Topic: This Week's Virtual Console and WiiWare

[NWR_Neal]

Hudson's WiiWare first-person shooter and three Commodore 64 games make up this week's games.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=17814

 After last week's tease of Commodore 64 games coming to Virtual Console, it is now a reality. This week sees three Commodore 64 games: The Last Ninja, International Karate, and Pitstop II. For WiiWare, the lone game is Hudson's first-person shooter, Onslaught, which is the first of its kind on WiiWare.    

Onslaught features a single player mode that puts players in the shoes of a member of the Elite Interstellar Strike Force in a war against insectoid aliens. The first-person shooter features four-player online multiplayer modes, such as Free Battle mode and Ranking Battle mode, using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Onslaught is rated Teen and is now available for 1,000 Wii Points ($10).    

The Last Ninja, one of two martial arts games for the Commodore 64 this week, follows the story of Armakuni, the last ninja. Armakuni seeks to defeat the evil Shogun Kunitoki to avenge his Ninja brotherhood. Players will battle through six different worlds in this isometric action-adventure. The Last Ninja is now available for 500 Wii Points ($5).    

The second Commodore 64 Virtual Console game of the week is International Karate. It is a one-on-one fighting game that uses points instead of a life bar. Points are earned by landing a hit on the opponent, and after each brief round a player is given a half-point or a point depending on the quality of the hit. Featuring support for up to two players, International Karate is available for 500 Wii Points ($5).    

The final game is the racing game Pitstop II for the Commodore 64. Pitstop II was one of the first games to feature 3D split-screen racing. It features six different international tracks is now available for 500 Wii Points ($5).    

WII-KLY UPDATE: ONE WIIWARE GAME AND THREE VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAMES ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL    

Feb. 23, 2009    

Hang onto your hats – and your Wii Remote™ controllers – as we unveil a set of exciting firsts for the Wii™ Shop Channel this week. For starters, the new Onslaught™ marks the first-ever first-person shooter to be released via the WiiWare™ service. Using the intuitive wireless controls Wii is known for, the game puts players at the center of a pulse-pounding adventure that fans of futuristic sci-fi and multiplayer action will love.    

The other big news this week is the hotly anticipated launch of Commodore® 64 game titles on Virtual Console™. Starting with two classic martial arts games and an awesome car racing title, we're thrilled to add yet another old-school gaming platform to the mix. Virtual Console already offers classic games that originally appeared on a variety of platforms, and with the addition of Commodore 64, Wii owners can expect even more vintage games to rediscover and enjoy. (Congratulations to those of you who deciphered our hidden hints in last week's Wii-kly Update – you'll find a key to all the clues at the end of this installment.)    

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    

Onslaught (Hudson Entertainment, 1-4 players, Rated T for Teen—Animated Blood, Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Onslaught is an FPS that puts you in the middle of a futuristic war between humans and insectoid aliens. Become part of the Elite Interstellar Strike Force and fight against an overwhelming onslaught of alien life forms. Enjoy the rush of mowing down wave after wave of aliens with machine guns, grenades and more. Feel your heart pound as you battle gigantic boss aliens. Beyond the normal game, Onslaught includes additional modes that let you play with rivals from around the world using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Team up with as many as three other players in Free Battle mode, or compete on special maps to see who can get the most points by killing enemies before time runs out in Ranking Battle mode. (Router and broadband access required for online play. For more info, go to www.nintendo.com.)    

Virtual Console    

The Last Ninja™ (Commodore 64, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Animated Blood, Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points): The evil Shogun Kunitoki has long envied the powers of the Ninja brotherhood and would do anything to acquire their knowledge. To this end, he has sworn an oath to their total destruction. Once every decade, all Ninja must travel to the Island of Lin Fen, where they pay homage to the Shrine of the White Ninja and receive further teachings from the Koga Scrolls. Seizing the opportunity, Kunitoki summoned forth all the spirits from the depths of the Nether World and flung their full force against the amassed Ninja. None escaped the wrath of Kunitoki. Word of this unnatural disaster soon reached Armakuni, the last Ninja. Gathering all his courage, he has sworn to wreak a terrible revenge on the Shogun and all his followers. What unforeseen hazards await him?    

