As promised, WiiWare has finally launched today. Wii owners can now head to the Wii Shop Channel and start downloading any of the six previously announced launch titles. With the launch of WiiWare, there won’t be any releases on the Virtual Console today, but the normal Wii-kly Update schedule will resume next week.

Only one of the six launch games matches the releases that Japan saw when WiiWare launched over there, so there’s a good chance you don’t know much about several of the games. That’s where Game|Life comes in, as they’ve posted a WiiWare launch guide which should be able to help you decide how to spend your Wii Points.

Be sure to come back and let us know what you think of the service and any games you buy.

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This Monday will finally see the launch of WiiWare in North America, and I have here the list of game’s that will be available on the service from day one. There won’t be any Virtual Console releases this Monday, but hopefully that’s only because of WiiWare’s launch; it’ll be nice to regularly get both new WiiWare and Virtual Console games in the same week.

On with the list:

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.

100 Wii Points translates to $1, so the math isn’t too difficult to figure out. I’m still trying to decide on what I’ll be buying (if anything) from this first batch of WiiWare titles. Does anything immediately catch your eye?

Well it’s about damn time if I do say so myself. I figured that Def Leppard, who pretty much dominated the 80’s rock and pop charts, would have appeared on Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80’s or at least showed up as downloadable content for Legends of Rock, but apparently Activision was saving the union-jack attired band for another game.

News comes down to us today, thanks to an interview with Rockline, that Joe Elliot and the boys will be one of the featured artists on Guitar Hero 4 when it is released later this year. I listened to this interview yesterday whilst doing a few things around the house and apparently I missed that little tidbit. Not that I am saying it isn’t true, I just did not hear that part, and if I had I would have jumped back on here to tell you about it.

The songs expected to be included are as follows:

• Photograph
• Rock of Ages
• Animal

“Animal” happens to be one of my least favorite of their hits because I think the lyrics are very silly, but I am not complaining because I am just happy to have any Def Leppard instead of no Def Leppard. It even makes me want to whip out my beat up Union-Jack muscle shirt, red parachute pants and high top Reeboks and wear them around the house. Yes, I wore that back in 7th grade for a while - wanna fight about it? It is not my fault really, I went to a catholic school up until middle-school and did not know that real people did not wear what your favorite bands did in real life - esp said outfit and being female. I was so used to blue plaid that I was completely out of touch with the world of fashion.

Anyway, enough of my rambling about silly fashion faux pas as a child.

When more information on this fun news develops we will be sure to let you know!

Thanks: Guitar Hero News

Well, this has got to be one of the clearest cases of the pot calling the kettle “black” that I’ve ever heard. After the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, proposed charging a fee to big stores that sell sugar-sweetened beverages, the American Beverage Association is trying to shift blame over to the video game industry:

“It makes no sense to single out any one single cause of obesity, which is a complex problem,” said Kevin Keane, a senior vice president of ABA.

Keane says that Mayor Newsom should go after the game companies for keeping children indoors and away from outdoor exercise. The American Cheetos Association could not be reached for comment.

Via GameRush

Jordan Mechner, creator and owner of the Prince of Persia series recently sat down for a Q&A session with Gamasutra.

Mechner is currently working on a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Disney movie version of the classic PoP franchise. He fields questions on the movie in the works including the transition from game to film and the new director on the project as well as revealing some intriguing plot details. The difference between writing for film and writing for games, the effect of the writers strike on his movie project and his opinion of Ubisoft’s remake of the original PoP for Xbox Live Arcade is also covered.

Read the full article on Gamasutra.