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

After deciding to release absolutely nothing last Friday (hence no VC Weekly) Nintendo have decided to "make up" for it by releasing five games in one go, seemingly forgetting about a small word known as "consistency" but I digress, the same story as last week basically, a pattern is forming. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Cybernoid
• King of the Monsters
• Pac-Attack
• Summer Games II
• Super Fantasy Zone

Points: 500
Publisher: Hewson
Developer: Raffaele Cecco
Released: 1987
System: C64

An amalgamation of the shooter and maze genres, thin on plot, thick on gameplay and programmed by one man; in todays developing standards of games with big teams and even bigger budgets and even bigger still development cycles we just don't get stuff like this anymore. They are in your base, stealing your warez! Time to get in your ship and get it back, it's that delightfully simple, welcome to the world of Cybernoid.

You must cruise around the enemy base and retrieve your precious cargo by getting it back to base within the time limit, this formula rings true for all three of the levels which make up the game.

Four ships are at your disposal each with infinite primary weapon fire and secondary weapons with a limited ammo supply and a choice of five variations. These range from bombs, mines, missiles, shields... the general stuff you'd expect basically; obtaining ship enhancing pick ups and choosing the right weapons at the right time is your key to survival.

It's rather nicely detailed for a C64 game with a decent amount of fluid animation throughout, there isn't a lot of differentiation between the levels but it's relatively short so it's of minor concern; the BGM is a decent accompaniment which complements the game whereas the sound effects are abysmal.

Overall though it shines rather nicely in the way it plays out, and while the concept may be simple the fluidity of the controls and the difficulty is pitched perfectly. It won't last you that long but it's certainly an enjoyable experience from start to finish.

Verdict : A competent collect-em-up.

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

Anyone who fondly(?) remembers the Rampage games may be intrigued by this similarly themed offering, instead of merely reducing a city to crumbled concrete though this game is centered around being a One-Vs-One beat em up where you choose from the handful of gargantuan combatants, stick em in a city and fight it out.

Sounds good from the premise? Well to start off with it's pretty fun, you have three different attacks to use against your opponent and you can even break apart buildings and anything else around you to use as a makeshift projectile. And sadly thats basically it, all of the games main gameplay summed up in one sub paragraph, thats not to say it's not enjoyable but it's appeal is limited at best from a lack of variation.

There are a few nice touches like being able to grab helicopters and jets mid flight and send them on an unplanned detour straight into your opponent but essentially it's just using whatever you can to down your opponent, then keeping them on the ground for a specific amount of time in order to win.

Ultimately if you enjoy this kind of game then you may get a reasonable amount of enjoyment from it if you get a friend involved for some One on One or Vs CPU matches, you may also appreciate the impressive sound effects that the game utilises but aside from that, the experience just becomes too stale, too quickly to recommend to anyone as a serious purchase.

Verdict : A game fit for a King... the King of kinesthetic failure! Owned.

Points: 800
Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Released: 1993
System: SNES

Puzzle cash-ins, they happen and it was in the late eighties to early nineties that they seemed to be more of a regular occurrence with each of the main "big" companies at the time producing at least one spin-off. Nintendo had Dr Mario, Sega made Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Capcom crafted the excellent Super Puzzle Fighter and Namco did what they've always done best and shoehorned Pac-man into his very own puzzle game.

I say his very own when in actual fact this title is nothing more than an already existing puzzle spin off (namely Cosmo Gang the Puzzle) with an elaborate palette change. That said, kudos to Namco for making it instantly more salable for merely changing the theme and though cynicism calls for criticism of this copying; it's a case of seeing reason rather than shouting treason as a lot of effort has been put into this reworking.

Your objective is simple as all you need to do is clear your screen of blocks and ghosts by lining them up horizontally; blocks disappear on their own but wiping your screen clean of spectres takes the ghost gobbling expertise of none other than Pac-man. After every two sets of blocks he will appear, eating all ghosts he comes across in his set path, for each ghost he eats a "wand" meter is filled and when full a fairy item drops that gets rid of any remaining ghouls; this basically then continues and every twenty levels after increasing steadily the speed returns to normal but the frequency of Pac-man is reduced to one and you basically just play for as long as you can.

