@Scrapple: M.A.M.E. won't emulate the NES version... nor Wiiware, of course. :)

Anyway, I heard somone calling me a geek because I kept complaining about the lackof sotrage solutions on The Wii, because, just like Bill Gates said that "16 megs of Ram was enought for everyone", Nintendo is syaing that 512 megas is enought for everyone. How nice... well, this someone has 60 Wii games and would liek to have the VC/Wiiware games installed as well. So... im not gonna buy anything else on VC or wiiware until you, Nintendo, yes, you:

1) Stop calling me a geek*.
2) Put out USB Massstorage support.
3) Announce F-Zero Wii (this will forgive everything, even the overpriced SNES carts that you sold in Europe).

*no offense to my fellow IO9er and Kotakuite geekgrrl.

Shiryu

Boom blox is good

kidko

Is anyone else disappointed that it's been yet another week without releasing Gyrostarr? I literally go to bed Sunday nights thinking: "Maybe they'll release Gyrostarr tomorrow!"

Oh well. Maybe I can kill some time with Tempest X3.

BtownDesignGuy

Oh, forgot my Sudoku game. Probably gets the most use from my Wii and the best purchase I have made.

everybest

@Channing: Not trying to troll. I've got a Wii and all and I've only touched it for a few weeks when Smash Brothers came out. I just bought Mario Kart, but other than those two... it's been disappointing. Nothing on the VC is appealing. That screenshot up top looks like it came from the N64.

everybest

@Deflicted: Ahahaha. That is exactly what I was going to say. That looks friggin terrible. I guess when your system sells like hotcakes though, you don't need to put in any effort, Lol.

R3load

Nintendo, i know most of the people in the industry know about the hype factor that is/was going on with the Nintendo wii. the general world public bought into it, heck i did to get my girl into gaming.

but seriously, week after week of hung over drunken garbage is being spewed into the VC, no quality 1st party titles, no quality 3rd party titles, just random junk more than half the gaming world has probably ever heard of and THEN maybe an occasional title that has few minute appeal.

but i guess thats success when you remind millions of people that they played all those games...marketing genius...

Zaos

@Channing: Yeah, a bit disappointing that there are no other WiiWare games this week. I guess they think the Pokemon game (however shit it might look) is a big title so better not put anything else against it...

Then again, um I haven't finished Toki Tori yet (I'm on the last 'normal' swamp level and have cleared all the hard levels in 'Forest' but am stuck on one of the later ones in 'Castle' too... so that's plenty of levels left). Or My Life as a King for that matter.

quen

@Dee4leeds: oh Snap, really?!

That's hot.

Tubatic

but your Mii gets an ascot!!!

Honestly, if I was into Pokemon like that, I'd probably be kinda stoked about that WiiWare title. Alas, no time for pokemans.

But DigDug for 600 points? talk about inflation *ba dum bump ching*

Tubatic

Here's a better review of My Pokémon Ranch...

"1000 Wii Points buys you a legal non Nintendo Event way of gaining Mew..."

That's all you need to know.

Dee4leeds

@everybest:Get out.

Foxstar Sixtail

@everybest:
You blow, where are all the real comments?
(I'm super joking, btw. :3)
Yeah, nothing I'll be picking up this week. But, I mean, maybe Nintendo knows everyone will be buying MGS4. You know, except me because I'm not made of money.

Channing

the characters are so ugly ... they didn,t even work 3 months on that game

waza

for reals, i know wiiware titles mean that now nintendo has to actually put in real work in developing the product, but you'd think they would aspire towards something that looked better than, oh iono, shit?

Nihon no Purin

Pokémon Zesty Italian.
So just to make sure, this is the SECOND game for WiiWare where you do nothing/very little, right?
@excel_excel:
I think they were talking about Dig Dug Dark Adonis.

jBusiness

dig dug is an awesome game. or at least i thought it was when i played it way back when.

sitsalot

Jesus that looks like a PS1 game. Put some effort in Nintendo!

Deflicted

And after I went through all that effort to get Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa on disk, they release on VC. Figures. Still, the original FDS version wasn't that much more than the VC version and doesn't take up precious console memory.

/still haven't bought a single VC title

sakanagai

@Grumps: Don't we already have that game? Isn't it called "Pokémon Snap"?

megaStryke

$10 for Virtual Crap. I feel wronged.

:0(

falcinator

"Become Dig Dug, the champion of love and justice"
What the hell kind of version of Dig Dug are they talking about?

"BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA."
BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA!! BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA!!! BIO MIRACLE FUCKING BOKUTTE UPA!

excel_excel

I hear you can make a damn fine party tray out of Ivysaurs, Bellsprouts, and Cacneas.

