September 1, 2008

Wii-kly Update

One WiiWare Game and Two Virtual Console Games Added to Wii Shop Channel

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(R) 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(R), 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.