Nintendo Download Update: Pokemon, Uno, Demos and more

The Wii side of the update might be a bit empty with only two new WiiWare titles, but a couple of new demos were also added

Unfortunately, WiiWare makes up all of the releases for the Wii this time, but at least weve got a new Nintendo title. Pokemon Rumble is quite different to your standard Pokemon game in that it plays like a realtime brawler. You control a toy Pokemon—essentially just like a real Pokemon except that it needs to get wound up with a key—as you go through levels befriending other Pokemon in preparation for tournaments. You can control any of the Pokemon you collect—the game actually allows for a maximum of 1000 in your group—and each type plays quite differently. Whilst the general gameplay is a bit basic, in typical Pokemon fashion there are heaps of toys to find and train, along with extras like full screenshot functionality and four-person multiplayer. The price of 1500 points is quite high, however, you can try it out beforehand as Pokemon Rumble is the first WiiWare game to launch alongside a demo ready for download.

Next up is Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem from Hudson Soft, for a cheap 500 points. Its fairly standard lightgun fare, but with a twist: you start out as a monkey and gradually (or in this case quite quickly) evolve up into a human. The changes arent just aesthetic though, as your weapons improve as you progress.

Technically, we got another release today in the form of a demo for World of Goo, so hopefully that will get gamers undecided about the great title interested in trying it out.

Europe received four DSiWare titles this week but unfortunately, again, we missed out on one right now but a local release wont be too far away. A Little Bit of… All Time Classics: Strategy Games has made its way over here, for the franchices usual price of 500 points. We again receive five games—Backgammon, Connect Five, Field Tactics, Grid Attack, and Turncoat—from the retail DS game, 42 All-Time Classics. If youre only interested in these particular games, then this is probably a good purchase; if not, look around for the full DS card.

UNO also made its way here, two weeks after its near-identical WiiWare sister. Considering it was originally slated for a September release, there certainly hasnt been a rush to make it available. Apart from the obvious control difference, camera functionality is included so instead of picking a Mii in the WiiWare version you can use your own face. Were not sure if you can use the DSis microphone as you can for the Wii versions WiiSpeak support, but online is definitely still there. At 500 points, itd probably be quite a worthwhile purchase if youve got someone else to play with.

myNotebook: Blue is the first entry in the myNotebook series from Aussie developer Nnooo, makers of the Pop downloadable games. It is, you guessed it, a personal notebook app with blue styling, with two more colours on the way. You cant really go wrong with a cost of 200 points.

And that one game we missed out on? Army Defender from Mindscape for 200 points. If you took Defend Your Castle on WiiWare, gave it a modern army theme, nice pixel art and (it seems) gun aiming via the touch screen, then youd pretty much have this game. Its a shame we didnt get this today, but there is all likelihood well get it before years end.