Jazhuis

Hello Mame, I love you

Scrapple

Pass.

Shiryu

So basically in this pokemon thing, all you do is walk around and take pictures of your pokemon interacting? exciting!

Grumps

Nintendo blows. Where are all the real games?!

everybest

Pokemon Ranch = dumbed down Pokemon Box. It's a total non-game. And $10 for that? Buy Pokemon Puzzle League or Pokemon Snap instead. You'll actually get something that is more like a game.

StormdragonBlue

Shame september is far off, that's about the only time I'll be looking forward to a new WiiWare title: Animales de la muerte!

I guess they still prefer to trickle releases little by little instead of having too much of a collection. At this rate though, the new systems will be coming in before the catalogs are complete, if ever. What then? :/

超外人

@everybest:
There are many things on the VC that are appealing to me. I just don't have moniessssss.

Channing

I can forgive Nintendo for making a downloadable title that looks like complete crap if it has as many moving characters as Pokemon Ranch does..... but of course I won't because the game sounds like a total bore too. Seriously, what the hell are you supposed to do with it?

So yeah, this week sucks.... but last week's offering of Dr Mario Online was pretty awesome.

ridleysaria

Finially, my Pokemon Ranch has been released, its time for a download.

Ashkihyena

@Shiryu: ha! no offense taken. you did have me scrambling in my memory trying to figure if *i* was the one who called you a geek, which sounds unlikely in this situation. :) nintendo DOES need to up that storage amount. ...and ramp up their network capability...and release some decent VC games, fer chrissake.

geekgrrl

Gah, can anybody actually delineate what Pokemon Ranch actually does, aside from just being Pokemon Box 2008? Are there any mini-games? Any special items you can send back into your Pearl/Diamond game?

The photography angle sounds neat, and I'm dying to see what Darkrai looks like in chibi-64 mode... but other than that? $10, really?

StocDred

That Pokémon Ranch game looks like it was made for the N64.

Kenny

I got Dig Dug on XBL for like 200 MS Points a while back, when it was half off. So I'm good. Thanks anyways, Nintendo. Although the Pokemon Petting Zoo does look pretty neat. When am I gunna be able to put a Pokemon-style hat on my Mii though?

Salen

500 points was complete bullshit. 600 points is nintendo pissing on my wallet. i have sin & punishment and startropics. it's gonna take one hell of a title that i never played to get me to even look at the VC list again.

thaKingRocka

How can anyone have anything against Dig Dug!?

NeoSamurai

Dig Dug still rocks after almost 30 years... screw y'all.

nutmilk

Those pokemon look worse than they do on the handheld systems. I realize they have space limitations and I realize the handheld games use 2D images but damn those look horrific.

dowingba

Hey, guys, youre being too mean.

You have to understand this game is not for us, its for the kids who love, live and breath Pokemon. As I said, ill pass, but im sure this will make a lot of happy kids out there. We over here who comment at Kotaku are on average of a slightly eldar group of gamers... but tha's no excuse to trash Nintendo liek that, namely because this was announced ages ago.

Shiryu

I don't get it - why is DigDug $6? Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa is an import which is why that one costs extra, but DigDug? Anyways, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa totally rocks. Back in the NES days my rental store had a bootleg of it called "Mario Baby", unfortunately it crashed after beating one of the bosses.

Dreamwriter

@Americo: RAGE is what kotaku commenters are running. :)

@Deflicted: Do we have a special award for the first ever 'commenter claims game looks like a PS1 title, and it genuinely does' comment? Because I think this may be it. :)

@everybest: AAaand ditto for the 'N64' award. Although, I think WiiWare has had a really fantastic start - I've got four good games from it in as many weeks (I got Toki Tori after people raved about it, indeed it's a great little puzzle game that's really well polished, I love the idle animations and 'dizzy chicken').

So, yeah, they're allowed a dud week... next week though? Better have TWO WiiWare games with one of them being actually good. Or else, Nintendo. Or else!

quen

@Al3xandr0s: Heres hoping... I really have no clue how to top F-Zero GX/AX, but along the years, Nintendo is one that never failed to impress me in their new ways to reenvion their franchises. Yes there are loads of Marios, Zeldas, etc, but none of them ever feel like youre playing the same game.

@Shiryu: kindly disregard my speed typing typos...

