VC Tuesday: Hot Fighting History

After a week off, Japan's Virtual Console is slow to pick back up. Really slow. Only two games made it to the download service this time, both martial-arts related, and both not very good.

Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu at least deserves a bit of respect for being one of the first fighting games. Of course, that means it suffers the fate of all pre-SF2 fighters and isn't much fun. But at least it's better than Urban Champion. Yie Ar Kung-Fu is also notable for its deceptively banal title. Yie and Ar are Mandarin for one and two, which means that the game's title is actually the adorable One-Two Kung-Fu.

The other game is Samurai Ghost. It's not really any better in Japanese.

• Yie Ar Kung Fu (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)

• Genpei Toumaden Kannoni (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)