DSiWare

Art Academy: First Semester – 113 blocks
Oscar in Toyland – 37 blocks

WiiWare

–Mart Racer – 195 blocks
–Spaceball: Revolution – 315 blocks
–Texas Hold’em Poker – 308 blocks

VC

Crash ‘N The Boyz: Street Challenge – 16 blocks

Update: The official PR is in, and we’ve posted it below.

For some odd reason, Nintendo has decided not to issue a press release for this week’s Nintendo Downloads. However, you can check out what is available on the Wii and DSi shops below.

DSiWare

Oscar in Toyland
Art Academy: First Semester

WiiWare

Mart Racer
Texas Hold’em Poker
Spaceball Revolution

VC

Crash ‘N The Boys: Street Challenge

Nintendo Download

Spend a Revolutionary First Semester Racing From Texas to Toyland

Even if you’re no longer a student, the back-to-school season is bringing all kinds of youthful kicks to the Wii™ Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi™ Shop. The latest Nintendo DSiWare™ titles feature creative art activities and an imaginative, toy-filled joyride. Three new WiiWare™ games invite you to play cards with friends, dodge intergalactic obstacles and compete in wild grocery cart races. A new Virtual Console™ release even challenges players to partake in some heated high school hijinks. And no matter what your grade level, be sure to take advantage of this special offer: Consumers can receive 1,000 bonus Nintendo DSi Points™ by purchasing a new Nintendo DSi™ game system and connecting to the Nintendo DSi Shop by 11:59 pm Pacific time on Oct. 5, 2009. For full offer details, please visit DSiOffer.Nintendo.com

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Back in July, Nintendo made a new version of the Nintendo Channel available in Japan. The company was rather quiet about releasing it in North America, though. But there’s some good news today: The upgrade can now be downloaded. In case you’ve forgotten about some of the features from the update, we’ve posted them below.

– Entirely new interface
– Choose between high quality and regular quality when you first boot up the channel
– Create a favorites software list
– Recommend DS games
– View records of games you’ve played/records of recommended games
– View recommended ranking

– 1 GUITAR HERO 5 NEVERSOFT REDOCTANE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
– 2 COLIN MCRAE: DIRT 2 CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS
1 3 BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM ROCKSTEADY STUDIOS EIDOS EIDOS
– 4 THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND HARMONIX EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
4 5 WII FIT NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
2 6 WII SPORTS RESORT NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
6 7 IL2 STURMOVIK: BIRDS OF PREY GAIJIN ENTERTAINMNET 1C COMPANY 505 GAMES
3 8 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE INFINITY WARD ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
12 9 MARIO KART WII NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
5 10 ASHES CRICKET 2009 GUSTO GAMES CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS

First Major FINAL FANTASY Experience for Wii Available This Holiday Season

First Major FINAL FANTASY Experience for Wii Available This Holiday Season

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix(R) interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that FINAL FANTASY(R) CRYSTAL CHRONICLES(R): THE CRYSTAL BEARERS(R) for Wii(TM) will be available at North American retailers on December 26, 2009.

This latest installment in the franchise offers a fresh take on the beloved CRYSTAL CHRONICLES universe, launching the series into the action-adventure genre and onto the Wii system. FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: THE CRYSTAL BEARERS combines the storytelling depth, immersive event scenes and graphical quality of the FINAL FANTASY franchise with motion-driven gameplay and the ability to freely explore the game world.

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We’ve discussed Flowerworks in the past, but now the title has been officially announced.

http://www.flowerworksgame.com

Melbourne, Australia – Saturday, 12 September 2009 – Nocturnal is proud to announce the upcoming release of Flowerworks® for the WiiWare™ service on Wii™ system.

Under development for more than 18 months, Flowerworks combines flowers and fireworks in a groundbreaking action-adventure game, designed from the ground-up for Wii.

In Flowerworks, the player takes the role of Follie – a friendly (but confused!) alien who crash lands on the mysterious planet Elilia, whilst transporting a cargo of Flowerworks seeds to her Aunty.

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New Hand-Held Adventure Sends Mario & Luigi Inside the Body of Beloved Nintendo Villain

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Sure, he’s a villain, but Bowser™ is one of the most beloved characters in Nintendo’s imaginative Mushroom Kingdom. Now, with today’s launch of the Mario & Luigi™: Bowser’s Inside Story game for the hand-held Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo DSi™ video game systems, fans will get to know the cantankerous King Koopa inside and out — literally. The new game finds Mario™ and Luigi™ getting inhaled by Bowser, sending players straight to the belly of the beast for an outrageous hand-held adventure.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story lets players adventure through two fun and hilarious storylines at the same time, taking control of the famous Mario brothers and even Bowser himself. Not only must players control Bowser to win back control of his castle from the evil Fawful, they’ve also got to muster the guts to help Mario and Luigias they try to escape from Bowser’s body. Players can switch between the two storylines independently as they attempt to rescue Princess Peach™ and restore order to Mushroom Kingdom.

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Among all of the peripherals that have been released for the Wii, the “Vitality Sensor” is arguably the most obscure one we’ve seen yet. A device that measures your pulse? How could that be fun for serious video gamers? Aside from making sure you’re still alive, the possibilities seem pretty slim. Despite this sarcastic skepticism though, it’d be hard deny that there are options for the device. On one hand, it has significant potential for specific types of titles, but on the other hand, the most likely path Nintendo will take with the device will be one very similar to the Wii Balance Board: A couple of decent casual titles will be made, and then the company will  leave it up to third parties to support a gadget that they created. If Nintendo wants the Wii Vitality Sensor to be anything more than a device to attract sleepless moms, they’re going to have to do something to attract core gamers.

The Game: Eternal Darkness 2
Genre: Survival Horror
Use of the Vitality Sensor: Staying calm

The Premise: Now, I’ve never had the privilege of playing Eternal Darkness, but I’ve read more than enough about the game to know exactly why it’s as loved as it is. It uses fourth-wall shattering techniques to affect the player beyond the confines of the screen, and for that it was considered one of the most revolutionary games to hit the survival horror genre since the original Resident Evil. Combining what the game already had in place with the ability to read your pulse, and the game could, in theory, force you to keep calm or risk punishment. For instance, imagine that as your pulse increased, the screen would distort, causing you to lose focus and suffer the loss of the ability to see your enemies before they seek you out. This would add a whole new level to the game, and intensify the experience that was already so highly praised in the original.

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