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Certain series have roots in old-school gaming centers, such as arcades. Arcade games were tough because they were designed to absorb as many shiny quarters as possible. Console games in the late 1980s and early 1990s retained that spirit. If the timing was off on a jump, you would die. Hesitation meant certain death. For a game to be like that in this day and age is a rarity, unless it has the name Contra in its title.

Capcom was one of the few software companies at the Consumer Electronics Show, and I got to see quite a few of its games, including Mega Man 10, Final Fight Double Impact, Super Street Fighter 4, Lost Planet 2, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Monster Hunter Tri. For more information about Capcom games, visit www.capcom.com/us/.

Some of the most interesting puzzlers were released for the Super Nintendo. One of those games was Bust-A-Move (sometimes known as Puzzle Bobble). One of the latest releases in the series has become available on WiiWare under the title: Bust-A-Move Plus.

I remember the original Bubble Bobble. It was one of my mom’s favorite Nintendo games; she loved it because she got to blow away bad guys in a number of minutes. Although my mom has moved on and played other various puzzle games over the years, I think deep down she still has a soft spot for Bubble Bobble, a precursor to modern-day action puzzle games. Now, after 20 years, the original game has been released on the Wii’s virtual console, and Bubble Bobble Plus has been released as a WiiWare title.

Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a brand spankin’ new shop in Clover Town, set in the Harvest Moon universe. The town is filled with many familiar Harvest Moon faces from the series, and you can interact with them. Decide what you’re going to sell and build you business to help the town grow and prosper. Will you make fruit juice? How about ice cream? Maybe decorating eggs is more your style.

I loved Final Fantasy IV. It was one of the first role-playing games I played. But the main reason I have such a soft spot for it is because it was one of the first plots I started to understand. I know every aspect of the game, with new little details becoming apparent each time I play. Each little aspect of the game is a piece of comfort for me. It was with that excitement in mind that I quickly downloaded Final Fantasy IV: The After Years onto my Wii.

I know I’m a bit strange, but when I was little (when the other kids on the block wanted to be firefighters and such), I wanted to be a myrmecologist (one of those super cool awesome scientists who study ants). So, of course, I immediately gravitated toward the Ant Nation games at the Konami booth. I saw two versions, one for the Nintendo DS and one for WiiWare.

Joining the growing ranks of role-playing puzzle games, Konami’s Puzzle Chronicles looks like it will be a good fit for anyone who was a fan of Puzzle Quest or other puzzle RPGs. The demo version I saw was on the Nintendo DS, though it should also ship for PSP and be downloadable for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.

I confess: The Wii has been an interest of mine ever since it came out. It was doing things that have never really been done before. Plus, it has a degree of accessibility that has never been seen before; it is a console that can behave like a traditional console (especially when one obtains a game through the Wii Virtual Console) and can act like a PC due to the motions of the Wii-mote. After all these years, those were the reasons my sister and I finally picked up a Wii. After about a week of proud ownership, a little WiiWare game caught my eye on the Wii Shop Channel. That game was Penguins and Friends: Hey! That’s my Fish! Is it worth using blocks on your Wii?