The LoadDown - 1/18/10 - Muscle March, Dark Void, Serious Sam HD

Rounding up recent downloadable releases... everything slows down a bit after the holidays, but there are still some interesting titles afoot.

WiiWare --  Two games this week, and believe it or not, Namco-Bandai's Muscle March is actually coming to the US with all of its sheer weirdness intact.  It's the most frenetic action game this side of Cho Aniki as thong-sporting musclemen rush helter-skelter through a 3-D world -- players must make them pose properly so they can make it through holes in the walls.  We also get The Amazing Brain Train!, a brain games epic starring one Professor Fizzwizzle, who presumably has some sort of infection.

Wii Virtual Console -- One game this week, Sega's Genesis title Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, with a more arcade-style feel than most of the console Shinobi titles.

DSiWare -- 4 games this week.  STARSHIP DEFENSE is a tower defense game set in space.  Dark Void is a historically interesting Capcom platofmer -- originally in development for the NES, it was shelved as the market shifted to the SNES, and has now been finished in proper 8-bit style for the DSi.  Me and My Dogs: Friends Forever is yet another virtual pet game for the portable platform.  And Chronos Twins is a downloadable re-release of an unusual dual-screen platformer originally put out on DS cartridge in 2007 (and recently remade for WiiWare.)

XBox Live Arcade -- One release last week, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, remaking the first-person shooter circa 2002 in high-definition, using Croteam's new Serious Engine 3.  The game is pretty frenetic -- there's not much in the way of plot or puzzle-solving, but the enemy onslaught comes fast and furious and the over-the-top design choices and evil spawning layouts make for great fun.

PSN -- Nothing new for the PS3 last week.