With the new arrival of Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Square Enix has decided to give away free desktop wallpapers. The wallpapers are available in two resolutions: 1024×768 and 1280×1024. For those of you that can’t wait for the title to hit the Wii Shop channel, you can stare at your desktop imagining life as a king. For those that can wait, well, maybe you’ll want to download it too.

Square-Enix
via Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles News

While many of us are patiently awaiting for Wii Ware to hit the Wii Shop Channel, this week’s issue Famistu has stated that the price for micro-transactions (downloadable content) will be 500 points.

While this might seem a little steep for some considering full Wii Ware titles can be purchased for 1000 points, it is reassuring that developers are taking the opportunity to provide this option. Let’s hope that Nintendo provides us with a storage solution soon!

QJ.net

This is no ordinary Space Invaders game, and is most certainly not what you’d expect in the continuation of the long-standing franchise. Space Invaders Get Even puts you in control of the alien invaders, up to 300 of them to be exact, in a war of revenge against those darned humans. No word yet as to whether the game is to be released as a WiiWare title or in full-fledged disc form. Check after the break for some telling screenshots of the game in action.

Continue Reading »

As the above image shows, WiiWare is about to hit up Japan’s Wii’s soon. Naturally, right before a highly anticipated product or service launches, the hype begins to rise dramatically. Most of the time with a fair amount of prodding by the developer or company behind it.

Which leads us to our topic! 11 titles are to be released alongside the service, including: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Everyone’s Pokemon Channel, Dr. Mario WiiWare, Magnetica, Bomberman, StarSoldier R, Marubou Shikaku, Angels’ Solitaire, Okiraku Ping-Pong Wii, Joysound Wii, and Word Puzzle Mojipittan Wii. Hopefully we westerners can get the same treatment come May 12th.

Nintendo of Japan (translated)

XGen Studios has added a significant feature to their upcoming WiiWare title, Defend your Castle: 4-Player multiplayer. More and more, it seems like this port of the browser-based flash game hit is going be worth each and every one of those 500 Wii Points. Continue reading past the break for a list of new features and several new screens.

Defend Your Castle
Prepare to Defend once more. XGen’s legendary classic is coming to your Nintendo Wii™ via WiiWare™ on May 12! The Barbarian hordes have amassed their forces once again to challenge your domain. Will you and your court rise to the challenge, or stand aside as the invaders raze your Castle to the ground?

Continue Reading »

The flash-based ultra-hit browser game is making its way to Nintendo’s WiiWare service. For 500 Wii points, you get an updated version featuring better and cleaner visuals and variety of different attacks, including an eraser and a bomb. Hopefully multiplayer action will make its way into the updated version as well.

N-Europe

WayForward, the company responsible for the Game Boy Color title Shantae, may bring the young genie to the Wii. Voldi Way, the founder of WayForward said in an interview that the plan is to bring a new Shantae game to the Wii, following the WiiWare route. Matt Bozon, Creative Director of the girl-genie platformer said back in May 2007:

“…We’ve started to update her design in anticipation of something on Wii, maybe Risky Waters or something similar.”

Shantae’s only appearance was on the Game Boy Color, and a Game Boy Advance Sequel was in development but was eventually scrapped. However, it seems that she will soon make a return.

Thanks to Jeremy for the tip!

Revolution Portal

The WiiWare title, Everyone’s Pokémon Ranch (formerly known as simply Pokémon Ranch), is returning to the spotlight with some new details:

• It will be available for download in March for Japan, although the price is still unknown.
• You will be able to store up to 1000 Pokémon that you transfer from Diamond and Pearl.
• You may sort your Pokémon in a similar manner to the PC system in Diamond and Pearl.
• Interaction with your Pokémon and your Mii is possible, such as sitting around a bonfire.
• You may take pictures of your Pokemon and save them to an SD card or post them on the Wii Message Board.
• The Ranch is owned by Yukari, a friend of the PC technician in Diamond and Pearl.

Check after the break for some new screenshots.
Continue Reading »

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King has been the subject of confused discussion ever since it was first announced, due plainly to the fact that nobody knows what to expect from a Square-Enix experiment. Turns out, we can expect a lot.

My Life as a King has sort of been an experiment in game design (think video game poetry), limiting themselves in ways to try and make something unique. For example, they decided to skip the entire concept art stage. For the simple reason that concept art would distract the team into making yet another Final Fantasy epic based heavily on visual presentation. Instead, they began with a basic game design and built the game around that.

Combat was at one point a part of the game, but was cut at some point in the game design process. Instead, heroes go off on their adventures and report back to you, the king, every once in a while to report on their respective quests. Thus, the RPG feel is maintained, and the young development team was not strained to accomplish something outside of their abilities.

Wii Fanboy

Who doesn’t love a solid shmup every once in a while? Star Soldier R is exactly that, and judging from the screenshots, the fact that it’s a WiiWare title will not be holding it back in terms of graphics. Fans of the Virtual Console service should be familiar with the Star Soldier series, four titles have been released so far: Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade, Blazing Lazers and Star Soldier. Head on past the break for 12 screens of the game in action.

Continue Reading »