Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Nintendo (and presumably Konami) have given me the grand Yuletide giftaroony that only a Castlevania title can give. Super Castlevania IV’s appearance on Christmas Day in the Wii Shop Channel elicited only one thing from me: a gasp. It’s a good thing the wife held the Wii Remote. I might have dropped it. She simply clicked “buy” and picked out Columns for herself to boot.

I gotta tell ya, not enough is made of how much better these games look in big fat enhanced definition. It’s also so very nice to be able to just hit the home button on the Wii Remote and pick up where you left off last time. The old way in Castlevania IV was to die, get a password, then re-enter that password. The password’s still there, but there’s no need to use it, really, unless you want to start over then come back for some reason.

I’ve been playing it with a Wavebird, but that’s wonky because the d-pad on Cube controllers with the standard layout are way too small and not very comfortably placed, and using an analog stick when you need digital precision is just not good. So I broke out the Hori Digital Controller and a 6-foot extension cable that got caught in the vacuum cleaner and is taped back together, and I’ll be using that from now on.

Columns, well, my wife loves that game, so she’s happy. You can play that one with the Wii Remote, which is a nice touch because you only need one button plus the directional to play, and the Remote is comfortable to hold.

I could do without being reminded every time I boot Castlevania IV that I need to use a “classic” controller. Let me turn these warnings off, kay?