A handful of WiiWare games were just pulled from the U.S. and European Wii Shop channels. As far as I know, the full list of removed games includes The Magic Obelisk (in the U.S.) and LONPOS, Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem, Diner Dash, Racers' Islands - Crazy Racers, Gods vs Humans and Racers' Islands - Crazy Arenas (in Europe). The Magic Obelisk is a great little action puzzle game, so I'm sad to see that one gone, and Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem is basically the Birdemic of videogames, so it definitely deserves your attention (even though it totally doesn't).

I'm guessing that these aren't selling enough to justify whatever it costs to have them on the Wii Shop channel. That must mean they really aren't selling, as the last I checked, it costs nothing to keep your game on the Wii Shop channel once you've already got it up there. Reports are coming in that Zallag, the developer behind Gods vs Humans and the Racers Island games has actually gone out of business, and that's why their games were pulled. I hope this doesn't mean that Game Arts (developers of The Magic Obelisk) and Hudson (publisher of Shootano and Diner Dash) are also in trouble. I couldn't stand to see Hudson close down twice in the same year.

Anyway, I hope this motivates some of you slackers to go ahead and buy those one-of-a-kind WiiWare games that you know you want to play, but have been too lazy to actually download. One day you could wake up and find that Tomena Sanner, You, Me, and the Cubes, Muscle March, the ReBirth games from Konami, and many other classic WiiWare home console exclusives are gone for good. Buy them while you still can!

Zallag explains why their company closed [GoNintendo]

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Epic-Kx

Jim?

timtheterrible

Ah, fuck!

SayWord

These games aren't even worth my cum stained tissues.

Chris Carter

I only buy VC on the Wii, so I'm good. For now...mwahaha.

Thanks for the heads up, Jon!

GoofierBrute

Diner Dash was on WiiWare? Did not know that.

Scissors

Damnit I was hoping on picking up The Magic Obelisk at some point, this sucks. This is the terrible thing about digital distribution, now that it's gone I have no way of playing this.

Fuzunga

Holmes, that picture of backboobs has scarred me for life.

trsspidey

Scissors,

There are ways to get this game still. You'll have to check your piracy morals at the door however.

ucnslowdnce

Not promoting piracy or anything, but in cases like these, at least you can still get the wads and install them via homebrew if you still want to play these games.

Martin Montiel

Hey their's a problem with your website. It says Jonathan Holmes wrote thiis article....it's suppose to say Jim Sterling.

acetated

The hell?

GohanGVO

Wasn't Hudson absorbed into Konami earlier this year? License transfers might explain why those games have been removed.

And with Zallag being out of business, Nintendo doesn't have anyone to send payment checks to (assuming there are any ... Racers Island is fucking TERRIBLE).

The Magic Obelisk is a stranger situation since Game Arts JUST launched a Silpheed game on the Android marketplace.

Tubatic

hmm. Maybe I should pick up Let's Catch, if that's the case.

Sonic9jct

Are these all Hudson games?

danybean

I wish I could be all-knowing like GohanGVO.

StickfighterTV

ruhroh, at least I have the homebrew channel!

mascot1063

Glad I bought Muscle March :)

UNtrueNoir

I didn't even read the story. The backfat scared me too much.

FireFox516

At least Jett Rocket is still on.

... Seriously, that game kicks ass.

Wooshamboo

The blubber fucking potential in that pic is vast.

TheNephilym

Yes, Jim, those jeans DO make your butt look big.

G3n3r4lzZoD

Jims sad back is sad. :(

scarlatch

Dear God.

sofik88

i loved Birdemic. i remember watching it during our own marathon of crappy movies i did with my friends over the weekend. pizza, alcohol, loads of Troma, The Asylum movies and few others(like Birdemic and Troll). plus some rifftrax - seriously, Twilight is actually watchable especially after vodka.

SirNinjaFace

Thats a huge bitch ...i mean guy! Also lol Sofik watching Troll.

Im The Singer in Symphony X

Hmmm, Sofik you watched your biographical film while drinking your dad's alcohol while underaged??

FunkzillaBOT

Agh...that picture is so...so wrong. It's like, burned into my brain.

Sir Legendhead

We're not allowed to post pics of topless women but this is acceptable. Oh man I sure do hate western civilization

pedrovay2003

Digital distribution doing what it does best, I see: Ruining the backlog, one day at a time.

salamagogo

Shake that sexy back, jim.

Im The Singer in Symphony X

Good job guys, now Jim is going to give your favorite games low review scores.

oh wait

AlexMorgaen

Cave Story. Muscle March. Lost Winds. MUST BUY MUST BUY MUST BUY IF ONLY MUSCLE MARCH WAS OUT HERE

Joe Ess

Weird, I think we all know that Hudson is dead but I figured that Konami would see no reason to not leave their catalogue of DL games up on a service like wiiware. That sucks!

Jonathan Holmes

These comments prove something I have always suspected -- the world actually does revolve around Jim Sterling.

@ Alex and Karu- Yeah, MDK2 and Lost Winds are both great games. I would have mentioned them in the post, but I'm pretty sure they are not exclusive to the Wii (MDK2 was on the Dreamcast, and Lost Winds is going multi-console I think).

Sir Legendhead

@ Holmes - It's because the earth got too close and fell into his orbit. :)

v0odka

Dat backtits

tekbunny

@epic

I saw the pic and wondered who was gonna say it first. Glad to see u got it out of the way first.

Also, you're an asshole.

Also, were all assholes.

Also, pie.

tekbunny

Also, I didn't think I could lose anymore respect for you.

Twilight is never watchable, under any influence of any drug, sober, or if someones holding a gun to your head.

@Holmes
Duh. U and Jim are mostly what got me hooked on this stupid website. Well, that and the natural gravity of Jim drew me in.

Now I am but a satellite orbiting dtoid, providing it with directtv-like entertainment.

ALSO, I'm still barely waking up. Ignore all the shit in this comment

tekbunny

Fail. The respect thing goes towards soffik.

Fuck, I think I'm gonna get more sleep.

PrinceHeir

cannot unsee O___O

KingSigy

I'd buy more WiiWare games if you could transfer them to other consoles. As such, I can't stand thinking my console will die and I'll lose everything.

PEICanada7

"I'd buy more WiiWare games if you could transfer them to other consoles. As such, I can't stand thinking my console will die and I'll lose everything."

Do you mean like transferring it over to other Wii's, or to the Wii U, when it comes out? Because Nintendo has already done transferring peoples DSiWare stuff, over to the 3DS and now you can also transfer things to another 3DS, if need be. So I'd imagine that Nintendo will do the same, for the Wii to Wii U transition.

sofik88

@tekbunny, rifftrax makes everything watchable.

IrishFists

Jim has a hot bod

Noir

Wow Tara, you really let yourself go.

Can't so much about the games, I know nothing of them. Unless Cave Story, Mega Man 9 & 10, or the Bit Trip games disappear I could probably care less.