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Nintendo Downloads - July 28, 2016

by Donald Theriault - July 28, 2016, 6:07 am EDT
Total comments: 20 Source: Nintendo

Once again, we have a game with a Nintendo World Report connection.

The eShop in North America has a couple of interesting items this week, mostly due to the involvement of prominent musicians. Gotta Protectors on the 3DS is directed and scored by Yuzo Koshiro (7th Dragon, Etrian Odyssey) for those that want some retro tower defense. BLOC is a 4 player Pong-like where the point is to prevent scoring, but fans of NWR podcasts might be interested in the musician and co-developer: Perry Burkum, who provided the themes for both Radio Free Nintendo and Connectivity.

Other people may want to aim their sights on the Virtual Consoles. The 3DS gets golf's actual 4th major (because the PGA Championship is lame) in Kirby's Dream Course, while the Wii U feels like pants as it picks up Kirby's Epic Yarn and Kirby Mass Attack.

In Europe, fans of explosive websites rejoice as Windjammers spiritual successor Power Disc Slam is finally here. If you're a bargain hunter, MSIL titles (Jewel Quest et al) are €1 when they normally go for over €10, meaning you can play My Nintendo arbitrage. But the Virtual Consoles rule the day as well, with the TG-16 arriving in Europe and noted cluster Street Fighter Alpha 2 leading a barrage of fighters into New 3DS VC.

North America

Wii U eShop

Letter Quest Remastered (US$7.99/C$10.39)

Dracula's Legacy ($7.99/$9.99)

3Souls ($3.90/$4.90)

BLOC ($2.99/$3.99)

3DS eShop

Gotta Protectors ($12.99/$16.99)

Wii U Virtual Console

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii) ($19.99/$28.19)

Kirby Mass Attack (DS) ($9.99)

New 3DS Virtual Console

Kirby's Dream Course (SNES) ($7.99/$11.29)

Demos and Trials

Kirby: Planet Robobot

Sales and Price Drops

Atlus/Sega Sale Rotation: Shin Megami Tensei IV is $14.99 and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker is $24.99 until August 8.

Sadame is $7.99 (from $14.99) until August 25.

Epic Word Search Collection is $5.99 (from $7.99) until August 4.

Steel Lords is $7.50 (from $14.99) until August 18.

Sketch Wars is $3.99 (from $4.99) until August 11.

Snow Moto Racing 3D is $3.99 (from $7.99) until August 4.

Glory of Generals and Samurai Defenders are on sale until August 18.

Tom Create titles are on sale until August 26.

Europe

Wii U eShop

Letter Quest Remastered (€9.99/£8.99: €7.99/£7.19 until 11 August)

Secret Files: Tsunguska (€9.99/£8.99: €4.99/£4.49 until 4 August)

Dragon Skills (€7.99/£6.79)

3Souls (€3.60/£3.20)

3DS eShop

Power Disc Slam (€11.99/£9.99)

Psycho Pigs (€7.99/£7.19)

Wii U Virtual Console All games eligible for Wii upgrade at half of listed cost

R-Type (TG-16) (€7.99/£7.19)

Bonk's Adventure (TG-16) (€5.99/£5.39)

New Adventure Island (TG-16) (€5.99/£5.39)

New 3DS Virtual Console Buy two of this week's releases and get the 3rd free through 11 August

Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) (€7.99/£7.19)

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (€7.99/£7.19)

Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SNES) (€7.99/£7.19)

Demos and Trials

Crazy Construction

Sales and Price Drops

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures (Wii U and 3DS) is €4.99/£4.49 (regular €9.99/£8.99) until 11 August.

Epic Word Search Collection is €5.99/£4.49 (regular €7.99/£5.99) until 4 August.

Beatbuddy is €3.99/£3.99 (regular €8.99/£8.09) until 8 August.

Snow Moto Racing 3D is €3.99/£3.59 (regular €7.99/£7.19) until 4 August.

MSIL titles are €1.00/£1.00 until 25 August.

Tom Create titles are on sale until 25 August.

EnjoyUp Games titles are on sale through 25 August.

Joindots titles are on sale through 11 August.

Talkback

Epic Yarn is great and all, but I'm really hoping Good Feel's other Wii 2D platformer's coming soon. I've really been in the mood to replay Wario Land Shake It lately.

broodwarsJuly 28, 2016

I wouldn't mind playing Epic Yarn again, but $20 is way more than I want to spend on that game just to have it on Wii U.

I just want to state for the record that I had no clue the worst golf major actually started today (thanks, Olympics!) but I'll take it.

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

Epic Yarn is great and all, but I'm really hoping Good Feel's other Wii 2D platformer's coming soon. I've really been in the mood to replay Wario Land Shake It lately.

