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

If you like sport titles then rejoice, otherwise there isn't much to see here. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Golf
Tennis


 
Price: GB £3.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Released: 1991
System: NES

Golf is a sport that you already know whether you like or hate, the same can be said for this game being that it's a simple portable recreation of the sport with vew minimal additions. For those unaware there is NES Open Tournament which has been available on the Wii Virtual Console for years and was also made available to 3DS Ambassadors but for those of you who don't fall into either of the above categories Nintendo has decided to release the NES version of Golf; while it's not terrible it still lacks much of the content we've perhaps come to expect over the years.

Taking the title at face value however we do have a golf game which at least faithfully recreates nine different courses – these same courses were later re-used in Wii Sports Golf – and gives you multiple saves slots but really there isn't much to say beyond this apart from there is a two-player mode of course which may extend replay value a little bit. If you are still willing to play however you will find that the game does feature rather robust controls which work well; angle can be corrected using the horizontal plain of the d-pad while the vertical plain cycles through your clubs which is a satisfyingly simple control scheme, another nice feature is being able to save at any point which makes things even easier.

Obviously the visuals were never going to be anything spectacular but the NES does prove that it can at least produce clean and credible visuals if only from a rather basic colour palette which for its time this was still impressive but by today's standards it's admittedly basic. Sound is sparsely used only really serving as some sort of vague cue relating to what it is you're actually doing at the time rather than playing a larger part than is perhaps required of it.

It's hard to recommend Golf to anyone who already owns NES Open but if you're looking for a version of the sport for a budget price with no flashy gimmicks then look no further. The only real problem is that there really isn't that much to it so while this title may bring enjoyment to some while it lasts there really isn't much to come back for.    

Verdict : A game of Golf that's a bit of a bogey.

Price: GB £3.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Released: 1991
System: NES

One of the first games released alongside the NES way back in 1985 was a fairly decent effort at recreating the sport of Tennis back in the day, but moving forward over two and a half decades it's clear to see that this is probably one of the most basic games within its genre. Of course this should hardly be surprising but when you consider that there are a whole host of other similar, superior efforts available then it does tend to beg the question of if it's really worth bothering with... if it was free perhaps but it isn't.

You have all of your standard rules of Tennis which come into play here, so it's at least a faithful recreation of the sport plus you can opt to either play singles versus against a friend or even team up for a doubles match against the CPU which is at least fun for a few games. The overall feel is simulated with at least a decent amount of authenticity with a few typically Nintendo additions such as Mario taking the place of the Umpire which adds a nice comedic touch, especially whenever a ball is deemed as being 'Out!' or at 'Fault!' for extra comedy value I'd recommend imagining Charles Martinet saying it each time... it adds to the experience I promise.

Controls are simple enough as you use 'A' for your strong shots, 'B' for lob shots plus the D-pad to move as you'd expect, it's quite easy to hit the net or cause the ball to be out though even when you didn't mean it to be, this is just how the game plays though as it's not exactly perfect. Even the 'strong' shots don't really live up to their name as they seem rather slow which is unfortunate but again it's just a sign of the time of when this game was released; of course the CPU 'cheats' as well which doesn't help matters.

Visually you're in for a treat here... if you're expecting a basic court, a couple of characters moving around and not much else, the small amount of animations simply add 'something' to the experience but just don't go expecting anything particularly astounding overall. Aurally the sounds of Tennis are definitely here but all you really get is the sound of the ball bouncing, the players moving and Mario declaring if the ball was either in or out, nothing really beyond that.

Personally I can't really advise that Tennis is worth picking up unless you are a really big fan of all Nintendo sports games or have some deep fascination with the title, Super Tennis for one example if vastly superior so you might as well just wait it out for that as it surely won't be long before that gets released as well. Overall it's certainly not a bad game but just don't expect too much from it other than a rather simplistic game of Tennis, if that's something that interests you more than the game's draw-backs then by all means feel free to buy it, otherwise pass on it for now.

Verdict : A Tennis title that feels about a set behind.

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!