Accompanying the standard block dropping affair you have Puzzle mode which has an already allocated amount of blocks and ghosts from the start, you then throw down some more before Pac-man appears, the goal is to make him eat them all and would be easy enough if it wasn't for the fact that your supply of Pac-men in this mode is limited. Overall it's challenging and different enough from the main experience but it won't add as much longevity as the two player standard mode which is what will keep you coming back.

Classic backdrops add a nice retro feel to the proceedings and the audio accompaniments are an aural achievement ranging from variations on the "intermission" screen theme for the main game to more original compositions which further enhance the experience. While many puzzle games aside from the obvious may be largely the same, Pac-Attack brings something thats similar yet refreshingly fresh and should be placed alongside the likes of Tetris, Dr Mario and the legendary Puyo Pop for the amount of simple enjoyment it offers alone.

Verdict : Pac-man's puzzler is proper.

Points: 500
Publisher: Epyx
Developer: Epyx
Released: 1985
System: C64

Another sports compilation from the people who brought us California games and the like, this is the third of theirs to hit the VC and while it's not their best it's certainly within the higher tier. Getting the obvious out of the way, the presentation is excellent as with their other efforts and a lot of detail is present throughout from the intro to the award ceremonies, audio lacks depth but complements things nicely; now on with the games!

Triple jump, this has really simple almost automated controls so all you really have to worry about is the timing; it's enjoyable and a decent opening event. Rowing is second and can be played either versus the CPU or a friend it's not that difficult to win and though fun is pretty average.

Next up is Javelin, the classic sport of hurling a massive barbecue skewer through the air at great velocity in the hope that it will traverse great distances (and hopefully not pierce any passers by) it can be slightly annoying at first but supremely satisfying when you do get it right. Equestrian is probably the most "high octane" event in the game but it's only getting a paragraph because it's painfully dull, you just go along the course jumping over the various obstacles and more often crashing into them for not knowing where they are until it's too late; you may enjoy the trial and error process if your some kind of masochist.

High-Jump is believe it or not even more frustrating than the previous event, you choose the height but even the lowest is annoying and while some people will relish in clearing them all, people who value their sanity need not apply. Fencing is all about the strategy (yay) it can be played in whatever versus variant you desire it's fun and challenging and probably one of the better events; Cycling is all about the stamina, button mashing to the max for this one but beware of how you pace yourself because you need to move in time with on screen cues and the like, it all takes place in about a minute too so it's short but sweet.

Kayaking is the final event, it has simple controls and a not so simple course layout so it's basically down to trial and error, the penalties are quite large for each failed turn so it's worth getting it right but other than that there isn't much to it. And thats basically it, it will either last you a few days or a few weeks depending on how like or dislike you have for the genre but if your a fan then be sure to pick it up as it is one of the better examples from the series.

Verdict : A sports sim with a satisfying solid structure.

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

The original from which this superior sequel was spawned was a legendary game of it's time as it brought a wholly decent side scrolling shooting experience to a console that seemed to have very few at the time. This incarnation however was spawned on a platform that had it's fair share of examples in that genre but somehow this still manages to shine among the stronger examples which are available.

It all starts with an attack on Fantasy Zone by the evil Menon forces, Opapa the father of Opa-Opa (the games spherical headed, winged protagonist) is fatally wounded in the assault and so it's once again down to Opa-Opa to bring down the Menon Empire and avenge the death of his father... (Zomg! At the original plot)

Everything is pretty much similar to the original outing with the addition of a rapid fire option and you can buy new upgrades such as a jet engine and a few other bits and pieces. But other than that the gameplay is identical, you can move freely across the scrolling screens which feature the ever-present objective of destroying a generator on each level followed by an epic end of level boss.

With new hardware comes new graphical trickery and audio pleasantry, this sequel takes the awesome visual and audible style from the original and takes it to the next level with more general "niceness". It's just better really in nearly every single respect, if you've played the original then you'll understand and if you haven't but are curious then get this instead, it's not perfect but it certainly is damn good fun.

Verdict : More obscure originality with Opa-Opa

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.