Monday, December 28, 2009

The LoadDown - 12/28/09 - Castlevania Rebirth!

Time once again for our weekly roundup of downloadable console games in North America.  I've had some time off and have been busy playing through Shadow Complex and catching up on Tales of Monkey Island, but I'm being tempted by a couple of these already.

WiiWare -- 4 games this week, from several major publishers.  First, the much-anticipated Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is an old-school 2-D Castlevania game from Konami, a sequel to the mediocre Gameboy title of 1989.  Tecmo releases Eat! Fat! FIGHT!, a sumo wrestling game that makes use of the Wii remote.  RABBIDS LAB puts one of Ubisoft's insane but oddly lovable Rabbids into the Wii remote, as a virtual pet.  And venerable GAME ARTS, Ltd. releases The Magic Obelisk, a light-based puzzle/action game.

Wii Virtual Console -- Just one game, but it's a good one -- PilotWings, the relaxing Mode-7 flight simulator game that launched with the SNES and has been missing too long from the VC catalog.

DSiWare -- 5 games this week.  The Oregon Trail brings the classic, often-remade Apple II simulation of American pioneer adventures to the DSi.  SUDOKU SENSEI is a challenging 100-puzzle sudoku game intended for the hardcore puzzler.  Glow Artisan is a puzzle game, with an unusual feature allowing players to take photos with the DSi camera and turn them into puzzles.  Master of Illusion Express: Psychic Camera continues to extend the magic-trick series, with a fresh entry that involves taking photos combined with a mind-reading illusion.  Finally, Arcade Hoops Basketball uses the stylus as an intuitive motion control, challenging players to shoot baskets against a 45-second time limit. 

XBLA -- Two games last week.  0 Day Attack on Earth is an old-fashioned shooter with dual-joystick controls, not badly done.  Polar Panic is yet another puzzle game, this one a block-based puzzler reminiscent of BoxyBoy or Kickle Cubicle, and looking like a slow-motion Pengo.

PS3 on PSN -- Polar Panic also hit the PS3 downloadable service last week.

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