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

So another update bringing only one title this time in the form of an arcade release of a game that is already on the VC albeit in cutback form. Anyway enough from me and on with the erm... game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Space Harrier

Points: 800
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Released: 1985
System: Arcade

Already released on the VC in the form of the Master System port this classic of its time finally gets its original arcade release showcased; it's of course technically superior to the 8-bit variant in every respect but how does it hold up by todays standards?

For those unfamiliar with how the game plays you basically as a guy with a gun and you fly around the screen shooting everything in sight with enemies ranging from Aliens, Chinese Dragons and even Mammoths.

Everything is presented in a scaled pseudo 3D style so that it appears as if you are flying into the screen, you basically just keep going, shooting enemies and dodging obstacles until you reach the end of level, see a boss, defeat, rinse and repeat. There really is little else to it, the soundtrack is pretty decent as is the digitised speech that blurts out the quotes "welcome to the fantasy zone!" when you start and confirms that "you're doing great!" each time you defeat a boss.

That's all there is to the game really, in the arcade it would have been a more immersible experience at the time due to the moving cabinet which reacted to the way in which your character was moved; obviously this is difficult to replicate unless you insist on tilting your chair as you play* - not advised - but aside from that this is as faithful an arcade port as you can get complete with the unrelenting difficulty level, there are other versions such as the Sega 32X and Saturn variants which are pretty close and come with difficulty levels that can be tweaked but if you want the full arcade experience bar nothing aside from the cabinet then here it is.

If you've yet to play this arcade title then this is undoubtedly the best version you can now get on the Virtual Console but if you have already played it once before or have had your fill of the game then obviously there's very little to warrant purchase again. It's an example of a once classic arcade game that hasn't aged that well so don't expect it to last you very long but if you can appreciate what it does then you will get a decent amount of enjoyment from playing it.

Verdict : An enjoyable albeit aged arcade experience.

* N-Europe does NOT endorse the tilting of chairs while playing Space Harrier in any way, shape or form.

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.