Fret Nice Isn’t Your Only XBLA Game of the Week [Xbox Live Arcade]

Fans of the weekly downloadable Xbox Live Arcade offering will have more than just guitar controller based platforming to enjoy starting Wednesday, as puzzle platforming and online multiplayer strategy gaming combine for 2800 Microsoft Points-worth of new games. Sure, Fret Nice isn’t so new, as PlayStation 3 owners will have been enjoying Tecmo and Pieces Interactive’s Fret Nice for the better part of three weeks when the game hits XBLA. For 1200 Microsoft Points, you’ll have to decide whether the unique art style and guitar controller support mechanic is worth it. Joining Fret Nice in its downloadableness are two additional options, the hex-based resource gathering strategy game Greed Corp from W! Games. It’s only 800 points and is said to be digestible in 20-minute gameplay sessions and feature a snazzy terrain-based gameplay tactic. Final, there’s Lazy Raiders. For 800 Microsoft Points, players can enjoy platforming and treasure hunting in either portly archaeologist form or that of your Xbox Live Avatar. The other trick? You’ll control the world and rely on its gravity rather than more traditional jumping and running. Who’s gettin’ what?

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Fret Nice Isn’t Your Only XBLA Game of the Week [Xbox Live Arcade]

We Have the First Epic Screenshots of EA’s Medal of Honor

Step into the boots of warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan, in the new Medal of Honor; today we have some new screenshots.

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We Have the First Epic Screenshots of EA’s Medal of Honor

We Have the First Epic Screenshots of EA’s Medal of Honor

Step into the boots of warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan, in the new Medal of Honor; today we have some new screenshots.

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We Have the First Epic Screenshots of EA’s Medal of Honor

We Have the First Epic Screenshots of EA’s Medal of Honor

Step into the boots of warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan, in the new Medal of Honor; today we have some new screenshots.

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We Have the First Epic Screenshots of EA’s Medal of Honor

Perfect Dark XBLA Could Get More New Maps, Weapons [X10]

The Xbox Live Arcade remake of classic Nintendo 64 shooter Perfect Dark sings on the Xbox 360, mixing the game’s original geometry with high-definition graphics and a silky frame rate without tinkering with the unique controls. And that was the goal, said Kenn Lobb, creative director for Microsoft Game Studios, and executive producer for Perfect Dark. “We wanted to make it fast and fun and we nailed that,” Lobb said. “We didn’t want to change the geometry. We’re not trying to spend $40 million to make a remake, it’s an XBLA game.” The end result is a game that uses the 10-year-old game’s original geometry, but features characters, weapons and backdrops that displays at 1080p and runs at 60 frames per a second. “The weapons and character models are ten to 20 times the poly count of the original game and yet they look good in the original background geometry,” he said. “The team did a great job of rezing up to a point that it doesn’t feel like a ten year old game but keeping it fitting in the graphic’s geometry we had.” The game also pushes a lot more of the original gameplay online, Lobb said. The original game just had multiplayer online, the arcade version will allow you to play coop, counter-op, the challenges and mulitplayer online. And now up to eight players can go online in matches, mixing and matching with up to four-player split screen and online players. Another thing the team didn’t mess with are the controls. “I liked (box 360 game) Perfect Dark Zero a lot, but with PDZ we messed with the controls, we tried to do something that was like Prefect Dark hybridized with Halo and it was a mistake,” he said. “So this time we went straight, let’s make it feel like Perfect Dark.” The game does include two other button mapping options: Spartan, based on Halo controls, and Duty Calls, based on Call of Duty controls. “But if you’re a PD player and go with default it feels exactly like PD,” Lobb said. The response to news that the original Perfect Dark was coming to the Xbox 360 this March for $10 was met with enthusiasm among a hardcore group of players, Lobb said. Many of those fans went on to become the hardcore audience that play many of today’s modern shooters. “Every game influences every other game,” Lobb said. “Great designers look at what everyone else is doing. Clearly the Bungie guys were fans of the franchise. They took what were kind of the beginning seeds of what was working with multiplayer and exploded it up to 16 payers and bigger maps.” Lobb expects that when Perfect Dark hits next month it will be among the top five percent of XBLA games sold. And if it doesn’t well, there’s a good chance the game could get new content. “That’s something we’ve talked about, but it comes down to the audience reaction,” he said. “One of the things we speced out was DLC, it would probably be new maps and it would be interesting to do a couple of new guns.”

