Game Stooge

This Week’s Nintendo Downloadable Games: July 7, 2008

• Scribbled on July 7th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
• Filed in Driving/Racing, Fighting, New Release(s), Nintendo Wii, Press Release, Virtual Console, WiiWare

This week’s WiiWare release is SPOGS (Sports Player Object Gyros(?!)) Racing (1000 points), by the new development house, D2C games. I don’t really know how to describe SPOGS to you, or exactly what it means, the words up there appear to be mostly gibberish. It’s a strange cross of demolition derby, Mario Kart, and RC Pro AM, maybe? Whatever it is exactly it’s the only release on WiiWare this week. From the press release, “[SPOGS Racing] feature[s] classic arcade racing, pick-up-and-play controls, all-new racing vehicles and Crash N’ Grab™ instant upgrades. Jump in, gear up and modify your ride on the fly as you compete head-to-head for a totally outrageous arcade racing experience.” We have doubts, grave doubts.

Now comes the part where I trash the Virtual Console release for the week, wondering out loud why Nintendo even bothers? Which of course I will do, but only a little this week, as the release isn’t as bad as it could be. King of the Monsters (900 points) is a NEO*GEO game originally released way back in 1991 for Arcades, which I hope is the version they use as ports of the game cut out 2 of the playable characters. Anyhow, KotM is a fun game, though not a good one. The controls are stiff to unresponsive, the graphics are terribly dated (KotM2 looks a lot better), the music is bad, and so on. None of that really matters though because you get to be a giant monster that destroys a Japanese city while fighting another giant monster! Rampage isn’t that great of a game either but everyone loves it too! Of course you can’t be Godzilla, King Kong, or Ultra Man in these games - those are all copyrighted characters - but their generic rip-offs are here! I can’t see getting a lot of mileage out of this one, but it’d be a blast to hold a tournament with a bunch of your drunken friends.

Nintendo can do better and I expect them to start doing so soon, but in the meantime I can console myself by destroying Hiroshima with a giant atomic lizard.

Click “Read more…” for the press release.

WII-KLY UPDATE: ONE WIIWARE GAME AND ONE VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAME ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNELJuly 7, 2008 - This week’s additions to the Wii™ Shop Channel are bigger, stronger and faster. It’s all about excess with these electrifying titles. A new WiiWare™ offering puts you behind the wheel of a high-octane racer with no regard for speed limits. A classic Virtual Console™ game transforms you into a larger-than-life beast with a massive appetite for mayhem. Whichever you choose, there will be no skimping on the action.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare 

SPOGS Racing™ (D2C Games™, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Cartoon Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Coming at you full throttle is SPOGS Racing, an all-new racer from D2C Games featuring classic arcade racing, pick-up-and-play controls, all-new racing vehicles and Crash N’ Grab™ instant upgrades. Jump in, gear up and modify your ride on the fly as you compete head-to-head for a totally outrageous arcade racing experience on your Wii console. Whether you’re a casual gamer or hardcore racer, SPOGS Racing features fun for all and is a must-have download for your WiiWare digital game library.

SPOGS Racing™

Virtual Console 

KING OF THE MONSTERS (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older-Fantasy Violence, 900 Wii Points): Released by SNK in 1991, KING OF THE MONSTERS is an action/fighting game that features city-destroying battles between huge monsters. Choose one of six monsters and travel around Japan, stopping to fight in various famous cities with the aim of becoming the ultimate winner. In addition to punches, kicks and other regular moves, each character has the ability to use more devastating maneuvers, like throwing flames and shooting laser beams, to defeat opponents. Wrestling elements are also incorporated, as you must completely exhaust your opponent and get a three-count to pin him and be victorious. Along with the player-versus-computer game, multiplayer options allow you and a friend to enjoy one-on-one matches and two-on-two tag-team matches against the computer. Take on the challenge and claim the title of King of the Monsters.

KING OF THE MONSTERS

For more information about Wii, please visit wii.com.