Nintendo Download Update: Winter Of Melodias
The follow up to Lost Wind hits Europe, Australia misses out though but we will get it eventually and plenty more for Virtual Console and DSi Ware
This week’s update brings us a fairly special milestone: the 100th WiiWare title. Well, the 100th game in Europe anyway; we’re still on 94 after this update. LostWinds: Winter Of Melodias receives this honour, which is especially fitting considering the original LostWinds was a launch title for the service when it first arrived here on May 20th last year.
Winter Of Melodias again follows Toku, and this time sees him traversing Mistralis on a quest to save his mother, and along the dealing with an ancient curse and the vile Balasar. Adding to the powers available through Enril the Wind Spirit in the original, the protagonist can now freely change between summer and winter to get through the game’s puzzles, environments, and enemies. A mapping system has also been included in help remove some of the confusion expressed by players of the first title. At 1000 points, the sequel is definitely worth checking out if you liked the original, or platformers in general.
Also available on WiiWare today is Happy Holidays: Halloween by 505 Games. Branded as an ’application’, all it does it let you send Halloween-themed "e-cards" to friends on your Wii address book. Considering the numerous free services like that on the internet, 500 points seems a bit too much for this.
On the Virtual Console front, we also have two games. First is Wonder Boy III: The Dragons’ Trap from the Sega Master System, which joins the four other Wonder Boy titles already available on the service. The game follows on directly after Wonder Boy in Monster Land, with the hero all powered up and ready to face the Mecha dragon in his castle. On vanquishing him, however, you receive a evil curse, causing you to take up the shape of a were-creature. Along the way on his quest to find the Salamander Cross in order to return to human form, you will face many other dragons, and in turn taking their own were-shapes. While at 500 points this is a good game, the TG-16 port with enhanced graphics, named Dragon’s Curse, has been available on the VC here for 600 points since 2007, so you may want to check that out instead if you’re interested.
Final Fight 2, the SNES-only sequel to the arcade hit, also arrived today for 800 points. A whole new group of fighters this time around need to combat a secretly reformed Mad Gear Gang after Guy (from the original game) goes missing following the kidnapping of his fiancée and her father. The game doesn’t play all that differently to the port of the original on the SNES, but co-op is this time included, so you and a friend can play two of the game’s three characters through the story.
DSi owners aren’t left out with Dragon Quest Wars hitting the DSi Shop for a mere 500 points. For those points you can not only a single player game but local multiplayer and Wi-Fi connection play. Square Enix has announced that its turn-based strategy game based on the Dragon Quest series will be hitting the DSiWare service next month. This pits various characters from the Dragon Quest series in a table top style arena, with the goal to get to the other side of the board before you enemy does. You’ll be able to play as Slime, Dracky, Hammerhood, Healslime, Chimaera, and Golem, all from the main series.
There is also a Photo Clock for 200 points, basically it turns your DSi into a photo frame with a clock and alarm. Your photos taken on your camera will scroll through like a slideshow.
A terrible shame about Lost Winds but Frontier says we will get it soon enough.
