The lights are on
This week's downloadable offerings are enumerated and described for your reading edification and enjoyment. WiiWare plays hosts to a brand new hero in this week's release. Max & the Magic Marker tells the charming tale of a little boy hero and his adventures through his coloring book, along with the aid of a magic marker that lets him solve problems with his imagination. Sharing many commonalities with 5th Cell's Drawn to Life, Max is a simple platformer with some unique ideas. The game is all yours for 1000 Wii Points ($10), and is available now. Check out our full review of the game.
For gamers wanting a slightly darker tone out of their Wii purchase this week, WiiWare will also play host to Dracula – Undead Awakening. With machine guns, flamethrowers, and other weapons, you'll take out the forces of the undead for 1000 points ($10) on Wii. Want a portable option? The game is also available on DSiWare this week for 500 points ($5).
While we don't always highlight Virtual Console releases here, it's also worth nothing that Final Fantasy II is arriving to the Wii this week. 800 points ($8) will buy you one of the best-loved early console RPGs. The game, which released on SNES as Final Fantasy II, was actually the fourth installment of the long-running series. Collectors have been known to pay large sums for the original cartridges - the Virtual Console version delivers the same fateful journey for a much more reasonable price tag.
Xbox Live Arcade continues its focused push for March with the release of Scrap Metal. Slick Entertainment's car combat game mixes the old school charm of R.C. Pro-Am with the explosive destruction of Twisted Metal. As you upgrade cars and compete in races and arenas, this top down action/racer aims to deliver adrenaline-fueled driving, both on and offline. The game releases tomorrow, March 10. Tickets to the destruction derby will put you back 1200 Microsoft points ($15). Our full review of the game will be available later this week.
After his recent debut on the Wii, Mega Man 10 is moving on to PlayStation Network this week. Thursday, March 11th will find the blue bomber shooting his way through Dr. Wily's nefarious new robot masters. You can join him for $9.99, or check out our review of the game right here.
In addition, a late announcement last week brought news of the second episode of Topatoi releasing on PlayStation Network. The game has players navigating a gyroscopic top as it spins its way through puzzles and platforms. The second episode requires the first episode to play – the original installment and the new expansion each cost $7.99. Are you enjoying Microsoft's block party month so far? On which system will you play Mega Man 10? Any other titles catch your eye this week?
Email the author Matt Miller, or follow on Game Informer.
The marker game looks interesting and same with the others. I was a fan of N+ but Slick's new game looks good, but for 15 bucks? Hmm
Looks like a cool week for downloadable games.
that last one looks dope
I will be getting Mega Man 10 on my ps3. I loved Mega Man 9 but hated using the XboX 360 controller.
Megaman looks like an interesting title.
Scrap Metal looks interesting. The fact that it's made by the people who made N+ gets my attention, but then again it's a racing game, which I'm not that into.
Topatoi looks fun too. Wish I had a PS3 to try it out with.
Was it the second Final Fantasy in America
@TheClassyOne - Yes, It was Final Fantasy II in America but actually the fourth game. So as not to confuse fans, when the game was brought to America, it was decided to call it Final Fantasy II since the real FFII and FFIII had not been brought over from Japan. Unfortunately, it just made things more confusing later on.
Topatoi looks cool, but no ps3 for me. Plus, you have to buy the first to play it. Seems like a waste if it sucks.
Yeah so far all the "Block Party" games look pretty good.
Toy Soldiers is pretty sweet and provides some tower defense that makes more sense to me than most tower defense games. For example, the choke points don't seem arbitrary as in some tower defense games; likewise the placement of various units makes sense both tactically and historically/realistically. This is because the field of play resembles real trench warfare battlefields instead of little mazes for enemies to just get slaughtered in. While some of the controls are a bit odd, controlling the different static units is pretty fun and I really enjoy flying around the Sopwith Camels.
Scrap Metal is looking pretty good; some other forum sites were going off about how it was a Twisted Metal ripoff, but it looks to be a racing title with some weapons thrown in for good measure. With the design of the tracks it reminds me more of the old top-down Offroad titles (again, w/weapons thrown in). It looks pretty solid really, and as others have said, the involvement of the N+ team is promising (it has another dev's name tied to the XBLA version, but they are just the ones who ported it to the various platforms).
And of course there's Perfect Dark, which is a must buy for many folks, me being one of them.
So this is the first one of these promotions where I'm thinking I will actually pick up all the titles involved; also while the 400 MS points is somewhat laughable, the free month of Live added to the bundle makes the deal a little better. At any rate I likely would have bought at least TS and PD anyway, with more of a wait and see approach for SM (although the more I see of it in vids, the better it's looking).
Sorry about the 2x, but I thought I'd mention, for those who are into that sorta thing:
Toy Soldiers has avatar rewards, which for some is an added value, and is neat at any rate (always cool to get some unique gear w/o having to buy it outright).
No XBLA buys for me this week.
That Dracula game looks kinda bad assed.
I want more Orange box content! Pc has 3x the maps and new weapons on TF2! Not fair!