VC Tuesday: Go, Ninja, Go

If ever there were a game worthy of a Hanabi Festival (or its American equivalent, "oh, hey, I guess there are some Japanese games on the Virtual Console now") it would be Ganbare Goemon 2. The first Ganbare Goemon, under the name Legend of the Mystical Ninja, is a beloved SNES classic, and the sequel ... pretty much ditches its signature gameplay in favor of side-scrolling platforming, but maintains much of the same wacky feel.

Goemon is joined by fellow ninjas in the Neo Geo side-scroller Ninja Combat, and, uh, a bunch of wrestlers who we can't tie into the ninja theme. Oh, some of them wear masks!

• Ganbare Goemon 2: Kitteretsu Shogun Magginesu (Super Famicom, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

• Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd BOUT (PC Engine, 1-4 players, 600 Wii Points)

• Ninja Combat (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)

In addition to these three VC games, two WiiWare games are now available: Oekaki Logic and Saikyou Ginhoshi Shogi, a Japanese board game published by ... EA?