Nintendo is up to its Monday-morning antics again, uploading one WiiWare and two Wii Virtual Console games to its online platform. The original space-based shooter Gyrostarr will blast onto WiiWare, while Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Burning Fight hit the Virtual Console.
Gyrostarr (1-4 players, 700 Wii Points) challenges gamers to pilot their ship(s) through a series of twisting, turning technoplasma tracks (whatever those are) while battling a variety of deadly alien foes at ever-increasing speeds. While fighting and maneuvering through 50 levels, players must collect enough energy to activate the ancient warpgate at the end of each track. If players fail to gather enough energy to do so, the gate will slam shut, destroying the ship. Each ship can be upgraded with weapon pickups a la Gradius, and ships can be controlled via the Wii Remote, Nunchuk or Classic Controller.
Meanwhile, Alex Kidd in Miracle World (a 500 Wii Point game that originally appeared on the Sega Master System, has players taking on the role of Alex Kidd as he looks for his lost brother. Players have to contend with the evil Janken the Great, who sends his henchmen and monsters to thwart players’ progress. To beat them, players have to play “rock, paper, scissors” against the henchmen. Seriously.
That game is joined on the Virtual Console today by Burning Fight, a NeoGeo original that’ll set you back 900 Wii Points. Released in 1991 by SNK, Burning Fight is a side-scrolling melee-action game in which the main characters are three detectives, each having his own special move whose destructive force actually consumes energy from player’s life bar. Luckily for the detectives, new weapons and additional health can be found by breaking things like phone booths and street signs along the way. Players can take on the gang with a friend, but there is “friendly fire.”