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The WiiWare demo service arrives in Europe today, though a bit light on content compared to other regions. On the upside, both of the demos offered are for games that cost 1,500 Wii Points, which means you could save a pretty large chunk of change if you discover (somehow) that you don’t like World of Goo.

In terms of stuff you pay for, Shootanto is going to be totally overshadowed by Pokemon Rumble. DSiWare has a decent selection of games, including something that looks kind of like Defend Your Castle, a few card games, and myNotebook.

• Pokemon Rumble (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,500 Wii Points)
• Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem (WiiWare, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Army Defender (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• A Little Bit of … All-Time Classics: Strategy Games (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• myNotebook: Blue (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Uno (DSiWare, 1-6 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Demos: Pokemon Rumble, World of Goo (free)

European Nintendo downloads: Pokemon Rumble, Shootanto, demos originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 3:45pm by JC Fletcher
Filed Under: WiiWare, army-defender, clubhouse-games-express, dsiware, europe, friday, mynotebook, pokemon-rumble, shootanto, uno

The good news: no Boxing Day shopping trips are in store for European gamers eager to telekinetically grab Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. The (relatively) bad news: that’s because it’s coming out more than a month later. Square Enix announced today that Crystal Bearers will be available in PAL territories on February 5, 2010. As waits for Final Fantasy games go, it doesn’t seem that bad.

In fact, with the game being released on a normal day instead of the day after Christmas, maybe someone in Europe will notice its release — something we suspect may be a problem for a game that has been under the radar for most of its development.

Crystal Bearers dives into Europe February 5 originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 11:45am by JC Fletcher
Filed Under: europe, final-fantasy, final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles, final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-the-crystal-bearers, release-date

Namco Bandai declined to publish The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces in North America, licensing the game out to XSEED instead. However, the company is handling the game itself for the European release, due in February. The game is a flight action game developed by Ace Combat dev Project Aces, and based on both the novel and the Mamoru Ishii-directed anime film of the same name.

In addition to the game, the movie is planned for a DVD and Blu-Ray release in PAL territories at an unspecified future date (”coming soon”). That seems like a good idea — licensed games probably work better when people know what the source material is.

Sky Crawlers landing in Europe this February originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 19th, 2009 at 2:50pm by JC Fletcher
Filed Under: europe, namco-bandai, namco-bandai-europe, pal, project-aces, sky-crawlers, the-sky-crawlers-innocent-aces

Tecmo has just announced a spring release date for Monster Rancher DS and Again … again. But in Europe this time! Last week, Tecmo announced March release dates for the Cing-developed adventure game and monster training game. Tecmo Koei Europe has followed suit, though with a less specific spring release window.

Monster Rancher DS, of course, is a game about creating and training monsters — in this game, monsters are generated either by speaking into the microphone or drawing. Again is an adventure game about an FBI agent who investigates crime scenes in both the past and the present.

Again and Monster Rancher DS also headed to Europe originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 11:45am by JC Fletcher
Filed Under: again, cing, europe, monster-rancher-ds, tecmo

Europe’s totally awesome (and totally exclusive) VidZone service is finally expanding its reach. Sorry Americans, but this free music video streaming service isn’t coming our way. Instead, eleven new European countries will be able to join the party by year’s end. Here’s the roll-out schedule:

• Thursday 26th November: Netherlands, Portugal, Austria
• Thursday 3rd December: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland
• Thursday 10th December: Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, New Zealand

According to PlayStation.Blog, new users will have to wait upwards of 15 minutes when initially launching the service. Why? Apparently, there’s so just that much content to load when the application is launched for the first time. Each subsequent visit will only take seconds — good, because we’re confident you’ll be coming back for more.

VidZone expanding to 11 more European countries originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 17th, 2009 at 8:45pm by Andrew Yoon
Filed Under: europe, music-video, scee, vidzone