What a great week for Nintendo downloadable releases!Not only do we get to finally get our hands on PressPlay’s Max & the Magic Marker, a game I’ve been following for some time & just can’t wait to get some more playtime with it (I should have a review for you guys soonish), but we also get Final Fantasy II for the Virtual Console! Seriously, this is one of those releases that make me giddy like a school boy as the combination of Final Fantasy I & II plus the first three Dragon Warrior games (i.e. Dragon Quest) were the catalyst that caused me to move beyond simple...

Dracula – Undead Awakening Developer: MoreGames Entertainment Publisher: Chillingo Release Date: January 28th, 2010 (PSP) Price: $4.99 Bookmark It Hide Sites

Atari announced a new sequel to Eden Games’ Test Drive Unlimited. Look for Unlimited 2 to add in day-night cycles, weather effects, vehicle damage, etc… It should launch this fall for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 & Windows… Bookmark It Hide Sites

Let the old school gaming begin! Leading the pack of downloadable titles from Nintendo is Mega Man 10, a game that takes the long-popular mechanical hero back to his 8-bit roots. Including the classic 2D  NES gameplay & brutal difficulty, the developers have worked hard to create a new experience built around the old school play mechanics. Does the difficulty turn you off? New in this chapter is an Easy Mode, so everyone can enjoy the story without the classic frustration. Speaking of classics, the early 1990’s NEO GEO fighter Fatal Fury Special arrives on the Virtual Console. This was...

Nintendo held their Q1 2010 Media Summit this morning. It was chalk full of goodies that typically could fill an entire year for them. The kicker? Everything shown was only for the 1st half of 2010 (except for GhostWire). That’s right, everything you see will be released before the end of June. Anything beyond that point will be covered during Nintendo’s E3 press event. The Summit was held at the W Hotel in San Francisco & began promptly at 9am PST. They opened things up with the normal number graphs & charts, but cited they didn’t want to focus on that & quickly moved...

What? No Virtual Console releases? *sigh* Well, at least we will get some interesting WiiWare titles this week. GhostSlayer sounds like it could be fun, especially if you have a Wii Motion Plus (check out the trailer below). Mouse House catches my eye just from the “pick up & play” element they’re pushing. With how hectic today’s schedules can get, it’s nice to have games that don’t require a huge time investment… Bookmark It Hide Sites

The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom is now available on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 800 MP… Konami will be bringing Ninety Nine Nights II to the Xbox 360 this spring… Bookmark It Hide Sites

So there it is. Phoenix Wright is finally taking WiiWare to trial. Believe it or not, I’ve never played a single Phoenix Wright game. Stop. Don’t say it. I’ve already been told I’m missing out. I just have a tough time investing in handheld titles since I honestly don’t have enough time to play them. Maybe the WiiWare version will change that. Also debuting this week is Sonic & Knuckles on the Virtual Console. While it wasn’t a bad game, by the time it came out back in 1994, my love of platformers was fading as it was & Sonic & Knuckles didn’t...

The ‘Care Package’ fix for the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2 is now available. In other news, the folks who got rid of the game because of the glitch have moved on to Mass Effect 2 & BioShock 2 and will not be picking it back up again… Bookmark It Hide Sites

Hmmmm….I don’t know about this. Although I certainly loved the first game on the NES, I can’t say I have a ton of faith that Blaster Master can make a come back, especially following the abysmal PSOne version. That’s not to say I won’t give this WiiWare release a shot. I’m just not convinced that it can recapture the fun of the first one. Also on tep this week is the tower defense title Fieldrunners for the DSi. I love tower defense games so I’ll try any of them. Some even manage to surprise me (like the South Park one on XBLA). As you all know, I’m...

Apparently gamers who haven’t been able to upgrade to an HD display are have been having trouble reading the many lines of text in the recently launched Mass Effect 2. There’s even a thread about it in the official forums. Bioware’s response? Well, according to Mass Effect Project Manager Michael Gamble, “it was a byproduct of enhancements to the user interface” & they can’t address it with a patch, but will keep it in mind for their future Mass Effect titles. I wonder what they’ve done differently since this isn’t the first time this issue has...

