The LoadDown - 12/27/2010

Christmas has come and gone, but if you have a little time to kill for the holidays, there are plenty of new options... especially for the PS3, with 18 new games this time around.

WiiWare -- Two new titles and a demo this week.  chick chick BOOM is an attack/defense territory game for one or more players.  Around the World is a geography quiz title.  A free demo version of Max and the Magic Marker provides a preview of this interesting platformer with drawing and physics elements.

Wii Virtual Console -- D4 Enterprise brings a couple more NEO*GEO arcade classics to the Wii Virtual Console, with one-on-one fighter Fighter's History Dynamite and cute puzzler Magical Drop III (previously released on the Data East Arcade Classics compilation disc.)

DSiWare -- Three new games are now available.  G.G. Series Z * ONE is an inexpensive side-scrolling shooter.  DodoGo! Challenge is a puzzle/action game challenging players to save endangered eggs.  Fantasy Slots: Adventure Slots & Games brings one-armed bandits to the DSi.

XBox Live Arcade -- Just one game this round -- A World of Keflings is a sequel to the popular kingdom-building game, A Kingdom for Keflings.

Game Room -- Plenty of activity here this week, with a dozen titles.  Atari releases 2600 games Codebreaker, Desert Falcon (a late isometric scrolling shooter), Football, Realsports Baseball, Star Ship, and Surround, and the venerable console also gets Activision's gag demo Venetian Blinds, which isn't truly a game.  The Intellivision sees INTV's Slam Dunk Basketball and the original Mattel Tennis.  Best of all in my book, we get three Konami coin-op games: Devastators, The Main Event, and Iron Horse.

PS3 on PSN -- A whopping 18 new games this week, including ten SNK Playmore releases of NEO*GEO classics, including Magician Lord, Metal Slug, Art of Kighting, Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, League Bowling, Baseball Stars Professional, Samurai Shodown, ASO II: Last Guardian, Super Sidekicks, and The King of Fighters '94.  PS3 gamers also get Telltale Games' excellent point-and-click adventure Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.  If that's not enough, there are a bunch more to choose from: Top Darts, Blokus, Buzz! Quiz Player, Eat Them!, Echocrome II, and Risk: Factions. 

PSOne Classics on PSN -- Life at last!  Square's tactical mission-based mech RPG Front Mission 3 is now available for download.  I somehow also missed that RPGs Arc the Lad II and Arc the Lad: Monster Game with Kanji Game arrived back on November 23rd.