The LoadDown - 12/07/2009

Once again we sum up what's loading down... lots going on this week, much of it worthy of consideration:

WiiWare -- 4 games this week.  My Dolphin is a more sophisticated take on the virtual pet, with players using the Wii Remote to "train" a virtual dolphin and indulge in additional downloadable content.  MAGNETIS is a fast-paced puzzle game involving exploding magnets.  Stop Stress: A Day of Fury is a first-person stress relief game, allowing the player to take a bat to various comical targets with T-rated animated blood and mild suggestive themes.  Flowerworks sends alien visitor Follie to redecorate the world. 

Virtual Console --  2 titles.  Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha 2 arrives in its SNES incarnation, one of the last of the series to appear in cartridge format.  And Sega brings the original coin-op Shinobi to the Virtual Console Arcade.

DSiWare --  5 titles.  Ubisoft's classic original Rayman comes to the DSi with colorful 2-D graphics and a lively score -- and it's a downloadable game, pretty impressive given its size, although it did appear on the Atari Jaguar in cartridge form once upon a time; this isn't just a port, either, it's been enhanced to use the DSi camera and touch-screen, with added bonus rounds.  Pop Island is a capture-the-flag game with local wi-fi multiplayer and demo sharing features.  ARMY DEFENDER is an action/shooting base defense game with Ikaruga-style target color sensitivities.  And then there's Ball Fighter -- really?  Oh, it's a puzzle game involving spheres.  Finally, myNotebook: Red, a followup to the very successful myNotebook: Blue.

XBLA -- Just one game last week, but it's a major title -- the original Call of Duty from 2003 finally makes it to console, as a downloadable game.  It's not as sophisticated as the later CoD games, but it's a worthy and substantial experience; it's not even old enough to qualify as retro.