Five Recommended Upcoming WiiWare Games

Up to now, the Wii has lacked an online game store to match those of its siblings, the Xbox 360 and the PS3. But WiiWare has finally launched in North America after surfacing in Japan back in March. Here are five games to keep an eye on over the next few months.

LostWinds
Frontier Development
Expected release: Out now
ESRB: Everyone
Cost: 1000 Wii points

This luscious 2D platformer gives you control of Toku, a little boy charged with saving the world from evil, and Enril, Toku’s wind-spirit sidekick. Toku walks and jumps like any other platform hero, but you direct Enril with the Wiimote, giving Toku helpful gusts of wind to leap over gaps and obstacles, and even make him fly in loop-de-loops.

Defend Your Castle
XGen Studios
Expected release: Out now
ESRB: Everyone
Cost: 500 Wii points

This popular web-based Flash game has been completely remade for the Wii. As the title suggests, the goal is to keep pesky stick-figure barbarians from destroying your castle – mostly by tossing them into the air and letting gravity take its course. The Wii version promises four-player co-operative play and a crayon-drawing visual aesthetic, which should attract even veteran defenders.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Square Enix
Expected release: Out now
ESRB: Everyone
Cost: 1500 Wii points

Though it bears the name Final Fantasy, this installment of the Crystal Chronicles offshoot series isn’t a role-playing game, but a cute fantasy-realm SimCity. It’s your job to build an empire worthy of a king by constructing buildings, attracting residents, and sending soldiers on quests. It’s the most expensive Wiiware offering, but the Final Fantasy name should bring in lots of gamers regardless.

World of Goo
2D Boy
Expected release: 2008
ESRB: rating pending
Cost: TBA

This delightfully bouncy physics-based puzzler asks the player to build giant structures made out of goo balls to funnel more goo towards the end of each level. Any proper engineer knows goo isn’t the most structurally sound of materials, so it’ll take ingenuity to build the various bridges, towers, and other contraptions it takes to beat each stage.

Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People
Telltale Games/Videlectrix
Expected release: First episode June 2008
ESRB: rating pending
Cost: TBA

Homestarrunner.com’s email-answering, boxing-glove-wearing, coolest dude guy ever will soon follow in the footsteps of Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho when the web cartoon celebrity gets his own episodic game series. Expect five episodes of adventure game goodness starting in June. Telltale is the company behind the recent Sam and Max episodic series on the PC, so you can expect some quality adventure gameplay.

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