INTERNATIONAL KARATE™ (Commodore 64, 1-2 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points): INTERNATIONAL KARATE is a simulation of a karate tournament in which one person can play against the computer or two players can compete against each other. During the game, you'll fly to various locations around the world. In all stages of the game, a wise old judge will watch over you and award you either a half-point or a full point, depending on how successful a hit has been.    

Pitstop II™ (Commodore 64, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Pitstop II was the first game that brought serious auto racing action to the computer screen—the thrill of battling an opponent, the excitement of fighting for the lead out on the track, and the suspense of struggling to be the first out of the pits. Third-person graphics and a split-screen display allow one or two players to experience the challenge of car racing head-to-head. Six of the world's toughest tracks are waiting, from Brands Hatch and its hairpin turns to the mile-long straight of Vallelunga. You can practice against the computer, but nothing will compare to the fun of racing against another person. Indeed, Pitstop II proves that car racing was never meant to be a solo sport.    

As promised, here's a list of the Commodore 64-related clues that were embedded in last week's newsletter:    

In the second paragraph, each sentence contains exactly 64 letters and numbers (not counting spaces or punctuation).    

U.S. Route 64 runs from Arizona to North Carolina.    

The third sentence ends with a comma and the word "door," hinting at the name Commodore.  "Brick House" was a hit for R&B group The Commodores.    

The athletic teams of Vanderbilt University are known as the Commodores.    

Pennsylvania's Route 286 passes through a town called Commodore.    

The phrases "birthday greetings" and "who could ask for more?" are found in the classic Beatles tune "When I'm 64."    

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

[GoldenPhoenix]

Old people week for VC! Lindy must be happy.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

No, these are too expensive at $5.

[Jonnyboy117]

Man, it has been a long time since we saw three VC games at once.  I'm curious about C64 (never even played one), but the games look really primitive for five bucks.  I'll wait for a very strong recommendation.

I watched the Onslaught video on Nintendo Channel, and I'm still not at all convinced that I want it.  Alien cyborg insects?  Um...

[AV]

yeah $5 is a little steep. I don't know why nintendo arbitrary set the floor at VC/Wiiware at 500.

some games would be fine for $2 or something. Look at iPhone and iFart sold like 500k, and made so much profit from both Apple and whomever made that retarded software.

I would have bought some more dumb games like PoP if it was $2 .

[Stratos]

Man, it has been a long time since we saw three VC games at once.  I'm curious about C64 (never even played one), but the games look really primitive for five bucks.  I'll wait for a very strong recommendation.

I watched the Onslaught video on Nintendo Channel, and I'm still not at all convinced that I want it.  Alien cyborg insects?  Um...

WiiWare World gave it a 9 out of 10. They thought it was really good.

I'm with you on the C64 games. I have wanted to try one for a long while but not knowing the good and the bad can be difficult. Especially with people saying $5 is a steep price for the games. I want to be careful which I invest in.

[Mop it up]

I must have missed the memo because I had no idea that Commodore 64 games were coming to the VC... or is this a bit of a "surprise" announcement?

This is interesting, very interesting indeed. I wonder who they are targeting with these ancient games, especially if those who like them claim they aren't worth $5.

I'm not even entirely sure what a Commodore 64 is but that's some research I'll have to do on my own.

[Stratos]

I just D/L'd Onslaught.
My FC is in the respective FC thread if anyone is interested.

[KDR_11k]

Yay we finally get an FC thread for it.

Onslaught is a ton of fun, it's not going to get any awards for innovation or graphics but that doesn't matter ingame. It's kinda like Earth Defense Force (just without the huge enemies, I suspect they were a way of compensating for the inaccuracy of dual-analog aiming and the Wiimote is way more accurate) or Alien Shooter.

[Stratos]

I punched in your FC into Onslaught along with the others on there so if you are interested in playing I'll be online.

[D_Average]

How is Onslaught?  It looks pretty generic.  My initial assumption is WiiWare World gave it a high score b/c its the only FPS on WiiWare.  I hope I'm wrong though, as a solid FPS on my Wii at all times would be cool.

