VC Tuesday: Poor King's Knight

We have a soft spot in our hearts for King's Knight. Not enough of a soft spot, we don't think, to pay 500 points for the thing, but it's still just such a weird product. It looks pretty much like Ultima in screenshots, but it's totally a vertical scrolling shooter. And the Square nostalgia crowd just has no interest in shooters -- unless they're Einhänder. Square couldn't even get the title right in the game's own title screen. Something as maligned as this, you just have to love a little. By the way, this brings the number of Square Enix games on the VC worldwide to three. And only one of those is really any good.

King's Knight faces tough competition this week in the weirdness category. Panel de Pon is pretty normal, although we suppose that being remade as Yoshi, Tetris, and Pokemon games is kind of weird. Still, it's just a great puzzle game. But Legend of the River King is a fishing RPG, and Langrisser is a strategy game from Masaya. And, as a Masaya game, it features cameos from Adon and Samson from Cho Aniki. In fact, they appear as hidden bosses, and, once defeated, grant you the ultra-powerful "Aniki" summon. Cho Aniki is basically the weirdness-in-games trump card.

• King's Knight (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
  

• Panel de Pon (Super Famicom, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

• Langrisser (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 700 Wii Points)

• Kawa no Nushi Tsuri (Legend of the River King) (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)