Another week with absolutely nothing for me to play, as I'm not into fighting games.

I got Fun! Fun! Minigolf Touch! and put in about half an hour. It's a pretty standard game of minigolf. You collect coins for just about any score, and use these to unlock stuff. There's a lot to unlock. The scheme seems to be similar to FAST Racing League in that you play the same three courses over three times but with enhanced difficulty. I didn't unlock any of the second tier difficulty courses yet. There are trick shot challenges where you have to collect coins, and they're fun. You get more points the more the ball bounces off stuff.

The controls are pretty good, whether you use the touch screen or not. Using the stylus you pull back the club and release at the right time to hit a straight shot. You have different views of the course using the dpad or R button to pan. The holes can get pretty devious on the second cup.

Weirdly, there is an artificial out-of-bounds zone on each hole, so if you miss the target area you have to shoot from the start again. It requires trial and error sometimes to know what shot strength to use. It's hard to judge how the ball will bounce off barriers.

For some reason the game keeps track of the number of coins obtained in a cup as the high score, not your number of shots.

You can use your Mii after a low priced unlock. Customize clothes and shoes.

Graphics are nice, 3D is nice.

Game is fun, but pretty bland. That said, it is just a mini golf game. And it's on the "realistic" side so it doesn't really have that zany factor of a mario golf going for it.

It does what it sets out to do at the five dollar price point. Pick it up if you're down for some mini golf.

X-pert74 said:

Another week with absolutely nothing for me to play, as I'm not into fighting games.

Zuma's Revenge isn't a fighting game...

So I bit the bullet and downloaded Punch-Out!! and Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH!

Punch-Out!! is everything that it is on NES and Wii, except with save states! I knocked out Glass Joe in 42 seconds flat (first knock down, didn't get up), saved, and moved on. It worked just like the original and looked pretty good.

Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH! is decent. I finished the first course with close to 5,000 coins and bought the ability to play with my Mii (I think it cost 500 coins, maybe 1,000). The controls work well, but the game is pretty basic. Still, it's not bad for what it is. The 3D effect is subtle, but good.

THERE YOU GO ZERO. You got your Minigolf impressions. Now the ball's in your court.

GameDadGrant said:

X-pert74 said:

Another week with absolutely nothing for me to play, as I'm not into fighting games.

Zuma's Revenge isn't a fighting game...

I can't respect PopCap for this "Zuma" game. It's a straight-up ripoff of a marble-themed puzzler I used to play on a bar machine at work. Which was later released on the DS as "Magnetia." It's just shameless, and I'm not gonna support that!

@TriforceBun
Poor Mitchell. They never get any respect! No respect, I tells ya.

Capndrake at GAF posted that there are some VC/WiiWare games to be pulled from the service at the end of the month. So get them now if you're interested:

-R-Type (TG16)
-Super R-Type (SNES)
-R-Type III: The Third Lightning (SNES)
-Vigilante (TG16)
-Ninja Spirit (TG16)
-Legend of Hero Tonma (TG16)
-Military Madness: Nectaris (WiiWare)

@anon_mastermind

That actually took longer than I had anticipated.

@anon_mastermind I need to get Super R-Type.

Which of those R-Type games is a unique entry? Are they all arcade ports?

@anon_mastermind

I don't understand why these games are being pulled. I mean, even if they are not selling well, whats the big deal in just leaving them up and available? Its not like they take up much space on a server or anything.

I remember Gui posting something about this awhile back and maybe it has nothing to do with them selling at all. I'll have to check out his initial post about it. Does Nintendo or Sony charge Irem a monthly fee to keep those games on their download service? If so, then that kindof sucks and I guess I could understand why a company would take them down if that is the case and no one is buying them.

To be honest, I really have no idea why they are being pulled.

Edit: Of course I go and read Gui's initial thread on Irem pulling games from PSN and looks like I already read that thread, hell I even posted in it, which I had forgotten all about. I guess no one knows the answers.

Anyways, not sure why some people think its a bad idea to download these digital copies because of stuff like this. Sure, you would have to keep them on your SD card, but they don't take up much space at all. Oh well, I downloaded the ones I wanted on the VC. And I don't regret it. I will have the games as long as I own my Wii.

@gamewizard65
It's because Irem is out of business. Sadly, when there's no one to pay for the game, it gets delisted. Or something.

Couldn't the platform holders just have a clause that stipulated they would get all of the money if the company went belly up? Evil, maybe, but also better for the consumer.

@Anand I don't understand how there could be "no one" to pay though. Even if the company goes belly up, someone still has to own the rights to this stuff, no?

@Zero

Perhaps we could all chip in

I wish Nintendownload X-Press was still a thing. Jeff Gerstmann made all these titles so much fun!

@TriforceBun

Joke post?

I'm giving Fun! Fun! Mini-Golf a try too, I think it's pretty fun, sure it's essentially only 3 courses but it controls well and the graphics are pretty slick, me likey, for $5 not bad.