DSI GETTING MORE DOWNLOADABLE ART STYLE, TETRIS ATTACK

As I mentioned earlier last month, one of the highlights of this Christmas was Nintendo dropping a free 1000 points on every DSi owner as they debuted Japan’s selection of downloadable DS games.

As predicted, I ended up picking up DSi animation app UgokuMemoChou, Utsusu Made in Wario (which I admittedly found a bit incomprehensible [I blame my bedroom’s poor lighting]), and Art Style: Aquario — the latest in developer Skip’s Offworld-favorite series of low-bit art games that’s extended back to the GBA’s bit Generations series as well as onto the Wii. As I’d hoped, Aquario duly delivered on the series’ promise of fantastically obtuse puzzling mixed with gorgeous plinging/acoustic music.

Now Nintendo has revealed the newest batch of DSiWare coming this Wednesday, and Tiny Cartridge does an excellent job rounding up the selection. Again it’s an Art Style game that’s singing its siren song, this time PiCOPiCT (seen above), a curious mix of classic Nintendo imagery and block/pixel puzzling vaguely reminiscent of Konami’s Quarth.

I’m not 100 percent sold on its mechanics: the seemingly staccato rhythm of the first bits looks like it’ll preclude falling into any kind of proper puzzle flow, but the Bowser boss (?) stage at the end seems to make up for it, and, best of all, music’s being provided by effortlessly charming chiptune group YMCK (who, coincidentally, have just released their latest album in Japan, Family Cooking).

Elsewhere, the service is getting a lite versions of Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League, and various other puzzle games, Solitaire, a metro/train map pack for a number of Japan’s major cities, and a cheap alarm clock that displays slide shows of your locally stored photos, which you can browse via the link below.

Full DSiWare catalog [Nintendo.jp, via Tiny Cartridge]