Nintendo was once again at PAX with a small booth, but this year, they weren't packing a ton of first-party titles. Instead, they chose to focus more on Wii Sports Resort, the Metroid Prime Trilogy, and a handful of downloadable titles and DS releases. Of those games, four new WiiWare titles were available at Nintendo's booth: Pokemon Rumble, Bit. Trip Void, Contra: ReBirth and Cave Story.
Here's a brief breakdown of each, starting with the game that came out today:
Contra: ReBirth
Released Monday on the Wii Shop Channel, Contra: ReBirth is pretty much everything you have come to expect from a Contra game: a tough, brutal title that might require you to have a second player to beat it, but one that offers a challenge and is a throwback to the games of old. The controls are straight up classic Contra, the graphics are a tip of the hat to Contra III, and other Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis titles like it, and there are a plethora of hard bosses and crazy power-ups throughout the game. ReBirth is essentially a console version of Contra 4, and mind you, Contra 4 was a wonderful title.
Perhaps most importantly, the game actually explains what a Contra is, or so I've been told. I never made it far enough to find out.
Cave Story
What started as a freeware PC game a few years ago grew into one of the most beloved free PC titles this decade. Cave Story was later announced for WiiWare, and a playable version was at PAX.
The core of Cave Story remains the same, with the only changes being a new controller (the Wii remote held sideways a la the NES controller) and buffed up graphics. The new graphics still retain Cave Story's original style, but there will be an option in the final release to switch back to the original graphics if you don't like the new look. Either way, it's still every bit as fun and challenging as it was when you played it on PC.
Bit. Trip Void
You'll notice a trend here, but Bit. Trip Void is a little more of the same from the Bit. Trip franchise. I hate to keep saying it, but it's true in this case, though less so than the first two games. Like in the first two games, Bit. Trip Void is a musical experience in an 8-bit shell. Unlike the first two, though, the game play is somewhat different. Sure, you're still trying to collect bits, but you're not using bars this time or limited to a certain plane of movement.
Article comments