Ed Humphries reports:
''One of the hallmarks of the current console generation has been the increasing dominance of games available via digital distribution. The Xbox 360 has reaped a windfall through the assorted classic arcade titles and original garage games made available on their XBL Arcade service, while the PS3 has opened their own storefront on PSN allowing gamers to choose from an original selection of smaller titles such as Echochrome and fLow. Up to this point, Nintendo had only weakly responded with emulations of classic gaming through their Virtual Console.
While the VC releases have gone a long way toward scratching that nostalgic itch, there's something to be said (and money to be made) in providing a conduit for independent game developers to give gamers the types of experiences that don't necessarily require $100 million dollar development budgets. To fill that void and to increase the competition in this burgeoning market place, Nintendo has recently launched their WiiWare service, which competes directly against the original content available via XBLA and PSN. Of the six launch titles that heralded WiiWare's arrival on May 19th, LostWinds is easily the most ambitious.
LostWinds is a pseudo three dimensional 2D platform puzzler, but while the action occupies the traditional two-dimensional plane that is this genre's stomping grounds, the characters and environments are given three dimensional depth through the increased polygons afforded by today's monster consoles. Developer Frontier deserves extra credit for applying some innovative controls in their freshman effort, and their work easily makes LostWinds a no-brainer purchase.''
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "The official end of the WiiWare service may not be until early 2019 but we wanted to give everybody as much of a chance as possible to remember all of the great games that Nintendo’s first every download service brought us. Last week we counted down the first 10 games in our look at the Top 20 WiiWare games ever made, and if you haven’t had the chance yet you can check out those picks right here but now we switch our focus over to the very best that WiiWare has to offer so if you still have a Wii (or a Wii U) kicking around make sure to download these games before they are lost forever."
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "As I continue my quest to complete my backlog (last week I was in the trenches of World War II) I find myself returning to a console that is near and dear to my heart, the Wii, and it’s virtual games service WiiWare. And by back I mean way back as I decided to finally give a go at the WiiWare launch title LostWinds a go. "
Triverse writes, "Not very many returning games on the list this week which means there is nearly a full new set of games to peruse. iOS gamers enjoy the perks of getting games, that once cost money, for free while Android users are limited to still having to pay something for sales (we will have a fresh list tomorrow for both iOS and Android). For now, enjoy these great titles on your iOS device as we head into the Christmas season."
