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Euro WiiWare launches

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted May 20, 2008 4:50 am PT

Nintendo's answer to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store launches in Europe with six games.

WiiWare, a new downloadable game service for the Wii, is now live in Europe. Launched May 12 in the US, the service also launched in Australia today.

The initial games lineup is slightly different in each region. According to Nintendo, in the next 30 days Europeans will be getting the six Aussie games, plus two extra games. These are Pop and Pirates: The Key of Dreams--although neither are currently available to download. However, PAL regions are getting neither Defend Your Castle nor V.I.P. Casino Blackjack, both of which have been released in the US.

Of the eight games confirmed for Europe, perhaps the most highly publicised is Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. The management sim has players step into the shoes of a king, rebuilding a town by listening to requests from adventurers. The game's high profile is reflected in the price, with the Square Enix spin-off selling for 1,500 Wii points (approx £10.50).

Next up is side-scrolling platform game LostWinds, from the UK's Frontier Developments, for 1,000 points (£7). This game uses the Wii Remote to control the direction of the wind, letting players jump and glide across the terrain. Nintendo puzzle game Dr. Mario & Germ Buster will also be going for 1,000 points (£7) and will feature a new Germ Buster mode and online play. Gamers must destroy all the viruses by slotting capsules into a grid to create lines of matching colours.

Star Soldier R from Hudson Soft is a shooter that challenges players to score the highest they can within a time limit of either two or five minutes. Puzzle platformer Toki Tori from Dutch developer Two Tribes has the game's titular namesake collecting eggs and using power-ups including TeleWarp, InstantRock, and Slug Sucker to strategically get around the gameworld. Star Soldier R will set cadets back 800 points (£5.60), whereas Toki Tori is slightly more at 900 points (£6.30).

Finally, TV Show King, a quiz game developed by Gameloft, boasts more than 3,000 questions across six categories of TV trivia and sells for 1,000 points (£7).

The first of the two games slated for release in the next month is Pirates: The Key of Dreams from Oxygen Interactive. The nautical shoot-'em-up has players sailing across the Caribbean rescuing castaways to add to the ship's crew and investing in saw blades, rockets, and mines to face off against the notorious pirate Blackbeard.

Last but not least, Nintendo fans can also expect to see (at some point) Pop, from Australian developers Nnooo. Pop is all about bursting bubbles--and those wanting high points should chain together bubbles of the same colour and pop them all at once to score big.

28 Comments

  • tastycasey27

    Posted May 22, 2008 6:37 am PT

    jtthegame316----- errrm read the article it said nintendos answer to xbox live arcade, not xbox live. i just downloade lost winds, yeah it is a short game but i loved every second playing it, GS gave it a bad review but i think its worth more than 5, even other sites are giving it 7-8, id say its worth a 7 as it is short, but for seven pounds who am i to complain.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted May 21, 2008 3:03 am PT

    Trust GS (gimps) put the headline "Nintendo's answer to Xbox Live Arcade". Since when did Nintendo ever say that this was their "answer to XBLA"? I think Wii Ware is a great touch and I cant wait to download my first game, I just cant decide which one! I would also like to point out that forming comparisons, with rival companies, is very juvenile and displays insecurity. Something Nintendo hasn't done so far. Although I have to say that Microsoft and Sony are constantly at it. Especially Microsoft.

  • Nintendo_Man

    Posted May 20, 2008 9:27 pm PT

    I am glad we got Dr Mario in Australia, that was the game i was most looking forward too.

  • MatthewNintendo

    Posted May 20, 2008 6:51 pm PT

    FF is great but I was looking forward to defend your castle. Oh well here's to hoping for it for next month.

  • dragonball3900

    Posted May 20, 2008 5:01 pm PT

    Final Fantasy, Toki Tori, Dr Mario AND Lostwinds on launch??
    You guys are getting a real good launch. Don't complain!

  • Shadow_Fax

    Posted May 20, 2008 3:27 pm PT

    'Nintendo's answer to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store launches in Europe with six games.'

  • jtthegame316

    Posted May 20, 2008 3:03 pm PT

    ok just had a look at wiiware this is ment to be an anwser to xbox live? ok you can download software on wiiware as you can on live but that is all you seem to be able to do with it. its not like you each person has a gamer tag and can message each other. there is lots of things you can do on live but to me wiiware just seems to be an extention of the virtua console. wiiware can't be compare to xbox live all it can be compared to is one section of live and that is xbox live arcade but although xbox live arcade is a big part of live there is lots more to xbox live than that, wiiware is a nice touch sure but to be comparing it to xbox live is just silly.

  • Thorpe89 Site moderator

    Posted May 20, 2008 2:48 pm PT

    I hope they make some good use of this.

  • jtthegame316

    Posted May 20, 2008 2:38 pm PT

    wii ware i will check it out. can't see it being as good as live though. i have both xbox and wii. i like them both but the 360 sees more use than the wii.

  • KnightNui

    Posted May 20, 2008 10:24 am PT

    Coey-69:

    I really dont see the point in this. I have never heard of these games. I will be sticking to xbox Live. --

    WiiWare is there to provide "Original and unique" gameplay experiences. So besides FFCC and DM, you probaly won't of heard of it. (And even then, DM is a rather obscure old title, so a Xbox Fanboy won't reconise it as the brilliant puzzler it is)

  • lilkray2thebone

    Posted May 20, 2008 10:11 am PT

    i down loaded tv king.. it's coo to play with friends.. (Gurls) we have a battle of the sexes when we play it's coo. Smarty pants is better though IMO. but i wanna down load another game but i ran out of memory. so now i gotta save the games i down loaded to my SD card.. what is nintendo planing to do to solve this problem.. i have over 40 channels with games and stuff. i hade to remove some channels just to make room for TV king. and i got like 15 points left in memory. is there a way of saving it on ur SD but still have access to play them on the wii channels instead of copying and savin it back on the small wii memory?

  • ColdRush88

    Posted May 20, 2008 10:07 am PT

    Not bad for a service that's just launched. All the people who are complaining about it clearly haven't realized it's a new service. be thankful we have it at all. Give it time and will get more games.

  • wwefanforlife

    Posted May 20, 2008 8:46 am PT

    Not really any good games only the Final Fantasy game which I find a bit expensive I would rather buy some N64 games. But once Bomberman makes it to Wiiware I will be buying that cause it's online and its a pure classic.

  • R-Force

    Posted May 20, 2008 8:43 am PT

    Seems a bit pricey to me. Still at least we get Dr Mario at launch.

  • heroofwinds1

    Posted May 20, 2008 8:30 am PT

    wii ware just launced and it already has great titles in my opinion.lost winds especially is an awesome title that shows the huge potential of wii ware.

  • lucky326

    Posted May 20, 2008 8:15 am PT

    Man I was looking forward to Defend your castle and the Blackjack.

  • Coey-69

    Posted May 20, 2008 8:14 am PT

    I really dont see the point in this. I have never heard of these games. I will be sticking to xbox Live.

  • markB0SS

    Posted May 20, 2008 8:08 am PT

    yay, finally something to replace my 'metroid prime preview' channal, otherwise it would just of been an empty slot!

  • oli54321

    Posted May 20, 2008 7:58 am PT

    None of these look very interesting, think I will wait for better games to come.

  • Gaara79

    Posted May 20, 2008 7:51 am PT

    Toki Tori? that was suposedly an unsung gem of a platformer on the GBA. But i never could find it. I'll get that when i gen my next point card.

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