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

Hopefully you will all of had a cracking Christmas but what with all the presents now opened it's a shame there aren't any more surprises but fear not for Nintendo have given us a couple of belated presents in the form of two more titles to download and enjoy. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Secret of Mana
• Sonic 2 (MS)

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

When you want to play an RPG these days there are plenty of variants available be they action, turn or tactical based to name but a few offshoots of the main genre but in the beginning it was mainly turn-based or nothing, until the nineties that is. This is when the action RPG started to gain in popularity; of course being a regular RPG creator Square quickly decided to jump on the bandwagon and had a good deal of success with Soul Blazer but it wasn't until their next action orientated effort that they decided to take things to the next level.

Step into the world of Secret of Mana where attacking is action-based, characters are fresh-faced and the storyline is interlaced with mana, magic, monsters and much more besides. Everything starts out relatively peaceful as a trio of youngsters set off toward a waterfall in search of a mysterious ghostly apparition that one of them claims to have seen; that is until the ever so slightly clumsy Randi falls to the waterfall base below and happens upon a mystical sword which calls upon him to remove the blade and in doing so he unknowingly sets a series of epic events in motion.

Combat works in conjunction with a counter which starts at one hundred percent, when you use your weapon it then depletes to zero and then goes all the way back up again within the space of three seconds. It's this element that adds a small amount of strategy to the proceedings as while you can press the action button constantly this will result in the least amount of damage so it can be worthwhile waiting inbetween hits to achieve massive damage.

As you progress through the game you will team up with two additional party members who can both be assigned many weapons with little restriction, this is especially useful as certain weapons are required at specific points; each one gains experience of sorts too so you can effectively level three at once. Quite a groundbreaking feature is that you can have up to two other people controlling the remaining members of your party, back in the day you would have needed a Multitap to get the full benefit of this feature but now you can just add an additional Wii-mote, Classic controller or Gamecube pad and enjoy co-operative play throughout the whole adventure.

As this is a Square RPG you can expect a great deal of finery in many areas, while the main story may not be anything of typical Final Fantasy standard the visuals are well realised and utilise Mode 7 rendering stunningly well to create some evocative effects in places. Composed music is another forte of the developer and the talent of Hiroki Kikuta brings the whole experience together with many stirring pieces that complement each area wondrously and adds atmosphere to it all.

Essentially what you get with this title is something that feels similar to Zelda but with all the guts of a Square RPG and though it may be action orientated it still feels like a more traditional example of it's genre thanks to the strategic elements that are employed. It has it all where it matters with plenty to keep you playing from start to finish, in comparison to other RPG's it may fall slightly short on the storyline but based on it's own merits it is another exceptional example of role-playing perfection that you won't want to miss.

Verdict : It's no secret that this is an awe-inspiring adventure.

Points: 500
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Aspect
Released: 1992
System: Master System

When the Megadrive version of this game was released it very quickly became a stunningly successful sequel for Sonic and would forever be regarded as one of his best ever outings but if you didn't the console at the time, what then? Well if you owned a Master System then you may be more familiar with this, the completely different version of what is labeled as being the same game.

For those unaware this version was actually released slightly before the superior MD version but was quickly overshadowed in many cases when both versions were on the market, thats not to say it's terrible, far from it but it is drastically different in many ways.

To begin with, Miles 'Tails' Prower who became a new playable character in the 16-bit version is actually fox-napped in this version by none other than Dr Robotnik who has also once again enslaved all of Sonics other animal friends and won't release them until he gets hold of the Chaos Emeralds, of course the blue blur won't have any of this and so he speeds off across the lands to acquire the emeralds and put a stop to Robotniks evil plans.

You will get to journey through many different zones which range from mine shafts, underwater passages and even a hang-gliding level where you soar through the skies, emeralds are as with the previous MS title hidden in the level and not in special stages and you don't have the 'turbo-dash' ability that Sonic famously acquired in the MD version but despite this everything about the levels, boss battles and sense of speed are still decent and original.

When the two versions are compared then you know that this will lose out every time but as a Sonic game in it's own right it is very accomplished for the hardware that it was released on. It has some rewarding elements as well such as only getting the true final zone if you collect all emeralds which is a challenge in it's own right, if you have already played the MD version to death but missed out in this back in the day then give it a try if you're curious as it's well worth the points.

Verdict : A splendid Sonic sequel.

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.