The LoadDown - 08/25/2011

Looks like the pace of new downloadable releases is picking up a bit this week, after a quiet summer...


WiiWare -- Nothing new here this week, but there's a free demo version of Kyotokei, the cute 2-D scrolling shoot-'em-up that arrived two weeks earlier.


Wii Virtual Console -- Well, here's one I never thought we'd see, and it's exactly the kind of release I like to see on the Virtual Console -- Jaleco's The Ignition Factor for the SNES, an intense little firefighting game that never got the attention it deserved back in the day.


DSiWare -- Three new titles this week, though only one is a game per se.  Let's Create! Pottery is a creative e-toy that uses the DS stylus with a virtual pottery wheel -- the sculpting appears to work really nicely, though the decoration features are a lot less flexible.  Magical Whip: Wizards of the Phantasmal Forest is an old-school arcade game that would have been right at home on the NES/SNES and owes a gameplay debt to Doki Doki Panic with its capture-and-toss-the-enemies mechanic.  And then there's Calculator, which is actually a fairly full-featured calculator utility -- its listing amusingly brings up a warning at Nintendo's official site, as it has not been rated by the ESRB and who knows, someone could type 58008 on it and then turn the DS upside down.

Nintendo 3DS eShop -- All of the DSiWare titles listed above, plus Capcom's Game Boy classic Gargoyle's Quest, a side-scrolling RPG/action title featuring the little demon Firebrand (a.k.a. Red Arremer) from the Ghosts'n'Goblins series that inspired the 16-bit Demon's Crest later on.

XBox Live Arcade -- Three new titles, and it's been a while since we've seen this many.  Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition brings one of Capcom's classic arcade titles to XBLA for online play.  Hole in the Wall is a great Kinect-only idea, based on the popular TV show where the contestant must conform his or her shape to an approaching opening.  Crazy Machines Elements is a puzzle game where the player must assemble Rube Goldberg-like chain-reaction devices, with an attractive plastic-toy look.


PS3 on PSN -- Three new titles here too, following a couple of quiet weeks.  Sega's Genesis classic Comix Zone gets ported in emulated form (with added trophies), along with Capcom's Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition (see above.)  And Hamilton's Great Adventure is also on tap, an Indiana Jones-inspired puzzle/platformer game that reminds me visually of Sega's Congo Bongo, though the gameplay is entirely different.


PSOne Classics -- Fallow yet again.  I'm starting to think I should stop listing this category, but I'll give it a while longer.  After all, I still check the Microsoft Game Room listings, dead since December 2010, just in case it suddenly springs back to life.