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VC Tuesday: Lost Treasure
VISUALSHOCK! SPEEDSHOCK! SOUNDSHOCK! NOW IS TIME TO THE 68000 HEART ON FIRE! So says the title screen in Treasure's Alien Soldier, and they're right-- given the intensity of Alien Soldier, the Mega Drive's 68000 heart seems likely to overheat. But Japanese gamers will be playing the game on Wiis this week, which, we hear, are considerably more powerful than the Sega Mega Drive.Alien Soldier is a sort of evolution of the gameplay found in Gunstar Heroes-- more weapons and customization, more moves, more bosses (the bosses are, in fact, the focus of the game, with simple, short levels between them), and more brutal difficulty. We're really hoping that this Japanese release leads to an eventual American release, because we're Treasure fanatics and the game never came out over here (except on the Sega Channel).NOW IS TIME TO THE LIST OF JAPAN VIRTUAL CONSOLE RELEASES! ZANAC (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Alien Soldier (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Power Golf (PC Engine, 1-3 players, 600 Wii Points) Art of Fighting (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Knuckular Power
It's a common complaint, but Japan gets so much cooler boxart for games (except for Sonic 3.) This boxart for what we know as Streets of Rage 3 is beautifully painted and would make a great poster for an action movie. Our boxart would make a great nothing for nothing. And the name: Streets of Rage is generic as can be, but Bare Knuckle totally implies tough people fighting with their fists-- which is exactly what is happening in this game.The other stuff out this week in Japan is Esper Dream, a Famicom Disk System action-RPG that uses the same color scheme for its characters as The Goonies II, and Genpei Toumaden, an awkward-looking Turbografx-16 action game that we'll be getting soon as Samurai Ghost. Esper Dream (Famicom Disk System, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Bare Knuckle III (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Genpei Toumaden (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: The Terror of Druaga
Many American gamers would consider today's Japanese VC update to have two winners: the isometric RPG Landstalker, and Konami's wonderful SNES shooter Gradius III. Japanese gamers, for whom, of course, this update is intended, would be just as likely to gravitate toward the Famicom version of Namco arcade "classic" The Tower of Druaga, which, uh, they can enjoy with our compliments. We keep getting fooled by Druaga's appearances in Namco Museum collections into thinking that it's really a good game and we're just missing something, but we really don't think we are. It's a brutally hard maze game with unresponsive controls and no point. It's part RPG and part action game and all arrrrrrggghhhh.This week's Japanese Virtual Console releases: The Tower of Druaga (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Gradius III (Super Famicom, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) Landstalker (Mega Drive, 1 player, 700 Wii Points)
More Japanese VC updates: Fatal Fury, Thursday bonuses
Fatal Fury was released on the Japanese Virtual Console yesterday-- the release wasn't shown at the time we were writing the VC Tuesday update, so we missed it. We thought we'd give it a mention because it's the first Neo Geo game on the Virtual Console! In addition to stuff that already came out that we didn't get to write about, Japan gets some bonus VC material tomorrow of the highest caliber. Super Metroid and Sin and Punishment are being released tomorrow, both of which should make up nicely for Super Thunder Blade.Say, now that PAL regions have their Hanabi Festival and Japan has surprise Thursday games, you know what would be great? Some VC bonus stuff in America.[Thanks for pointing out Fatal Fury, Almadi!]
VC Tuesday: Atomic Home Runner
While there's no doubt in our mind that the most interesting game this week is Salamander (the Gradius pseudo-sequel known as Life Force in the U.S., appearing here in its Japan-exclusive PC Engine release), the most interesting box is definitely that for Chelnov. Looking more like a mid-80's Marvel comic cover than a game cover, it certainly would have done a better job of drawing our attention than the seemingly designed-to-be-ignored U.S. Atomic Runner cover. With such a strong visual aid to stare at, we probably wouldn't be as stricken as we are with a total inability to distinguish between this and Atomic Robo- Kid.This week's Japanese Virtual Console releases: Moero! Pro Yakyuu (Bases Loaded) (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Chelnov (Atomic Runner) (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Salamander (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Gaiframe (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Mach Overrider
With four games released this week, the US Virtual Console was all set to win a battle in the nonexistent VC Content Wars on quantity alone. But then Japan fought back with five games, which, as any Donkey Kong Jr. Math player will tell you, is more than four. We still win in overall quality, even though Japan got the hard-to-find Golden Axe III, and that's the one with the weird cat-guy in it. This week's Japanese VC releases: Battle City (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Mach Rider (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Golden Axe III (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Legend of Hero Tonma (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Override (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Caves and stories
This week's Japanese Virtual Console update is a little weird. It's got a Japanese-developed console adaptation of a European computer game, a 16-bit "sound novel", a Breakout clone that we have already decided is terrible, and .. well, ESWAT isn't really that weird. In fact, ESWAT is pretty cool. But the rest of them? Spelunker getting ported all over the place? Totally weird, right? Right? Spelunker (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Otogirisou (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) ESWAT (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Drop Rock Hora Hora (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Be thankful VC downloads don't include boxart
