The LoadDown - 03/01/2012

March, er, marches on!  A smaller-than-usual number of new downloadable games became available this week..

WiiWare --  No new games, just a free demo of Aya and the Cubes of Light.


DSiWare -- One new game for the DSi and 3DS -- Aahh! Spot the Difference, which ups the ante slightly over the daily newspaper by featuring moving objects in the images presented for comparison.  Slightly, mind you.

3DS eShop -- Nintendo's starting to fire its big retro guns for downloadable play on the 3DS.  This week, the 8-bit NES classic Metroid arrives, in all its original 2-D glory.  There's also a free demo of Sega's upcoming retail title Crush3D, a platform puzzler with an interesting switch-from-2D-to-3D mechanic.

XBox Live Arcade -- The House Party continues with another semi-big XBLA release called Nexuiz; it's a first-person shooter focused on multiplayer arena combat (the original freeware Nexuiz game for PCs is now known officialy as Nexuiz Classic.)

PS3 on PSN --  A couple of new games -- and just in case the crowded PSN release schedule wasn't confusing enough, both of these new games have the same keyword in their titles. This week, the beautifully painterly physics-based puzzler Storm arrives, and last week saw the Friday release of Motorstorm RC for both the PS3 and the PSP Vita.

PSOne Classics -- Quiet here, perhaps in hopes that players will take a closer look at the Vita and not notice that Metroid is now out for the 3DS.