Nintendo eShop Update: Mega Man vs. MotoHeroz

It's another light release week for Nintendo's various download shops, as only four new games have debuted today -- but strong quality should make up for lacking quantity. The September 15 eShop Update sees the launch of the highly-anticipated MotoHeroz for WiiWare, the debut of Mega Man on the 3DS Virtual Console and two more representatives for what have become staple genres of DSiWare -- tower defense and playing card conversions.

So ready for some reviews? Let's-a go!

REVIEWS

Defense of the Middle Kingdom

Tower defense continues to dominate DSiWare as Arc System Works andAksys Games have teamed up to bring yet another great example of the genre to the DSi, DSi XL and 3DS.

Defense of the Middle Kingdom is fun, focused and just the right degree of challenging. It adapts the history of ancient China into a cutesy-styled defense game, as you place chibi-looking individual commander characters (representing entire armies) onto a grid of spaces surrounding walking paths on the touch screen. Enemies will then appear in waves and follow those paths to try to approach your off-screen fortress -- it's up to you to make sure your forces are positioned well enough to repel their advances.

Upgrade, resupply and retreat options for your units are included and accessible at a tap (while time pauses for you to make your strategic decisions at your leisure), and you can also compliment your fighting men with environmental traps placed on the screen -- everything from toxic swamps that poison your foes to meteor strikes that fall from the sky.

Almost all of that is traditional tower defense design, of course, and Defense of the Middle Kingdom does little to deviate from the basic foundations of the genre -but what it does, it does well. I would have loved to see an in-game tutorial teach you how to play instead of pushing that responsibility onto the impersonal, text-heavy Operations Guide, but that too is a forgivable fault for how much fun you'll have once you get into the rhythm of the action. Tower defense fans? This is another winner on DSiWare. 

DSi Shop: 500 Points | 3DS eShop: $4.99