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

The latest update sees a much loved Nintendo character return to the VC once more in a 3D outing that has undeniably divided fans' opinions ever since. Anyway, enough from me and on with the erm... game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Kirby 64 : the Crystal Shards

Points: 1000
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Hal
Released: 2001
System: N64

Kirby's back in a more familiar platform role where he must do battle against the evil "Dark Matter", who is looking to obtain a powerful crystal to use so he can rule the world n' stuff; you know? The usual good vs. evil motivator with some collection sub-plot in-between, the collecting part being the pieces of the fabled crystal which was broken in transit on its way to Dreamland (home of the pink puffball) by a fairy named Ribbon; needless to say, Kirby gets involved and it's now your task to travel across the land seeking shattered shards of the sacred crystal.

First and foremost, the Kirby games have throughout the SNES era been particularly polished platform titles which are renowned for their appealing visual style and the main character's capacity to acquire alternate abilities. Though nicely rendered in 3D the game still plays out in classic 2D with the third dimension merely serving to flesh out the brilliant style thats already present, and in that respect this outing remains faithful to its roots.

Where it struggles, however, is in delivering the consistent creativity which was present in almost all of the preceeding platform games; bless Hal for the fact that they have really tried, and that much is evident by how much work has gone into the title. Indeed Kirby now has the newly acquired ability of combining the traits which he absorbs when he inhales his many varied foes, which makes for some rather interesting and entertaining results such as obtaining a flaming sword by swallowing a projectile followed by a flaming foe; simple but effective.

However, for all its fleshing out the formula falls flat quite early on, as the newly introduced hybrid system is fairly limited in comparison to the plethora of powers which were obtainable in previous outings as well as Kirby's comical combat moves which are gone from this iteration. It's also rather easy and any semi-experienced gamer should be able to complete all six main areas in a few mere hours plus a little bit more to acquire everything.

That said this is still a Kirby game through and through, you still waddle, float, and vacuum your way through the entertaining adventure which is wonderfully rendered and includes some decent accompanying audio to hum as you play. Its only main downfall is that it falls so short in comparison to that which has come before it and thus the result is something that while enjoyable does not endure the test of time in the way that it plays and so you might be better off in waiting for the SNES classics but in the meantime this is certainly good for anyone wanting a quick "fix" of the pink puffball.

Verdict : An enjoyable but not exceptional entry for the series.

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
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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.