Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe's guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo's download service. Written by Jordan Khoviteri-Zadeh.

Okay, so another week and another set of lovely games from Nintendo. This week shows the release of Punch Out!! Amongst others. However, this version of the game probably isn't the one you've all come to love and cherish as you'll read later on in this week's reviews. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should Nintendo go out of their way to get licences again?

Also, this will probably be my last week writing VC weekly. I've had a blast writing it every week and I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has supported me through the weeks, especially the readers whose good and bad comments have been appreciated. The reason I'm no longer doing the job is mostly due to personal reasons, which are impacting on my work in many ways and I'd really not like to go into them in such a public place. I don't know when/if VC weekly will resume and who by, but good luck to them, it's not an easy job pleasing everyone!

Anyway, let's get on to the games. This week sees the releases of:

• Punch-Out!!
• The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
• Dragon's Curse

Points: 500
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1984 (arcade release), 1987 (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! NES release)
System: Arcade/NES

The first title this week is notorious for being an extremely difficult game and in fact before Friday it was the first time I'd ever played it. Punch-Out!! Originally released back in the arcades in the early 80's is a simple boxing game and if you've played Wii Sports boxing, it's basically an even simpler version of that with a small story tacked on to boot.

You play as "little Mac" a boxer so short he has to jump up at his enemies to hit them. Not only is this genius in terms of a narrative, but it means that your character never gets in the way of the action, you can always see what your enemy is doing. Not only is the main character fantastic, but your enemies are completely unique and memorable from the second you see them, from the first fighter Glass Joe "Don't hit me in the chin!" all the way up to Don Flamenco.

The game has a number of "circuits" which you have to play through. You start in Minor and work your way up to the World circuit and eventually against The Dream Fight. The only difference is, this game doesn't have Mike Tyson. Nintendo no longer own the rights to have him in any game they release: due to this he isn't included in the Virtual Console release and instead you fight "Mr. Dream".

Graphically, this game is amazing. For its time, Punch-Out!! Was very colourful and had an incredible amount of fighters for you to go up against. The musical score is also recognisable by anyone who has played Wario Ware or who saw a certain incredibly politically incorrect internet fad "n***a stole my bike" which was a parody of Punch-Out!! As it's full of pumping little midi beats.

Over all, this game is still quite difficult, but awesome in every way. If you're a boxing fan or even just a fan of quirky games, this is a definite pick up.

Verdict: Tough but fun box 'em up.

Points: 800
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Released: 1994 (No exact date known)
System: SNES

Our second game this week, is without a doubt one of the most insane and misunderstood franchises ever made. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja will be unknown to most; however, the N64 sequels Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon and Goemon's Great Adventure are cult classics.

The game's storyline introduction is to put it simple, a little weird. Goemon and Ebsisu-Maru (known as Kid Ying and Dr. Yang in the Western releases) are sat at home when they hear about strange sprits are their local temple, taking control of other villagers. There is some slight comedy in the game that'll make you titter, for example sometimes the enemies will wear random hats or look different.

The game itself plays out a little like river city ransom. You run left and right attacking and killing enemies and collect money from them which you can take into stores to buy items, food and talk to people for information and play mini games such as: whack-a-mole, mazes, lottery dice, a trivia quiz and a 3D labyrinth style puzzle. You start the game with just, what seems to be a smoking pipe to attack with. Later on, once you have money you can throw that at your enemies to kill them. You can also equip certain special moves which can be bought from judo training centres. The great thing is, this game can be played with two players. Making it even more frantic and you can ride piggy back on each other. Making this is blast to play.

Graphics and audio are another strong point. The game uses nicely detailed and colourful sprite work, the cut scenes are also extremely well done with some early 'voice acting' used. Backgrounds and scrolling foregrounds are also used to give a slight depth of scale to the proceedings. The musical score is well fitted to each area and the sound effects are well placed and used.

Verdict: A quirky title that may just hook you with its charm.

Points: 600
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1989 (Master system release)
System: Turbografx 16

Our final game this week is a port of a Sega Master System (the Sega equivalent to the NES) game and originally known as "Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap."

This game starts as a simple platformer until you go against the first boss, a mecha-dragon. Once you defeat him, your character Wonder Boy loses his main "Hu-Man" form and is changed into Lizard-Man form until you can figure out what to do. If you leave the castle however, its game over. There are some advantages however, Lizard-Man has the ability to shoot flame projectiles rather than just use a sword that your Hu-Man form has. There are several other forms which have distinct different abilities such as: Mouse-Man, Tiger-Man and Hawk-Man.

This means the gameplay is quite different and distinctive, when it was originally released anyway. This game being a Master System port has 8bit mechanics. It all feels sort of... stiff and simple sometimes. Most enemies apart from bosses only take one hit to kill and it's a simple run left to right, go up and down floors platformer outside of Wonder Boy's abilities. This game is a weird case, do you demerit for being a simple port? Or give it a good rating because of its original...originality.

Graphically and audibly there's nothing to write home about, it's quite simple. Environments usually have mostly black walls, sprites are all simple and the music is quite forgettable and basic. They really spent very little time upgrading it from the Master System version it seems, even though it's supposed to be an a "graphically enhanced version".

Verdict: Great for its time, but lacking compared to its peers.

That's us for this week, what on earth will happen with the next VC Weekly? Stay tuned, true believers.