From the team that brought you Paper Mario and Fire Emblem comes an on rail shooter that has you saving the world by shooting tin cans. No, seriously!

I love the on-rails shooter genre but, sadly, it’s one that has been lost in the rise of HDTVs. The Wii generation is probably the last one where we managed to get a good few of them on a console. This game is in good company, what with the likes of the House of the Dead collection and Overkill, Ghost Squad, Link’s Crossbow Training and the Resident Evil Chronicles games all being on the console.

The game consists of 3 stages, each harder than the previous one. You can’t play any of the latter ones until you have beaten the previous stage. The stages themselves last about 10-20 mins each but the second and third stages took me a few attempts to finish. There is a balancing act that needs to mastered in order to complete this levels as it’s not as simple as gunning your way to victory.

Your gun uses energy and this is displayed at the top left of the screen. Every time you take a shot your energy will deplete. Run out of this energy and the game will be over. In order to keep gun energy topped up you need to kill enemies and shoot the random cans that are littered around the levels. Once shot, these enemies and random cans will drop glowing spheres for you to collect. Getting a combo of shots on a can or enemy will mean they drop a greater amount of spheres. You then go all Luigi’s Mansion and use the Wiimote to suck them up but you need to watch the meter that will appear because holding down the Z button too long will cause the vacuum park of your weapon to overheat.

This sounds pretty simple but when things start getting really hectic on the laters stages you have to start juggling between keeping a combo going, shooting random cans and then sucking in the rewards.

At the end of each stage you will fight a boss. These are usually just masses of rubbish and cans that form up to produce a sort of giant robot/creature. These can be quite tough, especially if you are short on energy. It comes down to surviving the onslaught long enough until the enemy shows its weak spot. The bosses usually come with a few minions that need to be dealt with. While these can prove to be annoying they are in fact a valuable source of energy during these fights.

As I mentioned earlier, the game only has 3 stages and these can be done in a couple of hours, if not less. Once completed then the game will unlock and endless mode for you to play. This allows you to play through each of the stages one after the other, with your energy levels carrying over after each stage. As unlockables go it’s not exactly great but it does give the game something a little extra to play around with.

I do think the game could have been cheaper but it was certainly an interesting game to play, especially given the team that made the game have developed big games for Nintendo. Nintendo have a fair few teams/developers under their wing and it would be nice to see more of these kind of experiments hitting the eShop today. 




Price: 1000 points
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Shin'en Multimedia
Released: 2010

Fun fact: I have never played a game made by Shin’en. Despite them having a fantastic reputation for doing amazing work on Nintendo platforms, I hadn’t played any of the games developed by them. That changed when I purchased Jett Rocket. My eyes have been opened and I can see why the developer has been getting praise for all of these years.

The game starts off with your little spaceman (Jett) sitting on his spaceship, just minding his own business, when the Power Plant Posse attack him. The poor little fella ends up being knocked off of his ship and lands on the island below. Here we find out from a talking Dolphin (stay with me here) that the PPP are draining the energy from the power generators and it’s up to you to put a stop to them. Epic stuff!

You move Jett around the 3D stages by using the control stick. The Wiimote is used for jumping by pressing the A button, with motion controls being used for attacking and filling up your jet pack. Usually I dislike motion controls in games but with this I found them to be very manageable and not intrusive. There’s no really massive motions to use, so the player can just sit back and enjoy the game without having to flail your arms all about the place.

There are a total of 3 worlds to explore, each containing 4 levels. The worlds each have their own distinct look and feel. The first world has plenty of sun and grassy areas to explore. The second is filled with snow, which was quite a fitting setting given the amount the UK has received over the weekend. The third and final area is a jungle to explore, with many mazes to work your way through.

While most of the levels are about the platforming, there are a couple that add some other things into the mix. One of the levels has you speeding around a jet ski course that looks very similar to something out of Wave Race. Another stage requires you to use a parachute to glide over to a different part of the stage. You can’t help but wonder in Shin’en looked at the franchises Nintendo have abandoned and figured they would have a crack at adding Wave Race and Pilotwings into the own game.

