Double WiiWare surprise today
But no Virtual Console games.
Nintendo has dished up two brand new WiiWare games, sticking to its Virtual Console one week and WiiWare the next rotation.
The first is Pokémon Ranch, "A place where Pokémon and people love living together," according to Hayley, the chirrupy gingham-shirt wearing vomit bowl of whimsy who introduces the game. Not my words, but those of Dan Whitehead, the man who will be offering the final say on these games as soon as he can.
Ranch is clearly an attempt to emulate the sort of success games such as Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon have enjoyed. The main idea is to import your animals from Pokémon Diamond or Pearl and then play with or take pictures of them in their misery. If you don't have the DS games then Ranch offers you a fresh monster to tinker with every real-time day. No levelling up, incidentally.
Pokémon Ranch costs 1000 Wii Points (approx GBP 7 / EUR 10).
The other game is Pop, where you pop bubbles. Point. Pop. Points. Rinse and repeat. Fun to begin with, but will it have any lasting appeal? Costs 700 Wii Points (approx GBP 5.50 / EUR 7).