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

Sadly it's a case of all filler no killer in this edition as we are 'treated' to a couple of titles that were pretty average when first released and have got no better with age. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!

Available for download this week we have...

• Clu Clu Land
• Wonderboy III

Points: 500
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1984
System: NES

This is definitely one of the more quirkier releases available for Nintendo's 8-bit machine, the plot goes a little something like this; evil sea urchins have stolen all the gold bars in the underwater world known only as Clu Clu Land and it's up to Bubbles, a (would you believe it?) bubble fish who has taken it upon himself to reclaim all the stolen gold and restore equilibrium to the ocean.

At first glance you would be forgiven for mistaking this title for a Pac-man clone and in some respects this may be true but only on a very loose level, the way you play is you must move by swinging around from peg to peg that make the maze on each level all in an attempt to collect the gold bars that are placed throughout the level; incidentally the 'gold bars' are actually the rupee sprite from Zelda merely re-used.

Upon swinging around the course you will fill in gaps between the pegs, these lines that appear have a purpose for they are the outline of a design and once you've collected all the pickups and 'drawn' the outline you can progress to the next level. It isn't all as simple as that though as of course you have such hazards as whirlpools to avoid as well as sea urchins, though you are not defenceless as you have a sonar blast at your disposal which you can stun your enemies with before slamming them into a wall.

Everything does get progressively harder though as there are more traps, a strict time limit and changes to the rules such as moving over a gold bar a second time will undo the work you already did, couple this with the awkward controls which may be original but become more bothersome as the game progresses, everything just gets too frantic in the end and the excitement of zipping through each level soon turns to frustration which is a shame for a game that shows such promise in its beginning.

Visually it looks how you'd expect a game of its era too and while it's not without its charm it does feel a little rushed, especially when you take into account the imported sprites, the sounds are nice enough but not as the audio featured in some of the classic NES titles. Overall it's not a terrible title and you may have some fun with it, but any enjoyment derived will be short lived upon reaching the later levels plus once you've played it once there is little to go back for so you'd be better off spending your hard-earned points on far more superior offerings that are already available.

Verdict : Underwhelming underwater-based arcade title.

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1990
System: Megadrive

If this game seems familiar then it's because this is already available on the VC in the form of Monster Lair originally released on the Turbografx, without going into the complexities of why or how the basic gist is that the license was farmed out to other platforms and we ended up with two versions of what is essentially the same game; still two is better than one right... well not exactly.

The game is actually criminally average in both forms and this is Sega's version of events as it were, starring their trademark character Wonderboy in a part platforming, part shooting experience but due to neither portion of the game being put together that well what it all adds up to is a really repetitive, restrictive A to B adventure of sorts that doesn't do much to please fans of either genre or of the series.

While it may share more in common with the first title this doesn't redeem it as where the original was a thoroughly entertaining experience that was fun to play, there is no actual charm to this third entry as you just make your way across varying lands with bland backdrops, collecting fruit and taking out waves of similar enemies; when it comes to the shooting parts there isn't much to take note of here either apart from the boss battles which serve only to break things up a bit.

Aesthetically there is little to differentiate this from Dragons Curse and it's just down to which you prefer, the same with the music as whichever way you look at things it's all a bit below par, especially for a game belonging to one of Sega's 'classic' series. Truly there isn't anything much at all I can recommend about it, you'd be better off either saving your points or buying any of the other Wonderboy games that are currently already available over this any day.

Verdict : It's a wonder why this woeful title was released once let alone twice.

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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