Musketeers, to save the day in this swashbuckling platform adventure inspired by the classic novel. Swing the Wii Remote™ to launch blistering sword attacks on your foes, avoid fiendish traps and discover hidden collectables. Packed with frenetic fencing, heroic leaps and fun puzzles, this is one adventure no aspiring hero will want to miss.

HB Arcade Cards
Publisher: HB Studios Multimedia
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: HB Arcade Cards is a great collection of fun and easy-to-play card games. The collection of games included in this title includes: Rummy, Hearts, Euchre, Canasta, Cribbage and the always-classic Solitaire. Each game comes with an interactive tutorial to show you the rules and basic game play. You'll need to be clever to outsmart your opponents, and you can even team up with a computer partner to play Euchre and Cribbage. You can play HB Arcade Cards using a Mii™ character from your Wii™ console, or play with one of our four new characters. HB Arcade Cards has lots of style and flare, and will keep you coming back for more. Remember, it's never the same game twice.

Nintendo DSiWare

Sudoku Student
Publisher: Hudson Entertainment
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Sudoku Student brings you the first Nintendo DSiWare sudoku experience with all the features you'd expect. For "students" of sudoku who are just getting their feet wet, Sudoku Student comes with a full tutorial. Once you've completed the tutorial, jump into simple and easy-going sudoku puzzles. Designed for entry- to beginner-level players, you'll find just the right amount of challenge to keep you hooked.

It's sort of like sudoku, but with math involved. I found this web version of the game that lets you play online and get your solutions right away, without having to wait around for the New York Times.

KenKen was developed by Japanese teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto, who founded the Miyamoto Math Classroom in Tokyo. Miyamoto uses puzzle solving about 90 minutes a week in his classroom.

A New Puzzle Challenges Math Skills and WEB KENDOKU

The most amazing iPhone game at the EA Showcase was Spore Origins – even if it hadn’t been up against such visually uninteresting things as Scrabble and Sudoku.

Set to release at the same time as the PC version of Spore, it might be a while before we see the final product. But this primordial version looks mighty good and I had a fun time tilting the iPhone this way and that to guide my single-celled organism through a sea of sperm-shaped DNA thingies. Eating these things filled up my DNA meter and when I was at full, the level ended and I could spend the DNA points on upgrading my microbe. While not as detailed as the Creature Creator, it’s just as addictive on the iPhone to pinch and stretch your creature’s spine into different shapes while adding multicolored coats of paint (er, skin).

I made my little guy look like a dildo I gave a friend for Hanukah last year and moved on to face off against a PR rep in Scrabble Bonjour.

Scrabble for the iPhone is already out, but Scrabble Bonjour introduces a new multiplayer function so you can face off against other iPhone users. A new feature called Best Word is also in play where – if you’re stuck – you can have the game suggest the best possible word choice for you and make the move. Watch out, though – not only do you only get to use it four times, but it also tells your opponent you wussed out and used it, thus leaving you open to mocking. Scrabble Bonjour was developed by the same team that made the Facebook app, so pop on over there if you want an idea of what it looks like, or if you’re like me and you can’t afford an iPhone.

Next on my iPhone gaming blitz was Sudoku and I’m the first to say I utterly suck at it. The backgrounds were highly stylized and very pretty, though and I appreciated that the hint button actually fills in a square for you instead of making you feel bad for using it with some sort of text admonishment.

I put it down and moved on to Tetris; but it’d be really hard to screw up Tetris on a handheld device, so I just satisfied myself that the color scheme wasn’t hideous and the music was still the same before I thanked the PR lady and got the hell out of there so the raving pack of journalists behind me could have a turn.

Keep your eyes on the iPhone app store for each of these titles, but remember, Spore could be a while…

Check out our ultimate guide to iPhone games.

The iPod may have an impressive install base, with some 67 million units sold, but the game selection kind of sucks. Maybe it's that only a percentage of those are full-size, fifth-generation iPods with screens capable of playing the downloadable casual games.

Fortunately gamers who've tired of Bejeweled and Cubis 2 now have two more options, bringing the total number of iPod games to eleven (woohoo!). EA has released (say it with me) Sudoku and Royal Solitaire which weigh in at 25MB and 45MB respectively and will set you back a mere $4.99. Cheap!

Interested parties (both of you) should check out the iTunes Music Store for you casual, downloadable fun. Me? I think I'll stick to my GBA micro. Michael McWhertor

Lemmings uses the "processing power of the PLAYSTATION 3" to "take the game to a whole new dimension", which I can only assume means the highly touted Fourth Dimension, exclusive to the PS3. I'm downloading the 142MB trial version now, which I'll pass judgment on later. The full version of Lemmings is only $5.99, how bad can it be?

