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

Three diverse titles have arrived on the VC, not all of them good mind but two out if three isn't bad. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• City Connection
• International Karate +
• Neo Turf Masters

Points: 500
Publisher: Jaleco
Developer: Jaleco
Released: 1985
System: NES

Something of a novelty here as this port of a game which once "graced" arcades has you driving along roads in a futuristic city, spraying them white as you pass over them to prove that you have been there... basically automobile graffiti.

While on your mission to paint the town white as it were, you must watch out for other motorists, police cars and seemingly suicidal cats sitting in the middle of the road; the highways aren't just limited to ground level, some are placed parallel above each other while you will also find them stacked vertically as you traverse them all in your gravity defiant mode of transportation.

You can pick up cans of oil which you can fire at other cars in order to get rid of them or you can wait until the move off-screen but generally you just have to avoid all obvious obstacles in your way. As you move through the levels you will traverse through "real world" locations so the backdrops will change but they really aren't much to look at as the game is a graphically grim.

Audio is amazingly inept too and you'll want to hit the mute button a mere moment after playing, the hardware at the time could have handled a lot more but the developers obviously figured that it wouldn't be in keeping with their whole lazy arcade port ethos.

That is really just about all that there is to see here as there is nothing else really worthy of note of god forbid praise; it's just the same restrictive, repetitive and redundant gameplay throughout the whole soul sapping experience and is not even worth the "cheap" five hundred point price tag even if you happened to be one of the few people who liked it when it was around the first time if thats possible; please avoid this for the sake of your own sanity.

Verdict : A drastically dire driving disaster.

Points: 500
Publisher: System 3
Developer: System 3
Released: 1987
System: C64

Given that the original IK was hugely successful it was something of a no-brainer that this sequel of sorts would equal if not extend it's success to higher levels. Taking the basic framework and adding more to the formula such as the ability to have an extra CPU opponent in the VS battle between two players and a no K-O system where you don't get knocked down outright but merely get up again and continue until a target of points has been reached.

Controls and the move-set are the same as they were, you perform a variety of punches, kicks, dives and flips using merely the directional control with or without the additional press of the action button. Newly incorporated is a round-house kick of sorts which has the ability to "K-O" both of your opponents in a satisfying simultaneous fashion.

Owing to this three man setup this is a more frantic fighter especially when you factor in the thirty second time limit in which you must attempt to best both of your opponents, be they CPU or human. Points are awarded for each successful strike and if any one combatant happens to get to six points then the fight will end there.

Though most matches will end in an outright win it is entirely possible to tie in which case all tying players will advance to the next round, if you happen to lose a round however then it's Game Over, simple as. A bonus mode is present every other level in which you must block as many flying, coloured balls out of sixty as is possible in order to win bonuses, do well enough and you will earn yourself a new belt (from white to black) so it's worth persisting to get a decent score in each progressively difficult bonus round as this will advance your progress a lot faster.

Everything else about the game remains as solid as it was before, graphically it's nicely detailed and animated throughout, music is complementary with some satisfying sound effects, the gameplay is top-tier and with a whole host of moves to not only learn but to judge when and where to use this is a game more about skill than mere luck and it's all the better for it, standing tall atop the pile of defeated opponents that represent an abundance of blatantly bland button mashers.

Verdict : An awesome game of fighting that is fast as lightning and involving expert timing.

Points: 900
Publisher: SNK
Developer: Nazka
Released: 1996
System: NeoGeo

Golf... the age old game of clubbing up, teeing off and giving a small white ball a damn good thrashing! In all seriousness though, while there has been many a game based around the sport, few have come to match the high levels of presentation and detail that Neo Turf Masters accomplished so well.

Options are relatively streamlined as you have available to you a single or two player mode; single has stroke play where two-player has stroke play or match play. There is a choice of six different playable characters, four different courses to play on and four different clubs to play with, thats about it for selectable options but for it's limitations that game has polished what "little" is has to the nth degree.

Basically the way that it plays feels really solid, it uses the tried and tested putting mechanics from other golf games and adds that little "something" extra that just makes it feel overall more precise than the vast majority of games out there that simulate the sport.

It's learning curve is decent and it won't be long before your putting your way through the various courses available and actually enjoying it; so many games like this before have got bogged down by extra unnecessary detail and this just eschews that and is much better for it.

Overall it's hard not to recommend if your after a Golf game, yes you could get a different one if you so desire but theres really not reason not to get this; it's easy to pick up, looks lovely, sounds satisfying and above all it's fun to play in either single or two player modes. So if this is the kind of game you happen to be after then you truly can't go far wrong with this, far from being a bogey it's on par with the best.

Verdict : A well realised rendition of Golf from a respectable 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
[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.