Shiryu

Man, I still love Pokemon, but Mii faces make me angry inside...

slikz21

@geekgrrl: Of course not you, i emant no offesne because of your nick, however this guy did:

"when asked a pertinent question about the limited Wii system memory was raised, Laurent Fischer, managing director of marketing at NoE, easily slipped into talking about how "geeks and otaku" were the only people who want this issue addressed. - Edge Magazine 190

[www.maxconsole.net]

Id like to say he is someone whos not important and does not really know what he is talking about, but being a well know and reputable managing director of marketing at Nintendo of Europe make his commentary rather... missguided? naive? I don't knwo the prope adjective to qualify this.

Oh yeah, he also called me an Otaku, then... so that makes me twice as mad.

Shiryu

Hmm sold my Pokemon Pearl, but tempted to get it again for this! My boyfriend would probably disapprove.

Puchi

Shiryu I hope they get Sega to develop the next F-Zero like they did for the GameCube =)

On the other hand I can't believe Nintendo is mistreating one of their biggest IPs in this way with this WiiWare shovelware... I never saw it coming.

Al3xandr0s

Your humour is lost to your ignorance Americo. The engines you mention aren't even the same type since Havok is a physics library. Yes you can twist your words into attempting to say you mocked the game's physics also but we all know the truth here.

Krackatoa, is Sin & Punishment playable with just the Wii controller(s) and do they behave as intended and make for a fun game without hindering the original experience? I always wanted to play it but the best I've done so far is on PC emulator and I can see it's not the ideal way. I'm just a sucker for rail shooters like this and Starfox (though Panzer Dragoon Zwei is my favorite).

Al3xandr0s

@thaKingRocka: Too true. Downloaded Sin & Punishment on a whim yesterday.

I'm still waiting for Enix and Square Arpeejees. C'mon Earthbound!

Krackatoa

@BtownDesignGuy: I know how you feel. I think Nintendo's just letting other publishers on first, so far no one has had more than one game on WiiWare and High Voltage has that Blackjack game. So hopefully soon. How soon I don't know.

mariogalaxyman

So what engine is this game using? Havok? Unreal 2? RAGE?

Americo

@Hyperfludd: Thanks, glad I'm not the only one, thought I'd really get the grief by saying that.

Ashkihyena

@antialias02: Not really, I couldn't give 2 shits about Earthbound.

Either way though, I'm not a graphic whore when it comes to Pokemon Ranch, they look fine to me, and thats all that really matters. I've already got my 1000 WiiWare points ready to go for when its uploaded.

Ashkihyena

@Ashkihyena: Don't worry, I also one of the few people who aren't fans.

Hyperfludd

Gah, I wanted GyroStarr this week.

Hyperfludd

@Ashkihyena: So, you're saying you care a little? :D

Incidentally, My Life as a King and Lostwinds look beautiful, and they're WiiWare. So that's really no excuse.

antialias02

Time to upload all my inbred reject experiments...I want a Mew and I'm not afraid to store 999 Spiritombs to get one.

Rebochan

@(俗・ ) Grey Gecko: Ya know what, I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I'm just going to say it, I could care less about Earthbound.

Ashkihyena

@Angryrider: Glad someone else doesn't mind the looks. All I see here is "blah, blah, blah, these Pokemon sux blah blah blah"

Ah well, I think they chose this style due to WiiWare's small size compared to a regular game.

Ashkihyena

*walks in*
EarthBound?
...no?
*walks away*

(俗・ ) Grey Gecko

My Pokémon Ranch Looks terrible that would be the quality of an N64 game, and for it to be a game where taking pictures of the game was the main point you'd have thought they would have bothered with the graphics ie, Afrika. Poor stuff.

Ryuujin1024

Heh, either do it Paper Mario style or this Nintendo.
I wonder what kind of though process went into making the monsters look this way. Kinda cute and kind of quirky.

Angryrider

So, this week was Earthbound, right? No? Japanese imports instead? Alright, Nintendo, but you're already on thin ice. I mean, let's be reasonable. You love VC. I love VC. Let's love VC together with some Earthbound. Why ruin something something so magical.

Nintendo? Where are you going? Don't walk away from me when I'm still talking to you! Ninty, wait! I'll call you!

antialias02

I hate to stick up for nintendo like a fanboy, but I was thinking about my pokemon ranch graphics and it occured to me that it might look even worse if we had High quality pokemon and the low quality mii interacting. It would seem that nintendo didn't specifically not care about the graphics but used a certain graphic style.

eternalplayer2345

@Dreamwriter: Dig Dug is an import, too. The NES only saw a release for Dig Dug II. Two unreleased-in-America titles this week on the VC is actually pretty awesome if you are a Game Pak Maniak.