When we first got wind of Project Needlemouse, there was a mix of joy & trepidation. Joy at the return of the iconic speedster & trepidation because of the long time struggle Sega has had getting the spiny mammal to be successful since it’s 16 bit days. Today, Sega finally showed it’s hand, & I must say, I think they’ve been dealt full house. One of the biggest complaints have been that they seem to miss re-creating the magic that Sonic had back on the Genesis. So, Sega seems to have finally taken that to heart & is creating Sonic 4. No were-hogs, no RPG elements...

This week, it’s all about the WiiWare! While Alex Kidd was alright at the time it came out, for me, it didn’t age well. So I’m not terribly interested in that sole Virtual Console release. But, WiiWare on the other hand, not only has the final chapter in the Tales of Monkey Island series (Chapter 5 wraps up the latest adventure of Guybrush Threepwood), but it also has the sequel to my favorite Zuma clone of all time. I spent a ton of hours playing Tumblebugs on both MAC & PC (my ex-wife actually turned me on to it through her MAC laptop). Although it’s certainly a lot...

Isn’t there already an Uno game on the Wii? I mean, Uno is pretty much everywhere these days. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Uno gameshow on Fox or NBC next fall. For the three of you who are upset that you don’t have Uno on your Wii, today is your lucky day as the seminal card game is making it’s way onto WiiWare. In addition to that, bittos+ is launching today. It’s a puzzle game that I’ve been watching for a few months now & so far, I just can’t get my head into it. Maybe I’ll feel a bit different once I actually play it. Rounding out the...

If you’re planning on picking up MAG or Mass Effect 2, then you might want to check out Toys R Us. Grab either one & you can get Valkyria Chronicles for $20. I’m not sure how long the promotion will last, but it’s a great deal if you can take advantage of it… Bookmark It Hide Sites

Now, I was one of the few folks I knew back then that never got into the whole Pilotwings phenomenon. Even though it impressed with displaying the technical abilities of the N64, that was pretty much where it stopped for me. With that said, I may go back & give it a shot now that it’s been re-released on the Virtual Console. That will be after I grab what really has my eye: Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth. This remake of the GameBoy original has classic Dracula hunting love written all over it; perfect considering the dredge of titles the franchise has cranked out recently (I’m...

Nintendo has given us the gift that will keep on giving this week, albeit a gift we have to buy for ourselves. Yep, we can now relive our neighborhood brawls just like they were as children. No, I don’t mean go grab your old baseball bat. These are gamers, remember? The N64 fan favorite Super Smash Bros has now become available again by way of the Virtual Console. They didn’t forget about us older gamers who were adults by the time the N64 went retail, as the arcade original Ninja Gaiden is also available (yes, I played the original in the arcades). The DSi has a couple that caught...

Dragon Age: Origins Avatar items have been added to the Xbox 360 Avatar Marketplace… In case anyone missed it, the demo for Army of Two: The 40th Day should be available right now on both Xbox 360 & Playstation 3. Keep in mind that it’s co-op only (online private, online public, & local split-screen). No single player… Bookmark It Hide Sites

An exciting week for classics on the Virtual Console! First, a game I have many, many fond memories of: Blaster Master. Although they tried the resurrect the franchise on the first Playstation, nothing has been able to bring back the joy I had sitting there on a Saturday afternoon, munching on Cheez-its & trying to live long enough to finish it. Second, the annelid icon, Earthworm Jim 2 is now available. The Earthworm franchise was some of the funniest games on the Sega’s Genesis console & in fact the first title is currently getting a modern day refresh (hopefully it’ll launch...

Wow, this last week flew by! Seems like I just did last week’s update yesterday. Anyway, this week brings the original Rayman to DSiWare. Great series of games the eventually spun off into the Rabbids franchise. Speaking of originals, the Virtual Console is now playing host to Street Fighter 2 Alpha & Shinobi, one of my favorite arcade games as a kid. Not much more to speak of this week, even though I would love to check out Army Defender & MAGNETIS one of these days… Bookmark It Hide Sites