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

Get ready to tee off with an N64 classic sports title and go adventuring with an ever popular classic from the Master System. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Mario Golf
• Wonderboy in Monster Land

Points: 1000
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1999
System: N64

The latest at the time in a long line of sporting spin-offs that the portly plumber had starred in may have seen a bit alien at the time but that apprehension was soon swept aside upon the titles release as it proved to be one of the most successful Mario themed side-projects on the console. Get ready to tee up with Mario and friends for one of the most finely realised golf games of it's time.

Such a simple formula is the secret to it's success, you merely pick your favourite inhabitant of the Mushroom Kingdom, pick your club of choice then take to the green and get putting! Once your in mid-swing you are presented with a small meter at the bottom of the screen, a marker moves along it making it as far as the left-most part and will then work it's way back; you need to hit it as close to the left as possible to give you some good distance, once you've pushed the 'A' Button the needle starts moving again and you need to get your second press as close to your original as possible.

Other factors of course need to be taken into consideration such as wind direction and the like which add to the games overall realistic feel, there are some more original elements to the gameplay as well which include the 'approach' shot for when you're almost on the green and the now infamous 'power' shot which will give the ball a great deal of extra air time. Six power shots are available from the start of the course but if you are spot on in your execution by hitting a certain point on the meter then the shot will count but it won't use up any of your six-shot reserve.

Even though there is an expansive roster of characters (up to fourteen) you don't actually get the usual 'favourites' from the start, in fact all you have available are Baby Mario, Charlie, Peach and Plum; the rest you will have to face-off against and win in order to gain the right to play as them, which is a challenge to say the least, it's also worth noting that unfortunately due to the original link up feature with the GBC incarnation of this title there were four extra characters to unlock but for obvious reasons these aren't included at this time and it's questionable as to whether or not they will be added.

Aside from that small omission though, everything else is present from the ten modes which include such variations as Mini, Tournament and Speed Golf to the six wonderfully designed courses. Visuals are pretty solid even today, sure the character models don't look as refined as the GC incarnation but everything holds together wonderfully and represents the best results that could be achieved on the hardware at the time; there is plenty of charm to everything and though it's Mario, the emphasis is on realism and it's this along with the humour of the characters and things like being able to taunt you're opponent in multiplayer that make it so much more fun that a simple sports simulation.

Well worth owning if your a fan of the genre or even if you aren't, this is a spin-off that has a great deal of appeal and with good reason; Toadstool Tour may have added more but this was the one that started it off and in some respects is much better for it. If you've never played a golf game then this is an excellent place to start and if your a Nintendo fan and maybe missed out on this the first time around then you can't go far wrong with this classic, just be ready for a challenge.

Verdict : Elevates the Golf genre to new grades of greatness.

Points: 500
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1988
System: Master System

Sequel to the successful original, this title see's Tom Tom the hero of the last game in a setting rather different to the prehistoric one of previous. Yes it has a predictable storyline about evil rising again and the wonderful cliché of their only being one single being who can save the world (yep thats right, you) but that's really not what matters.

What does matter is that this fine follow-up is set in Medieval times and it really set the standard for what the series would then go on to become; you start off with nothing � not even a sword � that is until you find one of course and start slicing up baddies that come at you which in turn drop coins... which you then collect... use to upgrade your armour etc... sounds rather like an RPG really, which you would be half-right in thinking.

It's really an action platform title with role-playing elements that have been implemented rather well, the combat for instance may feel odd at first because when you hit you're enemy the action stops for a split second to allow for recovery time and after that you can attempt to hit again which might not sound like it makes much sense on paper but when you start playing you'll understand and will want to constantly sharpen your skills in battle.

Environments are ever varied ranging from castles, caves, woods and the like each providing a decent level of variation and showing off visually what the Master System could do at the time with a decent contrast of colours; not to mention the background music and sound effects which still sound catchy even today. You get twelve levels all in all to complete with the catch being of course there is no save or password feature to record your progress so it's really one of those games you're supposed to play in one sitting but obviously you can make use of the Virtual Console's save state by simply pressing the 'Home' button when you want to quit which will allow you to continue from where you exited the game, always useful.

Truly this is a title of quality and one of the better efforts released on the Master System as there is a lot to like about the title that effectively made Wonderboy into what most of us know today; there is a lot of charm and character lovingly applied throughout the adventure and it still stands up strong today. Only really bettered of course by Wonderboy III this is still very much worth picking up either to satisfy your curiosity or just the need to play through a classic title, be warned though as it's no walkover.

Verdict : A title full of wonder and boy does it show it in spades.

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.