Publisher: Big John Games
Developer: Zivix
Genre: Music
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Have you ever wanted to create your own club music mixes, but you don’t have the cash to spend on expensive equipment? Developer Zivix has made it possible with Just Jam, a music-mixing game/application for the Wii that gives you the basic tools and the sounds required to lay down your own jams.

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Publisher: Broken Rules
Developer: Broken Rules
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Nintendo’s WiiWare service has been a strange experiment. Sure, many people have taken swipes at Nintendo’s “two GameCubes wrapped in duct tape” approach to the online experience that nowadays even the most vanilla of mainstream consumers expect. But when they launched this digital distribution service shortly after the Virtual Console, expectations were high that this would be a venue on par with Xbox Live’s Arcade; granting smaller, independently financed titles a showcase in which to peddle their wares. And while there have been a handful of console exclusives that made a splash and really leveraged the unique control mechanics intrinsic to the Wii, such as World of Goo, too many weeks go by with middling shovelware pushed our way. With the release of the platform-puzzler And Yet it Moves hopes are high that this title will make its mark and compel publishers to push for further exposure on WiiWare.

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Publisher: Cosmonaut Games
Developer: Cosmonaut Games
Genre: Strategy
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Like the rushing hordes that dominate their play fields, tower defense titles seemingly spring up endlessly. That’s the world we live in – where services like WiiWare, XBOX Live Arcade, PSN and the mobile phone app environment cater to “a second to understand, a lifetime to master” games that tickle that itch for entertainment the casual masses seem to have all contracted in unison. And while the genre has seen some amazing addictions rise, with titles such as Plants vs. Zombies enjoying a flourishing life cycle, developers continue to plug away and feed that jones to defend one more tower. That’s the space Cosmonaut Games aims to explore in their new tower defense title, Inkub.

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Publisher: DreamBox Games
Developer: DreamBox Games
Genre: Action-Adventure
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

As a child of the 80’s, the particular brand of action-adventuring pioneered by the Metroid and Zelda series is melded to my marrow. The way to my heart is paved through a tricky expanse of puzzling caverns that can only be surmounted by locating mystic artifacts which in turn unlock new pathways. At least, that’s what I tell my wife. It’s a game design that’s timeless in its ability to juice our inquisitive nature – with each new power up offering a chance to finally get our hands on that precious missile expansion or treasure chest that once dangled just out of reach. And it’s that nostalgia that drives many indie darlings, including last year’s Super Metroid homage, Shadow Conspiracy, and one that developer DreamBox Games employs in their new WiiWare release, Robox.

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Publisher: Frontier
Developer: Frontier
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
Release date: Available now

Roughly halfway through this current generation of consoles, I can safely say that I have mined more entertainment and unique gameplay experiences from the bite-sized morsels available on the various digital distribution streams (such as WiiWare, XBLA and PSN) than I have from the mega-budget retail releases. Looking back over the last few years, my end-of-year Top Ten lists have skewed heavily towards the independent developers, with games such as Braid and World of Goo standing taller than their supposed big brothers. There just seems to be an air of creativity at the grass roots level that diminishes the higher you climb in the stratosphere, and while I’ll happily tackle the next GTA or Halo clone, my juices really start flowing when I’m adventuring through another finely crafted puzzle game. This digital revolution kicked off around the time the WiiWare service launched, featuring its greatest showcase title, LostWinds. Developer Frontier has toiled tirelessly for the last two and half years to finally offer fans their long awaited follow-up, Winter of the Melodias.

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Publisher: Ronimo Games
Developer: Ronimo Games
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Release date: Available now

If gaming history has proven anything to us, it’s this: Real-time strategy games on consoles have never really worked out. But sometimes, people learn from their mistakes. When I was given Swords and Soldiers, I was more than reluctant to play. My RTS background is on the PC; I was already a little biased to the genre. But you at least have to try things once, right?

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Review by: Andrew Clark

Birds are trouble seekers, plain and simple. Tiki the kiwi from The New Zealand story, Kazooie from the Banjo games and many of the other fowl in the gaming kingdom often find themselves in situations where they either cause or relieve a problematic situation. Take Toki Tori, for example, a squat, yellow avian with enormous eyes and a stubby pair of legs. Our winged hero wakes one day to find himself in the unenviable position of rescuing his wayward kin, who have apparently flown the coop, shell and all. What’s an avian to do to prevent his relations from becoming a tasty selection on a KFC menu? Perhaps a little puzzle solving is in order? Maybe throw in some gadgets and special powers to make things interesting? Let the egg hunt begin!

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Review by: Ed Humphries

One of the hallmarks of the current console generation has been the increasing dominance of games available via digital distribution. The Xbox 360 has reaped a windfall through the assorted classic arcade titles and original garage games made available on their XBL Arcade service, while the PS3 has opened their own storefront on PSN allowing gamers to choose from an original selection of smaller titles such as Echochrome and fLow. Up to this point, Nintendo had only weakly responded with emulations of classic gaming through their Virtual Console.

While the VC releases have gone a long way toward scratching that nostalgic itch, there’s something to be said (and money to be made) in providing a conduit for independent game developers to give gamers the types of experiences that don’t necessarily require $100 million dollar development budgets. To fill that void and to increase the competition in this burgeoning market place, Nintendo has recently launched their WiiWare service, which competes directly against the original content available via XBLA and PSN. Of the six launch titles that heralded WiiWare’s arrival on May 19th, LostWinds is easily the most ambitious.

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