News Article

Club Nintendo Japan Adds WiiWare Game Ultrahand

Posted Tue, 10 Nov 2009 by Jonathan Wahlgren

A good ol' fashioned cook off

Cook from afar for 50 points

Club Nintendo Japan yesterday reminded the other Club Nintendos around the world just how much better it was by adding the first all-member game download to its service. Take that, Mario Party playing cards!

Ultrahand is a bit of an oddity and centers around using the titular object to grab meat off a grill; at 50 Club Nintendo points it's one of the cheapest rewards on the service, so you get what you pay for. There's a multiplayer mode where players compete over yanking the most grill meat in a 90-second span.

Based on an old toy originally released by Nintendo in 1966, the Ultrahand is one of those toys you use for a few minutes as a kid to grab things that are slightly out of reach until you realize that you have limbs and can get things much easier without it.

This is the first time any Club Nintendo has offered an exclusive downloadable title for purchase. The North American Club Nintendo offered year-end Platinum-level members the chance to download Doc Louis' Punch Out!! on WiiWare, but that didn't cost anything (apart from amassing all those coins in the first place) and was exclusive to Platinum members. Exclusive DS carts have been made available, but nothing downloadable.

Andriasang has snapped some footage of the game in all it's meat-cooking glory, which you can check out below. Who knows if this'll ever make it out of Japan, but at least Nintendo seems more willing to experiment with its downloadable games.

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Source: andriasang.com.

Tags: WiiWare, Club Nintendo, Japan.

User Comments

1. Vaynard 10 Nov 2009, 18:30 GMT

Looks interesting and I would play it if it was fairly cheap. Now are points in Japan the same as Nintendo coins in NA? This has me a bit confused.

2. MrPinguy 10 Nov 2009, 18:33 GMT

Oh i remember that toy from several Nintendo retrospectives...
(...And WarioWare...)
What next? Cards?

3. King Elemento 10 Nov 2009, 18:35 GMT

"at 50 points"
...
Please tell me that's stars/coins/whateveritisoverthere rather than Wii Points. =/

4. invmat 10 Nov 2009, 18:40 GMT

If it's cheap, then it must be something like stars, right?

5. Hoffkage 10 Nov 2009, 18:44 GMT

Just 50 points???

Thats pretty cheap. Isnt a DS game worth 250 points already or something??

6. Crunc 10 Nov 2009, 18:47 GMT

I hope they bring some download games for that cheap to the US. This one might be fun, and would like to see others.

7. Gavin Rozee 10 Nov 2009, 18:49 GMT

Solus Wii Fit Plus came with a measly 100 stars.

Maybe they expected Wii Fit Plus purchasers to be on a stars diet.

8. Panda 10 Nov 2009, 18:50 GMT

@King Elemento: It's Club Nintendo points, not Wii points. I'll fix for clarity. Thanks!

9. Terranigma 10 Nov 2009, 19:23 GMT

If only NOE would offer games like this too.

10. Tony 10 Nov 2009, 20:10 GMT

Ultra Hand also made a cameo in the original Wario Ware for GBA. My feeling is one day this will end up as a Club Nintendo item for other regions.

11. V8 Ninja 10 Nov 2009, 20:15 GMT

It would be cool if this came to the US, but I'm kinda cool if it doesn't. It's a give-or-take thing for me.

12. jpfan1989 10 Nov 2009, 20:19 GMT

I'm gonna go cry in a corner with my Club Nintendo calendar cards

13. Shmavey 10 Nov 2009, 20:26 GMT

Even if it comes to NA I dont know if I would get it. It looks like it could get old real fast.

14. Koto 10 Nov 2009, 21:10 GMT

I want one, its cool to see Nintendo making a game about one of their early toys

15. Starwolf_UK 10 Nov 2009, 21:19 GMT

I'm not too sure on the US coin numbers so I'll give Japanese point numbers for some things:
*Game and Watch colleciton 2 - 500 points
*Zelda poster pack - 250 points
You can use those to work out the equivalent coin cost.