Monday, July 6, 2009

The LoadDown - 07/06/2009

Since this has become a recurring feature, I'm trying to get its format nailed down to something consistent. I'm going to start covering the PREVIOUS week's XBLA releases here, rather than doing two download posts a week or covering them only in passing. And instead of speculating about which games I might be purchasing, I'll just talk about what I am actually playing in this vein. So without further ado...

WiiWare gets three titles this week. BIT.TRIP CORE is another retro-inspired psychedelic rhythm/action game from the BIT.TRIP.BEAT folks. Taito continues its remake series with BUST-A-MOVE Plus!, yet another update of the venerable action puzzler also known as Puzzle Bobble. And Neko Entertainment, makers of the middling Cocoto games, delivers Heracles Chariot Racing; better on WiiWare than cluttering the discount shelves at Best Buy, I imagine.

Virtual Console continues at a trickle, with this week's release being Epyx's classic California Games in its original Commodore 64 incarnation. It was very popular back in the day and might still be worth a play for nostalgia's sake; in my opinion, its casual flavor has held up better than linemates Summer Games and Winter Games, both of which have been superseded by more sophisticated equivalents in later years.

DSiWare gets Art Style: BASE 10, a math-based puzzler, and Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, which appears to be a decent racer with some neat online photo features.

XBLA last week got SNK's 2-D Neo-Geo classic The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match, a decent game but not as revered as the previous week's Garou: Mark of the Wolves. And a top-selling XBLA title gets a followup with Worms 2: Armageddon (which semantically speaking appears to be titled as a sequel to XBLA's Worms, and just happens to share a subtitle with the original Worms Armageddon.) Always a great series, especially with online play.

At the moment, I am playing Sega's Phantasy Star II, which came out on XBLA a few weeks ago -- I have played it before, but never gotten into it seriously. Once again, achievements prove a sufficiently enticing carrot.

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