Wii-kly Shopping List: Animal Crossing ... Calculator?

by: Cyril - posted: 5/6/2009 8:20:00 AM

Lately Nintendo has spent a lot of time trying to convince people that video game consoles are about more than just video games.  Their recent output has seen a Wii scale attachment and a game where you mimic playing music.  They've done such a good job at redefining what a "game" is that sometimes I completely forget to have fun.  Apparently this week Nintendo decided that the Nintendo DSi shouldn't be left out in the cold when it comes to these non-game games.  You see, this week DSi owners score two brand new Animal Crossing games.  Unfortunately neither of them are actually "games," but rather applications that you can use to tell time and calculate figues.  That's right, the Nintendo DSi is now able to run Animal Crossing: Calculator and Animal Crossing: Clock, both for $2 (200 Nintnedo Points).  No, I'm not joking.

On the Virtual Console side we get Tower Tappler, the 22 year old action game for the Commodore 64.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure Tower Tappler is a perfectly fine game, but if Nintendo expects this to hold us over until next week, then they have another thing coming.  This is yet another shallow C64 games, more proof that Nintendo should think about releasing two or three C64 games at once.  Tower Tappler retails for a whopping $5 (500 Nintendo points).  This may not sound like much, but I have a hunch you'll change your mind when you actually start playing this ancient game.

Finally we get a little something called Penguins & Friends -- HEY! That's My Fish!  You read that right, that's the full title.  This is an action game that requires you to feed fish to your penguin friends.  This four-player game requires some skill and a lot of patience, but it may just be the best game released this week.  On the other hand, I really don't care much for the name.  More than one exclamation mark just seems excessive.  You can pick up a penguin for $8 (800 Nintendo points).  Find out what I think of all four of these games (or non-game games, as the case may be) later this week when I upload my Retro Round-Up.