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VC Tuesday: Fantasy Zone mark 2: Zoids of Opa Opa
We really can't say that this week's Japanese VC lineup is awesome in comparison to North America's, though it does outnumber our single release. Too bad for the Zoids game that we got Castlevania III! Zoids aside, even if the releases aren't Grant Danasty-level cool, they're pretty cool, featuring two side-scrolling shmups in addition to the Zoids strategy game. Fantasy Zone II is the console-only sequel to the original cute-em-up, Fantasy Zone, featuring more of the series' sort of spacey garden take on Defender. If you'd like to try it, Sega produced a System 16-esque remake for the PS2 Fantasy Zone Complete Collection, and distributed a free PC demo!Spriggan mark 2 is a rare side-scrolling shooter from Compile, who made Aleste and MUSHA and Blazing Lazers and lots of other wonderful shooters. Zoids Mokushiroku (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Fantasy Zone II: Tears of Opa Opa (Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Spriggan mark 2 (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) Two fairly unexciting WiiWare releases join the three VC games. Hudson's SameGame Wii is a new version of the ancient, and frequently cloned, puzzle game, which nerds of a certain vintage will recognize as Sega Swirl. Sugusuro Wii is a detailed simulation of two slot machines, with performance graphs. Woo. Samegame Wii (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points) Sugusuro Duo New Pulsar R & V (1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
Super Smash Bros. leads January VC lineup in Japan
Nintendo of Japan has announced their plans for the next month's Virtual Console games, and, for once, the list includes a Nintendo 64 title. Super Smash Bros. is headed to the Japanese VC in January. Pokémon Snap came out in the US within a week of the Japanese release last year, so maybe this year's big winter N64 game will follow suit. Nintendo has lovingly appended an extra 200 points to the normal cost of a Nintendo 64 game for this release.Super Smash Bros. is likely to be the only thing anyone reading this will care about, given the combined Brawl obsession of the Wii audience and the first-party-franchise domination of VC sales, but we've got the whole (rather small) lineup for January after the break just because.
Atlus asks you to kneel before Zoids this August
We remember Zoids as those little motorized plastic dinosaurs that He-Man and his motley band used to pummel into submission as Duke and Chitara quietly watched on from the safety of the bean bag chair in the corner. Ah the 80s ... twas a simpler time of action figure mayhem. However, Atlus has again given us reason to wax nostalgic, announcing plans to bring Zoids to the Xbox 360 on August 26 as a Japanese-style strategy RPG, a genre for which the company has shown increasing affection on Microsoft's console. Released last year as Zoids Alternative in Japan, the renamed Zoids Assault promises "gritty" gameplay and "tons" of options, most of which revolve around customizing and arming robots with various means of blowing stuff up. We suppose it's interesting to see Tomy's toy and anime license to continue to endure, though we imagine when the game ships the Starriors in our office toy chest are going to feel more than a little left out.
