Wii Ware to Host Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Pokemon, New Star Soldier, Demo Functionality

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Nintendo has been vague regarding the full plans for Wii Ware, its upcoming service for newly-developed downloadable games on Wii, but during its Conference 2007 Fall in Japan, the company finally laid out some of the planned initial Wii Ware offerings. The service is set to launch in Japan next March.

Among the games listed is Pokemon Bokujou (Pokemon Farm), which allow users to raise Pokemon they have caught in the DS offerings Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl, and raise them in a farm setting.

Also on tap is a new game in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles sub-series, exclusive to Wii Ware and distinct from the in-development retail Wii game Final Fantasy Crystal Chronices: The Crystal Bearers. Unlike the other released and announced dungeon-crawling Crystal Chronicles games, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Chiisa na Ousama to Yakusoku no Kuni (The Young King and the Promised Land) seems to be more about fostering a kingdom. The game's price is expected to be 1500 Wii Points ($15).

The continued announcements of additional titles in the Crystal Chronicles series--which also consists of the original GameCube game, the out-in-Japan Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates for Nintendo DS, and aforementioned Wii game--is further demonstration of publisher and developer Square Enix's current trend of not only growing Final Fantasy as a franchise but creating numerous self-sufficient spin-off franchises within the larger brand.

Apparently in the works is some kind of downloadable demo functionality for Wii, which online reports compare to the wi-fi DS Download Stations seen in many retailers--oddly, it seems unclear whether the announced service supplies Wii demos or DS demos, though the comparisons to the in-store setups suggests the latter.

Finally, Nintendo listed several other titles coming to Wii Ware: a rendition of its puzzle classic Dr. Mario; Star Soldier R, the heavily-rumored newest entry in Hudson Soft's long-running shoot-em-up series; and Namco Bandai's puzzle game Mojipittan.

This news was reported by Japanese publication Gemaga and translated by IGN.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 10, 2007 5:01 AM

    Great stuff to see. I think Nintendo can really learn some tricks from MS regarding how to use a living online product, but it seems like they're slowly adding it. And Nintendo does lots of other things well, I'm not trashing on them... but it's good to see them trying to be a bit more agile regarding small development.

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