Finally on Japanese WiiWare

Next week's schedule is a little on the light side (though as with previous weeks it's possible that Nintendo of Japan is updating their website piecemeal) with only 1 new WiiWare release, a couple of VC offerings and a single DSiWare release.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (800pts - Square-Enix) is the sole WiiWare offering; whilst it may seem that Japan is getting this title last, it's worth remembering this was available previously as a multi-part mobile phone game so it's only new to WiiWare; not to Japanese gamers generally.

More Final Fantasy action is coming to the Virtual Console Famicom with Final Fantasy III (500pts) , which is hopefully pointing to the imminent worldwide release of Final Fantasy IV.

Namco's next Virtual Console Arcade offering is the excellent action-platform game Rolling Thunder (800pts) which originally graced arcades in 1986 and was distributed outside of Japan by Atari Games.

Wednesday will see the release of Simple DS Series Volume 1: Escape from Behind Closed Doors (500pts - D3 Publisher) -- this appears to be an adventure/puzzle game where the player is in a series of rooms for no reason they can remember and must look for clues as to how they can escape by selecting and using objects adventure game stylee. The bottom screen shows the room and the top is a virtual notepad where the stylus can be used to jot notes. A WiiWare version of the game -- the fourth entry in the Simple Series on WiiWare -- is due out in August for the same price.

Not to be forgotten are the two pre-announced Electroplankton Titles: Rekku Rekku (Rec-Rec) and Hikari no Wa (Lumiloop) which are 200pts each.