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

A quad of questionable quality this week, ranging from a sublime shooter to three other passable offerings including the Sonic game which for many started the downfall of the series. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Alien Soldier
• Sonic 3D
• Samurai Ghost
• Art of Fighting

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Treasure
Released: 1995
System: Megadrive

Treasure, one of the most respected developers of games falling into the immortal shoot em up genre struck gold once again in which is easily one of the finest examples available on Sega's 16-Bit console. In similar vein to Gunstar Heroes except a tad less frenetically paced though with boss encounters more generously laced this is a game that many schmup fanatic will surely embrace.

You are an alien soldier brilliant named Epsilon Eagle who has been genetically-engineered to the very limits of both brains and brawn. Once a member of a criminal organisation Scarlet; you have decided to break from the group and are forced into a showdown with Scarlet's new leader Xi-Tiger, who kills a hostage in his attempt to annihilate you. It's now down to you to go on a revenge fueled mission to eradicate the evil people.

Perplexing plot aside which isn't of much importance as with a lot of shooters it's the well articulated action your here for and this title has plenty. Core gameplay is very smilar to Contra as you essentially run and gun through numerous stages utilising a selection of six weapons ranging from a flamethrower, homing missiles, lasers and more besides in a frantic firefight to the finish.

Stages are divided into sub spaces each containing a battalion of bosses usually amounting to three or four per main area. This basically means that you will be facing off against a new boss every few minutes as opposed to blasting your way through one singular stage with a solitary encounter at the end; it's all implemented incredibly well however and as such you won't notice any breaks in each stage, this allows the game to effortlessly flow throughout and really sets it apart from the crowd.

Admirable audio, gorgeous graphics, behemoth bosses and a silky smooth frame-rate which doesn't dip even once; this is a shooter of incredible craftsmanship which has come to be the expected hallmark of it's most excellent developer. If your looking for a 16-Bit schmup that has it all then you will be hard pushed to find better then this fine example.

Verdict: An astonishingly awesome alien themed scrolling shooter.

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Travelers Tales
Released: 1996
System: Megadrive

Sega successfully produced three sterling successes time after time in it's original trilogy starring the blue blur and his other animal associates. So what next for their prized mascot who helped to put them firmly on the map? Well farm him out to up and coming third party studio Travelers Tales of course! After all, just how wrong could it possibly go?

Very wrong basically but looking at the positive aspects first, this is first and foremost the first three dimensional Sonic title and as such it contains what is considering the hardware an impressive showing of well rendered CGI visuals that really push the Megadrive. Level designs are both decent and varied and feature a decent use of colour throughout; the inventive boss battles and on rails special stage are also worthy of a mention as the games high points.

As an indirect result of the dimensional transfer Sonic loses a lot of his trademark speed, instead ambling along in comparison to the streamlined substance and speed of the classic side-scrolling outings. Sure enough the controls are spot on but it's really not worth the sacrifice of speed and while there are mixed in moments of motion such as when you spin dash through several loops the pace rarely accelerates beyond that of a gentle jog; not what Sonic is known for.

Game specifics revolve around rescuing birds known as "Flickies" from the evil Dr Robotnik across the titular birds island which is divided into several Zones. Sure enough the trademark green land, fire, ice and industrial type zones are all present and correct as they can be and as well designed as they are the game itself is rarely a challenge and I personally finished this game in a day when it was first released so by todays standards you can expect this to last barely a few hours.

Essentially this bears many of the visual and aural hallmarks of a Sonic title (with some of the tracks even being recycled in Sonic Adventure) but it's in the way it plays that it falls shamefully short. Sonic games are all about speed, style and substance, Sonic 3D basically has none and becomes far too repetitive, far too quickly; fans of the franchise may get some entertainment out of this but it's more a case of endure to enjoy as playing through each level with the same collective objective if only to get to the next boss battle really doesn't garner you with any feeling of reward.

Verdict: A shell of a Sonic game with no sense of satisfaction.

Points: 600
Publisher: Hudson
Developer: Namco
Released: 1992
System: Turbografx

If you were to judge this game merely by it's title you might think that this would have potential to be a great game just because of it's subject matter alone; I mean you get to control the ghost of a Samurai Warrior! Sadly though aside from the superficially cool title this is one such typical example of style over substance and not even in a good way.

It's basic plot revolves around the ghost of a Samurai who even though in past life was victorious in a great war against an evil force; the spirits of both opposing forces are still partly alive. And so Kagekiyo (the main half dead protagonist of the game) must journey across seven areas in order to reach "The Heart of the Darkside" which is the final destination where the evil Yoritomo lies in wait for a final battle which will settle things once and for all.

So now that partial enthusiasm have been attained by the gripping storyline (rolls eyes) it's time to bring things back down to earth again with the games appalling amount of low points. Cobbled together controls mean you never feel in command of your character, a woefully weak weapon range which makes it nigh on impossible to hit anything unless it's directly in front of or above you and bland and basic level design which rarely deviates from being a straight line with a few dips are the worst affected areas.

Couple the aforementioned list with garish graphics featuring barren backgrounds with a main character that hardly even resembles a Samurai, abysmal audio and a repetitive nature all contribute to making one travesty of a title. And all this from Namco of all companies who are capable of so much more, this just screams laziness; my advice if your looking for something similar thats actually decent, go for Shinobi III as that is actually worthy of your Wii points, this isn't even worth a sixth of it's asking price.

Verdict: A boring and bland bare-bones attempt at an action game.

Points: 900
Publisher: SNK
Developer: SNK
Released: 1992
System: NeoGeo

Another attempt to usurp the legendary Street Fighter II from it's rightful title of "best 2D fighter of the 90's" which was destined to fail from the beginning as it poorly implements what was already done perfectly in the game it attempts to surpass. It's shoehorned storyline revolves around a girl named Yuri Sakazashi who has been kidnapped, her brother Ryo then goes off to rescue her and to do that he must fight his way through numerous opponents in order to reach the guy behind it all; Mr Karate.

Originality reigns supreme once again (insert sarcasm where appropriate) In all seriousness though, the game does at least try even if it only comes out on top in two departments which are the level of graphical detail which includes such detail as bruising and some rather nice speech samples during the games cut-scenes. It also included a couple of features which although new at their time are now nothing more than a gimmick; such as taunting, hyper moves and spirit meters.

But alas you can only play as two characters in the main mode, the moves and it's system are repetitive and the game moves at a snails pace in comparison to the sublime speed of SFII. This may have been the center of attention on the console at it's time of release due to it's impressive visuals but without solid gameplay to back it all up, this is just another pretender to the throne.

Verdict: Standard, sloppy Street Fighter II imitator.

Thats 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]