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Perfect Dark XBLA Could Get More New Maps, Weapons [X10]

Final Fantasy XIII Battle Mechanics

We break down the unique battle mechanics for you in Square Enix’s highly anticipated role-playing game.

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Final Fantasy XIII Battle Mechanics

The Once and Future Sim [Well Played]

One hundred million copies sold , 36 magazine covers and 100 game critic awards: The Sims franchise continues to thrive ten years after its launch , basking in the uncommon flattery of having no real competition. The Sims importance and impact on the video game industry as a whole could perhaps be measured by the games created by other developers that tried to recapture its success. But, there really aren’t any. In an industry that thrives not just on innovation, but also on creative derivation, it perhaps speaks even more to the success of The Sims that there has never been anything like it since. Will Wright , whose unique take on gaming lead to the creation of games like SimCity, Spore and The Sims, points to the lack of competition as another unique facet of the franchise that is an odd amalgam of digital doll house and time-management simulator. “I think that is one of the unique things about The Sims, that no one has effectively copied it yet,” Wright said. “When you look at all the other game genres usually there is a big hit and everyone comes out with their version of the big hit and then it becomes a whole genre. The Sims is a whole genre with no clear competition” “The Sims was one of the first games to open up gaming to a much wider audience and it rewards and attracts a certain type of player that is more self motivated and more creative,” Wright said. “It was based in a world that most everyone could recognize even if they were a non-gamer. Almost everyone when they first got The Sims crafted a representation of themselves and then their family, their house and their neighbors. They then had this test tube, voodoo representation of their life. I think for a lot of people it captured the core of juggling your real life but in a whimsical, cartoon format so it was more fun but still about them and they were the core of the game.” Unlike most video games The Sims, and the 35 sequels and expansion packs it gave birth to, isn’t about doing the things we can’t do, it’s more about doing the things that society or our conscience won’t let us do. Like spending all of our money on big screen TVs and coffee makers. Removing all of the toilets from a house and walling someone up inside. Or building a home of nice furnishings, expensive electronics, but no walls or roof. The core of that first Sims title was based loosely around the psychological theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The idea in the game, and the theory, is that people can only start to worry about morality, creativity and happiness after they satisfy their basic needs, like eating, health, safety and friendships. To play the game you have to worry over the minutia of a digital person’s every day existence, hitting those needs to help them succeed. Despite its surprising success and longevity, none of the games in the franchise’s sequels have done much to change that basic formula. Instead each iteration of the game digs further down into the concept. The Sims 2 added aging and made the game 3D, said Tim LeTourneau, vice president and executive producer of The Sims Studio at Electronic Arts. The Sims 3 expanded the concept from the house to a full neighborhood, he said. “For the last 10 years The Sims has grown as both a game and a creative experience,” LeTourneau said. “Throughout the history of the franchise, we have tried to introduce concepts and content that allow more and more of people’s everyday life as well as their fantasies to be reflected in the game. We tried to stay connected to the changing times, and just like we are people continuing to evolve, so will The Sims.” But that evolution will likely never mean tinkering with the basic Sims concept of time management, he added. “Time management is what we do as humans,” LeTourneau said. “We are all on a clock, it’s part of what makes us human, that recognition of time passing and its impact on us. The ebbs and flows of daily behavior, or behavior across a lifetime, are all a function of time’s passage. We may choose to emphasize or deemphasize it in different situations, but time will likely always be part of how we ultimately control The Sims.” The idea of changing anything in The Sims, even making iterative changes, must be taken quite seriously at Electronic Arts. Despite EA being one of the world’s largest producer of video games, The Sims remains “one of the most important things to happen to EA since its founding in 1982,” LeTourneau says. “Before The Sims, for the most part, EA was a sports company but The Sims changed everything,” he said. “With the introduction of The Sims ten years ago, it changed the way we looked at ourselves as a company and the way consumers perceived us as well. The Sims turned the equation upside down and gave the authorship to the player. They get to decide what they want to do and then they go do it. There is no real score as a consequence and that is different than anything that had been created in our industry before.” The latest expansion pack for Sims 3 hit this month offering players and their digital prosopopoeia the wonders of a high-end loft and all of the slick manifestations of living in an expensive apartment. It’s, perhaps, ironic that a game built around the concept of helping our digital creations achieve self-actualization is itself so focused on materialism , churning out new gadgets, furniture and homes for gamers to tinker with, but rarely offering an upgrade of morality. Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

