Wiikly Update: Bruiser & Scratch, Hockey Allstar Shootout, Sonic 2

Every Monday, Nintendo delivers the newest available games for download in the Wii Shop Channel. This week, Nintendo says "neither sleet nor snow nor ice-cold winter winds shall keep Wii Shop Channel users from enjoying the best new and classic games", and has delivered "harrowing puzzles, hockey pucks and a world-famous hedgehog in the latest downloadable lineup, providing red-hot gaming thrills to counter the imminent December chills."  Feeling a little bit warmer inside?  Read on for more details on each of this week's releases.

WiiWare

Steel Penny Games, the team behind this week's first WiiWare release, Bruiser and Scratch, was founded in May 2006 with the intent of creating "fresh, innovative, kid-friendly products with broad gamer appeal and a strong emphasis on high quality production values".  The Steel Penny Games team consists of veterans from Naughty Dog, the company most known for the Crash Bandicoot series.

Bruiser and Scratch (Steel Penny Games, Inc., 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Bruiser and Scratch are stranded in a strange world with a dark secret. Their only hope in finding a path home is to unravel the mystery of this place, one oversized puzzle at a time. Along the way, they make new friends and meet up with old adversaries, each of whom plays a role in their journey. Bruiser and Scratch offers a number of tutorial levels to bring the player up to speed gradually. The story unfolds over 48 puzzles and six landscapes. And for players who can't get enough, Challenge mode offers 75 additional puzzles that range from child's play to mind-bogglingly difficult.

Next up is Hockey Allstar Shootout from Canadian developer Big Blue Bubble.  Founded in 2004 in London, Ontario, Big Blue Bubble has mostly been in the mobile and handheld space, but in a 2007 interview with Gamasutra, CEO Damir Slogar stated the company is moving towards console development on Wii.

"There are several reasons why we started with Nintendo development. First, that was our strategy from the day one because my core team experience is from console development. Of course, starting next-gen or even DS project as small studio wasn't really feasible so mobile games were great way to kick start the development and start generating some revenues that will help us expand into the console space.

Also, in order to continue growth (we've grown at 100% per year for last 4 years), we needed either to expand our services and offer porting or start focusing on publishing aspect. Our passion was of course game development and in order to maintain 30 people studio (our size when we started DS development), we needed to find, pitch, negotiate and develop at least 12-15 games per year. In mobile gaming industry, this is quite hard."

Hockey Allstar Shootout (Big Blue Bubble Inc., 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Use the Wii Remote controller as a stick and take the shot as you compete in three exciting Hockey Skills Challenges. In Head 2 Head, it's just you versus the best goalies in the world in a five-puck shootout. Race against the clock to post the most goals in the fastest time. The three difficulty levels will place you against three increasingly talented goalies, each donning the jersey of their home country. In two-player mode, each player will take a turn as shooter and as goalie, and the player who scores the most goals in five shots is the winner. In Sharp Shooter, you post a high score in one of three difficulty levels by breaking as many targets as you can. Each time a shot fails to break a target, an X will appear in the upper left corner. Three misses and the game is over. Power Shot has you take your best shot and watch the Shot-Speed Clock light up. You have three attempts to blast the fastest shot you can, and only the best speeds will grace the high score list.

Virtual Console

Last up in the Virtual Console department this week we have Sonic The Hedgehog 2.  This is the 8-bit version of the game, developed by Aspect and released by Sega for their Master System and Game Gear formats in 1992.  This is not to be confused with the 16-bit game of the same name, developed by Sega Technical Institute in collaboration with Sonic Team and released on Wii in June of 2007.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Play the popular Sonic The Hedgehog sequel, made specifically for the SEGA MASTER SYSTEM. Sonic returns home to his island just in time to see Dr. Eggman (a.k.a. Dr. Robotnik) run off with Tails. In fact, Dr. Eggman has kidnapped all of Sonic's animal friends and placed them in robotic mind-controlling suits. He demands the six Chaos Emeralds, hidden on the island, in exchange for their safe return. Explore underground mine shafts, dash through underwater tunnels and hang glide through the clouds in Sonic's search for the Chaos Emeralds. Once Sonic's found them all, he must face off with the evil Dr. Eggman and thwart his plan for global domination.