Nintendo has updated its eShop with a variety of new digital releases for its Wii U console, including an HD upgrade for its classic action-RPG The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and a little-seen SNES spinoff in Namco’s Pac-Man series.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD updates Nintendo’s 2006 Wii launch title with a number of additions and improvements, including higher-resolution textures, faster character transformations, and a new “Ghost Lantern” item that eliminates much of the tedium associated with one of the game’s more infamous sidequests.
Twilight Princess HD also arrives at retail this week in a boxed edition that includes an amiibo figurine featuring protagonist Link in his wolf form and companion character Midna. Players can scan the amiibo using the Wii U’s GamePad in order to unlock “a brand-new set of challenges you’ll take on as Wolf Link.”
This week’s launch of Twilight Princess HD follows up on a similar remake for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker released exclusively for the Wii U in 2013.
Also arriving on the Wii U eShop this week is Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, a Virtual Console adaptation of Namco’s 1994 adventure game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Pac-Man 2 shifts away from the series’ arcade origins, offering up a side-scrolling adventure in which players guide Pac-Man through multiple gameplay chapters.
In an unusual twist, Pac-Man 2 does not grant players direct control over Pac-Man himself. Instead, players can issue commands and direct Pac-Man’s attention to specific spots in his surrounding environment in order to solve puzzles and progress through tricky level layouts. Pac-Man’s mood also plays a significant role in how gameplay unfolds, and player actions can impact how the character reacts to his surroundings.
Other Wii U eShop releases for this week include the zombie-themed first-person shooter Chasing Dead and Street Rivals, a one-on-one, weapons-based fighting game. Nintendo 3DS owners, meanwhile, can expect to see the block-breaking action game The Hand of Panda and the escape-the-room puzzler Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas.
