The count is two WiiWare to one Virtual Console this week, starting off with the release of the mildly anticipated WiiWare title Pit Crew Panic from Hudson (800 points), which features a group of young women working in a pit crew, tasked with fixing everything they can get their hands on – sometimes even cars. Also hitting WiiWare this morning is Taito’s Space Invaders Get Even (500 points), in which the Space Invader fleet return to Earth for revenge, with you in the driver seat of a UFO, deploying units to crush their puny defenses beneath your heel.

If you’d rather stick with the older, more tried and true gaming experience, there’s always Metal Slug 2 for the NEOGEO (900 points) on the Virtual Console, this week’s oldest and most expensive offering. Not sure about the two new titles, but you can never go wrong with a bit of Metal Slug.

WII-KLY UPDATE: TWO WIIWARE GAMES AND ONE VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAME ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL

Dec. 1, 2008

After a long, lazy holiday weekend, it’s time to shake off your post-Thanksgiving daze. Need some suggestions for boosting your activity level back into the red? Let the latest additions to the Wii™ Shop Channel be your guide: Take command of a UFO in an epic space battle, get your engine revving as the leader of a frenzied pit crew, or storm the battlefield in a high-tech military mêlée. With all this excitement, you may be ready for another vacation day sooner than you think.

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™

SPACE INVADERS GET EVEN (Taito, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older-Cartoon Violence, 500 Wii Points): The Space Invaders are back, and this time they’re out to get even. Take control of a UFO and make those Earthlings pay by unleashing your fleet of heroic invaders against their puny tanks, fighter jets and artillery-but watch out for the massive boss awaiting you at the end of each stage. Use your invaders’ five attack types and the might of the mother ship to rack up high scores, then upload them via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection and see where you stand in the global rankings. (Note: Router and broadband access required for online play. For more info, visit www.nintendo.com.)

Pit Crew Panic! (Hudson Entertainment, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): Pit Crew Panic! is a frantic, action-packed game that unfolds on the racing circuit. During the game, the pit crew is not only faced with repairing vehicles, but also various WHATSITs. Handling the WHATSIT repairs is a pit crew made up of legendary beauties. The controls are simple: Just grab a member of the crew with the Wii Remote™ controller’s A Button, then release the button when the Pointer is over the damaged PART, and that crew member will begin repairs. Assign repairs to the members of your team and provide support using the Wii Remote to send a fully repaired WHATSIT out of the pit as quickly as you can. The game features Normal mode, which can be played using one of two rules: Abnormal mode (players split into two teams and compete against each other) and Ranking mode (compete with players around the world for the top record). Each mode can be played with a maximum of four Wii Remote controllers, allowing you to team up with friends and family. Your teamwork could lead to outstanding records.

Virtual Console™

METAL SLUG 2 (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, Rated T for Teen-Blood and Gore, Violence, 900 Wii Points): Released in 1998 by SNK, METAL SLUG 2 is a side-scrolling military-action game. Play800 ers choose from Marco, Tarma, Eri and Fio, setting their sights on wiping out Morden’s newly remobilized Rebellion Army. Just like the original METAL SLUG, players blaze a trail by shooting and jumping, but METAL SLUG 2 adds a new arsenal for you to command, including a heavy machine gun, a shotgun and even a laser gun, providing players with rich variety. Battle effects are packed in, as well-players turn into mummies after getting caught in poison gas coughed up by mummies. After picking up too many food items, characters turn fat, but they get an attack-strength upgrade. Two-player action is supported, too, so players can have a blast with their friends.

For more information about Wii, please visit wii.com.

These newly released screens not only feature more koala motorcycle, they also feature whatever the hell it is in that picture up top. I give up even trying to comprehend.

The “point” of this game is to have your team of pit crew girls fix up anything and everything that rolls into their station as fast as they can. You accomplish this by clicking on one of your beskirted girls and dragging the Wii Remote icon over the item to be fixed. The Wiimote will rumble when you’ve come upon a part that needs cleaning or repairing. Holding down B sends your girl over to that part and activates the motion-controlled part of the equation where you’ve got to perform some random gesture with the Wiimote so the girl will do her job faster.

These motions don’t sync up with any you’d make in real life to fix a potted plant – more often than not, it devolves into a waggle fest that could potentially injure any of your friends sitting next to you.

The game has two modes: a free-for-all “normal” mode where up to four players can pick up a Wiimote and joint in, or a 2 on 2 versus setup called “abnormal” mode. (Yeah, the names make about as much sense as having chicks fixing wedding cakes in a racetrack pit stop.)

I guess this game could be called fun if played with a certain amount of tolerance for the absurd. You can manufacture that tolerance with about six pints of adult refreshment or half a bag of pixie stix (take your pick). But ultimately, if you can’t wrap your head around the concept of girls in miniskirts fixing things that aren’t usually cars in a pit crew, you’d be wasting up to 1000 Wii points on this game (it’s either going to be 1000 or 800 – Hudson hasn’t decided yet).

Pit Crew Panic will be out in the “next couple of months.” Maybe in that time, they’ll add more cars to the lineup or possibly tweak the motion controls to make more sense. But even if they do, it looks like that toilet is here to stay.