Game Reviews: WiiWare

Justin Hoeger - Sacramento Bee

The Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console has been a great way to revisit an impressive (though not comprehensive) selection of vintage games, not only for past Nintendo systems but for one-time rival consoles like the Sega Genesis, Turbografx-16 and Neo Geo.

But while Wii owners have been able to enjoy some of their favorite old games again, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers have been treated to virtual shelves full of new titles, some of them great.

WiiWare aims to fill that gap this new online shop is stocked with original games unavailable on the other two consoles. Here is a sampling of the 20 or so WiiWare games available so far; all are rated Everyone.

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Defend Your Castle

2 & 1/2 stars

PUBLISHER: XGen Studios

PRICE: $5 (500 Wii Points)

A defensive title with an amusing visual gimmick, "Defend Your Castle" isn't a great game, but it's a fun one to watch. The player guards a construction-paper castle on one side of the screen, using the Wii Remote to stave off invading stick-figure men with button heads who wield popsicle sticks and other everyday-object weapons.

The remote pointer is used to pick up enemies and drop them to their crudely drawn deaths; with enough points, a player can buy upgrades for the castle, which include defensive towers and a conversion pit that can make captured stick-men change sides. Its junk-drawer aesthetic and the ever-escalating waves of foes make for a fun time-killer.

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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

3 stars

PUBLISHER: Square Enix

PRICE: $15 (1,500 points)

This spinoff of a spinoff puts the player on the opposite side of the quest-and-reward system that most role-playing games employ.

Instead of playing as adventurers seeking glory, players take on the role of a young king who must rebuild and repopulate the barren kingdom of "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles" with resources gathered by adventurers he dispatches to dungeons around the land. The pace is brisk, the controls are simple, and it's quite a bit of fun to see the town grow as the heroes the king has hired and nurtured clear dungeons the player will never see. It's an odd inversion of RPG norms, but it works.

It is also the priciest WiiWare game so far, and the first to provide a shop where players can spend Wii Points on even more town components and dungeon locations. This one can suck away money as well as time, so caveat emptor.

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LostWinds

3 & 1/2 stars

PUBLISHER: Frontier Developments

PRICE: $10 (1,000 points)

A platform adventure game with a twist, "LostWinds" is the most intriguing of these early WiiWare offerings. The look, feel and sound of the game, as well as the line-drawing controls, bring to mind the gorgeous watercolor-style "Okami," though "LostWinds" is quite a different animal.

The Nunchuk stick controls a young boy named Toku; the Wii Remote manipulates the wind in various ways to lift him up to platforms or over gaps, direct fire streams or waterspouts where they're needed, slow Toku's fall and so on. There are enemies to defeat, but the game is focused most on simply exploring, finding the next wind-based ability and solving puzzles to get to new areas.

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Pop

2 stars

PUBLISHER: Nnooo

PRICE: $7 (700 points)

"Pop" is a title as well as a description of the game: The simple mechanics involve pointing the Wii Remote cursor at multicolored bubbles and pressing a button to pop them. Popping same-colored bubbles in succession increases the score. Small bubbles are worth more points, and large bubbles are worth more extra seconds on the game's timer.

Up to four people can go bubble-popping at a time, and there are a few different modes. It's reasonably fun but doesn't have a great deal of lasting appeal it's a diversion, not a must-have.

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Toki Tori

3 stars

PUBLISHER: Two Tribes B.V.

PRICE: $10 (1,000 points)

Finally we have "Toki Tori," a puzzle game with hints of "Lemmings." (It's also the only one of this set to have been released elsewhere.) Players control a chubby yellow chick named Toki in his quest to gather all the eggs from each stage. He can be moved with the Nunchuk stick, or players may opt to simply point and click where they want the bird to go; either way, the stages are perilous and often have only one solution.

Thankfully, Toki has a selection of tools, like bridge lengths and teleporters, to help him make his way through each level.

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