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The Once and Future Sim [Well Played]

Romance With Disabled Girls: How (And Maybe Why) An Unusual Video Game Came To Be [Column]

About three years ago, one of the most notorious online message board communities decided to create an unusual video game. It would be a Japanese-style erotic dating simulator starring girls with disabilities, a topic not unfamiliar to the 4chan group. The genesis of Katawa Shoujo , an erotic visual novel set on a private campus for disabled high schoolers, can actually be traced back to a phenomenon that began several years ago on the 4chan /b/ board, where posters  enjoy some of the Internet’s strangest images and subject matter under cover of anonymity. What started then, a seemingly sexualized interest in disabled girls by a fervent online community, could have just been twisted or shocking, as could the game that seemed to emerge from that interest. But what really happened involved more sadness and sentimentality than one might expect. In 2006, stories began appearing from a poster claiming to be a male nurse who had just received as a patient a half-Japanese seven-year-old girl missing an eye and all her limbs save one arm, injuries from a car crash that had also left her orphaned. The poster seemed aware that this situation would entertain the board users, an anonymous collective notorious for their often-shocking culture of extreme imagery and offensive humor. As one might expect of this group, the board users quickly made an occasion for pedophilic jokes and snark about the child’s injuries. Less expected was the genuine sentiment that emerged as more stories and updates on the tragic patient from the ostensible nurse began to appear. The story may not even have been true. At first, the board users were as interested in attempting to verify whether the poster, whom they dubbed “Nurse-kun,” and his patient, to whom they widely referred as “ampu-chan,” were real based on scant details. Eventually, however, many stopped being concerned with verity as they became immersed in the updates on the child’s difficulty coping as she recovered in the care center. Readers were captivated by glimmers of positivity – such as Nurse-kun’s stories of the girl learning to play DS one-handed with her nurse’s help. They became indignant on the child’s behalf when she was the victim of a racist rant from an elderly World War II veteran receiving care in the same center. They closely followed the Nurse’s growing investment in her well-being – which, despite the initial joke, he maintained was non-sexual. If the posts are to be believed, Nurse-kun ultimately succeeded in adopting the orphan whose plight had touched him so deeply, and then stopped writing. The board users never stopped making sexual jokes. They were accustomed to the puerile body forms common in anime and gaming and to expressing themselves within an anonymous internet culture that thrives on extremes. It’s clear at least some of them found, or pretended to find, an element of the erotic in the vulnerability of the amputee child. But the nurse’s story certainly had its sincere followers, those who claimed to be moved and who offered well-wishes. They pressed for contact information so that they could send donations and gifts (the nurse understandably declined). The reason was probably muddled and a bit backward, but still the ” saga of Nurse-kun ” had struck a chord. ” Disability Girls ” 4chan’s /b/ board and the anime-focused /a/ board consider themselves separate culturally, although there’s plenty of obvious overlap. Both boards saw a major surge of interest in artwork of injured girls around the time of the “Nurse-kun” saga, although “wheelchair girls” have been something of a trope in spheres of anime and gaming for some time – and the image of a bandaged and eye-patched “Neon Genesis Evangelion star Rei Ayanami is practically iconic to anime fans. The boards began more regularly spawning fetish threads devoted to eroticizing girls and women with prosthetics and eye-patches, complete with glib text