The LoadDown - 04/12/2010 - Zaxxon!

It's been an unusually quiet week on the downloadable front, though a personal favorite from the arcades of old has arrived this week, so I'm happy.

WiiWare -- Military Madness: Nectaris finally arrives on WiiWare after showing up last fall on XBLA and PSN.  It's a quality update of Hudson's classic hex-map, turn-based strategy game originally seen on the PC Engine; I covered the series on a video podcast a while back.

Wii Virtual Console -- The Virtual Console Arcade sees a new title this week, one which I was not expecting but am very happy to see: Sega's classic Zaxxon, an early isometric-perspective space-shooter and one of the first videogames to feature a proper boss battle.  I don't believe there's ever been a legitimate home release of the coin-op original, at least in the States, and the ports back in the 80's didn't really do it justice, so I will definitely be downloading this one.

DSiWare -- 4 games this week, continuing the healthy flow of DSi games.  Gangstar 2: Kings of L.A. is another Grand Theft Auto-inspired open-world game for the DSi.  AlphaBounce is an odd RPG-Breakout hybrid, where the player's ship can be upgraded with experience and exploration.  7 Card Games brings Poker, Blackjack, Freecell and Solitaire to the DSi; it seems there are not seven games here, but four that are played with seven cards, unless the official description is incomplete.  AiRace is an airplane race/stunt game with substantial content, judging from its premium 800-point price level.

XBox Live Arcade -- This is an exceedingly rare event -- a week has come and gone with NOTHING new on XBLA.

Microsoft Game Room -- Still fallow this week, new releases are anticipated near the end of April.

PS3 on PSN -- And nothing new hit the PS3 last week either.