Daan might be able to help with that, but I suppose it'd be easier to wait for the NA release (whenever that is).

OedoJuly 29, 2016

The (quietly) solid year of the Virtual Console releases continues.

WahAugust 01, 2016

Which Street Fighter should I get?

Luigi DudeAugust 01, 2016

Everyone needs to forget about the overrated Epic Yarn and buy the much superior Kirby game Mass Attack instead.  Seriously, I've spent the last 3 weeks finally playing Mass Attack, after finally getting my lazy ass to play it and now I'm angry I didn't play the game years ago.  I'm at 97% right now with a few Gold Stars left to get but seriously, this game is easy the best Kirby spinoff game by far.  For fuck sakes, it's basically a 2D Pikmin game with an insane amount of gameplay variety.  I should have been playing this day one instead of just leaving it on a shelf for years while many weaker titles took my time.

Seriously, even though the game is half the price of Epic Yarn, I can guarantee you'll get over twice the amount of gameplay from it.  Anyone that's a Kirby fan and hasn't played Mass Attack needs to play it, anyone that's a Pikmin fan needs to play it, anyone that's a fan of videogames in general needs to play it.  It's an awesome fucking game that needs way more love and attention, unlike the vastly overrated Epic Yarn which is once again taking people's attention away from a much superior Kirby related game.

SorenAugust 01, 2016

Sure, but you still need to play Epic Yarn if you haven't cause it's a really really really good game.

KhushrenadaAugust 01, 2016

Huh.

I lent my copy years ago to a friend of mine who was interested in it because she had been watching Electic Playground and whoever had reviewed it on that show was raving very positively about it. I think I was playing SuperStar Ultra at the time. She played it and gave it back to me but she didn't seem as enthused about it. She said it was good but I didn't get the impression it lived up to the hype for her. When I finished Superstar Ultra, I had my Kirby fix and from her reaction, I didn't try it myself but moved onto something else and figured I'd get to at some point.

As it stands, I finally played and beat Kirby Canvas Curse over a year ago so Mass Attack is the last Kirby game for the DS I now have yet to play myself. No one ever seems to talk about it though. It got some good press and reviews at the time of release but Canvas Curse gets the most attention for a Kirby DS game and even had a Wii sequel. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone talking about this game. You've got me very interested. I've got to catch up on the Kirby series as well. I'm starting to fall behind. I've yet to play both Kirby 3DS games and Kirby Wii U as well as Mass Attack. Plus, I was halfway through beating all the games in Kirby's 30th anniversary collection. I've been wanting to play Kirby Triple Deluxe for awhile and it's the Kirby game I've most wanted to try but now you've got me thinking about going with Mass Attack instead.

However, I disagree with Epic Yarn being overrated. Epic Yarn is one of my most favorite Wii experiences and playing it helped re-ignite my gaming passion (along with the 3DS) so that I've been playing more games again in the past 3 or so years and catching up on things I've missed or fallen behind on. I know tastes will vary but Epic Yarn really hit a sweet spot with me and is probably me second favorite Kirby game after SuperStar. I'll be shocked if Mass Attack can meet that but if it is in the top tier of Kirby experiences than I should definitely get to playing it.

WahAugust 01, 2016

Quote from: Lucario

Which Street Fighter should I get?

ahem

KhushrenadaAugust 01, 2016

Quote from: Lucario

Which Street Fighter should I get?

None of them. Buy Rumble Roses and get a real fighting game.

Luigi DudeAugust 01, 2016

Epic Yarn is still a good game, but it's overrated because Good Feel's other two 2D Nintendo platformers, Wario and Yoshi are much better and Return to Dreamland and Mass Attack were both better Kirby related games released shortly after and yet Epic Yarn is still the one that got the better reviews and more attention then the much superior games.

My problem with Epic Yarn is it's just way too easy with hardly any content for a more experience gamer like myself.  The other four games I've mentioned are way more challenging and exciting to 100% and do a better job of balancing casual and hardcore content.  This is ones of the reasons I love Mass Attack so much because getting Gold Star's in every level and completing the entire Checklist is quite challenging and really test my skills, which is something Epic Yarn hardly ever did.

KhushrenadaAugust 01, 2016

I've yet to play Wario Land: Shake It so I can't comment on that. I do want to play Woolly World because of my experience with Epic Yarn so that is high my play list. It definitely seems to have a lot of the charm of Epic Yarn so I've got high hopes but that could hinder my view. I went into Epic Yarn with curiosity but not big expectations so it was able to wow me more perhaps. It just completely won me over.

