Update: Turns out this is not the Pop I thought it was. See the bottom of this post:

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I just noticed this new soo-to-be-released Wii game on the BigW online store. It’s Pop!, a game I’ve written about previously being produced by Nnooo. Strange thing is, this game is supposed to be released via the WiiWare download service.I’m not quite sure what’s going on here … is Pop! going to be a dual retail disc / Wiiware release ? Is it not going to hit Wiiware after all, or is there going to be some kind of staggered release with an (almost) full price retail disc, followed by a cheaper Wiiware release ?

Alternatively, has BigW just got it plain wrong ?

Watch this space … according to BigW the release date is Feb 14th, 2008

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Update: A quick email exchange with Nic from Nnooo has clarified things … the Pop! in the BigW catalog is a different game, with the same name (apart from the “!“. Nnooo’s Pop has no exclamation mark). It’s actually the (much less cool) game known as Balloon Pop in North America. An unscrupulous company in the UK decided to rename Balloon Pop simply Pop! in PAL regions, creating a name clash. If this is trying to capitalize on the (pre-)success of Nnooo’s Pop, before it’s even been released, I think it’s a real indication of the anticipation for this WiiWare title. The “real” Pop, developed by Nnooo, will ONLY be released on WiiWare, will certainly be cheaper and by all indications will be a better game than Balloon Pop.

Another single release this week - Lords of Thunder from the Turbo Duo (listed in the Turbografx-16 section in the Virtual Console store, like all Turbo Duo games). Not to be confused with Gate of Thunder, another previously released Turbografx shooter, which also associates itself with the sound produced by a large static electrical discharge, for no apparent reason.

Yup, it’s another shooter with a high quality soundtrack. I prefer my shooters to involve spaceships rather than flying fantasy guys …. not that it should really make any difference.

Every tried pulling off the Ryu’s Dragon Punch (aka Shoryuken ???) using the Classic Controller ? Ah ha … not an easy feat.

Yeh, okay maybe I’m just hopeless at Street Fighter II … but surely I’m not the only one that finds these moves tough with the Classic Controller. There is a good reason for this (apart from my lame lack of l33t gaming sk1llz) … these are arcade games, designed for arcade controllers.

To the rescue: the (officially licensed) Hori Wii Fighting Stick!!

Yup, it’s one of those arcade style controllers with a little “Chup’a'chup” joystick and 6 big mashable buttons. Looks pretty solid, and the reviewers think so too. You can get ‘em at Amazon for USD$ 42.99 which is a decent deal if you ask me (or about AUD$47.40 , not including postage. Gotta love that exchange rate).

Check out the review at Cubed3. There is currently one favorable review at Amazon too.
(Via the ever vigilant Go Nintendo)

Again, this week we got just a single release to the Australian Virtual Console shop: The Adventures of Lolo 2, originally released on the NES. It’s a puzzler.

The Adventures of Lolo 2 (NES)

This game could have easily been titled “More levels for Lolo“, since it is essentially identical to the first Adventures of Lolo, with different puzzles.

If you are unfamiliar with the Lolo series (Eggerland in Japan), you can see if the gameplay is your thing by testing The Adventures of Lolo 1, 2 and 3 on vNES.