Throughout the level there are little solar cells scattered around for the player to collect. The number to collect varies from level to level, with 100 being the maximum. I really enjoyed tracking these down and some of them do require a bit of thinking. If you are a seasoned platformer player then you will know exactly what to look out for. Enemies also drop these cells and sometimes you have to be quick in order to grab them as they can often fall off into the abyss which means you will have to start the level again.

The game has a bunch of awards/achievements to unlock and these add a bit of replay value and fun to the game. Some of them have you trying to finish a level under a certain time or without picking up a single collectible, while others will have you trying to avoid taking any damage. There’s no real reward for doing these but it is something I enjoyed going for. It took me around 4-5 hours to get 100% on the game.

This is a game that I really should have played when it was first released. I love these types of games. Yeah, they may be a little rough around the edges at times and lack the polish of Nintendo’s own platformers, but there is something very satisfying about playing them. It kind of reminds me of Poi, a 3D platformer game that was released on the Switch last year that nobody else seem to have played (great game, pick it up!). The fact that I really enjoyed this has now pushed me into looking into picking up other games that Shin'en have made and the sequel that was released for the 3DS. I’ve heard it’s not as good as the original but I’m eager to give it a go.

Price: 1000 points
Publisher: Frontier Developments
Developer: Frontier Developments
Released: 2008

Back when WiiWare launched this one my most anticipated game. I only bought a few WiiWare games during the whole course of me having a Wii and this was one of them. Despite loving the game back then I never did pick up the sequel. This is something I have rectified with my purchase on a new Wii.

As soon as I fired up the game I was taken back to 2008 when the game launched. The title song brought back memories of playing the game and finishing it in one sitting. I remember coming in from work all excited that the WiiWare service had arrived and I immediately downloaded the title. Does the game still hold up? Yes it does.

You start the game playing as a little guy called Toku. He soon falls off a collapsing bridge into a cave below him. There he comes across a shard that turns out to be a wind spirit named Enril. From there the two set off on an adventure to defeat Balasar. It’s not a very deep story but it has a certain fairy tale charm to it.

Enril grants Toku the ability to use the power of the wind and this is where the game controls come into play. You use the control stick to walk around as Toku but in order to jump and fly you will need to use the motion controls. Keeping hold of the A button and then drawing a line across Toku will allow you to float in the direction you have just drawn. This mechanic is a massive part of the game and allows you to explore the world. This power, along with others, can be powered up throughout the game, allowing you to reach greater heights, set things on fire and throw boulders through doors that block you.

The game plays like a Metroid game but without a map. You will have to try and remember where everything is and where you have been. Luckily, despite the lack of the map, this is pretty easy to do because the game is nice and compact, with each area having something to do or play around with. There are also villages scattered about the place that can help break up the exploring aspect and allow for players to talk to the locals and kick back and relax.

Relaxing is a good word to use to describe this game. The colourful settings (at least in the above ground areas), sound of the wind blowing and chilled out music is something to really appreciate when playing the game. Even the combat is quite…breezy (yes, I went there) and easy going, with players simply using the Wiimote to draw a wind direction and blow them away. Soundtracks like this where they use the “less is more” kinda of method are something I usually don’t care for. This was recently the case with BOTW, but with LostWinds it really fits the setting and mood of the game.

I haven’t played this game since I finished it all those years ago but the joy that it brought me back then still remained with me during this playthrough. It was great fun hunting down all of the 24 hidden statues, playing around with the various wind mechanics and just pausing my movements for a few moments just to listen to the sounds that were coming through the TV. It’s a short game (about 3-4 hours long) but it certainly has its moments. With it being a launch title for the WiiWare service you can see how optimistic many were for what would be on offer. I look forward to delving into the sequel and hopefully it builds upon the fantastic foundation that they laid with the first game.

That's the first wave of the games I've played. Like I said at the start of this, I'm hoping to keep playing more titles during the week and give me thoughts about them. Feel free to discuss any WiiWare games you are playing or looking to buy before the service closes in the thread on our forum.

That's it for the first edition of Remembering WiiWare which will hopefully return again very soon. So until then, don't forget to add some Wii Points to your account by 26/03/2018, enjoy whatever WiiWare titles you might be playing and Game On!