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

Bucking the trend Nintendo have decided to release two titles instead of the obligatory one that we've been used to of late; except one is the original of a recent remake and the other has been released in several forms already but nonetheless a reasonable effort. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• A Boy and His Blob : Trouble on Blobonia
• Street Fighter II' : Championship Edition

Points: 500
Publisher: Imagineering
Developer: Majesco
Released: 1989
System: NES

After creating the successful Pitfall on the Atari 2600 its creator David Crane decided to try his hand at creating something new and unfounded with a game mechanic not really seen before and in creating A Boy and His Blob he succeeded rather nicely as back in the day this was applauded by many for its originality. Of course it was also criticised for being too 'open-ended' of all things but you can't please everyone.

So basically you take control of a Boy and his well... Blob in this original platform game where you have to help the said 'Blob' return to its home planet, kind of like E.T in some loose kind of way if you like but less emotional.

Rubbish cross-comparisons and joking aside the game has you finding Jelly Beans along the way which transform the blob into a myriad of objects including an Umbrella, Ladder, Bubble etc which are used to make progress. It's in finding all the beans and taking the right paths in the right order that the challenge lies which is where complaints from the aforementioned 'open-ended' nature of the game stem from.

Quite frankly though if you took away the choices that you can make then the game would just simply be more linear and not quite as engaging or challenging so such comments don't carry a whole lot of weight as far as I'm concerned because the game itself is both charming and unique if only a little dated in the visual department.

If you wish to play this in its original format though then this is your chance, but otherwise you may want to consider the recent remake available on the Wii for a budget price (for a retail title) and includes the same brilliant concept updated in a new way with wonderful illustrated scenes and music which really helps to breathe a much needed new lease of life into a now sadly dated but still playable title.

Verdict : A delightful but dated title.

Points: 700
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Released: 1992
System: Turbografx

When you've reviewed as many versions of Street Fighter II as I have you begin to wonder if there is any end to them and quite frankly review of it become a chore to write so to save everyone a lot of time � myself included � the main differences will be listed so you can make a reasonably informed decision but really you will most likely already know if you want this or not.

This game has already been reviewed in SNES and Megadrive form but this is the Turbografx version which until now was a Japan only release and so costs one hundred points more for the 'privilege' of being able to download it... no I don't quite get the point of the price increase either when you consider you can already get the game on other formats; a two hundred point less price over the other versions may have made this more popular but I digress.

So what do you get for your points? Well another version of the critically acclaimed fighting game of course but what about the real differences... here they are laid out for your convenience.

The main difference is the four boss characters from the former becoming selectable characters and alternate colour schemes being introduced so that two players could face off using the same character. Also, much of the gameplay was revised to balance the characters out. Additionally, while in The World Warrior, matches could go up to ten rounds if there is no clear winner (at which point the game made the player lose by default); starting with Champion Edition, this was reduced to four rounds.

Now you know... In my personal opinion it's a decent enough version and if you don't earn any of the many variants then you really can't go far wrong with it but it's just not the best version. In all honesty though it doesn't matter a great deal unless your a purist, in which case don't get it but if your not too bothered and just want a version to play then get this and enjoy one of the best 2D fighting games in existence.

Verdict : It's Street Fighter! Two! With added... stuff!

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, have a Merry Christmas, enjoy yourselves and Game On!

Sam Gittins
[email protected]

Looking for reviews on other Virtual Console games? Or a full list of games available on the system? Then Check out our Virtual Console Index Page.