Nintendo Download Update: Whoa Nelly!

The Ware services are a little bare this week, but the Virtual Console brings in quite a groovy game

Excitebike: World Rally didnt make it this week, and there arent really any new exciting games for WiiWare. Happy Holidays: Christmas is just like the previous game in the series—Happy Holidays: Halloween—and lets you send and receive e-cards, this time obviously for Christmas. We dont see why you would pay $7.50 (500 points) for something you could do for free from your browser, but whatever floats your boat.

GameOn have also released Mahjong, guess what you do in it? Its only 500 points, so its worth giving a go if youre into that sort of thing.

As is all too common, only one Virtual Console title arrived, but it probably overshadows the rest of the releases. Earthworm Jim 2 for the Megadrive, at the usual price of 800 points, again follows the titular character as he tries to rescue Princess Whats-Her-Name, who somehow managed to survive a cow dropping and lava from the first game. This time, though, Jim gets help from Snott, who sits in his backpack and helps him with all sorts of powers. Definitely worth a go if you enjoyed the quirky humour of the first game.

Developers just dont seem to think many of their DSiWare games would be profitable enough here to cover an OFLC rating, as this time we get three out of the four releases made available to Europe. EA brings us Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes, a platformer/puzzle game that centres around the mechanic of placing your face on the main character via the DSis cameras. The microphone is also put to good use, as you can record the sound clips for some of the characters actions. It sounds like quite an amusing way to spend 800 points.

The second entry of the myNotebook "trilogy," Red, is also out today from the awesome Aussie developers responsible for the Pop series, Nnooo. As you might have guessed, the only difference between this one and the Blue version released two weeks ago is the colour. Unless youre holding out for the last version, Green, 200 points for a handy notebook function seems like a good deal.

The last game we get is yet another part from the Master of Illusion DS game. Master of Illusion Express: Matchmaker has you paying $3 (200 points) for two more tricks you can do from your DSi. Even with a cheap price like that, if youre at all interested you should probably give the retail game a go instead.

That game we missed out on? Just SING! Christmas Songs, a karaoke game featuring Jingle Bells and Silent Night. This seems like it is a series, so the fact we didnt get this one doesnt give us much hope for any future releases heading here.