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

Two new titles available for download and good news as at least one of them is a classic, plus the other one isn't too bad either. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Super Turrican
• Psychosis

Points: 800
Publisher: Seika
Developer: Factor 5
Released: 1993
System: SNES

Taking on the role of Bren McGuire a member of the United Planets Freedom Forces, you are on a mission to save the planet Katakis from the destructive evil of the Machine. Armed with the Turrican Assault Suit which is equipped with a plethora of beams and other offensive weaponry you set off across twelve spectacular superlative levels which separate you and your ultimate goal.

Acquiring a good deal of it's elements from the mighty Metroid such as the main characters upgradeable suit, freeze beam, morph-ball / bomb ability and sprawling exploration based level design; you would be forgiven for at first glance assuming this is a mere clone.

Perhaps a more accurate summary would be that this borrows elements from both Nintendo's seminal space exploration game and Konami's Contra, then manages to blend them together with style and substance all of it's own. What it basically boils down to though is all of the aforementioned elements being distilled to their purest form and then the speed cranked up a notch to provide a fast paced exploratory space shooter which will have you running, jumping, rolling, blasting, bombing and even grappling from start to finish.

Hammering hordes of enemies with elements and explosives never seems to get dull and the challenge of exploration sets it apart from being one of the many balls-to-the-wall blasters which is pays homage to well in the process. It's stunning to look out too thanks to the Mode 7 technology behind each beautiful effect and it's decent electric rock soundtrack helps everything to flow fantastically well.

It's not really possible to recommend this enough, if you have never played this then I would urge you to download this if your a fan of frenetically fast paced side-scrolling shooters or even if you've played it back in the day and want to sample it's excellence once more. Either way this is an awesome addition to the VC library and is one that deserves to be downloaded by many.

Verdict : A stunning shooter executed with style, grace and a frenetic pace.

Points: 600
Publisher: NEC
Developer: Naxat Soft
Released: 1993
System: Turbografx

Here we have a side-scrolling shooter set in a world that exists due to it's creation inside the very mind of a demon, somehow your soul have ended up here in this world which apparently exists in every persons heart and now the only way to escape is to get in a spaceship and start blasting stuff.

Right thats the confusing and completely nonsensical plot which serves as nothing more than as a general art direction and to move things along out of the way. So you have your ship and with it comes a rather decent weapons system, to start off with you just have your standalone ship but you can collect a pair of Orbs which are upgradeable and can be used to defend yourself in a variety of ways.

Bolts of lightning with a widespread area of destruction can be acquired as well as other beam which vary in their rigidness of form. You can also rotate the orbs around your ship when you choose to do so which gives a satisfying amount of control over whats happening on screen and allows from some tactical movement.

Unfortunately for all of it's interesting gameplay gimmick, vivid visuals and satisfying sound, it's let down by a difficulty level which is too indecisive for it's own good. On the one hand collecting both orbs and powering them up in front of your ship makes the game hopelessly easy as you make giant bosses fall in seconds but on the other hand you plans can be ruined by a single enemy bullet thus making for a very unbalanced experience.

Overall it's a valiant effort to being something new to the genre and while it has enough interesting elements which schmup fans may choose to persist with for everyone else it's probably wise to pass on this. There are plenty of excellent shooters already available on the VC so this is really only one that the hardcore shooter fan will derive any real enjoyment out of but if your curious then you can do a lot worse.

Verdict : An unbalanced but undeniably original shooter.

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.