Another beginning to a week, another release of a WiiWare game and a couple of VC titles. This week, I have to be honest and say I don’t recognize a single title! Maybe watching the videos will spark my recollection of the VC games. Either way, check out the press release below for the full gist and the video below it might help give you a taste of what the games are all about.

School’s back in session, but it’s not the only place to get your brain buzzing. This week’s additions to the Wii™ Shop Channel include a challenging new puzzle game available via WiiWare™, plus a pair of crackling Virtual Console™ actioners to keep your imagination raging between classes. Even if your school days are behind you, this latest lineup of downloadable titles will help get you fired up for fall, fueled by the one-of-a-kind fun of Nintendo’s top-selling Wii™ system.

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

Groovin’ Blocks (Empty Clip Studios, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): A music-based game like no other, Groovin’ Blocks adds innovative musical game play to an addictive action/puzzle game foundation. Play to the rhythm of the music to increase your score, and try to hit “Superbeats” to double your multiplier. Go for the high score in each of the 27 stages as you collect stars to unlock 15 levels of power-ups. Groovin’ Blocks features three skill levels, from the accessible Casual to the fiendish Hard mode. Play with your friends in co-op mode or against them head-to-head. Head-to-head brings it up a notch as the power-ups now become attacks on your opponent. Play head-to-head with people of all skill levels using a golf-style handicapping system.

Virtual Console

Final Solider (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Mild Fantasy Violence, 700 Wii Points): A vertically scrolling shooter from the well-known Soldier series. In the 23rd century, invaders from the future suddenly attack Earth. Controlling a fighter created by the world’s scientists, you rise to meet the enemy. Collect power-up units, such as LASER, E-BEAM, FIRE and MISSILE, and then equip them in Options to launch a variety of attacks. For each of these weapons, you can freely select from three different types in SET-UP. Anticipate enemies’ strikes and deftly switch between weapons to defeat the invaders. In addition to NORMAL GAME, there are also 2 MINUTE GAME and 5 MINUTE GAME score-attack modes. The most perfect blend and balance of any game in the series, Final Soldier is a title you don’t want to miss.

Cho Aniki (TurboGrafx16 CD-ROM, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone and Older—Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 900 Wii Points): The odd world in this shooter made for quite the conversation piece in its day. Players control either Idaten or Benten, celestial warriors out to bring an end to the tyrannical rule of the emperor of Planet Builder, who holds muscular prowess to be the supreme virtue of the universe. Aided by able-bodied muscle-head options Adon and Samson, they must battle to defeat the emperor’s army across five stages. Use the buttons to fire away and lay into the Builder forces. Power up your character and options with protein from defeated enemies to have them “bulk up” with a yell, and take their macho battle to the next level.

Ok, Cho Aniki looks VERY strange.

Are you enjoying Mario Super Sluggers but wish you could unlock more characters? This guide shows you how to unlock them all and you’ll be all set in no time. Here’s a sneak peak:

1. Baby Daisy
To unlock Baby Daisy, you need to have Wario use his magnet to pull out the baby rattle from the fountain at Peach Garden. After this, use Yoshi and go through the manhole cover on the left side of the garden, where you will find a crying baby. The baby is, of course, Baby Daisy! Finally, give her the rattle. She will then be unlocked.

2. Baby DK
To unlock Baby DK, you need to use Yoshi’s power at the DK Jungle stage to free Baby DK from the palm tree. He will then be unlocked. Alternatively, you can defeat DK’s team to unlock Baby DK.

Check out this compilation video showing off some cool games coming in 2009 for the Wii:

TOKYO, Sept 03, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — Limelight Networks, Inc. announced today that Nintendo Co. Ltd had begun utilizing the LimelightDELIVER service to deliver interactive content to the popular Wii(TM) console.

Using LimelightDELIVER, Nintendo delivers text and graphic contents to the News Channel and Forecast Channel that are accessible from the Wii menu. Since Limelight Network’s content delivery network (CDN) is directly connected to over 900 broadband and last-mile providers worldwide, Nintendo can ensure the rapid delivery of these contents to the many Wii users around the world.

“We are pleased to be enabling a great user experience for the highly successful Wii console, and to be working with such a respected global gaming brand as Nintendo,” said Shinji Tsukamoto, vice president, Limelight Networks, Inc. “Limelight Networks is now delivering content and providing services for all three major gaming platforms around the world.”
The robust and scalable infrastructure of Limelight Network’s CDN was engineered to deliver rich media experiences to today’s Internet users, by meeting the challenge of the four dimensions of content delivery: increasing object size, increasing entire content libraries, addressing ever-growing audience size, and realizing the immediate availability of every library object, regardless of popularity.

Here’s a few screens from Six Flags Fun Park and it looks to be a mish mash of minigames that have little or nothing to do with Six Flags at all beyond branding. Also. it looks like crap but might be fun for the young ones. So much potential behind a Six Flags branding and it’s wasted on minigames. Here they are in all of their glory:

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.

Time to get your groove on with some new Nintendo Channel updates.

Videos
Developer’s Voice - Mystery Case Files
Mystery Case Files: Demo Download is Available NOW
Spore Creatures: Demo Download is Available NOW
My Aquarium Info Video
Super Mario RPG Info Video
Mario Super Sluggers TV Spot
Helix Developer’s Voice 1
NHL 2K9 Info Video
de Blob Video 3
Dokapon Kingdom Info Video
Tornado TV Spot 3
Moon Info Video
Digest Video

Demos
Mystery Case Files MillionHeir (no expiry date)
Crosswords DS-Anagrams Demo (expires 9/7)
Spore Creatures Demo (expires 9/7)
PICTOIMAGE (expires 9/7)
Arkanoid DS (expires 9/7)

This video is funny and I’ve never played Hitman for the PS2 (or PC), but after seeing this, I want to. Check out this comparison showing off the amount of on-screen characters for Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop for the Wii and Hitman Blood Money for the PS2:

I have to admit, although I will be getting the Dead Rising game for the Wii, it does look a bit clunky and lacking in body counts compared to the Hitman game. The overall muddiness of the PS2 game is a slight turnoff, but man would it be nice to see that many zombies in the Wii game.

Bomberman Blast is another game coming from Hudson for the WIiWare platform and is essentially Bomberman as you’ve come to know and love him. NintendoWiiFanboy once again has all of the shots and as you can tell by this pic below, the gameplay is about the same:

It also appears to support at least four players and offers Mii support. Here’s a screen showing off some sort of customization options:

View all of the shots here.

Alien Crush is being updated with much better graphics and heading to the WiiWare platform as a devilish pinball game. NintendoWiiFanboy has some shots of the game and it’s looking good. Check uot the single shot below, then hit the link for more.

Check out these two shots showing what Samba de Amigo looked like on the Dreamcast (great) compared with how it will look on the Wii (super great).