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

Fans of 'Zombies' may well rejoice today as a certain sequel finally gets released in this latest update. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Ghoul Patrol

Points: 800
Publisher: Lucasarts
Developer: Lucasarts
Released: 1994
System: SNES

The original 'Zombies' was a classic game in which two teenagers by the names of 'Zeke' and 'Julie' went around blasting the undead with all manner of quirky weapons in an attempt to save their neighbourhood from certain doom. So when it was time to roll out a sequel which arrived in the form of 'Ghoul Patrol' expectations were fairly high and unfortunately dashed as what we received was a game that certainly looked and played similarly but was missing all of the 'charm' that came from the heavily B-movie inspired original.

If you're familiar with the first game then you'll have no trouble picking up a pad and playing as your objectives remain largely unchanged, rescuing all the potential victims is your top priority and then legging it through the portal that appears upon completion is your secondary concern. Reaching the end of each world then pits you against a boss which you must defeat in order to move on to the next then lather, rinse and repeat until the game's complete.

Starting off with a Crossbow as your default weapon you have the chance to add to your arsenal as you play, not only that but you can obtain special items which produce varying effects including restoring your health or even transforming you into a Grim Reaper to quite literally 'deal death' to your opponents, lovely. Unfortunately the slight 'tweaks' to the games controls don't work in its favour; while you can still run and gun you now have the added ability to 'jump' and 'slide' which can be useful at times but overall detract more than they actually add to the game unnecessarily overcomplicating what was once a relatively simple and satisfying experience.

Visually there's nothing to criticise as this is one area where the game has improved thanks to many added details and subtle touches that bring the worlds to life in a whole new way. The soundtrack manages to match-up to the one used in the first really well in-fact it's more of a continuation of anything so there's nothing really wrong with it but then nothing truly outstanding either.

If you enjoyed the original 'Zombies' then you're more than likely going to enjoy this too as it's essentially more of the same only let down by a few added 'tweaks' that do nothing but get in the way. However managing to see past these flaws will reward you with a relatively enjoyable experience that's almost as good as the first, just not as amazing as it once was.

Verdict : A sedate but satisfactory sequel.

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]

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.