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

Pinball and puzzle games have often been of varying quality, thankfully the Virtual Console now has the follow up to one of the best possible pinball games and another Puyo Pop clone. Anyway enough from me, see for yourself in this weeks reviews, on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Devil's Crush
• Kirby's Ghost Trap

Points: 600
Publisher: Hudsonsoft
Developer: Naxat
Released: 1990
System: Turbografx

Sequel to the hugely popular Alien Crush previously released early on in the VC's life-cycle Devil's Crush brings more of the same deviously designed tables awesomely addictive gameplay mechanics wrapped up in demon theme. Decent pinball games have often been few and far between so it's good to see the Wii getting treated to two finer examples of the genre in only a matter of months.

Indeed all credit to Naxat for managing to deliver an equally exceptional pinball simulation follow-up to what was already a pinball title of high standards both for it's time and today. So whats new and improved? Well basically everything from the original is transferred to this incarnation; from the pixel perfect ball physics which are satisfyingly realistic to the incredibly depth in design and attention to detail, it's all here and in spades.

Getting the first obvious major change out of the way, the games theme is now of a demonic disposition rather than the originals alien aesthetics. All stops have been pulled out in it's original design with everything from scathing skeletons, malicious monks and a woman who has the ability to transform herself into a devilish dragon; yes this game definitely has a wide range of obtusely obstructive creatures who are all after one thing, your ball(s).

There are many challenging aspects to the multi-tiered table and very few of them lead to repetitive frustration which is refreshing to see as there are many pinball titles that fall into the trap of becoming horribly repetitive as you lose your third ball in as many minutes. Devil's Crush isn't one of those games though, indeed if anything pretty much everything in the game is well programmed and keeps you coming back for more.

With gruesomely good graphics and astonishing audio and that elusive ability to make you want to come back for just "one more go" if only to better your high-score upon completion; this truly is the zenith of it's genre and is a solid and well rounded example of a game.

Verdict : As perfectly playable a pinball game as your ever likely to find.

Points: 800
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1995
System: SNES

Mean bean machine, anyone remember that? If not then you will most likely have heard of the infamous Puyo Pop which it was based on and well this is basically Nintendo's version of the preposterously popular puzzle series. Kirby's Ghost Trap (Avalanche in the US) sees you take on the role of Kirby as he enters Dream Lands first Annual Avalanche competition in an attempt to become the Avalanche King.

Ignoring the the slapped together story which isn't of much concern, this is essentially Puyo Pop but with the residents of Dream Land; basically the concept for those of you who are unfamiliar with this type of puzzler is as follows. Coloured beans which typically fall in pairs must be connected in quadrants or greater in order to remove them from your playing area and if you score a high enough combo onto your opponents playing area in the form of garbage and the first one to fill their screen loses, it's that simple.

Differentiations become immediately apparent between this and the infamous mean bean machine, firstly you can choose what level you want to start the main game on and for each increment in difficulty you will start higher on a higher rung of the ladder. Three more stages raking the total to sixteen are available as you make your way to the final encounter which predictably in traditional Kirby fashion is King Dedede and even when you beat the game you have the option of modifying the individual difficulty levels of your A.I opponents.

Of course you needn't be limited to the games main story mode and indeed if you tire of it you can always play the fun and frantic multiplayer mode with a friend which still provides a reasonably entertaining experience every now and then. While this is a puzzle game with functional visuals the music is really quite quintessentially Kirby without a doubt and hyper paced renditions of the pink puffballs past adventures fit in well with the core gameplay and have a decent whimsical quality to them.

As an overall package Kirby's Ghost Trap is a solid incarnation of Puyo Pop which follows the puzzles pattern and has the expected classic Nintendo branding all over it; lacking only a password feature and an endless mode which are small blows overall this is still a decent effort. Puzzle purists might wish to choose Dr Robotniks Mean Bean Machine over this or stick with popping Puyo's but for anyone who's a Kirby fan or is just looking for a quick game to play in short bursts then this might be worth a download; it just depends if your willing to pay the 800 points per pop pricetag.

Verdict: Kirby plus kaleidoscopic blobs in a well paced puzzler.

Another edition of VC Weekly comes to an end but rest assured it will return soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!

Sam Gittins
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