DANGERTERRORHORROR

@Shiryu:
This is true. If you're not going to be collecting like 1000 pokemon anyway, you wouldn't want this. Some of us are starting to have our boxes filled up and it's either buy a WHOLE new Diamond or Pearl game and use that box or start killing our pokemon and cracking the eggs open. (You can not let go of eggs. =| )

Channing

BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA is amazing, and 600 points is well worth it for those of us who don't have the time and money to get a FDS. Also, I've known about pokemon ranch's style for a while now, and considering it's a slightly shinier pokebox with some interactivity and rewards, it really shouldn't get too much crap. (that shot up there also looks particularly bad).

HumanBomb

@gregly: He was referring to RAM, not hard disk space. And yes, he really did say that.

Kamakazie

I'm trying to figure out what you guys are bashing on Pokemon ranch for, it's Pokemon Box's successor and it allows you to keep an extra thousand Pokemon, it also should make box organization easier. Yeah I like the games, show sucks, but the games are where it's at. I might pick this up, I'm having trouble deciding what else I could go waste 10 bucks on and only seldom use it...

Shaoko

@Shiryu: hrm, "geeks and otaku"...oh, you mean nintendo's hardcore audience that they keep (perhaps unintentionally) crapping on? what an ignorant statement. i've never heard anyone complain about too much memory, not even "casual" gamers.

geekgrrl

@ gregly

As far as I know, he did say that. Where did you see that is a misquote?

stetsonblade

Al3xandr0s: WiiWare shovelware.

Speaking of shovel, can you beat the pokemon to death with one a la viva pinata? It might make this add-on worthwhile.

lordargent

@Shiryu: The quote was "640k should be enough for anybody" -- as in 0.625 megs. 16 megabytes at that time was ludicrously huge -- heck, my hard drive at that time was 20MB.

Of course he didn't actually say that anyway, so the whole thing is moot.

gregly

Considering each Pokemon is like a logo for the series, I'm a bit surprised they all look like a Sega Saturn port or something. I get that they wanted them to look like Poke-Miis, but... no.

fuchikoma

I am stoked for that Pokemon game. I mean, it's 10$ -- a good 20 less than you pay for a DS game. If it's a little way to round up all the characters and breed, it's going to be a hit.

They just need to add a way to battle over WiiWare *without* Pokemon Battle Revolution, because that game *is* way overpriced.

DrFresh

@Ashkihyena: The size of the game is only 123 blocks. The max for a WiiWare title is ~300 blocks. Nintendo is just being lazy, they could have made the visuals much better.

mariogalaxyman

@geekgrrl: You may be on to something... are they doing this on purpose because of noe one having bought the GameCube (hey, I did!)!? Well, who knows what really goes on behidn closed doors.

One things for sure, they need to reavaluate their marketing directors...

Shiryu

Sweet, Digdug. I love that game.

And next week there shall be Pokemon French(or Catalina, whichever one you prefer). Now, with real-time surrendering.

KM91

So much hate...

Regardless, for those of us who don't want to cheat and didn't get to go to a Nintendo event with Mew, Pokemon Ranch will let you get a mew. That's worth the 10 bucks IMO.

Dalren

Correct me if I'm wrong, but those character models are so low in polygons because they need 1000 to be on screen at once.

If this isn't the case, then it's just laziness.

marmidukestank

DIIIIG DUUUUG!!!

Too bad I still have it on floppy. I think I'll just load it up in good ol' Dosbox.. :/

sugardeath

Kotaku seriously needs to do something about their graphics fanboys. Show them XKCD and they'd probably bitch and moan about how everyone's a squiggly stick-figure and the comic's only in black and white.

They're supposed to be polygons stuck together to resemble cute, big-headed pokemon, you retards. Not everything is supposed to or needs to be hyperrealistic and slaved over a month and a half per model.

Only thing I don't like about Ranch is all the functionality they COULD HAVE added to make this well worth the $10. I love the sprites; hate that the pokemon are bonded to my secret trainer ID and are lost to the ranch if I lose my game.

VioletArrows

@VioletArrows: I can appreciate low end graphics when the ART is good, but this is totally not art in any way shape or form. It's just pure bullshit, much like your post.

I still play games on my Sega Saturn (I love how first-gen 3D has aged, heh) and adore stuff like the Panzer Dragoon series and Nights into Dreams.

I DO buy Virtual Console titles like Sin & Punishment and Super Castlevania IV.

Lately, I mostly play independent developer games like Mount & Blade, DEFCON, Aquaria, Eschalon: Book 1. Astral Tournament. I guess Lost Winds also counts but it's not helping my point thanks to its fantastic visuals.

