“You were right, Fido. That didn’t taste good at all.”

A recent WiiWare developer has emphatically ruled out creating further content for the service. Beamdog ported decade old BioWare shooter MDK2 to the platform in 2011, but as reported by Gamasutra, the studio has been repeatedly frustrated by Nintendo’s approach to downloadable games.

Beamdog founder Trent Oster revealed that it took nine months for the platform holder to approve MKD2 for release. “We’d get a bug, fix it, wait two weeks while Nintendo tested it, get a new bug, fix it, wait two weeks. After nine months from our first submission, we passed certification.” While he acknowledged that the process resulted in a better outcome, he felt that it should have been achieved “in a much shorter timeline.”

Worse yet, the game failed to generate any income for studio. Nintendo requires its independent WiiWare developers to meet minimum sales thresholds in order to qualify for royalty payments. Beamdog fell short of its 6000 unit target and thus hasn’t received a red cent for its work. Oster, who also cited the 40MB game size restriction as an issue, concluded that the Wii simply “isn’t a good platform for developers”.

While the likes of LostWinds and World of Goo have flown the flag for WiiWare, it has struggled to match the offerings of rival services such as XBLA and PSN. This is particularly true in Australia, where we receive only a fraction of the titles released overseas.

The toll increase didn’t go down well with the locals.

Kickstarter has hit it big. Thanks to Tim Schafer, developers have seen the potential in crowd funding and have flocked to the service. Being quite interested in the phenomenon, I’ve been looking for the right game to slap my hard earned dollars on. Well, I found it with Grim Dawn.

Grim Dawn is an action RPG being developed by Crate Entertainment, a tiny group of programmers and designers who used to be a part of Iron Lore. If that name sounds familiar, then you probably played their biggest game, Titan Quest. It was a huge hit on the PC and flew the flag for the genre while Diablo was having an extended holiday. It introduced a great mythical setting and some wonderful features that have since become staples.

The creators of Grim Dawn have turned to Kickstarter to fund the game in an effort to get it released sooner rather than later. Chasing a modest total of $280,000, they have already reached the halfway mark. As always, if you chip in, you get some nice rewards. For my $35 donation, I will receive a copy of the game, access to the beta and some in game items. It is certainly a nice bonus for my relatively small outlay.

If you, like me, want to see what these talented guys can come up with, head over to their Kickstarter page. Hopefully we’ll all reap the benefits with another great game.

Disclosure Policy for Kickstarter and Similar Programs: Black Panel staff and contributors will always inform you if they have backed the game they are discussing.

Presented in glorious alphabetical order, New Media: Retail Roundup is your indispensible checklist of the home console and handheld titles arriving in stores this week. What will you be playing?

MICROSOFT Xbox 360 Prototype 2

NINTENDO Wii Nothing 3DS Nothing DS Bejewelled 3

SONY PS3 Prototype 2 PSV Nothing

VARIOUS PC Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle * Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy * Nightfall Mysteries: Curse of the Opera

New Media: Downloadable Digest is your handy reminder of the downloadable titles released during the past week.

MICROSOFT XBLA Trials Evolution Games on Demand Kinect Joy Ride * NHL 12 * X-Blades

NINTENDO WiiWare Nothing Wii VC Nothing 3DS eShop Colors 3D 3DS VC Nothing DSiWare Nothing

SONY PSN Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time * House of the Dead 4 * Renegade Ops: The Complete Edition Full PS3 Games NHL 12 PS1 Classics Nothing PS2 Classics Deadly Strike * Dirt Track Devils * International Tennis Pro * Red Faction * Stuntman: Ignition PSV Titles Paint Park * Pure Chess Minis Defenders of the Mystic Garden * Floating Cloud God Saves The Pilgrims * Ikari III: The Rescue * Knight Fortix 2 * SAR: Search And Rescue

VALVE Steam All Zombies Must Die: Scorepocalypse  * Blades of Time * Deep Black: Reloaded * Dirt Mega Pack * Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet * MacGuffin’s Curse * Stellar Impact * Superborthers: Sword & Sworcery EP * Super Monday Night Combat * The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition

Welcome to The Black List, your one stop shop for the stories published on the site this week.

MONDAY REVIEW Street Fighter X Tekken > Capcom and Namco Bandai come together with the aim of delivering the ultimate fighting game, one designed to delight followers of both series’ while picking up new fans along the way. Capcom is no stranger to the crossover concept, with its characters clashing with those from Marvel and Tatsunoko for a few years now, but it has never been able to take on its chief rival until now. READ MORE

TUESDAY REVIEW Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City > RE: ORC will be remembered as a game of missed opportunities. Playing as the bad guy is always fun but this great concept is let down by horrendous AI, boring level design, average graphics and so many bugs you will be reaching for a can of Raid. Playing with others helps somewhat but there are hundreds of better co-op experiences out there so don’t waste your time with this one. READ MORE

WEDNESDAY NEWS Vale Jack Tramiel > The games industry has lost one of the greats. As reported by Forbes, Commodore International founder Jack Tramiel was 83 years old when he passed away on Sunday 8 April. Tramiel is survived by his wife and three sons. READ MORE

THURSDAY NEWS nanoBITES 78 > Troubled publisher THQ has confirmed that it will delay one of its marquee titles. Highly anticipated fantasy action sequel Darksiders II has been bumped from June to August. This is just one of the stories in the latest edition of nanoBITES, our ongoing feature devoted to small but important news items. READ MORE

FRIDAY JUST ANNOUNCED God of War: Ascension > More than two years after God of War III brought some sort of closure to the blood drenched adventures of Kratos, Sony is preparing to revive the series. The stylised (and not terribly informative) announcement clip appears to confirm that God of War: Ascension will constitute a prequel of sorts. READ MORE