On the 31st storey of the Centre Point building in London, Nintendo of Europe held a press event showcasing the WiiWare and DSi Ware games that will be available in the run up to Christmas.

The WiiWare service appears to have evolved as a platform since it launched at the beginning of 2008. While the retail market for the Wii is criticised for its bare release schedule and what are often considered throwaway casual games, the WiiWare service is making up for it with a packed release schedule of titles aimed directly at the traditional gamer. From arcade shooters to platformers to action-puzzle titles, WiiWare is the one to watch this year.

For the much more recent DSi Ware service, there is still some maturing to do. The retail market for the system is still very strong, and it's difficult to shake the notion that the majority of titles on the system are little more than paid demos. The DSi Ware titles on show at the event were given very little attention compared to the WiiWare releases, but there are a still a couple of titles worth keeping an eye on.

The Presentation

Laurent Fischer, Managing Director of Marketing & PR at Nintendo of Europe, took the stage a little later than planned. He kicked off the presentation by making the case for WiiWare and DSi Ware as entities separate from the traditional retail market. The familiar publishing model will not typically support the expense of retailing unproven or unusual ideas.

A handful of recent releases on the services are shown: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again and Bonsai Barber.

We were then told we would be shown a trailer for the third chapter of the Tales of Monkey Island series, but instead we were shown the new Flash video from MajusArts (http://www.youtube.com/user/MajusArts). David Grossman, Design Director of the Tales of Monkey Island series and co-writer and programmer of the original Monkey Island games, took the stage. He explained that the opportunity to produce episodic games has had a large effect on creating an involved fan community, as shown by the video.

Next on stage was David Braben of Frontier, who has been working in the industry since the Elite series, and is now more famous for LostWinds and its upcoming sequel, LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias. He described how publishers wouldn’t take the original game on board due to its unusual control scheme, and was grateful to have a service such as WiiWare that allows original ideas to reach the market.

Finally, Kenji Eno stepped up to discuss You, Me and the Cubes. Eno is a Japanese developer who has worked on various games dating back to the Famicom, and is better known for the D survival horror series. He said he was so excited by the Wii Remote when he first saw it that he created a papercraft version of the remote, before finally contacting Nintendo to produce an all-new game for the system.

Fischer returned to the stage and turned the attention to the DSiWare service. A Little Bit of Brain Training: Arts Edition took up a large part of the presentation, and while no footage was shown outside of a single static screenshot, we were told the series had been doing well to date.

Flipnote Studio was up next. The free downloadable notebook/animation software will be receiving a series of 12 animations in the 12 weeks running up to Christmas by renowned animation studio Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run). This was followed by an explanation of how Flipnote Studio's ties to the Hatena website, along with the DSi Camera's Facebook connection, were allowing people to show their creative side.

Finally, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Ambassador promotion. This reward scheme gives you bonuses for introducing other Wii owners to the console's online services. Each person you introduce will net you 500 Wii Points. Introducing 10 people provides Gold Status and free access to Nintendo's first party Virtual Console NES catalogue. Introduce 20 people and your Platinum Status gives you free access to all first and third-party Virtual Console games on NES, SNES and N64.