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

Whether you like blasting from afar or getting up-close and personal there should be something of interest for you here. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Mega Man
World Heroes Perfect



Price: GB £4.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Released: 1987
System: NES

Megaman... a name which in recent years thanks to the ninth and tenth entries in the series has just about managed to disassociate itself with mediocrity due to a substantial number of soulless spin offs on the GBA and other systems that came before. Although Megaman has been around as long as Mario and other gaming icons his success nowadays is relatively minor in comparison to where it all started, two decades and a half ago on the NES which helps to prove that there is at least some truth in the saying that the original is always the best.

So it all started a little something like this... In the future city of Monsteropolis, where robot labour is commonplace the main person responsible for this technology Dr. Light along with his assistant Dr. Wily built six robots each with a specific purpose however deciding upon the oh so predictable path of world domination Dr. Wily takes control of the robots. Dr. Light decides to fight the good fight with the only hope he has; a near human robot named "Rock" aka Megaman and so the fate of the world now rests on the shoulders of this one robot as he must now fight his way into Dr. Wily's castle to end his evil reign.

If you didn't know how the series started you no doubt will now so without further ado, onto the main game! You control your bullet blasting blue bot as you take on each of the six elemental based robots which subsequently have their own themed levels; upon completing the level and beating that levels robot you then obtain their abilities which are added to your existing arsenal.

A tactical element is introduced for each acquired ability and as you advance through the stages which get increasingly intensive in difficulty as you find that getting the right combination of weapons is imperative to further your success. It plays like a standard platform game with such features and facets as scalable ladders, moving platforms and perilous pitfalls.

Megaman might not stand up to much visually or audibly but it's still decent for a twenty-five year old title and most importantly its still packed full with plenty of decent, varied and addictive gameplay. It can only be faulted on its difficulty level which even by today's standards is a test of tolerance or in the case of this 3DS re-release a challenge to see how many times you can abuse the save-state feature; for players with patience and perseverance though this is a thoroughly enjoyable title which easily comes recommended.

Verdict : Massively masterful Megaman. 

 
Points: 900
Publisher: D4 Enterprise
Developer: Alpha Denshi  
Released: 1995
System: Neo Geo

Releasing a fighting game in the nineties on the Neo Geo can be likened a lot to releasing one in today's market as inevitably there will be those fighters that always do well such as Fatal Fury or Street Fighter but then there are those which will try to imitate the existing greats while trying to break into the market themselves. Credit where it's due to the original World Heroes as it managed to at least capture part of what made Capcom's classic so popular while having some interesting things to show for itself but ultimately it was labelled as a partially failed experiment; it's not until the release of World Heroes Perfect some years later where this series really starts to prove what it's really worth.

Style over substance would have seemed a fair way of summing up the series but here the developer has at least tried a bit more in adding an extra button, additional special moves plus a much more tactical approach which really assists the general flow of battle. As for the character roster you get to choose from a reasonable nineteen that includes a fairly eclectic mix of misfits which don't necessarily seem to gel inititally but you will warm to them as you play; selecting your fighter in single player will allow you to fight through various stages until you beat the final boss which will give you that characters ending, naturally two-player versus mode is available at any time as you'd expect.

Creating combos is reasonably easy as this is aided by the Hero Guage which while a welcome addition is hardly that deep when you consider other more tactical fighting games are available but it's still notable as being something that will add to the enjoyment level a little bit at least as it doesn't feel like a completely bare bones title. Fighting games can live or day based on their controls but thankfully here everything is very accessible meaning that you'll be able to combo away and bust impressive special moves to your hearts content, don't go expecting anything too show-stopping though as this is still a rather simple fighter at heart.

Visually appealing this most certainly is as what it may lack in devastating detail akin to Fatal Fury it more than makes up for in its rather outlandish presentation which makes it feel like a cartoon but with a healthy dose of grit thrown in there for good measure, everything seems of a decent proportion though so at least you won't have to squint to see the characters. There is also a decent amount of quality audio that plays nicely away in the background as you pummel away at your enemy though you're much more likely to want to direct some of that violence towards the announcer who is one of the most annoying I've ever has the displeasure of hearing in a fighting game.

If you are really into your fighting games then you might as well pick this up just for the sake of adding to your virtual collection as it will no doubt entertain you with its randomness even though it surely won't last more than a few plays out of curiosity even though it's still fun to play. But if you're looking for something that's got a bit more substance to it then just take your pick from the multitude of better recognised Neo Geo fighting games including Fatal Fury or even King of Fighters which the Wii Virtual Console has in abundance.     

Verdict : Perfectly playable yet a fundamentally flawed fighter.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!