Revolution Portal: Because it won’t be televised.

The bad news is that there’s not a single Virtual Console title available in the Wii Shop Channel this week. 

So if you’re looking for a retro fix from Nintendo this week, you’re completely out of luck. 

However, there’s good news as well — Nintendo has unveiled the WiiWare channel that’s already crammed full with six new titles to chose from.  So there’s really nothing to complain about after all.

The six budget-priced games are as follows:

FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES®: My Life as a King™ (Square Enix, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 1,500 Wii Points): FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King takes a legendary franchise and launches it into the realm of simulation gaming. Players are challenged to rebuild a kingdom, leading its young king on a path of discovery through an adventure bristling with mystery and intrigue.

LostWinds™ (Frontier Development, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): A fresh, enchanting platform adventure that puts the power of the wind in the palm of your hand - from raging tornados to the gentlest breeze. You’ll wield your Wii Remote™ controller to power Toku’s jumps and glides, suspend and smash enemies, meet friends and solve puzzles using LostWinds’ novel, intuitive and playful control system.

Defend your Castle™ (XGen Studios, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - Cartoon Violence, 500 Wii Points): Defend your Castle takes place on a grassy plain surrounded by invaders. You are the commander of your castle, and it is your duty to fling the invading enemies sky-high, watching them plummet to their demise. As you progress, add powerful spells and upgrades to your arsenal for repelling the attacks. How long can you hold them off?

Pop™ (Nnooo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 700 Wii Points): Pop bubbles to score points and stop the timer from running out. Pop can be enjoyed by anyone - casual gamers can simply play to pop bubbles and keep the game moving, whereas advanced players will need to pick their shots rapidly and accurately and generate combos to maximize their score.

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack™ (High Voltage Software®, Inc., 1-4 players, Rated T for Teen - Simulated Gambling, 700 Wii Points): V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack re-creates the casino experience, with fully animated players and a realistic Las Vegas dealer. Single players can increase their bankrolls, while multiple players can engage in a head-to-head mini-blackjack tournament.

TV Show King (Gameloft, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): TV Show King transforms your living room into a real TV quiz show studio where you’ll face the challenge of answering more than 3,000 questions across six different categories. Compete against family and friends and use your Wii Remote controller in original ways to make it to the finals to see who can win the greatest amount of cash in one final, deciding duel. 

In 2007, Electronic Arts and Black Box unveiled Skate, which arguably surpassed the Tony Hawk series with its innovate controls.  

The game was a successful both commercially and critically, garnering an 86 average on Metacritic.

But it’s only been available on Xbox 360 and PS3 — both Nintendo platforms have been snubbed.  But Electronic Arts is making amends with their announcement of Skate It, a spinoff that will be released on both Wii and DS.

As expected, the DS version will use the touch screen, while the Wiimote will be the order of the day for the Wii.  But as an added bonus, the Wii Fit Balance Board will be supported as well, which could really put this one into the must-buy category if implemented correctly.

When asked by IGN why the spinoff is coming to the Nintendo platforms instead of just porting the Xbox 360/PS3 version, executive producer Scott Blackwood explained the reasoning.

“We know a growing number of gamers have more than one next-gen system and we wanted to make sure that skate fans who have already played Skate got a new, quality skateboarding experience re-imagined for their other favorite game systems… much like what the team sought to accomplish on the other gaming systems. It gave us a whole new challenge to take on and the opportunity to turn up the good even further,” said Blackwood.

No release date has been announced, but Blackwood assured the website that it will hit before the end of the year.

It’s pretty much a given that Nintendo has had tremendous success with all the major retailers, so now the company is looking to expand its presence to more alternative sellers. 

This is according to The Game Factory’s Damien Sarrazin.

“They’ve cornered the enthusiast retailers, the gaming retailers - the EBs of the world, the Best Buys. I think they’ve maximized the potential there,” he said in a interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

“There is nothing more you can do in the usual places where you would expect to find videogame hardware and software. So, the only way they can expand their presence is to access alternative retailers - and in order to do that, they need to come up with the right offering.”

As for The Game Factory, they’re now targeting an estrogen-based audience with titles like Zenses Ocean and Zenses Rainforest.

“After doing some research, we realised that there is actually a really strong share of the portable gaming market - more specifically on the DS - that is represented by female gamers…we found that the offering for females was very minimal.” he explained.

The two titles are scheduled for release in North America this October.

While the DS is still selling steady and has the overall lead the handheld race, Sony’s PSP has been doing quite well in Japan.

For the week of April 21 through April 27, PlayStation Portable outsold the DS by a two to one margin.  The exact numbers were 92,111 for PSP while Nintendo sold 42,435 DS units.

However, on the software side, Nintendo had the upper hand with thirteen appearances in the top thirty — and the software charts include all the platforms, including Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3.  To compare, PSP only had three titles that made the cut. 

Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure, Summon Night, We’re Fossil Diggers, Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage, and Beautiful Letter Training were the DS’ entries in the top ten sellers in Japan for the week.

Nintendo’s DS is not only a machine to play fun but nutritionally empty games on, but a learnin’ machine as well.  And with that in mind, DreamCatcher Games and JoWooD Productions have announced Drivers Ed Portable for the handheld.

Since simulating driving on the DS isn’t quite exactly like the real thing, this game will be focusing on the written part of the driver’s license test. 

But those exams are different depending on where you live, you’re probably thinking.  Fear not, for it include sample tests for all fifty US states, 13 Canadian provinces and territories, as well as Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

“Nintendo DS is proving to be an exceptional platform for delivering all types of content, not just traditional games,” says Brian Gladman, Global Product Marketing Manager at DreamCatcher. “Everyone needs to study for their driving test, and we’re confident lots of teens will enjoy having a fun way to study the material on a platform they are comfortable with.”