Aussie emulation mash-up: May 19-23

The big news this week for downloadable games was Nintendo's surprise launch of WiiWare in Australia. Pricing for the six-launch titles ranges from 500 to 1,500 points (A$5.25--A$15.72). The games that were released on Tuesday are as followed: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (1,500 points), Lost Winds (1,000 points), Star Soldier R (800 points), Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (1,000 points), Toki Tori, Take 2 (900 points), and TV Show King (1,000 points). No additional WiiWare content has been released since the service went live on Tuesday. Nintendo Australia has confirmed that WiiWare games will be updated each Friday, as is the case with Virtual Console titles. Additional language support testing for other PAL regions is being blamed for Aussie-developed WiiWare title "Pop" being pushed back to an unannounced date. As a result of WiiWare's release this week, there will be no VC games updated on the Australian store.

The Penny Arcade guys have been mocking video games for years now with their popular Web-based comic. The two may get a dose of their own medicine soon enough, however, with the launch of their own game, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. When their hometown of Arcadia is overrun by a robot with a fruit fetish, the game's two protagonists and comic regulars, Gabe and Tycho, take it upon themselves to save the day and eliminate the fruit fornicator. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is the first of a series of episodes to be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace and will cost 1,600 Microsoft Points.

There are no full-games being released on the PlayStation Store this week; instead, four demos are being released. Despite the full version of the game going on sale several weeks ago, Sega's Iron Man has been released in demo form and weighs in at 946MB. There are also two demos for Everybody's Golf World Tour--one is the beginner's difficulty, and the other demo is the slightly more challenging intermediate mode. Lastly, if you need your portable gaming fix, there's a demo on the PlayStation Store for Ultimate Board Games on the PSP, which will set you back 22MB.