European WiiWare launch line-up
Eight games, but not all on 20th May.
Nintendo has announced the European WiiWare launch line-up, which is headlined by LostWinds from Frontier and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King by Square Enix.
Yesterday saw the launch of the US WiiWare service, featuring six titles, but we actually get eight in Europe on 20th May, missing out on the US' Defend your Castle and V.I.P Casino: Blackjack but gaining Dr. Mario & Germ Buster from Nintendo, Pirates: The Key of Dreams from Oxygen Interactive, Star Soldier R from Hudson and Toki Tori from Two Tribes.
Update, 12.05pm: Nintendo has been in touch to say "not all eight titles will be immediately available from the May 20th launch date". The wording in the press release was, "From 20th May onwards a whole host of brand new creative games from developers across Europe and the rest of the globe become available, including..." followed by a list. We've asked Nintendo to clarify which ones will be out when.
All the games will be sold through the Wii Shop, as with Virtual Console titles, and while official European pricing did not accompany Nintendo's release, we've put in a request for details and filled in the blanks using US and Japanese pricing in the list below. In other words, the prices listed may be different but probably aren't.
The European WiiWare launch line-up:
- Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (Nintendo) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix) - 1500 Wii Points (GBP 10.50 / EUR 15)
- LostWinds (Frontier) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)
- Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen)
- Pop (Nnooo) - 700 Wii Points (GBP 5 / EUR 7 approx)
- Star Soldier R (Hudson) - 800 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)
- Toki Tori (Two Tribes)
- TV Show King (Gameloft) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)
Check out our LostWinds review for more on that one, and look out for hands-on and reviews of WiiWare titles very soon, or check out our US WiiWare hands-on roundup for more on a few of those. And yes, the service does appear to be called WiiWare here after all, and not "Wii Software" as we were told last year.