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

In an interesting turn of events Nintendo has seemingly launched the Wii U Virtual Console prematurely with a 'Trial Service' which is most welcome as it means that you can pick up a full Virtual Console title for just thirty pence, for thirty days to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Famicom (Japanese NES) which seems like a good enough excuse as any for some cheap retro gaming. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Balloon Fight

Price: GB £4.49, EU €4.99 (£0.30/€0.30 until 21/02/13)
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Released: 1987
System: NES

Another 8-bit title from the Nintendo back catalogue, Balloon Fight is one of those quirky original titles that remains entertaining for a while but falls frustratingly short of being a true classic. Your character hangs from a pair of balloons as you attempt to defeat evil chickens - who want to end your flight - hanging from a single balloon, to do this you simply touch the inflatable objects to pop them, causing the plummeting poultry to hit either land or sea. Sounds simple right? Well mostly...

If you enemies hit land they are able to inflate another balloon meaning you'll have to defeat them once more so the ideal outcome is either immersion in water or even better, demise by digestion as often a fish will emerge from the sea if anything gets close. And that anything includes you so you have to be cautious when flying not to far above sea level but this also helps to add an interesting element of luring your enemy to a watery grave. While it's true that the levels in the main mode do increase in difficulty there just isn't enough variation which causes the game to become a repetitive ritual; however add a second player and it becomes a lot more fun hopefully lasting you a while longer than if you were to pursue it alone.

Essentially that's it for the 'Balloon Fight' part but there is also 'Balloon trip' mode which involves travelling as far as you can to the left while avoiding obstacles which I personally used to feel was of 'limited enjoyment' when originally reviewing the game but since the advent of the Balloon Trip Breeze mini-game in Nintendoland I've since approached this mode more openly and in many ways it's this titles sole redeeming feature as you'll feel compelled to keep on playing, epwcially if you make good use of the save state feature which is invaluable here.

Visually everything you would expect from an 8-bit title is here, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the graphics as they have that quality retro appeal which coincidentally has inspired many players - including myself - to create mini-pixel masterpieces in the Miiverse community, I would even go as far to say that Miiverse clearly offers a new lease of life for such titles so it will be interesting to see what comes about from future VC releases. The audio is of decent quality even if it is the same track put on a loop, it's still catchy though you may tire of it over time but you probably won't tire of the satisfying balloon popping sound effect which is brilliant... apart from when it's your balloons that have been burst of course.

Despite the extra durability due to the two player mode, Balloon Fight is still a title which is lacking in long-term appeal, though it is still fun while it lasts and having Miiverse integration only helps to further bolster the games positive points - not to mention helping highlight the 50hz 'issue' - plus it should go without saying that it's worth playing if you happen to have not played it before. Fresh experiences in games are fairly hard to find especially by todays standards so playing a title such as this is always refreshing due to its bizarre originality.

Verdict : Bursting with balloon busting brilliance while it lasts.

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!