about “damaged goods” or “ampu-chans.” But it was a single image on the /a/ board that sparked the idea for a gaming project: a sketch by a doujin artist called RAITA proposing several characters for a fictional dating game based on disabled Japanese schoolgirls. The board’s anonymous users wanted the RAITA-inspired game concept to be real so badly that they decided to make it themselves. It’s surprising on its own that there is such a polished result, but maybe it shouldn’t be; despite being entirely anonymous and dispersed all over the Western world, 4chan users have mounted highly effective group efforts in the past, like making sure founder Christopher “moot” Poole was crowned Time Magazine’s Most Influential Person Of The Year in 2008 , or launching several widely-documented protests against Scientology . Now, the society widely reputed as the internet’s strangest, saddest shut-ins has managed another major feat: since late in 2007, they’ve assembled themselves as an international team of amateur game developers and producing a highly-polished demo. The project, still in progress, is called Katawa Shoujo , or “Disability Girls”, and is a visual romance novel in the Japanese eroge mold – an interactive story with branching plot arcs depending on player choices. What It’s About As with any title in the genre, the Katawa Shoujo player must choose whom to pursue from among several female characters within the story. Although the demo, the first version of which was released in April 2009, doesn’t contain any sexual content, the creators confirm on their blog that it will become part of the game further down the line. Erotic gaming — Eroge — is not so left-of-center in and of itself, but Katawa Shoujo is unique in that all the major characters are physically disfigured or disabled. The player character is a young male high schooler named Hisao, who after spending most of his life without medical incident, is revealed to have a dangerous heart condition. It’s a stark change in his formerly healthy life when he must start taking a daily litany of medications. He also has to transfer to a school for students with varying special needs and a full-time nursing staff on site. There, he meets five different potential romantic partners among his classmates: Shizune, who is deaf and mute; Hanako, whose face was burned in a childhood tragedy; Emi, whose legs are amputated below the knee; Lilly, who is blind, and Rin, who lost both her arms to a birth defect. More interesting than the quality of the fan-made game — which in terms of its looks and the depth of its writing can rival commercial titles in Japan – is its sincerity. 4chan users may be a perverted collective, and the way in which they objectify a wide range of people from the safety of anonymity can be shocking to many. But unlike the threads on the message boards, Katawa Shoujo is, perhaps against all odds, deeply respectful of its subject matter. The Sexualization Of Empathy? The focus seems to remain on the personalities of the girls in the story and the way they cope with their unique challenges, rather than lavishing unnecessarily on their disabilities. Judging by the demo, the theme is Hisao’s struggle to accept his condition, and the ways relationships with his disabled classmates help him accept himself. That level of sincerity, or at least the aim at it, is not uncommon in visual novels, although attention to narrative doesn’t usually satisfy critics of the erotic material. Another better-known eroge that combines the sincere with the unsettling is the well-known Kana: Little Sister, which sexualizes the relationship that develops between a young girl and her brother as she battles a kidney disease that appears certain to be fatal. Kana: Little Sister was widely received by fans as poignant and emotionally rich; from a critical standpoint, I agreed . As Katawa Shoujo has some things tonally in common with Kana, one could theorize that some eroge games fixate on morbidity in order to emphasize the fragility of life. Acts of sexuality could be seen as an affirmation of life, and the