Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe's guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo's download service. Written by Sam C Gittins.

Yet another repeated game this week plus one that may please fans of a certain film trilogy. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Golden Axe (Arcade)
• Super Star Wars

Points: 900
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1989
System: Arcade

So here we have another title that has already seen an appearance on the Virtual Console in its home console format but for whatever reason it's getting released again this time as the original arcade version with an extra one hundred points slapped on the top - is it justified?

In short no it isn't, but allow me to elaborate; for the extra one hundred points you are basically getting smoother graphics and clearer audio because of the slight edge that the arcade hardware still had over the Megadrive at the time, you are also getting the superior ending that was sadly cut from the console counterpart.

However it is missing extra levels and the Duel Mode where you can either go up against a succession of enemies / bosses in a single arena or duke it out against a friend which can prove to be most enjoyable indeed. What both games have in common however is the same storyline where you must battle against the evil Death Adder and end his reign of tyranny over the lands.

Characters remain the same as do their strength and weaknesses with Ax Battler being the decent all-rounder with decent combat skills and reasonable magic, Gillius Thunderhead being something of a tank with his brutal combos but weak magic skills and of course Tyris Flare who may be weak in head on combat but adept at arcane magic - having the best spell in the game which summons a dark dragon to incarcerate everything on-screen. Of course these spells are dependent on how many magic potions you can acquire, the more adept at combat only need but a handful but Tyris requires a total of nine for her ultimate summon, either way each character brings something different to the experience which is reassuring for replay value.

Many of the locations in Golden Axe are wonderfully original and makes for one of those side-scrolling-scrappers where you actually feel the as if you've traveled a decent distance throughout the adventure, something that is rare in this genre. If you already own the Megadrive version of this though then all of this will surely be falling on death ears because that is arguably the better version overall but if you don't own this yet and think that you won't miss Duel Mode, the extra levels and want the better ending / visuals then this arcade version is still a worthy choice despite its unwarranted price increase.

Verdict : A golden game under a price-tag of shame.

Points: 800
Publisher: Lucas Arts
Developer: Sculptured Software
Released: 1993
System: SNES

When this was first released on the SNES it was praised for managing to deliver what both fans of the films and gamers alike wanted from such an experience; capturing those memorable scenes and presenting / delivering them in such a way that they translated near-perfectly providing something that's as enjoyable to play as the films are to watch.

Most of the game is presented in a side-scrolling format and under normal circumstances this would be classed as a platform title being that you start at one point on the two-dimensional play-field and make your way to the exit. However it does deviate quite brilliantly by adding in several Mode 7 sections such as the speeder bike scene which was pretty impressive for its time even if it does look like a bit of a mess by todays standards; it broke up the gameplay expanding it into something more and that's what counts.

You are equipped with basic projectile weapons but you'll be mostly jumping and avoiding incoming enemies plus oncoming fire; you get to play as multiple characters such as Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca which helps in further adding to the variety of things. The actual main platform-based levels in particular though are reasonably challenging so don't think that this is gonna be a mere cake-walk for one second, also worth noting is that there is no save feature of any kind as it's supposedly one of those titles that should be played in one sitting despite the sequels allowing you to save your progress, thankfully though you can use the make-shift save-state feature of the VC which allows you to temporarilly save your exact position in the game by simply quitting out by going to the Wii menu which is particularly useful for games such as this.

On the level of presentation the detail that has been put into this title is rather astounding because each environment remains reasonably faithful to how things were in the films, rest assured that the developer really tried their very best here and it shines though, especially in the death star trench run level. Audio is spot-on too featuring the original theme composed by John Williams which sounds lovely presented in Stereo even if it's since been bettered many times since in terms of audio clarity on the N64 and Gamecube.

Though this was indeed groundbreaking to play in its day by todays standards there are parts of it that look rougher than the back-end of a Womp-Rat; in particular the aforementioned speeder section which is very wobbly. Thankfully the rest of the game is pretty decent overall and is fun to play despite its devilish difficulty, just be aware that it has been bettered by other 'special editions' of the game which will no-doubt see the light on the Virtual Console pretty soon as well.

Verdict : The force is pretty strong in this one.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!

Sam Gittins
[email protected]

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