I enjoy freewares like Knytt stories and Vantage Master Online.

I even just spent two whole hours playing a flash game, Monsters' Den: Book of Dread.

All very different games representing very different things, but all having in common the great direction, proper focus, and absolutely fantastic usage of the respective low end systems, the developers' own limited resources, or both.

This game does none of that and looks absolutely awful despite Nintendo's seemingly limitless resources and despite the fact they could easily reuse assets from older pokemon games like the N64's Stadium or Snap, providing low end but still attractive and stylish visuals.

Even the rendering looks off making the Miis look worse than in their channel or Wii Sports. Excuses of the "but it had to be small size" type don't work either when there are Virtual Console games which offer a lot more and even WiiWare titles like My Life as a King being packed with much better directed content.

Dismissing everyone who doesn't enjoy what is offered here as a graphics whore is moronic to say the least.

Al3xandr0s

I agree that Pokemon Ranch looks bad but really, I can't help but be impressed that you can have up to a thousand pokemon on screen at once, plus however many Miis are visiting the ranch.

DarkLinkinfinite

Pokemon Thousand Island.

That's probably already a game, with lots of travel to small bits of land surrounded by water to get all yer pokymans.

Evil Tortie's Mom

@mariogalaxyman: If Pokémon Ranch was 300 blocks, you'd all be bitching about the size of the game and how the Wii doesn't have any storage.

@Shiryu: Oh, excuse me. Bitching MORE.

spiderweb1986

Man, what a horrible waste of resources. Craptastic indeed.

Booji-Boy

@Al3xandr0s: Bingo. It's not *just the graphics*. It's the way the graphics represents the entire package.

This game makes it look like Nintendo said: "Here's a big flaming pile of crap that has Mii's and Pokemon. Let's charge $10 and see who bites."

That's unacceptable.

antialias02

@Booji-Boy: Says you.

Ashkihyena

@antialias02: think of it this way. the game had to fit inside a tiny 58 or something megabyte size and still have a model for each of the 451 pokemon. and damned if they don't include shiny models and gender models. so what exactly are you complaining about?

thejakeman: probably disagrees with you

@Zaos: what's that? there are new games for the wii every week? more than 5 at a time? wow... maybe i'll upgrade from my gamecube.

thejakeman: probably disagrees with you

@mariogalaxyman: Here's a really easy way to defend the game's look: it's stylized. And it is, clearly. Quit your damn whining.

NighTrekr

@VioletArrows: Graphics fanboys? It looks like an N64 game. No, it looks worse. There's no way to defend these graphics. They're not pretty, not artsy, not anything other than hideously ugly. They don't even look like the Pokemon they're supposed to represent.

@spiderweb1986: Believe it or not we're not all complainers, but when this atrocity comes along there's no way you can let it go without some criticism.

@thejakeman: probably disagrees with you: I would understand if this actually filled up the 43 MB/300 block WiiWare limit, but at 123 blocks it doesn't even come close, so your logic doesn't apply.

mariogalaxyman

@ all:

My first impression was, "Awwww... look at all the cute stylized pokemon!"

Whether this game is art or not is just opinion. The fact is that they need 493 pokemon models and they have limited space.

If they aren't stylized, then why didn't Ninty just take the Battle Revolution models and downgrade them? (I guess it might not be technically possible, but still.)

Mrevilbobguy

Mine was "neat, 3D pokemon for DS, shouldn't be too bad on such a small screen - bit bland background though" then I read more about it and came to the conclusion of my other post :P

Al3xandr0s

I'm probably the ONLY one who will say this, but that pokemon thing seems a little interesting. I'd really like to see how some of the massive sized pokemon or some of the legendaries on there.

KrelianAngel

Oh come on! Please stop changing the tag for Monday vc/wiiware update so I keep an RSS feed on it! I have your feed hooked up so that every Monday my Wii starts glowing and tells me about all the new goodness, but alas it seems to break every Monday as the tag has changed from "WiiWare Launch" to "wii update" to "Wiikly Wii Update" to just "vc update" to "Wii Downloadables" (without a "vc update" tag). Pleeaaaseeee make it stoooooppppp!!!!

slippyd

The Pokemon Ranch is a neat idea, but I'm not paying $10 for it. Although I'd love for all my Diamond Pokemons to be roaming around on the range...

dj_fantastica

I love pokemon, but it's just way too expensive for a simple ds-graphics-like Wii Ware.
Some time ago, when it was announced AND i tought it was for free, i got all excited about it. But now...

Nonononn