presence of illness or damage in eroge becomes a device to bestow gravitas on sexual narratives. The fetishization of medical conditions in teenage girls, as seen in Katawa Shoujo, may be a very extreme way to evoke emotion, to trigger empathy of the same breed the users felt for Nurse-kun’s young patient. But perhaps those who become accustomed to a wholly anonymous culture of alternately sexualizing and mocking everything need extremes to be engaged. “I think it’s rare to find a 4channer who is completely emotionless, a true ‘internet hate machine’ as they say,” says ‘W.T. Snacks,’ a 4chan user and a former administrator of the site until 2005. “They just put on a façade with their anonymity,” he adds. “Sexuality is totally overblown in that culture, but it’s all fake,” says Snacks. By his estimation, the sexualization of anything and everything – including empathy – is simply a mode of expression on the boards that bears little relation to actual human interaction. And in many cases, the most vocal and devoted users of 4chan are those who struggle socially in their offline lives, says Snacks. As a site admin and friend of moot, he received a high volume of attention from the community and cites personal experience. Perhaps in these fictional girls facing painful challenges, the legion of Anonymous users sees people with genuine disability. They see real setbacks more serious than the simple social aversion that keeps them hiding behind crude image-board humor. Perhaps they experience emotional and sexual desire for these characters because of either the desire to play a protector to them as “Nurse-kun” does, or the desire to learn from their strength, as Hisao does in Katawa Shoujo. The amateur collective developing Katawa Shoujo now calls itself 4LS, or Four-Leaf Studios. The developers aim to identify themselves as an entity not dependent on 4chan nor associated with it by necessity. Still, the studio name remains a nod to its 4chan heritage and the culture that inspired the game’s creation. But though the existence of Katawa Shoujo is comprehensible – even worthy of praise, if only for its bootstrapping origins and high quality – does that make a dating game about disabled girls “okay?” A Gamer’s View Alex Bannister is a lifelong gamer who was born without a left hand. I explained to him Katawa Shoujo’s premise and showed him several gameplay videos to see how he reacted to its portrayals. “It is always nice to see disabled people, whether they are deaf or have no legs, as the focus of a love interest,” he says, although he admits he finds the idea of fetishizing disability to be “creepy.” “I think it ultimately comes down to if the protagonist falls for these girls because of their disability or falls for them and they just happen to have whatever condition they have,” he says. Bannister hopes that as Katawa Shoujo progresses, the developers will explore the relationship difficulties that can arise because of a disability. It would be a chance to show people that “no matter if a person has a disability they still need love, possibly more so than a non-disabled person due to the revulsion that a lot of people subconsciously have.” “Even if this game ends up being some twisted view of having a disability, there is always hope that it may somehow inspire others to make games with disabled characters playing a prominent role, like Joker in Mass Effect,” he suggests. As with any game, whether the material is appealing or repellent, and whether its aims are tender or horrific, depends to some extent on one’s own personal opinion. But it’s clear that this polished, surprisingly compassionate and complex love letter to disabled girls and the strange community that idealizes them is far more nuanced and thought-provoking than one would ever expect. [ Leigh Alexander is news director for Gamasutra, author of the Sexy Videogameland blog, and freelances reviews and criticism to a variety of outlets. Her monthly column at Kotaku deals with cultural issues surrounding games and gamers. She can be reached at leighalexander1 AT gmail DOT com. ]

