Super Mario RPG finally sees US release while some underwater business goes on elsewhere.
Nintendo's popular Super Nintendo game, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, sees its long awaited arrival on the Virtual Console while Clu Clu Land, an NES puzzle game, also sees release. Hudson's aquarium simulator, My Aquarium is the WiiWare game of the week.
My Aquarium is billed as a "relaxing Wii experience" allowing you to witness and care for a virtual aquarium. You can select over 40 different types of fish, both freshwater and saltwater, to populate your aquarium. You can create up to six different aquariums to view, watch, and send to Wii Friends. My Aquarium is rated E for Everyone and is available for 500 Wii Points or $5.
Clu Clu Land is an NES puzzle game where you play as Bubbles, a young bubble fish, who must stop the evil Sea Urchins by uncovering the gold bars that they hid throughout the underwater kingdom of Clu Clu Land. Clu Clu Land is rated E for Everyone and is available for 500 Wii Points or $5.
The final Virtual Console game of the week and the most anticipated is the Super Nintendo classic, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The game, co-developed by Nintendo and Square-Enix, takes the familiar Mario world and transforms it into an epic quest featuring classic Mario action alongside more traditional RPG elements. Mario and friends (even Bowser) must defeat the new evil ruler Smithy and save the world. Super Mario RPG is rated E for Everyone and is available for 800 Wii Points or $8.
WII-KLY UPDATE: ONE WIIWARE GAME AND TWO VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAMES ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL
September 1, 2008
Strike up the band and let the confetti fly! This week, the Wii™ Shop Channel celebrates the momentous release of its 250th game title for the Virtual Console™, pushing the selection of classic games to an exhilarating new high. And because a special occasion deserves a special guest, Nintendo is thrilled to name the beloved Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars™ as the game to hold this exciting distinction. Along with a delightful new WiiWare™ title and a delirious underwater adventure, this gem from the Super NES® era guarantees a festive, fun-packed Labor Day holiday for Wii™ owners of all stripes.
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
My Aquarium (Hudson Entertainment, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): With swaying aquatic plants and fish idly swimming about, My Aquarium is a relaxing Wii experience that allows you to enjoy a virtual aquarium in your spare time. Whether freshwater or saltwater, you can select from over 40 popular types of fish, including favorites like the Ocellaris clownfish, the freshwater angelfish and the Asian arowana. You can also create up to six different aquariums and personalize them by adding decorations like seaweed and driftwood. In My Aquarium, you can send aquariums to your registered Wii Friends. The aquariums can even be set with special dates, such as a friend's birthday, that the fish will commemorate with a dance. Feed your fish and watch them steadily grow from fry to adult. Then, after meeting certain conditions, you can breed them. Another feature will allow you to interact with your fish using your Wii Remote™ controller in fun ways, like "tapping" the glass of your aquarium.
Virtual Console
Clu Clu Land™ (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Take a deep breath and prepare for a puzzle game set in the underwater kingdom of Clu Clu Land. The greedy Sea Urchins have stolen all of Clu Clu Land's gold bars and buried them in a series of mazes. As Bubbles, a brave bubble fish, you'll set out to uncover all of the gold bars in each maze. But you'll have to be careful: Sea Urchins will relentlessly pursue Bubbles, and there are also dangerous black holes that must be avoided. Bubbles isn't defenseless, though, as she has the ability to stun Sea Urchins with sound waves and quickly change direction using posts scattered throughout the stages. Not only that, but the locations of the gold bars in each maze form the outline of another object—once you know the object, you're well on your way to finding the gold. With 20 stages to complete and increasingly complex conditions (like having to pass over the gold bars twice to uncover them), you might just want to bring along a friend for help.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): Set in the Mushroom Kingdom and featuring its cast of well-known characters, this adventure RPG begins with a familiar scenario: Mario™ must rescue Princess Toadstool™ from Bowser™. However, a mysterious new enemy named Smithy soon appears, and Mario and Bowser are forced to fight as allies for the first time in their long history. In the quest to defeat their powerful new foe, they'll journey across a wide variety of locations (a town of mining moles, a tropical forest, a thundering waterfall—just to name a few) and tackle a mix of obstacles requiring both expert timing and strategy to overcome. Along the way, they'll gain experience and grow more powerful, while also meeting new characters whose unique abilities will be needed to take on Smithy and his gang. Striking a perfect balance of traditional RPG elements and the action-packed game play Mario is famous for, it's easy to see why this title has earned "legendary" status.
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