The LoadDown - 10/26/2009

Every week we round up current happenings on the downloadable console scene...

WiiWare -- Two games this week:  Ghost Mansion Party is another family-friendly, Mario Party-inspired game with a virtual gameboard, minigames and a very Halloween-appropriate theme.  Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 3 -- Lair of the Leviathan is also out, a bit later than expected, and I'm sure I will be playing that one soon.  Oh, and a correction from last week -- Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem turned out to be more of a shooting gallery game, rather than a first-person shooter.

Virtual Console -- Two games this week: Lucasarts' long-awaited Zombies Ate My Neighbors finally arrives in its SNES incarnation -- it's ghoulish, hilarious arcade-style fun as one or two players attempt to rescue their friends and family from a zombie onslaught.  The 32-bit generation Herc's Adventure tried to recapture this game's feeling, unsuccessfully, so it's great to have the original available on the VC, and to see LucasArts continuing its classic game revival.   We also get a Virtual Console Arcade game -- it's Sega's Golden Axe, already seen in its Genesis incarnation, but it looks and sounds better in its coin-op form.  It's a scrolling beat-'em-up with a fantasy theme, and like most games in the genre is fun but becomes repetitive after a while.

DSiWare -- Two games here also.  EA brings yet another SUDOKU game to the DSi; it's the perfect platform for it, of course.  There's also a strategy game called PictureBook Games: The Royal Bluff that appears to be some kind of multiplayer Mastermind.

XBLA -- Two releases last week.  Panzer General Allied Assault revives SSI's classic turn-based hex-map strategy game, interesting for those of us who are still getting used to RTS games.  Tower Bloxx Deluxe brings the PC action-puzzler to the 360.  Personally, I'm still working on Lode Runner and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space.