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Romance With Disabled Girls: How (And Maybe Why) An Unusual Video Game Came To Be [Column]

The Nintendo Download: Monkey Island Ends, Shinobi World Beckons [Downloadables]

WiiWare finally sees Tales of Monkey Island through to its dramatic conclusion, and Alex Kidd takes a trip to Shinobi World, plus golf, cards, puzzles, and a little action RPG, all in this week’s Nintendo Download. It’s been nearly two months since PC players got their hands on the fifth chapter of Telltale Games’ Tales of Monkey Island, so it’s about damn time Wii owners get their turn. Rise of the Pirate God’s (1,000 Wii points) WiiWare release should have fans extinguishing their torches and going home to play, which in turn will allow the Telltale staff to return home to their loved ones once again. I love happy endings, don’t you? The epic conclusion to Tales of Monkey Island is joined by the possibly thrilling sequel to Gameshastra’s action-puzzler Tumblebugs (800 points) and Digital Leisure’s 5 in 1 Solitaire (500 points) on WiiWare this week. The Virtual Console adds a bit of fun this week in the form of Alex Kidd in Shinobi World for the Sega Master System (500 points), a game that began as a cutesy parody of Shinobi and grew into a cutesy parody of Shinobi starring Alex Kidd. Remember back when Sega could release a game with only four levels and we’d be perfectly happy? We were such dorks back then. DSiWare gets five new games this week, with nary a clock or colored notebook in sight. If it weren’t for the inclusion of a portable version of Digital Leisure’s 5 in 1 Solitaire (200 DSi points), Assoria’s Move your Brain Rollway Puzzle (200 points), and EA’s Downtown Texas Hold’em (500 points), I’d have hardly recognized the DSi download service. Especially not with an action RPG in the mix. Gameloft’s Legends of Exidia (800 points) covers all of the RPG bases. It has “Legend of…” in the name, a princess has been captured, and only you can complete quests and conquer monsters in order to prevent the resurrection of the almighty Draka. It’s just a little bit cookie cutter, but when it’s one of the only cookies on the service you don’t notice its shape as much. Finishing up this week’s download is Nintendo’s True Swing Golf Express (800 points), a tiny bite of True Swing action featuring both round play and a challenge mode that’ll help players hone their skills and unlock new courses. In case you weren’t keeping count, that’s nine new downloadable Nintendo titles newly available for purchase and play this very morning. Anything pique your interest? Nintendo DSiWare True Swing Golf Express Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Tee off with power, drive with accuracy and putt with precision. True Swing Golf Express is a realistic golf simulation that makes full use of the Nintendo DSi touch screen to offer in-depth control over your actions. Vary shot power, apply topspin or backspin and more, all with a touch of the stylus. Beginners and experts alike can choose from two main modes. Round mode offers play across 3-, 9- or 18-hole courses, each with varying difficulty levels and some in an exciting tournament setting. Challenge mode puts a unique spin on golf with a wide selection of special tasks to complete. Completing these tasks in Challenge mode allows you to improve your character’s skills and unlock new courses in Round mode. The fairway awaits! Legends of Exidia Publisher: Gameloft Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: An army of demons called Morgost has invaded Exidia, defeating Princess Sofia and capturing the Orb of Spell. The Morgost’s dark intentions include the resurrection of the almighty Daraka. Listen only to your courage and help Sofia drive back this threat. As a fearless warrior, you’ll fight the most evil of creatures. With every quest, you’ll get closer to discovering the source of the plague. DOWNTOWN TEXAS HOLD’EM Publisher: Electronic Arts Players: 1-5 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Simulated Gambling Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Go all-in with EA’s DOWNTOWN TEXAS HOLD’EM. Sharpen and show off your poker skills in two exciting game modes and take on up to 20 players in authentic showdowns. Put on your best poker face and challenge friends who also have a Nintendo DSi system and a copy of the game to a multiplayer match. Start with a practice game, play a round of classic poker, then jump into turbo tournament to win the grand prize. Buy your way into gambling halls and casinos, each with its own unique background, realistic tables, cards and chips. Move your Brain Rollway Puzzle Publisher: Assoria Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Help the ball of Move your Brain Rollway Puzzle to find the way out of each level. To do so, you must solve riddles and use your dexterity to escape enemies without falling. Move your Brain Rollway Puzzle uses the Nintendo DSi system’s built-in camera to detect your movements. While playing, tilt the system to move the ball. Collect gold coins to open certain passages, activate switches to set off mechanisms, use catapults to jump over walls or use bumpers to climb ramps. Time to complete each level is limited, so hurry up! 5 in 1 Solitaire Publisher: Digital Leisure Inc. Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Now you can take five of the most popular solitaire games with you on the go. 5 in 1 Solitaire features the always-popular Klondike, Spider and FreeCell games as well as the unique Golf and Gaps versions of solitaire. Each of these versions has a unique style of play that’s easy enough for novice players to enjoy but will also challenge experts. You can also view tutorials for each game, track your scores and view gaming stats to see your progress. WiiWare Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 5 Publisher: Telltale Games Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Alcohol Reference, Cartoon Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes Price: 1,000 Wii Points™ Description: Here’s a shocking series finale that’s sure to shiver your timbers. With the Monkey Island world in tatters at the conclusion of the fourth Tales of Monkey Island chapter, we were left to wonder: Who can save the Caribbean?! LeChuck is revealing surprising new characteristics yet again, Guybrush has met a shocking fate and Elaine must confront the ultimate evil with everything at stake. This adventure takes you far beyond the stormy isles as you experience the Rise of the Pirate God. Tumblebugs 2 Publisher: Gameshastra Inc. Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Wii Points Description: There’s a battle brewing in the backyard, and only you can save the day. Tumblebugs is the hit action-puzzler in which Black Bugs round up and trap the peaceful underground Tumblebugs. Now the Black Bugs are back – meaner, faster and nastier. They’ve crashed the garden party and are rounding up the colored beetles. Once again it’s Tumble to the rescue, but this time she’s got backup. Call on your friends to help you battle your way through 89 stunning new levels. Thrilling new power-ups can also help you free bugs like never before. 5 in 1 Solitaire Publisher: Digital Leisure Inc. Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 500 Wii Points Description: Now you can play five of the most popular solitaire games on your Wii™ console. 5 in 1 Solitaire features the always-popular Klondike, Spider and FreeCell games as well as the unique Golf and Gaps versions of solitaire. Each of these versions has a unique style of play that’s easy enough for novice players to enjoy but will also challenge experts. You can also view tutorials for each game, track your scores and view gaming stats to see your progress. Virtual Console Alex Kidd in Shinobi World Original platform: SEGA Master System Publisher: SEGA Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence Price: 500 Wii Points Description: What do you get when you combine the monumental SEGA classics Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Shinobi? Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, of course! Though never released in Japan, this game has it all: Alex Kidd, kidnapped princesses and evil Dark Ninjas, all played to a rockin’, remixed Shinobi soundtrack. Run, jump, swim and slash your way through 12 stages teeming with monstrous foes from the world of Shinobi, plus some more lighthearted ones from Alex Kidd. Just don’t let the barracudas turn you into sushi!

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The Nintendo Download: Monkey Island Ends, Shinobi World Beckons [Downloadables]

It’s Not Too Late For An 8-Bit Christmas [Retro Christmas]

Christmas 2009 may have come and gone, but you’ve still got two days two days to order the perfect gift for the retro gamer in your life – RetroZone’s 8 Bit Xmas 2009 . 8 Bit Xmas 2 is a new NES cartridge from RetroZone crafted specifically for the holiday season. Built using completely new parts, the cartridge is festooned with blinking lights that should brighten up any original NES you slide it inside of. The cart is loaded with Snowball Fight!!!, an original game in which up to four players fire multi-colored snowballs at each other from the sides of the screen. While the unique cartridge makes it well worth the $43 price tag, an additional $5 scores you a personalized splash screen message for the game, with a matching Christmas card. Its late, but retro gamers have a distorted sense of time and space anyway, so it should still be fresh. Just be sure to order before December 31st, or you won’t be able to order at all. RetroZone’s 8 Bit Christmas 2009 [RetroZone via GameSetWatch ]

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It’s Not Too Late For An 8-Bit Christmas [Retro Christmas]

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