[GoldenPhoenix]

How is Onslaught?  It looks pretty generic.  My initial assumption is WiiWare World gave it a high score b/c its the only FPS on WiiWare.  I hope I'm wrong though, as a solid FPS on my Wii at all times would be cool.

Well most seem to be enjoying it. I'm going to get it tonight.

[KDR_11k]

How is Onslaught?  It looks pretty generic.  My initial assumption is WiiWare World gave it a high score b/c its the only FPS on WiiWare.  I hope I'm wrong though, as a solid FPS on my Wii at all times would be cool.

It's a lot of fun. Definitely one of the best games on the WiiWare service.

[GoldenPhoenix]

How is Onslaught?  It looks pretty generic.  My initial assumption is WiiWare World gave it a high score b/c its the only FPS on WiiWare.  I hope I'm wrong though, as a solid FPS on my Wii at all times would be cool.

It's a lot of fun. Definitely one of the best games on the WiiWare service.

And since KDR hates everything, that is high praise.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Actually the commodore games are worth 5 dollars since Commodore gaming had to rework the games a little bit like getting rid of the boot up sequence(having to type in a command to load the games), they got rid of the wait for the initial load time of about 2 - 3 minutes, incorporating a virtual keyboard.

[NWR_pap64]

Man, it has been a long time since we saw three VC games at once.  I'm curious about C64 (never even played one), but the games look really primitive for five bucks.  I'll wait for a very strong recommendation.

I watched the Onslaught video on Nintendo Channel, and I'm still not at all convinced that I want it.  Alien cyborg insects?  Um...

This isn't a problem on the 360 and PS3. Why should it be a problem on Wii? :p

[Stratos]

The Sci-Fi cheese in this game oozes of awesomeness.
I had a blast playing last night though I had trouble finding people at first. After a while I was finding people left and right. I was in the top 100 for a while in ranked battles. But a couple of later games pushed me down a ways.

[KDR_11k]

You don't get pushed down in the rankings unless people beat your highscore (I think), it just tracks scores for 2, 3 and 4 player games separately so you may have been looking at different lists.

[Stratos]

You don't get pushed down in the rankings unless people beat your highscore (I think), it just tracks scores for 2, 3 and 4 player games separately so you may have been looking at different lists.

That would explain my abrupt drop to the mid-200s.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Will Stratos play with me if I buy Onslaught? 

[Stratos]

Will Stratos play with me if I buy Onslaught? 

It would be my pleasure
Just let me know when. My current job finished winding down so I have a lot of time on my hands (hence my very frequent posting runs).

[NWR_Lindy]

I picked up Onslaught tonight, so look for my FC over in the FC thread.  It's pretty good...generic (insert GP's Resistance 2 joke here), but obviously doesn't take itself seriously and is pretty much a bug hunt.  The online is much appreciated and pretty darn good.  I'll be playing through the rest of it in the next few days, so I'll probably crank out a review in the next week/month/year or two.

Picked up The Last Ninja as well.  It's good but man it looks dated.  It's hard as hell, too.  At $5 it's a total rip-off...it's really only worth $2 IMHO.  But I was doing a VC recommendation on it, and I'm a C64 nerd so I didn't care.  Ben Daglish SID music for the epic victory, also.

International Karate is another classic, but it's like a kung-fu beat'em up and very limited gameplay-wise.  PitStop II is a Pole Position clone that, you guessed it, allows you to pull over for pit stops.  None of these are worth $5.

Games that might be worth $5 if I was drunk and reminiscing: Uridium, California Games, Winter Games, Impossible Mission, Skate or Die, Karateka, Castle Wolfenstein, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, Creatures, The Great Giana Sisters, Pool of Radiance, Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, Wasteland.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

II'll be playing through the rest of it in the next few days, so I'll probably crank out a review in the next week/month/year or two.

Oh God, please let Lindy be joking!

[NWR_Neal]

I can't take anything Lindy writes in the forums seriously with that damn dog avatar.

I mean, just look at it!

[Stratos]

But the dog is 'The Burning Rage of Cupcake Deprivation'. We need it.

I'll be online tonight with Onslaught. Y'all need to get your code posted so we can play.

4597-4920-0736

I'm thinking about getting Last Ninja as my 1st C64 game.