A few months ago, when Alien Crush Returns was announced, I expressed some concern over the DLC options. My fear was that, while I'm all in favor of coughing up a few dollars here and there for additional levels, the mention of specially-powered balls would result in a microtransactional minefield of pointless content.

It appears that my concern may have been unnecessary. According to Siliconera, DLC is being released for the game at no charge. Simply connecting to the Nintendo Wi-Fi service is making new content available to players. 

It's unclear at this time if the new content is already part of the program as initially downloaded and simply being time-released by contacting Hudson's servers or if actual data transfer is occurring. It's also hard to say whether or not this will apply to US players when the game releases here. For the time being, however, things are looking up.

When I had the opportunity to play this at PAX, I was largely pleased with the experience. Hopefully we will hear some news soon on a release date because I'm itching to get my pinball on again.