VC Tuesday: Phantasy Detective Club

It's a rather small week on the Japanese Virtual Console, and one that means virtually nothing to gamers outside of Japan. Usually, Japan's releases allow us a look ahead at what's coming for us. This week's two releases just aren't useful for that purpose.

There's extremely little chance of any of Nintendo's Famicom Tantei Club (Famicom Detective Club) games being released outside Japan, which is unfortunate, because we'd love to play these Nintendo-developed text adventures. The one released today is a Super Famicom remake of the second Famicom Disk System game, whose subtitle translates to "The Girl Standing in the Back."

Phantasy Star III is already out in the U.S. and Europe. The most interesting thing there is why Sega chose to release it elsewhere before Japan. That's pretty rare!

• Famicom Tantei Club II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shoujo (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)

• Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom (Mega Drive, 1 player, 700 Wii Points)