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

A single release this time around and unfortunately it's yet again a case of all filler, no killer but at least some more decent releases are surely on the horizon. Anyway enough from me and on with the erm... game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Galaxy Force II

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1991
System: Megadrive

There's no denying the success that Space Harrier had upon its initial release, thanks partly to the scrolling pseudo 3D look that it employed which worked well with the way that the game played. The same technique is used here in Galaxy Force II which like Space Harrier and even Afterburner first spawned arcade versions before being carried across in ported format to Sega's 16-bit machine.

As is typical with these arcade ports most of the game has made it across intact but not without sacrifices being made due to the limitations of the console; the visuals and sound have been scaled back rather dramatically but despite this the game is still delightfully well detailed for a Megadrive game and so based on its own merits it is well presented, the audio however is decidedly uninspiring though this was also true in its original arcade form so this comes as no surprise.

It plays reasonably well with responsive controls that are unfortunately marred somewhat by the overly awkward viewpoint situated behind your ship often obscuring enemy fire and it's because of this that it often seems like you are evading more when you should perhaps be attacking. Two weapons are at your disposal comprising of standard gunfire with no limit and rockets which you will need to conserve for the later parts of the game when things tend to get more hectic.

Your main goal is to navigate across each level until you reach the enemy fortress, once inside you must then clear a claustrophobic corridor en route to the main control room where you need to unleash a rocket or two in order to destroy the place from the inside and progress to the next stage; after that it's a case of rinse and repeat gameplay.

And that is essentially it, there is nothing that truly stands out about the title other than the reasonably well detailed visuals, aside from that the actual game is decidedly average, not much fun to play and becomes quickly repetitive. Personally I would say that if you have a desire to play a game similar to this then go for the Megadrive version of Space Harrier as it is moderately better than this and more fun to play even if it's still some way off from matching its arcade variant.

Verdict : An average airborne arcade affair.

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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