I still remember my playthrough of it. It was during my Christmas holidays. I popped it in and beat the game completely over 2 and half days at around 18 hours total play time. For awhile, I was raving about to everyone I knew. Yeah, the challenge level on it is quite low (aside from some missions) but challenge doesn't seem to be the game's focus. It's more about delighting the player with whimsy. I said this on my Backloggery page at the time of beating it: "While it's not perfect, (the unlockables are pointless and the missions vary in appeal), I can't recall breaking out in smiles so much from a videogame in some time. There is just so much imagination and endearing fun going on that I highly recommend it."

I further elaborated saying:

"I took the opportunity of having time off to delve into Kirby's Epic Yarn. What a game. Completely exceeded expectations. Just when you think you've probably seen all the good stuff this game surprises you with something else completely awesome. Tank Kirby, Melody Town, Splash Town, Tube Town and then at the end, when most games are setting up the final slog to the endboss, Kirby's Epic Yarn appears to be doing that with a return to Dreamland. But the entire Dreamland world just might be the best of the bunch as the game finally starts to indulge in Kirby traditions. The final boss battle eschews high difficulty in place of making sure it is just fun. Who cares if it is easy? It's fun and one of the best battles in the game.

In the end, the game still doesn't quite feel like a Kirby game to me. The ability to float infinitely is not here and that to me might be the more defining aspect of how a Kirby game should feel and act then sucking in enemies and copying abilities. I can't think of any other characters that let me move around on a screen like that. The game leaves me with a weird disconnect in that I really like it but almost wish that it had been a brand new character and potential franchise as it just seems off for what a Kirby experience should be and yet, I loved the whole Dreamland world in the end. Oh well. In the end, this is the best platformer I've played on the Wii and might just be the top experience I've had so far with the Wii system. Bravo."

I have nothing against challenging. I beat the heck out of F-Zero GX unlocking all cups and beating them on Master difficulty, unlocking all racer videos by winning a Master difficulty cup with them and beating all Story Mode chapters on hard. It took a lot of work but it's great when you finally beat that challenge. However, sometimes an easy game can be just as fun. Wind Waker isn't really that hard of a Zelda game yet it's still my favorite Zelda because of a lot of artistic touches and the way it commits to the sailing and pirate theme.

I haven't played the other examples you mentioned aside from Return to Dreamland (which is also a topnotch Kirby game) so you may be right. I even mentioned that the Yarn theme didn't quite fit the Kirby mold and a Yoshi theme does seem like a better fit. My argument is just that a challenging game doesn't mean a game is better or more fun than an easy one. That a game can be easy like Epic Yarn and still be as good as a game with higher difficulty because of it's execution. Of course, gaming tastes will vary.

Luigi DudeAugust 01, 2016

Quote from: Khushrenada

I haven't played the other examples you mentioned aside from Return to Dreamland (which is also a topnotch Kirby game) so you may be right. I even mentioned that the Yarn theme didn't quite fit the Kirby mold and a Yoshi theme does seem like a better fit. My argument is just that a challenging game doesn't mean a game is better or more fun than an easy one. That a game can be easy like Epic Yarn and still be as good as a game with higher difficulty because of it's execution. Of course, gaming tastes will vary.

I agree with that, there's a lot of games in series that are easier then some of their counterparts and yet I find them more fun then their harder counterparts.  In the case of Epic Yarn I just feel it went a little too far on the easy side, especially after Good Feel's previous game, Wario Land: Shake It did a perfect job of giving people an easy main game experience while providing plenty of optional challenging content.  It's because of my huge love of Shake It that I expected Good Feel to design Epic Yarn in a similar way which they didn't.  This is why I was really glad that Woolly World was based more off of Shake It then Epic Yarn, and was a return to the simple overall level design with plenty of harder optional content.

Of course my main point still stands, everyone go out and get Mass Attack.  Even now we're spending more time debating Epic Yarn instead of talking about how fucking awesome Mass Attack is and feeling ashamed it took so long for all of us to finally start playing it this masterpiece.

WahAugust 01, 2016

I don't know over in America or not.
But Shake it did very badly in oz and is incredibly hard to find.

KhushrenadaAugust 02, 2016

I don't think Wario Shake It was a huge success here although it actually got used in an SNL sketch in which shaking the Wii-mote to get treasure was compared to masterbating. So, it's got that for a legacy right now. But I was able to pick up a copy of the game brand new for $14 in Ian Sane's favorite retail option aka the bargain bin. That, to me, suggests it didn't sell all that well since most Nintendo games don't get discounted like that.

OedoAugust 02, 2016

I'm trying to think of why I've never considered playing Kirby Mass Attack and I can't really come up with a good reason. I remember Jonny talking about it on RFN and not being over the moon with it, but I doubt that had much sway over me and I don't think it's something I thought about playing even before I heard that episode. Taking a quick look at some reviews and gameplay videos, I think I actually might have to give it a try some time soon. This thread has also reminded me that I'm still sitting on the copy of Woolly World I've had since launch and I've been meaning to play that, so I should probably get on that first.

