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

A couple of somewhat disappointing releases in this edition (reasons below) but at least it's another two out of the way to make way for some hopefully better titles in the not to distant future. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Donkey Kong 3
• Enduro Racer

Points: 500
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1983
System: NES

After the huge ape-sized success that was the original Donkey Kong and it's original but lesser sequel Donkey Kong Jr it seems that for the third installment Nintendo really were scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. The premise of Donkey Kong 3 is somewhat random, Donkey Kong has taken up residence inside Stanley the bug man's Greenhouse and understandably Stan the man isn't too happy about that and goes in armed with his bug spray gun to combat the ape and the barrage of bugs which he hurls downwards towards the crops below.

It isn't the most enthralling of plots and sadly it doesn't set the scene very well for any enthralling gameplay by any stretch of the imagination, there is no platforming involved this time around as you merely stand on the ground and spray DK in the crotch until he retreats to win the level. Of course it isn't that simple as at the start of the level the big ape has a go at the bee hives at the start of the level causing bees and bugs of varying appearance to descend upon you like a mini plague; so between trying to shoo the ape away you need to either dodge or shoot the insects all the while being aware of how far DK is down the vines as believe me, you don't want him to reach the bottom.

Unfortunately that's basically it for the rest of the game, backdrops will change a bit, trees from green to red, bees from living to dead, DK moving more frantically above your head... but essentially it's the same game mechanics with little variation to break things up so it gets somewhat old very quickly. Speaking of quickly if you wish to speed up the process you can get a super bug sprayer that appears at certain points, it's repellent when sprayed will ascend to the ape much quicker.

There is little else to say about the third installment of what was once a groundbreaking arcade game, visually it's not very inspiring and the sound is rather basic even by Nintendo's standards. So even though it's a mere five hundred points it really isn't worth even that as there are by far better NES games already available which are well worth it but this just isn't one of them and only goes further to prove that in this instance, the original truly is the best.

Verdict : Substandard simian sequel.

Points: 500
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1986
System: Master System

You could call this Sega's average answer to Nintendo's excellent Excitebike, while the arcade version of this was reasonable, a different viewpoint was employed to give the appearance at least of an isometric Excitebike. Sadly though basic beauty truly is only skin-deep with this title as the way the game 'plays' is an entirely different matter.

Riding along you will encounter various ramps and other obstacles, as you go up a ramp pressing down on the D-pad will grant you some 'air' so you can pull of some 'sick tricks'. Indeed... you can take different paths at certain points which helps to add a small amount of replay value, thats if you can put up with the somewhat awkward way it plays in the first place as it's pace is sluggish and the other cpu racers which compete against you only serve as an annoyance as they simply swerve in your path; the only real added depth comes from points allocated at the end of the race which allows you to tune up your basic bike.

Even though I do liken it to being an isometric Excitebike, none of the detail from that game is present in this one as all the lands you will travel across within the time limit are drastically drab and lacking anything which really stands out at all. The audio isn't that imaginative either only serving to fit in well with the games trundling pace, everything still feels sluggish about it from the control and everything else around it's just not very exciting at all.

So thats basically it as there isn't much else that can be said about the title when the other games this port borrows from a better in almost every respect, this may have some nostalgic value for a few if they happened to play it back in the day but for everyone else who missed it I would advise maintaining a safe distance from this.

Verdict : Steer well clear of this and accelerate away at a safe speed.

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]

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