Here are this week's releases on WiiWare, DSiWare, and Virtual Console!

Nintendo DSiWare

Looksley's Line Up
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Looksley the rabbit needs your assistance to finish the story he's writing. Guide him through a world based on famous fairy tales and folk stories from around the globe, helping him to gather inspiration by finding hidden items along the way. In this unique take on hidden-picture games, you'll move the Nintendo DSi system to change your view of various 3-D dioramas. Peer deeply into the scene as you shift the system, watching as layers within the diorama move to reveal previously unseen letters and objects. As you collect these letters and objects, you'll meet new characters and spell words that will open additional stages with more sets of hidden items to find. Particular stages contain secret pictures, testing your observation skills even further. Scour each scene's incredible depth and detail as you lend Looksley a hand in completing his masterpiece. Players of all ages will love this visual puzzle challenge and be amazed to see that even the same spot can look different from another angle.

Frogger Returns
Publisher: Konami Digital Entertainment
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Frogger is coming to a Nintendo DSi system near you! Frogger Returns takes the heart-pounding challenge of arcade Frogger and moves it into the next dimension. Classic top-down 2-D game play is updated with colorful 3-D graphics, a new perspective, new levels, new enemies and game-changing power-ups to dodge and use. Four stages take the original journey of Frogger from highway to home through a new adventure. Use multiple modes to attack your top scores, race against the clock or just get Frogger to his home pad.

A Topsy Turvy Life: Turvy Drops™
Publisher: TECMO KOEI GAMES
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Turn the Nintendo DSi system upside down and draw blocks on the touch screen to fill spaces in this topsy-turvy take on puzzle games. Play "Endless Mode" to see just how many points you can get as the blocks on the bottom screen fill faster and faster. The more blocks you clear at once, the higher your score. Play "Puzzle Mode" to test your brain against 30 mind-bending puzzles. Clear all the blocks within the specified time and turn limits. Can you solve the puzzles before time is up?

Flips: More Bloody Horowitz
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Players: 1
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Anthony Horowitz, the best-selling creator of Alex Rider, gives horror a whole new look in this mischievous collection of macabre tales, exclusive to the Flips series. Including three new stories – each with its own unique feature, such as illustrations and sound effects – Flips: More Bloody Horowitz finds Horowitz at his most wicked. The Flips series brings modern classics to the Nintendo DSiWare service, allowing readers to collect, solve, interact and learn as they progress through the various stories and challenges.

WiiWare

BIT.TRIP RUNNER
Publisher: Aksys Games
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: Discover the fastest, most exhilarating action-platformer to hit the WiiWare service. Race across the moon, kicking down crystal walls and sliding under chomping moon-slugs. Bound through the Robotic Mines and face off against the MinerMech. Dash through the Big City on a quest to find friends and defeat the final boss together. RUNNER is the fourth entry in the award-winning and critically acclaimed BIT.TRIP series. You control CommanderVideo as he runs, jumps, slides and kicks. With exciting modern and retro challenges, you can move through more than 50 levels of addictive game play. Chiptune supergroup Anamanaguchi makes a guest appearance. Join CommanderVideo on his most epic journey yet!

Blood Beach
Publisher: Coresoft Inc.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Blood, Violence
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: You are hopelessly outnumbered and have no choice but to fight and win. Just you, your guns and the thin stretch of Blood Beach stand between you and the entire Japanese Imperial Navy. You have an impressive arsenal of weapons, including the M2 BMG, 40mm M1 and, of course, your Thompson SMG. But the Imperial Japanese Navy will hit you with everything they can muster – "Zeros," "Bettys" and even Takao-class battleships – in their methodical and relentless push to recapture the Solomon Islands. High scores can be saved for Easy, Normal and Hard levels of difficulty.

Virtual Console

Kirby Super Star
Original platform: Super NES
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: That awful King Dedede is at it again – he's stolen all the food in Dream Land. It's up to Kirby™ to get it back and ultimately save Pop Star from being overtaken. In what may be the most diverse adventure yet for the round, pink hero, Kirby journeys through six main games and two minigames, finishing with the ultimate showdown in The Arena. Each game offers its own story and style of platforming action, as well as unique environments and an assortment of enemies. Swallowing an enemy allows Kirby to copy the abilities of that enemy, granting him the power to perform special attacks and giving him a new hat to don. In a strategic twist, Kirby can now give up an acquired ability and use it to turn an enemy into a helper. The helper will follow Kirby around and automatically fight as his ally or offer a second player the chance to join in the game by controlling it. There's never a dull moment as Kirby dashes, flies and swallows enemies in his battle against King Dedede, Dyna Blade and Meta Knight.

