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

It's Sega week again basically with four Megadrive games including the final instalments to two trilogies and the first neo geo game to hit the Virtual Console! So enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Fatal Fury : King of Fighters
• Golden Axe III
• Landstalker
• Streets of Rage 3
• Super Thunder Blade

Points: 900
Publisher: SNK
Developer: D4 Enterprise
Released: 1991
System: NEOGEO

Almost every gamer without exception will have heard of the almighty Street Fighter series but mention Fatal Fury and the chances are that those who have heard of the former will either have heard of the latter title or they just simply won't have. Either way it's pretty undeniable that the two games are rivals and there is a greatly installed following on either side and with good reason as they are both truly great examples of their genre.

Case in point, Fatal Fury by SNK, a company perhaps best known for it's fantastic fighting franchises which have seen several iterations over the years even including many celebrated collaborations with Capcom. But this is where it all began, SNK's first footsteps into the genre were taken with this game which laid the foundations for what we have today and thankfully it's a solid start.

In the City of Southtown, (home to the King of Fighters Tournament) two fighters by the name of Andy and Terry Bogard take on the tournament, as reigning victorious is the only way they can defeat Geese Howard; a man who controls Southtown City and killed their father several years ago. A Japanese kickboxer with similar goals named Joe Higashi is also enrolled; choosing either Joe, Andy or Terry,you set out to win the tournament as you journey to several locations throughout Southtown City.

As with many NeoGeo titles both visually and audibly this is a solid achievement; featuring colourful characters, bold backgrounds and admirable animation coupled with clearly resonant speech samples and believable sound effects. It's unique feature of being able to jump from foreground to background and vice versa is what truly sets this title apart from similar fighters of this era; otherwise it's "business as usual" as far as special moves are concerned as they are practically parallel to those performed in SFII and it's variants in both method of execution and style.

Ultimately in a fight between the two, Street Fighter II wins over Fatal Fury simply because it is the more accomplished title as it has a greater balanced set of characters and it just plays far better overall. It is however a most excellent alternative to Capcom's combative classic and so is recommended for that reason as well as being a decent standalone brawler in it's own right; SNK's first Virtual Console release is a welcome addition and a good indication of things to come.

Verdict: SNK's admirable answer to a Capcom classic

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1993
System: Megadrive

And so we now have the third foray into a land once more consumed by darkness as the Prince of Darkness has stolen the mighty Golden Axe and has placed an evil curse over all of the warriors. One of them has since had their curse relinquished however and has accepted the mission of undoing the curse and usurping the evil Prince in a bid to return the Golden Axe to it's rightful place thus restoring the land.

For all of it's cobbled together plot and newly instated characters which both look and play like ones from the previous games this installment seems to try hard at introducing something new while keeping the feel of the original. Unfortunately all it actually succeeds in doing is emulating elements poorly but altering them slightly for the worse; while Sega's intentions seem all well and good, for every new element that adds something good or bad it also loses a staple value that was previously present in prior outings.

In the character front you get to choose from include a giant named Braoude Cragger, Chronos "evil" Lait who is a humanoid black panther along with sword wielders Kain Grinder and Sarah Barn. The latter half of the lineup resemble two of the characters from previous iterations while the former duo are new combatants to the fray; each has their own set of moves and characteristics which just adds a decent amount of variation to the proceedings.

As aforementioned this iteration has newly incorporated elements which includes a branching level structure initiated by choosing from different points throughout the games stages and a much more involved combat system the feels somewhat evolved from the second outing. While all that is well and good there is also plenty that isn't, namely some frequently shoddy collision detection and some cheap, poorly designed enemy encounters and boss battles which become increasingly frustrating due to some sorely lacking A.I which often means you will fall victim to getting repeatedly caught by one single attack and not being able to do anything about it; this is frustrating to say the least.

So essentially this is a case of what should have been a revitalisation of a once hugely popular series turning out to be a mixed bag of improvement marred by inanity thanks to poor elemental implementation. As a famous quote goes "Humankind can't gain anything without first giving something up in return In order to Obtain something of Equal Value must be Lost" the same ideal can be applied here except the small improvements gained are of little worth considering the loss of the competent programming found in the original.

Verdict: If it ain't broke, don't break it!

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1993
System: Megadrive

Sega has had it's fair share of successful RPG's for it's 16-Bit console and this is among one of the finest available ranking as one of if not the best on the system. In this adventure you play as a guy called Nigel, a treasure hunter who rescues and befriends a fairy called Friday from a group of attempting capturers; upon this unusual meeting Nigel is informed by her of the legendary treasure of King Nole and so the two set off on a quest to find it.

