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.

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.

This week the Australian Virtual Console store saw the release of Super Street Fighter II : The New Challengers for SNES (aka Super Street Fighter II in arcades).

This is the third version of a Street Fighter II released on Virtual Console … the other two being Street Fighter II Turbo : Hyper Fighting and Street Fighter II : The World Warrior, both also arcade conversion to the Super Nintendo. Don’t get me wrong … Street Fighter II is probably still the greatest fight game ever …but do we really need three different versions on Virtual Console ?

Street Fighter II : The New Challengers (SNES)

Compared to the other versions, The New Challengers gives you updated graphics and sound, a few new special moves, and four extra characters; Cammy (a Chun-Li clone with pig tails), Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Fei Long. The downside is that is isn’t as fast as Hyper Fighting … so the decision is tough. I already own Street Fighter II Turbo : Hyper Fighting, so for me the decision is easy; I’m not shelling out more cash for a slower tweaked version.

Shame there is no version with online play like the Street Fighter II version available on Xbox Live Arcade. But then, the lack of Wii titles with online play has become the norm … so I won’t hold my breath for that one.

This weeks releases on the Australian Virtual Console: Riot Zone (TurboGrafx-16/TurboDuo) and 1080° Snowboarding (Nintendo 64).

While I haven’t played it yet, 1080° Snowboarding looks like it really captures the feel of snowboarding. I guess we wouldn’t expect any less from the developers of Wave Rave 64, another game known for it’s great ‘feel’.

1080° Snowboarding (Nintendo 64)

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