WiiWare

Yeah, it's a puzzle game.

It feels like an Xbox Live Arcade or a WiiWare game from back

then.

It looks more beautiful than the first one.

I mean, I guess-

What was it, the WiiWare game?

...

Castlevania Legends? Like, Legends? Would that be...

Yeah

...

the WiiWare game? I, I remember there was a WiiWare.

That's a remake of Castlev- Well, that, that would count, too, but it...

But yeah, there definitely is a lot of lost media when it comes to DSI, for sure.

Like the, like the WiiWare store and the DSiWare, all that, like, you know, there are tons of original games made for those systems that are just kinda gone now.

Like, I think there was, like, a Shantae game that was, like, a DSiWare exclusive, and then obviously when the DSiWare store went down, it just...

You, you couldn't get it anymore.

Yeah, they did a good job with that one.

Um, but just, yeah, the whole concept of Epic Mickey, you know, was so ahead of the curve with lost media.

I mean, in our intro, me and Brownie were just talking about lost media, like when the DSiWare and WiiWare stores went down, you know, all of that's, like-

Mm-hmm

That's ac- that's very true.

I remember something very similar happened when they shut down the, uh, the DSi and WiiWare stores, you know, when that happened, 'cause that was...

You know, it's, it's like a repeating cycle.

So, like, when they shut down the DSi and WiiWare stores, like, a ton of games that were, like, exclusively only available on those digital storefronts just kinda became obsolete.

They're like lost media.

Like, now obviously i- it's very easy to back that kind of stuff up and play it through an emulator or something, and there's tons of people who've archived plenty of those games thankfully.

Um, so that, like, that happened with the WiiWare and DSi stores I remember- And then, you know, kind of history repeated itself with the Wii U and 3DS eShops.

Especially the 3DS one, like there were, there's a lot of good stuff on there that was like digital only.

But because her passivity has engendered difficulties for her and maybe stunted her growth in a way that is almost equivalent to her brother's stunted growth, I enjoy the theming of this chapter a little bit.

I think that this chapter is also the strongest argument for why, of those that were made available in the West, the WiiWare version is the best version of The After Years.

'Cause you get the small sprites.

Because you get the small sprites, and you don't just get the small sprites, Crystal.

Yeah.

But it's also aesthetically interesting because Zeromus' battlefield in Super Famicom is, like, this really complex layer background that's constantly in motion, multiple backgrounds of stars and novae flying past each other like you're flying through the depths of space.

But in the mobile version, and translated directly into the WiiWare version, it's a static background, and it's much uglier as a consequence.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, um, I'd put up a few, but, um, uh, I, I needed to give one more.

And so I was looking through the episode list because I had just recently played Cave Story again as part of, uh, uh, the Retro Achievements websites, uh, WiiWare rollout.

And, um-

Okay

So-

I had no idea.

So when the game first kinda made the rounds in, you know, as a mainstream console release for WiiWare and, you know, then it went to DSiWare-

Right

Some of you might not even know what this game was.

This was a puzzle platformer game on WiiWare.

I believe there were two of them and you basically play as a puddle of water that evaporates to move its way through levels and then rains down upon the levels or can just slosh around like a little bit of water.

Dude, Fluidity is so good.

They should make another Fluidity game.

I don't know why they haven't made another Fluidity game.

That is like such a crown jewel of the WiiWare era.

I don't know why they haven't done another one.

Uh, we played, uh...

Did we all play the WiiWare version?

The WiiWare version is the shared version for this podcast, yes.

Okay.

So the chapters we played in, in sequence are Ceodore's tale, uh, Kain's tale, Rydia's tale, and we concluded with Yang's tale.

Now, uh, Crystal, the structure of the WiiWare version and all later versions is slightly different than the mobile original, right?

That's right, because originally Kain's tale was one of the later episode releases.

It released before the Lunarian's tale and after Edward's tale.

You didn't have Steam and viral games and things like that that you have now like Mecha Chameleon.

It was originally pitched for Nintendo's WiiWare service.

Technical and size limitations pushed it onto Xbox Live Arcade's Game Feast indie showcase instead, a shift that proved pivotal to its visibility.

Nintendo's online gaming thing and the predecessor Game Pass wasn't all bad, people.