Go! Sudoku is, of course, sudoku the number puzzle fad that is sweeping the nation. The first pack is free, with four additional packs priced at $2.99 each. Since I'm in post-Brain Age sudoku rehab, I'll pass on this one. Michael McWhertor

Forget Counterstrike and its population of 12-year-old aimbot snipers blowing you head off milliseconds after rounding a corner: Natural Selection is my favorite Half-Life mod. Space marines claustrophobically battle insect-like aliens in the dark bowels of dilapidated spaceships and oozing alien hives. Being a combination FPS/RTS, it all tends to fall apart without a good commander, making good games outside of a league play a roll of the dice. Still, if there's any mod I've been looking forward to seeing updated for Source, it's Natural Selection.

Unfortunately, the developer of the mod is having a hard time making ends meet, so he's put together a quick Sudoku clone that he's selling for $12.95. Called The Zen of Sudoku, all proceeds raised will go directly to funding Natural Selection: Source.

An interesting strategy: a Sudoko game must be relatively basic to code, but with the entire world Sudoko-mad right now, it's probably bound to be a decent seller. If you're looking for a cheap Sudoku game for the PC, why not go on over to the Unknown Worlds site and help fund Florian Eckhardt's upside-down skulking in he Source Engine? Florian Eckhardt

Natural Selection and The Zen of Sudoku [Unknown Worlds]

Hardware-obsessed big brother site Gizmodo has found the true meaning of "useless." It comes in the shape of a Plug'n'Play Sudoku controller that dishes up puzzle games on your TV. This $30 adapter has Sudoku coming out the wazoo, all at varying levels of difficulty. Of course, you could always do the free puzzle in the newspaper or the internet. But, unlike this product, that would make total sense. Brian Ashcraft

More From Travis Here [Gizmodo]

Sudoku inventor Wayne Gould (in the stupid hat) and bikini girl Aki Hoshino (also stupid hat) went head-to-head in a Sony-held press event for the PSP title Kazuo. Gould defeated the 28-year-old Hoshino in the first round. But the idoru begged for another chance and came back and won the second round. What. A. Surprise. —Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Game Watch]

Ghost Recon: Advance War Fighter (PC)
The Tom Clancy branded tactical shooter gets the PC port treatment this week. Buy buy buy!!!

Gallop Racer 2006 (PS2)
There's only one thing you need to know about the Tecmo horse racing/raising sim: you can "feel the blory of winning the Dream Cup!" according to the official site. And get a free riding whip for pre-ordering! Blorious!

Dr. Sudoku (GBA)
It's sudoku. On the Game Boy Advance. Did I mention it's sudoku?

Top Gun (Nintendo DS)
The 1986 Tom Cruise movie gets the DS treatment in this follow up to the NES game I probably would hate if I had to play again.

Paradise (PC)
Hot point and click African adventure action from the creators of Syberia. The game features pointing AND clicking.

Well, I'll be picking up about 15 copies of Gallop Racer 2006, but that's it. Are you ladies and gentlemen picking up anything this week? Hello? Anyone?

To promote its new Sudoku title, game publisher Hudson Soft held a Sudoku "examination" of sorts in Akihabara. Over a hundred folks sweated it out with only ten players making it to the finals. Winners got DS Lites and game software, while losers got T-shirts. Yippie. A pic of the top three players after the jump.

Is it just me or is the fact that Famitsu gave the winners a teeny-tiny picture slightly rude?

More Images Here [Famitsu]

I just landed a final retail of Brain Age. What a fun game. If Nintendo can get these bad boys in the hands of middle-aged America they're going to open up a whole new channel of consumers to gaming. I'm not saying that this game couldn't be fun for everyone, but it certainly could help tap new markets.

I haven't had a ton of time with it, but I have messed around enough to know that the floating disembodied head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima is a nutball and that my Brain Age is 32, or three years younger than my real age.

Oh, and I love the built in Sudoku, what a fantastic game. I plan on playing the hell of out this tonight and posting a more robust review with some pics tomorrow. So check back

Update: You can read the full review here.

All three from Hudson Soft seem to let you use your stylus to play the game. The crossword puzzler looks like it lets you actually write your answers on the screen, very cool. I sure hope it comes to the U.S.

Hit the jump for screens.

Sudoku Fever [GSS]

In a sign that the Western world is ready for an onslaught of Japanese brain games, the Oxford Dictionary picked "Sudoku" (single numbers) as the "word of the year." The puzzle originally began when a Swiss mathematician invented a grid-based head scratcher called "Latin Squares." The number puzzle was then retitled "Numbler Place" in the 1970s and 80s, when Japanese puzzle mag Nikoli started printing Sudoku. The game is now hailed as a mental workout and an antidote to Alzheimer's. Last year, my wife was really into this, but none of the Sudoku books she bought ever said "Sudoku" in Japanese on them, but simply "Number Place." Explains a lot.

Brits Adore Sudoku [CrissCross]

Here s a great way to waste your day. Don t blame me when it gets you fired. Ultimate Sudoku is a cool little flash version of the painfully popular number puzzle that is popping up in books and newspapers around the world.

The object of the game is to make sure each 3-by-3 square contains all of the numbers from one to nine and that one to nine is also found in every row and every column. It s very simple to grasp by devilishly difficult to master.

Ultimate Sudoku [Flash Game]