Monday Wii Update: Monster Kings And SPOGS

Another Monday is upon us, and Nintendo is here to brighten our morning with the latest releases for WiiWare and the Virtual Console. Take a seat and place your napkin in your lap as Nintendo lifts the lid on their silver serving tray, revealing...

SPOGS Racing for WiiWare (1,000 points) is an arcade racer featuring what looks like Pogs stuffed into tires. Hmm. The rubber-encased cardboard circles take on other rubber-encased cardboard in a contest of driving superiority, using power ups that I am sure make as much sense as the game concept itself.

Meanwhile, in the past, the Virtual Console gets King of the Monsters for the NEOGEO (900 Points), the classic monster brawler that lets you pit not-really Godzilla against kinda-Megalon against each other in a battle royale to end...Japan, really.

Judging by that SPOGS screen, I'd say the VC is the clear winner this week, unless you're a giant fan of Pogs, in which case you are viewing this through a temporal portal from the 90's.

Monday Wii Update: Magnetica And Fatal Fury 2

Today's weekly Wii update brings us one from column A, one from column B, and a side of downloadable content for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King. What downloadable content? Well the press release doesn't say, and my Wii is erroring out connecting to the network, so find out for yourselves! It'll be a grand adventure!

On the WiiWare side we have Magnetica (1,000 points), the DS marbles-in-a-track puzzler redone for the console crowd. It includes 4-player multiplayer and the ability to have your very own Mii launching the marbles. Joy!

This week the Virtual Console library gets padding with Fatal Fury 2 for the NEOGEO (900 points), which introduced five new fighters to the series (including Chesty Mai) and featured the ability to smack your opponent back to another line.

A nice pair, but I got my fill of Magnetica on the DS and Mark of the Wolves ruined me for older Fatal Fury titles forever, so my limited Wii storage space is safe for another week.

The Weekly Wii Update In Miracle World

This week in Wii downloadables we have the Sega Master System classic Alex Kidd In Miracle World (500 points) and a couple of other things that don't matter nearly as much, Burning Fight for the NEOGEO (900 points), which is a side-scrolling beat-em up which oddly enough does not feature anyone's girlfriend being kidnapped, and the WiiWare title Gyrostarr from High Voltage (700 points), a sort of tunnel-shooter that reminds me a bit of N20 for the PlayStation, only cut in half. Hit the jump for the full details on the games accompanying our friend Alex Kidd on his magical journey of hope and wonder.

It's Wii Downloadables Day, and this week sees a set of two WiiWare titles and one big Virtual Console release that will have us geeks and otaku complaining about our lack of Wii storage space all day long!

On the WiiWare side of things we get an update to the classic block-breaking genre with Gameloft's aptly titled Block Breaker Deluxe (800 points), which adds special bricks, weapons, and the ever-popular ball-speed variations to the standard ball-on-paddle action, along with an exclusive multiplayer mode.

Then we have Neko Entertainment's epic fishing adventure Cocoto Fishing Master (700 points), which casts (ouch) you as Cocoto, a strange little fellow traveling the world in search of the five millennial fish that can save the world. Check out the official website for more info on what could be a rather enchanting little title.

Finally we have the lone VC title, Samurai Showdown for the NEOGEO (900 points), the classic title that launched the revolutionary fighting-game series. It's a cherry on top of a decidedly quality Wii update Monday. Fishing, anyone?

Still toying with what exactly to call the newly evolved weekly Virtual Console update now that it is becoming more and more WiiWare-centric, which involves finding some common ground between the two formats. Since I've run out of memory space on my Wii, I think the title I've chosen this week is rather apropos.

On the WiiWare front we've got the puzzle platforming goodness of Two Tribes' Toki Tori (1,000 points), which features more than 70 levels of gameplay involving gadgets and chickens. For those of you who'd rather solve your problems with guns, this week also sees the release of Ubisoft's scrolling shooter Protöthea (1,000 points), with 10 missions spanning four unique worlds.

For those of us who like our games older (like our women), the Virtual Console receives the NEOGEO classic Ninja Combat (900 points), which stars ninjas Joe and Hayabusa along with a group of unlocked ninja pals to help you fight your way through the evil forces of the Kage Ichizoku.

Ninja, spaceships, and chickens. It doesn't get any better than this.

It's Monday morning, and while the rest of the U.S. has the day off today, Nintendo is hard at work delivering two new games a piece to both the Virtual Console and WiiWare, including the stateside debut of Dr. Mario Online RX (1000 points), which allows you to take your pill-popping puzzle game online to battle players around the world. Joining the good Dr. is Aksys Games' Family Table Tennis (500 points), a cell-shaded dose of ping pong goodness.

