Monday Wii-ness: Final Fantasy IV, a magic marker and two Draculas

Aside from Sam and Max 2: Beyond Time and Space, there's next to nothing coming out for Wii and DS this week. Perhaps one of Nintendo's seven digital titles, two for WiiWare, one Virtual Console and four DSiWare, will offset the dearth of options. Fingers crossed...

Pick of the week: Final Fantasy II

Platform: Virtual Console
Price: 800 Wii Points
Players: 1
Originally on: Super NES, 1991

One of our veryfavoritest Final Fantasy games, the Super NES Final Fantasy II is actually the Japanese Final Fantasy IV. Rather than tweak the title screen and update the title, however, Nintendo and Square saw fit to leave the old, incorrect "II" so as not to confuse... wait, no, to re-confuse a whole new generation of players. We'll turn people away from JRPGs yet!

Max and the Magic Marker

Platform: WiiWare
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Players: 1

Having never played this, I can only comment on the super-cute screens and what's undoubtedly a gorgeous visual aesthetic. Gameplay revolves around drawing and scribbling various shapes and platforms, and as long as the Wii Remote functionality is well implemented, this should be fun enough. The best praise we've heard calls it a combination of World of Goo and Drawn to Life - in other words, highly creative with some flaws that are a direct result of said creativity.

Platform: WiiWare
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Players: 1

Billed a gothic take on the swarming gameplay of Robotron, Smash TV and Geometry Wars, Dracula: Undead Awakening should be plenty interesting. Then the early reviews started rolling in, plus the lack of multiplayer, so now we're not so sure. Note that we used a PSP screenshot, because Nintendo's press site somehow thought this was an appropriate image:


Above: Sold!

Drac's Wave War is also out for DSiWare today, with essentially the same everything. Somehow it's been deemed the better of the two, so if you have to get one, try the DS version at its slightly more reasonable price of 500 Wii Points.

Platform: DSiWare
Price: 800 DSi Points
Players: 1-2

More than 100 creatures to collect, card battles, strategy... things. You get the idea. Maybe there's more to this than I'm getting at first pass, but it's not exactly making a strong first impression. If the single-player quest is lame, maybe the two-player duels will be worth your digital cash.

Platform: DSiWare
Price: 500 DSi Points
Players: 1, but that's being generous

This is a book for kids. The title screen says "Too Ghoul for School." If this amuses you, ask your mom for five fake dollars so you can buy it. If you have any other reaction, then move on.

CATEGORIES
Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE. 

Latest in Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Futures Unwritten Ultimate raid
As Final Fantasy 14 raiders tear through the MMO's hardest duty with no healers and then no tanks, the community can only see this going one way: "Now it's time to clear without DPS"
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail cinematic screenshot showing Alphinaud Leveilleur, an Elezen boy with short white hair
Final Fantasy 14's funniest speedrunning beef continues as runner who lost a world record to its original champ in just 1 day returns, beats record, is promptly dethroned again
Final Fantasy 7
Sony finally managed to pry Final Fantasy 7 away from Nintendo thanks to a "schmoozer" of a former employee who hung out with Square Enix executives at his parties, according to one former PlayStation boss
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition
Square Enix kills Final Fantasy game's mobile version after being unable to "completely fix" a bug stopping fans from accessing their additional paid content
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy creator says the original JRPG's programmer was "like a god" to him: "I still strongly feel that the core program itself is the ‘life’ of a game"
Final Fantasy 14 producer Yoshi-P interview's the series' founding father Hironobu Sakaguchi
After 3 years of playing Final Fantasy 14 "almost every single day," series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi reckons the MMO "might be the game that I've played the most in my life"
Latest in News
Dragon Age 2
Veteran Dragon Age dev says one big delay is better than several small ones: "You are laying band-aid on top of band-aid on top of band-aid"
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Dark Souls 2 fans remind Death Stranding 2 director Hideo Kojima that he won’t be taking the DS2 acronym that easily
Minecraft Diamond Armor
Minecraft Pocket Edition got its name because one of its devs was a big "Nintendo nerd" who wanted to pay homage to the Game Boy Pocket
Death Stranding 2
Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding's themes of connection came about because "I thought I lost everything when I became alone nine years ago"
Monster Hunter Wilds trailer screenshot showing a young woman with long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail smiling slightly, pumping her left fist in the air
Monster Hunter Wilds' infamously confusing menus spare no player, not even Gemma's voice actor herself: "This is honestly what I’m struggling with the most"
Death Stranding 2 kiss
Hideo Kojima says "it was very difficult to direct" Death Stranding 2's big kiss scene, but Norman Reedus thinks "it was niiice" locking lips with Léa Seydoux