Wii Play

Wii arrived this afternoon. Looking forward to some retro-goodness (via Virtual Console) from this coming Friday.

UK Virtual Console releases, December 15:

Urban Champion (NES)
Solomon's Keys (NES)
Pinball (NES)
Columns (Mega Drive)
Gunstar Heroes (Mega Drive)
Ristar (Mega Drive)
Dr. Robotonik's Mean Bean Machine(Mega Drive)
Alien Crush (Turbografx)

UK Virtual Console releases, December 22:

Donkey Kong Jr. (NES)
Soccer (NES)
Tennis (NES)
Space Harrier II (Mega Drive)
Toe Jam & Earl (Mega Drive)
Military Madness (Turbografx)

UK Virtual Console releases, December 29:

Baseball (NES)
Ice Hockey (NES)
SimCity (SNES)
Super Probotector (SNES)
Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
R-TYPE (Turbografx)

Papier Mâché

Mario, the diminutive icon of Nintendo Nation, has endured in various guises over the past two decades. From humble beginnings in Donkey Kong to pole position brand, the Italian plumber has courted career success. To my shame (as an avid part-time gamer) I've only recently discovered (read as a happy accident whilst trading-in my console kit) the delights of Paper Mario (2001)!

A loose sequel to Super Mario RPG, Paper adopts a uniquely stylized pop-up book aesthetic. As a child I fondly recall a fascination with this literary tradition and it's an unabriged pleasure to see it implemented in a modern visual medium. The 2/3-D presentation and predictable narrative premise - King Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach - belies richly rewarding RPG gameplay. Fans of Final Fantasy would be remiss to overlook this adventure!

Yesterday's P2P post was prescient! The code for the French retail release of Halo 2 is apparently online sans Xbox live.