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

If you're a fan of a certain iconic inflatable pink blob then these releases are sure to make you explode with joy... perhaps. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Kirby's Dream Course
Kirby Super Star


 
Price: £5.49, EU €7.99 (£3.79/€5.59 if you own Kirby's Adventure until 30/05/13)
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Released: 1995
System: SNES

Kirby, the legendary vacuous pink spud has a go at Golf! In his own original way of course. Basically Kirby 'is' the ball, you decide at what angle and speed he rolls in an attempt to hit enemies which are spread throughout the games crazy courses. Once all but one of the enemies remains, the creature then turns into the hole; welcome to the wonderfully wacky world that is Kirby's Dream Course.

Assuming an isometric viewpoint, the title offers a decent range of well proportioned courses, with the level of detail in design still standing up well even by todays standards. Each enemy that you encounter has an obtainable ability which can be used to your advantage in true Kirby fashion; transforming him into a rock, spike-ball and other transformations which will aid you in clearing the course.

Eight courses await you with varying vertices' and intermediate inclines to test your skills. These are really well designed courses with a subtle learning curve, so while they won't take you long to complete after mastering the decent use of physics that the game employs, there are still gold medals to go for.  

Another solid distraction to the proceedings is the games two player mode, in this you compete to obtain bonus stars before going for the cup. With the added element of different attacks to use against your opponent, this makes for a fun experience which adds a bit of longevity to the overall package.

It's safe to say that this is a brave attempt to create an interesting sub-genre, Golf games have come in all shapes and sizes over the years but they don't get much crazier than this. Kirby's Dream Course is both well rounded and fun to play in its own right; with an amicable amount of replay value plus a commendable amount of character, this is worth the price.

Verdict : A successful sport spin-off featuring Kirby.

Price: £5.49, EU €7.99 (£3.79/€5.59 if you own Kirby's Adventure until 30/05/13)
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Released: 1997
System: SNES

A legendary title, Kirby Super Star consists of eight 'mini' games starring everyones favourite pink blob, is highly regarded as being one of the best games ever released in the series and with good reason. Read on to find out what makes this excellent collection of games such a strong entry for the Pink Puffball that everyone knows and loves.

In the first game 'Spring Breeze' King Dedede has stolen all the food in the land, so it's up to the ball of 'pink fudge' himself to save the day! You control Kirby by moving with the d-pad, jumping/floating with the 'B' button and of course inhaling enemies with a press of the 'Y' button. Once inhaled you can press 'down' on the d-pad to absorb abilities from your foe, the effect varies depending on the enemy. That's not all though because you can then press the 'A' button to 'release' the enemy turning them into a CPU controlled helper, complete with their own health bar which can be very useful indeed.

Next up is 'Gourmet Race' in which you must race King Dedede through three small stages eating as much food as you can before reaching the finish line. This is challenging as no matter how hard you try your rival will always seem to eat more than you, but with a bit of practice it is possible to win plus there's always the time to improve on so plenty of replay value here. Another more traditional Kirby game is 'Dynablade' in which you must traverse a handful of levels, eventually ending up fighting against the titular menace; which is a huge multicoloured bird of prey. This proves to be an enjoyable boss battle even if it isn't quite as entertaining as the ring fight against Kind Dedede at the end of Spring Breeze.

Taking a change of pace we have 'The Great Cave Offensive' which sees you working your way through a huge set of levels trying to collect all sixty treasure chests along the way. It may sound simple enough but believe me it's a challenge and you'll need to make use of the helpful save rooms along the way, not to mention using a bit of ingenuity to solve some puzzles. Smaller games 'Megaton Punch' and 'Samurai Kirby' offer more of a reactions test, as the former has you pressing a button at the right moment to fill a bar, line up a cursor and time a pendulum swing resulting in you cracking  the ground beneath you and hopefully beating your opponent. The latter is a showdown between you and various 'boss' characters where pressing a button at exactly the right moment is crucial to your victory, watch out for Meta Knight as his lightning speed is a force to be reckoned with!

Which brings me nicely onto 'The Revenge Of Meta Knight' here we have another reasonably sized adventure, which sees Kirby taking out the flying ship 'Halberd' and its crew piece by piece, in addition tolearing a few stages in-between. It all of course ends in an epic battle which fans of the series are sure to enjoy, it's one of the most satisfying games in this most generous package. If you wish to see the final game 'Milky Way Wishes' you need to unlock it by beating each of the other games. At this point it will unlock, it's most definitely worth it though because it's yet another adventure but with a twist... you cannot copy the abilities of enemies you inhale, instead you collect 'Deluxe Ability Pedestals' which allow you to choose from a list of abilities; other major changes include an excellent shoot-em-up stage which while short-lived is very enjoyable indeed.

If you're a Kirby fan or even if you aren't I'd advise you pick this up because not only is this one of the most highly regarded games in the series, it's actually an ideal starting point for anyone new to Kirby as it takes some of the best bits from many of the previous games. Graphically gorgeous, audibly astounding and just fantastic fun to play, if you've never played this before and are in need of another reason, just get it if you're a 'sucker' for good games.  

Verdict : A 'killer' Kirby title.


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!