KhushrenadaAugust 02, 2016

I think Luigi Dude is right about the timing of the release of Mass Attack. It came out 6 months after the 3DS was released so DS games were starting to get less visibility. And a month after it's release, Kirby: Return to Dreamland released for the Wii so you had 2 Kirby games competing against one another but Return to Dreamland was the more traditional looking Kirby following in the footsteps of earlier Kirby Dream Land games with 4 player simultaneous play. It was a traditional game (which Epic Yarn was not despite how well made the final product is) and Mass Attack was another odd Kirby experiment. I think people just wanted or were more excited about the traditional Kirby return. I know I was. I wanted to play it with some friends so I could be Dedede and control that greedy hammer wielding penguin!

Not to mention Skyward Sword also released 2 months after Mass Attack and Mario Kart 7 and Mario 3D Land launched 2 months after Mass Attack and were used as big promotional push for the 3DS and I think Mass Attack just got bumped from player's minds. Perhaps if it had released earlier in the year in midsummer, it might have done more. Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot seem to have done well from having an earlier in the year release with less competition to distract people from buying the games. Rainbow Curse also launched around Feb or Mar and so a lot of players were talking about it because there weren't many other games out to discuss at that time. Looking at 2011 DS releases, I see Pokémon Black and White came out but so did Ghost Trick and Radiant Historia. Those games have even surpassed Mass Attack in esteem considering they are often mentioned when people are talking about lists of the best DS games while Mass Attack is never included in any discussion I can think of.

I'm just finishing up the last bonus case of Phoenix Wright 5 and was thinking I might play BoxBoy next or Triple Deluxe finally but now I'm really thinking I'm going to pop in Mass Attack and check it out. Luigi Dude is going to start a Mass Attack reappraisal movement here yet with his passionate recommendation.

Luigi DudeAugust 02, 2016

Quote from: Khushrenada

Not to mention Skyward Sword also released 2 months after Mass Attack and Mario Kart 7 and Mario 3D Land launched 2 months after Mass Attack and were used as big promotional push for the 3DS and I think Mass Attack just got bumped from player's minds.

Yeah thinking about it this is the reason I didn't play Mass Attack when it first came out.  Back in 2011, I was obsessed with the Skyward Sword hype train and was replaying many of older Zelda games in the months before Skyward Swords release.  I actually realize now that the games I would have been playing was Oracle of Ages and Seasons for the first time when Mass Attack was released, which would explain why I didn't notice the game since both the Oracle games I also owned for almost a decade and was just finally getting around to playing them.  I actually had a similar feeling when playing both games back then, being angry that it took so long for me to finally play them.

So yeah Zelda took up almost my entire second half of 2011, and then when 2012 hit I was playing everything I missed in 2011 and Return to Dreamland was one of those first games I played that year but since it was Kirby I didn't feel like playing another Kirby right after and moved on to others and then Xenoblade got released which took my entire Summer that year and before you know it the Wii U is released and I'm finally buying a 3DS for games like 3D Land that I really wanted to play and boom, Mass Attack gets lost in time until I finally get close to the end of my DS library and finally play it because it's one of the last DS games left in my backlog to play.

Mop it upAugust 02, 2016

Kirby's Epic Yarn is also one of the best co-op experiences on the Wii, which is a part of why I like it. It's an easy game to get more casual players to try since it can just be picked up and have fun together. Otherwise, anything else I'd say about the game has probably been covered by Khushrenada. I'm actually not someone who specifically looks for challenge in games so it was refreshing to see one that focuses on fun activities and whimsy. I do agree however that Kirby as a character may not be the best fit for the game, and it probably should have stayed as it was originally conceived with Prince Fluff as the star character.

I was actually a little disappointed in Yoshi's Woolly World because it didn't seem to utilise the yarn theme as well as Epic Yarn did, and instead felt more like another Yoshi's Island with a yarn skin.

I haven't yet played Kirby Mass Attack, but I do own it. Someday...

MagicCow64August 04, 2016

I'll chime in and say that I think Wario Land: Shake It is the best of the three Good Feel games overall. Beautiful style, and it manages to redeem the shitty Wario Land 4 rush-back-from-the-end-of-level gimmick, while controlling perfectly for a Wario game.

Epic Yarn is very good for what it is, a simple but tight platformer, and is probably the only game I'll give extra points for a sublime soundtrack. Also, as I recall completing all the optional challenges was decently hard, though without genuine reward otherwise.

It's fair to say that Wooly World doesn't integrate its aesthetic with its gameplay as strongly as Epic Yarn does. But I'd also say that the articulation and depth of Woolly World's presentation adds a tangible texture to the game that elevates it.

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