On the Download: February 19-25

We are only two months into 2012 and the games are just coming at both retail and in the downloadable space.  It is truly incredible and there are more coming very soon.  As I eagerly wait for more 3DS Virtual Console games and Mass Effect: Infiltrator, more downloadable games have just been announced.  Nintendo just announced that Game Gear games are coming to the 3DS Virtual Console in the coming months, Sega just released the first gameplay trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II and also announced Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio for XBLA and PSN.  While last week's edition of On the Download was full, not so much this week, but there are two big games to talk about.  So let us get going.

As the second game in Microsoft's XBLA House Party, Alan Wake's American Nightmare looks to bring in fans of the original 2010 Xbox 360 release.  Before you start thinking that American Nightmare is basically Alan Wake 2, it is not.  American Nightmare is it's own independent story set in the Alan Wake universe.  Our titular character, Alan Wake is trapped in an episode of Night Springs that he wrote.  Alan must figure out what in this world is reality and what is fiction while fighting against the forces of the dark and searching for his evil doppelganger, Mr. Scratch.  Other than the story, not much has been changed with the gameplay for American Nightmare.  American Nightmare also includes a multiplayer mode called Fight Till Dawn, which is a wave defense mode much like Gears of War's Horde mode where you have to survive 10 minutes fighting off waves of enemies.  For those interested in Alan Wake's American Nightmare, you can pick it up for 1200 Microsoft Points.

After the critical success of Pushmo and Sakura Samurai, many are looking to Dillion's Rolling Western, Nintendo's newest 3DS download, to keep the Big N on a roll.  Part action-adventure, part tower defense, you play as the Dillion, a mysterious armadillo ranger, who must defend frontier villages from ferocious rock monsters known as Grocks, who look to feed on the livestock of each village.  Dillion can attack the Grocks by rolling into them, but sometimes the Grocks widely outnumber this one armadillo.  So to even the odds, the villagers have made towers to help Dillion out.  To stop stronger Grocks, Dillion must collect materials by exploring the land and defeating Grocks in order to upgrade the towers. From the sound of things, Dillion's Rolling Western looks to be another unique game from Nintendo available only on the Nintendo eShop for 10 dollars.