Early on in the game you find that in order to fulfill your eventual goal you must obtain an inventory of items only obtainable from various people scattered throughout the land, yes it's a tried and tested RPG cliché' but it wouldn't be much of a challenge if it were a simple stroll from point A to B now would it? So a hunting you must go, on an epic journey that will take you to and from various locations around the land in what is essentially a treasure hunt within a treasure hunt; nice.

Taking on an isometric viewpoint featuring some rather nicely detailed sprites and locations this is very much your standard role playing game in terms of the way that it plays. Exploring unknown areas, eradicating enemies, obtaining better equipment, boss bashing and generally leveling up between locales in a vaguely linear fashion; nothing groundbreaking there but it works well.

Dungeon exploration is where the game really started to come into it's own as there is a quantifiable amount of quality that has been put into this portion of the adventure; featuring some genuinely challenging puzzles and areas that exploit the games isometric perspective well without it becoming too gimmicky. Be warned though as even the regular battles tend to be rather challenging right from the start and it should also be noted that there are some duly devious jumps to master when exploring the various terrains.

Aside from the games astounding main theme the majority of the background music is relatively bland and while this doesn't hurt the game too much it could have done with a fair bit of decent accompanying audio rather than the passable tunes it has. Looking past it's few flaws, Landstalker is a truly exceptional example of it's genre with a vivid amount of variation, decent dialogue and enough obtainable items to satisfy even the most intrepid of adventurers; a credit to the Megadrive and now to the Virtual Console.

Verdict: An adventure assembled with admirable aplomb.

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1994
System: Megadrive

Yes it's finally here! This third outing from the ever popular Streets of Rage series is finally available to download on Wii's across Europe; but has it been worth the wait? Well that depends entirely on your viewpoint between this and the second outing, which was so successful that at the time it seemed all to simple for fans to scorn upon the final installment of the original trilogy due to it seeming perhaps just that little bit too familiar.

I ask you though, can that really be such a bad thing? In my opinion it's quite the opposite and seeing as the second outing was such a smash hit then it's quite understandable that Sega would want to use it as a template for a surefire successful sequel. Lets look at the facts, it is indisputably larger than previous outings and proudly touted a "24 Meg game!" sticker on the box to prove this when it was originally released; this may seem like a relatively small amount by todays standards but over a decade ago this was a big deal.

As a result the game features a greater amount of environments which even in themselves are significantly larger and rather nicely detailed as visually this is more like a natural progression of the detail level used in the previous outing. Musically the games score is a lot more "upbeat" but once you grow accustomed to the melodic rhythms they do manage to work reasonably well; another slightly iffy element is the plot which revolves around the again presumed defeated Mr X rising up once more in a plot to nuke the world, pretty substandard yes but it creates an entry point for the games characters.

This time around you get to play as long term rage wagers Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding along with Adam's brother Skates from the first sequel and modified metal man Zan who has some genuinely shocking moves up his sleeve. Move sets are mostly expanded from the second game with basic button and direction combos being employed with one button being reserved for special moves which are powerful but gradually relieve you of your health; newly implemented though are the weapon specials which use your special button attacks in conjunction with the games varied weapon set for some pleasing results.

Ultimately this is more of the same style of play that has been employed previously but it is by no means a bad thing as Streets of Rage III is bigger, bolder and better (depending on your preference) than it's predecessors. If you have never played an SOR game before then by all means start with the second but if you have beaten that time after time then pick this up as it's still one of the best scrolling beat em ups in existence and is well worthy of your time.

Verdict: A superb sequel that surpasses the second in many ways.

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1990
System: Megadrive

Helicopters and guns, you would think that alone would be a winning combination, especially going by the success that EA's "Strike" series enjoyed; sadly though this is not the case for this title which had aged badly even as an arcade converted Megadrive launch title but has felt the teethmarks of time even more by todays standards.

So basically you aviate an advanced attack apache helicopter as you are up against an army of airborne assassins. Armed with an attractive array of weapons you must take down your enemies in whichever way that you can with the aim of eradicating everything.

It bares a passing resemblance to the great Space Harrier in it's visual viewpoint but sadly it doesn't match up to it in terms of quality and it hardly even tries to look like the arcade game which it was seemingly shoddily ported from.

The frame-rate doesn't even manage to keep up with the on screen action as it slowly jerks along and is quite frankly an insult to the arcade original. Certain sprites have an acceptable amount of details but when the game is hardly playable as it is this really doesn't help matters one bit.

Ranking in easily as one of the worst Sega created games on the Megadrive and possibly of all time, this really is one to avoid just in the same way that you would if an apache come gunning at you in real life. There are far better games available from the developer that apparently used to take Ages to make good titles, this clearly didn't have the time dedicated to it's development that it should have.

Verdict: An airborne atrocity of an arcade conversion.

Another edition of VC Weekly comes to an end, but fear not as it will return again soon so until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!

Sam Gittins
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