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

Anyone who enjoys the idea of RPG's but isn't so fond of the monumental challenge many of them offer may find this latest VC download very appealing indeed as it's an RPG but not as we know it. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Mystic Quest Legend

Points: 800
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Squaresoft
Released: 1993
System: SNES

If you enjoy Final Fantasy but you find the difficulty level a tad daunting then here is a game for those who are perhaps not that well versed in the series or indeed even the genre and just want a relatively laid back RPG. Well if that's what you're looking for then you couldn't have come to a better place because Mystic Quest Legend is the very definition of easy.

The game is both simple and streamlined as every element that you may expect to see here is either eschewed in favour of something basic - such as the turn-based battle system - or most of the 'work' is done for you in the case of automatic outfitting of new upgrades and the like.

You won't even be travelling from town to town as the legwork is done for you and even when you do get the opportunity to fight some foes it's never more than a handful of enemies and the battles aren't randomly generated oh sweet heavens above no! For that would be too much for the RPG novice to take in obviously... in all seriousness though this is really as basic and RPG as you're ever likely to get; now that's not to say it's bad because it's well made but it does rather limit its target audience by alienating its Final Fantasy fan-base.

From a visual standpoint everything is rather nicely detailed with some nice touches here and there and some rather nicely animated sprites throughout. The audio is of a reasonably high standard too with plenty of terrific tracks that convey the feeling of adventuring very well and only manage to bolster together what is already a solid experience.

While this game may turn away RPG purists It succeeds in bringing a decent enough RPG experience to a wider audience which is an obvious positive, so if you've never played an RPG before or have been scared off by them in the past then this could well be an ideal starting point. Even if you're just looking for an RPG 'fix' you still may wish to pick this up but be aware that if you're a seasoned veteran then it really won't last you very long at all.

Verdict : Final Fantasy in just for fun form.

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]