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@Simbabbad

Seriously. I may have to get this since I never got around to getting the DS one. Are the extra dollars worth it for the extras in the DS game? If not, VC it is.

Posted by

VofEscaflowne

on: 05/17/10, 15:54

Pretty good week. Glad to see VC is back from vacation.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 05/17/10, 16:05

I have the exact same question as Vof. Which version is the best to get? SNES for $8 or DS for $30?

Posted by

canonj

on: 05/17/10, 16:08

I'm not sure which version you guys should get.

I'm just freakin' happy Nintendo released this! Now I can play it on the big screen with my girlfriend. She loves Kirby games, and now I don't have to bring out the 'ol SNES.

Posted by

roykoopa64

on: 05/17/10, 16:11

Kirby Superstar!?!

YES!


I've never played the DS version, but the SNES version is pretty sweet for some co-op multiplayer.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/17/10, 16:23

I've only got the points for Bit.Trip Runner, but I'm glad that Kirby Super Star is on there. I already own the DS version, but it would be nice to get the original sometime down the road.

Posted by

ludist210

on: 05/17/10, 16:44

I am very curious as to what Blood Beach looks like. I cannot ind any images or video online atm.

Posted by

Scrawnton

on: 05/17/10, 17:41

FUCK YEAH! BIT TRIP RUNNER!

Wait...what's that? Kirby Super Star? DOUBLE FUCK YEAH!! So glad I resisted buying the DS game.

Looksley's Line Up is that 3D game where you move the DS? I'll have to check that out too!

Shit, what a great week all around.

Posted by

anon_mastermind

on: 05/17/10, 18:11

Kirby Super Star YES

Posted by

GelatinousEncore

on: 05/17/10, 19:08

anon_mastermind said:

Looksley's Line Up is that 3D game where you move the DS?

Oh, right. I think I'll have to get that even if it's not any fun, just to sample the tech.

A Topsy Turvy Life also intrigues me, although holding my DS upside down doesn't sound comfortable at all, and is probably a surefire way to smudge up your top screen.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/17/10, 20:12

I bought Super Star a few years back because of all the hype it gets and played through most of it and was like hmm... yeah, it's more Kirby. I mean, it's a cool game, but I'm not sure exactly what about it that makes people love it more than all of the other Kirby games. Of course, I've never really gotten into traditional Kirby games on any major level (though I LOVE most of his side excursions...)

Bit.Trip Runner though... sold.

Posted by

Zero

on: 05/17/10, 20:44

Wow, I have no idea which version of KSS to purchase.

I was actually planning on buying KSS Ultra for DS tomorrow...no joke!

Anyone care to make this decision for me? How much better is Ultra than the original game?

Posted by

OrbitalBeard

on: 05/18/10, 00:22

Eh, maybe I should have thought through my purchase of Looksley's Line Up a bit more before making it.

If you plan on getting it, make sure you will be able to comfortably play your DS in a well-lit area with a background color that strikes a contrast with your skin. My walls are unfortunately beige and the game can't quite get a lock on my head, it seems.

As for Blood Beach, definitely look at the video on the Nintendo Channel before getting it. You simply shoot at stuff in first person from a stationary turret. It looks like ass. There are much better uses for 1000 pts.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/18/10, 03:29

Pandareus, thank you for once again dying for our sins. You save me so much money by trying almost every downloadable game that piques my interest. I was thinking about getting Looksley's Line Up mostly for my nephew's sake, but I can just imagine him getting frustrated and hurling my DS. That little monster.

Out of curiosity, does it seem like it might have been fun if it actually worked properly?

Posted by

Anand

on: 05/18/10, 05:49

lol

Well, it's a different kind of puzzle game. Finding some of the objects certainly isn't easy, and I guess if the "controls" weren't wonky, it would be fun. Right now it's just frustrating, though.

Posted by

Pandareus

on: 05/18/10, 06:33

Kirby Super Star is unbelievably amazing.

Posted by

TriforceBun

on: 05/18/10, 06:51