Nintendo’s WiiWare turned one year old in the US today, and the platform holder said that the downloadable games service has delivered on its founding promises.

WiiWare was originally pitched as a service that would remove the barriers that make console game development expensive, and as a place where big and small companies alike could showcase their ideas and connect directly with consumers.

According to the platform holder, WiiWare’s US library now consists of 81 titles created by more than 40 different development studios. The firm said that half of the available titles were created and self-published by small independent studios, many with five or fewer employees.

Nintendo cited the success of WiiWare titles including 2D Boy’s World of Goo, Frontier’s LostWinds, Tetris Online’s Tetris Party, Capcom’s Mega Man 9, WayForward Technologies’ LIT, Telltale Games’  Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People and Aksys' Bit.Trip Beat.

It also signalled a number of WiiWare games to look out for in the coming year, including Nicalis’ Cave Story, Team Meat’s Super Meat Boy, Over the Top Games’ Icarian Kindred Spirits, Aksys’ Bit.Trip Core and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.

“The first anniversary of our WiiWare service is a milestone that marks how far the service has come and how much great content is currently available,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing.

“We encourage everyone to get their Wii consoles connected to the internet so they have access to the full range of WiiWare games.”