Toribash fights way to WiiWare

Nintendo's catalog of digital titles expands this week with seven new titles in a variety of genres. The lineup includes an indie fighting game and a balloon-popping puzzler for the Wii, and a DSiWare roster, which includes a card game, a French vocab energizer, an iPhone puzzle game port, and others.

From Nabi Studios this week comes Toribash (1,000 Wii points, or $10). The fighting game with rag-doll-style physics lets players manipulate their fighters' specific joints with the Wii Remote in any way they see fit. The belligerence also extends to online play, where players can fight for virtual dominance. Additionally, the title features a replay system, which allows players to revisit a fight and learn from past wins or losses.

The second title hitting WiiWare this week is Balloon Pop Festival (800 Wii points, or $8). The goal of this one-to-two player title from UFO Interactive is to point the Wii Remote at balloons, pull the trigger, and watch them fall and create combos.

Switching to DSiWare, one of the more prominent releases this week is Primrose (200 DSi points, or $2). The title, which was originally released on the iPhone, is a puzzle game with very few rules. The premise is simple: Any colored tile completely surrounded by another color will disappear from the game board. Each time that happens, points are awarded and chain combos can happen.

Also arriving on DSiWare this week is Pop Island: Paperfield (200 DSi points, or $2). The game allows up to eight players to join in at the same time in a variety of game modes. Portable gamers can race, surf, or fly through the game's colorful words taking part in a variety of game types.

For the music-game enthusiast, this week Nintendo added Music On: Retro Keyboard (200 DSi points, or $2) to DSiWare. From Abylight, the single-player game morphs the DSi into an electronic keyboard with multiple sounds and rhythms built in. The game sports 16 instruments, an integrated sequencer, metronome, recording and replay options, and a number of other features.

For the solitary portable gamer, cosmigo's 24/7 Solitaire (500 DSi points, or $5) came to the portable marketplace. The title includes 24 variations on the classic card game, including Klondike, Freecell, Spider, Pyramid, Yukon, and seven versions of Peg-Solitaire.

The final game to come to DSiWare this week is 4 TRAVELLERS - Play French. The vocabulary-training title puts up to four players on a digital board where they are tasked with acquiring objects, money, and friends. There are 240 "carefully selected" words in the game, and each completed tasks helps players learn the French language.