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

Nintendo are feeling a little bit more generous this week, still not back to the expected trio but instead a decent double debut. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• StarTropics
• Alien Storm

Points: 500
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1992
System: NES

Following in the footsteps of the original Legend of Zelda this is a top-down RPG which incorporates adventure and monster slaying in a similar fashion. You take control of Mike Jones a teenage baseball player from Seattle who is on a trip to the Tropics to visit his uncle who just happens to be a famous archaeologist named Dr Jones.

Upon reaching his destination though he is informed of his Uncles abduction and so he sets off on an epic quest to discover the truth behind these events and rescue him. Piloting a submarine borrowed from his Uncles lab he also learns of the existence of an alien invader named Zoda who is (wait for it) threatening to destroy the earth! (I so did not see that one coming)

Slightly overused narrative cliché' aside (the plot does have it's redeeming moments later on) the basic mechanics revolve around tirelessly traversing C Island's overworld talking to various villagers and other inhabitants in order to gain information and inventory items to aid him along the way. Once you reach the games first dungeon it's differences from Zelda become apparent as for a start the dungeons have a nicer colour scheme and you have the ability to jump over small gaps; Mike's melee weapon of choice is his faithful yo-yo which can be later upgraded to allow for a greater range.

Other weapons which have a limited usage counter are available in each dungeon which include baseball bats, balls, ray guns, slingshots and torches to name but a few; they are a welcome addition and become more useful in the increasingly difficult later dungeons. Apart from that though it's a refreshingly familiar experience which has you slaying mobs of monsters, hitting switches etc in fact the only main difference which you get used to is the four-way control as opposed to diagonal meaning the control is more akin to Pokemon but with more flexibility.

It's a challenging experience completing the games eight chapters in which you are guaranteed at least one dungeon and subsequent boss battle; visually everything is nice and well... tropical with some nice cutscenes and well composed accompanying music. This is one of those lost Nintendo gems that deserves to be experienced and thanks to it's availability on the VC it may now reach a greater audience, this is most certainly worth it's points just for the experience alone.

Verdict : A terrific tropical take on Zelda.

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1991
System: Megadrive

Aliens have invaded, grab your guy / gal / cyborg character each with their own set of moves and well... you know what to do; kill all the ugly muthas! Yeah that pretty much it premise-wise so expect less depth in the story and more to be knee-deep in alien appendages and an excessive amount of entrails as you run, jump, punch, kick and shoot your way through from point A to B to save the world and stuff.

Controls are relatively simple and as such you will be mowing your way through the masses of malicious mobs in no time; making your way through the games three main areas divided into sub stages may seem like a simple enough prospect but the fast-paced nature of the game which comes into play right from the start certainly doesn't make this as easy as it may sound at first.

Each character has a range of evasive movements which are kept in constant use thanks to the fast and frenetic pace in which the enemies come at you, it is this main element which sets it apart from conventional side-scrolling beat-em-ups such as the immortal Streets of Rage.

Visually it's not really up to a lot being an early Megadrive game, it's still a faithful arcade port but with standard graphics and average audio it never feels as accomplished as it perhaps should. However the sheer amount of imagination and style in the characters / enemies is what really help to make this game stand out; add to that the Virtua Cop like intermission missions where you control an on-screen cursor and you have a side scrolling scrapper that offers something a bit different.

Overall it still pales into insignificance when compared to the fantastic Streets of Rage or Final Fight games but if you have already experience those then you could do a lot worse than this as it's different brand of gameplay can prove fun in short bursts. So if your a fan of the genre and are itching for another side-scroller to play then pick this up if you wish as you may find it a well worthwhile purchase.

Verdict : More strong wind than storm but nevertheless solid.

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]

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.