With World of Goo and Art Style: CUBELLO on WiiWare, and Secret of Mana and Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition on Virtual Console, this is a good week for Wii Channel Shoppers.
Wii gamers this week will wake up to an exciting prospect. Not only has World of Goo, a highly anticipated WiiWare game, finally made its appearance, but Square Enix has released the SNES classic Secret of Mana for retro fans. Nintendo has also released its second "Art Style" brand game, CUBELLO, and the Virtual Console is also receiving another special edition of one of the defining games of the 16-bit era, Street Fighter.
World of Goo was a major highlight at the Nintendo Spring Media Summit this year, and now that it’s shoe-string-budget developers 2DBoy are hoping that their "award-winning, physics-based puzzle/construction game" will captivate Wii gamers. The game’s world is full of curious Goo Balls which players grab and connect to each other in order to build structures that bridge gaps, float in the air, or even resemble giant tongues. At the end of each level, the Goo Balls get one step closer to discovering what the mysterious World of Goo Corporation is all about.
Nintendo’s Art Style: CUBELLO follows the release of Art Style: ORBIENT two weeks ago, setting up the Art Style brand as Nintendo’s own WiiWare-sized series of games. CUBELLO itself is part puzzler and part shooter. At the beginning of a level multi-colored cubes fly together to form a floating and rotating "Cubello," and it’s up to the player to fire their own multi-colored cubes at it and combine four cubes of the same color to eventually expose the Cubello’s core.
On the Virtual Console side of things, Square Enix has released their Super Nintendo classic Secret of Mana. This action-RPG title from 1993 offers an epic adventure for up to three players simultaneously. The Mana Tree maintains the balance between evil and good, but when that balance is upset the game’s young heroes must embark on a journey that spans their entire world. They’ll meet with dragons, magic, magical weapons, and friends in their quest to restore that balance.
Rounding out this week’s offering is Street Fighter: Special Champion Edition, originally from the Sega Genesis. This version of Capcom’s legendary fighting game includes both the Hyper and Champion rulesets, and also features a then-exclusive Group Battle mode that has since become a staple feature of later games. This edition of Street Fighter offers a roster of 12 classic characters for play in single-player mode, or against a friendly opponent.
WII-KLY UPDATE: TWO WIIWARE GAMES AND TWO VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAMES ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL
Oct. 13, 2008
Armchair physicists rejoice! The hotly anticipated award-winning World of Goo™ makes its WiiWare™ debut this week, inviting players to build infinitely fascinating structures out of Goo and uncover the mystery behind the World of Goo Corporation. Other cool additions to the Wii Shop Channel™ this week include Art Style™: CUBELLO™, the second installment in Nintendo's Art Style series, and a pair of classics for the Virtual Console™: SECRET OF MANA™ and STREET FIGHTER™ II': SPECIAL CHAMPION EDITION. Fun offerings like these are sure to heat up your October, no matter how low the autumn temperatures may go.
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
World of Goo (2D Boy, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,500 Wii Points): World of Goo is an award-winning, physics-based puzzle/construction game made entirely by two guys. Grab living, squirming, talking globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins and giant tongues. The millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore—but they don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious. World of Goo Corporation is contractually obligated to state that everyone is a winner, and is enthusiastic to celebrate everyone's Goo building opportunities equally.
Art Style: CUBELLO (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Art Style: CUBELLO mixes the strategy and feel of a traditional puzzle game with the precision and reflexes required in a shooter. As each stage begins, various colored cubes form into one large object called a Cubello, which floats and rotates as you play. Launch additional cubes from your magazine and try to connect four or more of the same color, removing them from the Cubello and eventually leaving only its core. Take on the challenge of either Stage or Endless mode and watch what happens when Bonus Time is activated. The straightforward controls and goal ensure that anyone can play, while offering enough depth that even advanced players will find themselves quickly addicted to the unique world of Art Style: CUBELLO.
Virtual Console
SECRET OF MANA (Super NES™, 1-3 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older—Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 800 Wii Points): Good and evil battle for a young warrior's heart. There is one force in the universe that keeps good and evil in perfect balance. It is called the tree of Mana. But a magic sword has tricked a young warrior into upsetting this balance, spreading evil throughout the land. Thus, the warrior must undertake a dangerous journey to find the seeds of the Mana tree, which have been hidden for centuries. Only then can perfect harmony be restored. In this incredible adventure, things are not as they seem. Magic swords release evil as well as fight it. Treasure chests hold booby traps. Monsters are friends and friends are enemies. Potions give power, black magic takes it away. Dragons fly, weapons change. It's a world turned upside down that you must help the warrior make right. And the only way to succeed is to solve the Secret of Mana.
STREET FIGHTER II': SPECIAL CHAMPION EDITION (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, Rated T for Teen—Violence, 800 Wii Points): STREET FIGHTER II': SPECIAL CHAMPION EDITION was the first STREET FIGHTER game released for the Sega Genesis console. The STREET FIGHTER series can be considered one of the first fighting games to popularize competitive video game fighting. This version of the game contains both the CHAMPION and HYPER rule sets, from the two editions released in the arcades. It also introduced an exclusive Group Battle mode that is now a general feature in most fighting games. Play as one of 12 different characters, each with their own distinctive fighting style. Try single-player mode or challenge a friend in this legendary, classic fighting game.
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