You know how boxart is always better in Japan than in the US? You're looking at the counterexample. The Japanese Sonic 3 cover is arguably the worst thing to happen to the series right up until the creation of Shadow. Apparently Sega was doing their best to kill their flagship series in Japan, by throwing some Cross Colours-tinted doodles and tiled "THE MOST FAMOUS HEDGEHOG IN THE WORLD" signs on a white background and throwing it out like it's acceptable. The US box, in comparison, is spectacularly beautiful.Pretty good game, though. Other games on the list include a forgotten launch-era NES sports game and Ordyne, the adorable Namco horizontal shooter that we totally already have! This week's Japanese Virtual Console releases are: Volleyball (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Ordyne (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Much more of the same
Not only is Japan getting yet more shooters this week, they're actually getting a remake of a shooter that's already available on the Virtual Console. We never believed we'd be in a position to complain about too many scrolling shooters being released. We must say, in PC Engine Gradius's defense, that it is a gorgeous version of Konami's famous shooter. It's also important to note that Image Fight is pretty great, if really hard. Antarctic Adventure is not itself a shooter, but features a penguin protagonist whose son Pentarou would go on to fame in the Parodius series, as well as his own weight-loss-based platformer.Adventure Island is pretty confusing. This is not the Adventure Island we know in the US, the one about a guy in a red hat and a grass skirt collecting fruit and throwing axes. That series is called Takashi Meijin no Boukenjima (Master Takahashi's Adventure Island). This game, which, in Japan, has the English title Adventure Island, is actually Dragon's Curse, also known as Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap. The Wonderboy series is one of the great messes of international game renaming, and is tied up with the other Adventure Island series. This article at Hardcore Gaming 101 should help clear up which game is which. This week's redundant/confusing Japanese Virtual Console releases: Antarctic Adventure (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Crack Down (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Gradius (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Image Fight (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Adventure Island (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: READY GO
Action gamers and masochists (two sets whose Venn diagram, we imagine, contains a fairly large intersect) will be very happy with today's Japanese Virtual Console update, which provides one of the most painfully, awesomely difficult action games we can think of. Seriously, good luck holding on to that golden armor long enough to actually use some magic. Oh, also there's another N64 game, which is something of a rare event! This week's Virtual Console releases are: Dai Makaimura (Ghouls & Ghosts) (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64, 1-2 players, 1000 Wii Points) Power League 4 (PC Engine, 1-4 players, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Mario's Mysterious Gateball
Have any of you ever heard of a sport called gateball? It's some kind of Japanese croquet-like game for kids. It's also the basis for this week's most out-of-nowhere Virtual Console offering from Hudson. We can only say that because, over the years, we've gotten used to the other, objectively weirder game in which the protagonist throws his tethered head at enemies. The other games are both significantly less whaaa? than either of these: NES Open Tournament Golf and a classic Mysterious Dungeon roguelike. Mario Open Golf (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer (Super Famicom, 1 player, 900 Wii Points) Dynamite Headdy (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Appare! Gateball (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Dead moon over the demon castle
Even though we usually support the more obscure VC releases, we can't help but focus our attention on this week's most mainstream title: Castlevania. Finally making its appearance on the Japanese Virtual Console, Konami's side-scroller is a must-buy. I personally consider "liking Castlevania a lot" as an important component of my personality. What an awesome night to have a curse.Like Castlevania, Power Sports and Dead Moon have both already arrived in the US (Power Sports as World Sports Competition), and Ichidant-R, a Bonanza Bros. spinoff, is the sequel to Tant-R, seen on the Sega Classics Collection. A multiplayer puzzle minigame collection, Ichidant-R is sort of a precursor to Mario Party and Wario Ware.Hajimari no Mori is a graphical text adventure from Nintendo! Let's all hope for a miracle localization for that one. Akumajou Dracula (Famicom Disk System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Hajimari no Mori (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) Ichidant-R (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Power Sports (PC Engine, 1-5 players, 600 Wii Points) Dead Moon (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: Singles week
No new multiplayer games on Japan's Virtual Console this week. It's a perfect week to sit in your apartment alone all day playing role-playing games. Now, if only that apartment didn't have to be located in Japan for us to take advantage.Normally, when an RPG shows up on the Virtual Console, it's big news. This week, Japan gets three, one of which is very big news indeed as the confluence of a good N64 game, an RPG, and a Mario game. Makai Hakkenden SHADA (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Shining Force (Mega Drive, 1 player, 700 Wii Points) Militia (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) Mario Story (Nintendo 64, 1 player, 1000 Wii Points)
VC Tuesday: The Super Splatter Soldier
This week, Japan got three games that we don't have yet in the US-- no surprise there. But we already had Splatterhouse on our Virtual Console, so we totally win in that one specific competition that isn't really a competition.The non-Splatterhouse games include another shooter, a Paleolithic puzzle game that we'd never heard of, and a completely awesome ninja game that we'd love to see over here ASAP. And, since it did come out over here (as Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master), we are not crazy to expect it! Star Soldier (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii points) Flappy (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii points) The Super Shinobi II (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii points) Splatterhouse (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii points)