On the old side of new stuff, this week sees the release of that classic NEOGEO shooter Metal Slug (900 points), along with the NES version of City Connection (500 points), which has you touring famous cities as a platforming far challenged by police, spikes, and of course, cats.

There you have it. Four new games for the Nintendo Wii all at once, all for you. Now I head back to bed. If you need me I'll be snoring so loud I wake myself up every five minutes.

Back on May 12th, Nintendo decided to skip their weekly Virtual Console update in order to focus on the release of WiiWare. Having posted just about every VC Update since the service began, I decided to post one anyway, asking our readers what games would make up their ideal update. My choices were Soul Blazer for the Super Nintendo and Tiny Toon Adventures for the NES.

Apparently I possess some sort of bizarre, mutant powers of suggestion, because somewhere between there and here, several websites began reporting the two titles as actual updates. I'm not talking tiny little sites like Wii60 either. IGN sites Gamespy and Gamestats ran with it...heck, G4 even went to the trouble of making a video about the imaginary update, which I am guess won't be up for too much longer, so enjoy while you can. Update - As expected, video went bye-bye.

I don't suppose it counts as plagiarism if they don't read the article closely enough to realize it isn't real.

Soul Blazer – The Virtual Console Release That Never Was? [Virtual Console Reviews - Thanks Aaron!]

Well I suppose we can't call it the Virtual Console update anymore, seeing as WiiWare is now added to the mix. We'll just go with weekly Wii update for now until we think of something snappier. This week sees two new additions to WiiWare from big-name publishers and one tiny game for the virtual console.

On the WiiWare side of the fence we have Konami's Critter Round-Up (1,000 points), and action puzzle game that has you mending fences til the cows come home, or the penguins, dingos...the game has several exotic locations included. 50 different levels plus mini-games like Snowball Soccer and Predator Rampage.

Joining Critter Round-Up is Hudson's Star Soldier R (800 points), offering you classic shooting action in 2 and 5 minute chunks.

Finally we have more scrolling-shooter action with Sky Kid for the NES (500 points), the original bird-flying-a-biplane game.

I know, it's a lot to take in, and with my Wii memory dwindling perilously I'm not sure if I can get any of these games this week. I suppose it's nice to know they are there.

I've been doing these Wii Virtual Console updates more or less every Monday since they started uploading games to it, and I'll be damned if I'll let a little thing like not actually updating the VC this week because of WiiWare stop me. Since there are no new games for the classic game service coming out this week, let's fill in the space with our imagination! What would your perfect virtual console update look like? Mine would go a little something like this...

Soul Blazer (SNES - 800 Wii Points): Developed by Quintet and published by Enix, Soul Blazer is an action RPG that places you in the shoes of an avatar sent down by a god to restore souls and rebuild towns. The spiritual successor to ActRaiser, and nearly good enough to go toe-to-toe with A Link To The Past.

Tiny Toon Adventures (NES - 600 Wii Points): They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little loony, and this theme song will be stuck in your head for weeks.

That's all I need. Just those two and I will be set for weeks. How about you folks? Shaq-Fu, anyone?

This week's update for the Wii Virtual Console brings what many consider to be the best Pokémon title for the Nintendo 64, which is extremely odd considering it's really just Tetris Attack (Panel de Pon) with Pokémon painted over it. Pokémon Puzzle League (1,000 Wii Points) features Ash, Brock, Misty, Pikachu, and all of their adorable little friends playing Tetris Attack. It's got story modes, continuous play, timed play, animated cutscenes, and even 3D puzzles to keep the gameplay from falling flat. If puzzles and Pokémon aren't your cup of tea you can always check out this week's other release, Renegade for the NES (500 Wii Points), a beat-em up with a unique story about a guy who has to fight his way through several street gangs to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. Girlfriends were such a liability in the late 80's.

Single Update, Double Dragon

Euro VC Gets Phantasy Star III

Another Sega Master System title makes its way onto the Wii Virtual Console this week as Sega finally graces us with Fantasy Zone (500 Points). Pilot the famous Opa-Opa around insanely bright and colorful levels, taking out bases to lure out stage bosses and progress through the game's various levels, upgrading your weapons as you go. This is one of those must-buy VC titles I tell you about all-too rarely. Joining Fantasy Zone this week is Mega Turrican for the Sega Genesis (800 Points), not to be confused with Super Turrican, the Super Nintendo game that got its own lonely release back in March. Vowing never to make a Turrican sad again, Nintendo saw fit to combine this platforming shooter with Fantasy Zone, and they all lived happily ever after.

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Cruis'n With Wonder Boy

R-Type Of Virtual Console Update

It's Virtual Console Import Week!