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

Yet again more re-releases 'prop-up' the Virtual Console services. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Brawl Brothers
Donkey Kong

Price: GB £5.49, EU €7.99
Publisher: HAMSTER
Developer: Jaleco
Released: 1993
System: SNES

While it may seem like Capcom and Sega effectively own the Beat-Em-Up genre thanks largely to huge success with Final Fight plus Streets of Rage respectively, there are other developers that have dabbled in the genre with varying degrees of success including Jaleco who are famed for creating Rival Turf which effectively precedes this title. Along with The Peace Keepers the three games make up the Rushing Beat trilogy in Japan however by the time they reached Western shores they were retitled to what you see today; but how exactly does this title stack up against its predecessor? Reasonably well actually...

Retaining the same main characters from Rival Turf in the form of the newly renamed Hack and Slash – formerly known as Jack Flack plus Oozie Nelson respectively – plus adding in three more characters named Kazan, Lord J and Wendy means you now have five decidedly different characters to choose from. While they all have the same basic combos available to them each one has their own unique set of moves so it's best to try them all out and then pick whichever you prefer; be warned though because depending on which two characters you use – the other becomes a reserve – you'll have to fight cloned versions of the remaining three however upon beating them you'll then have them at your disposal, the reserve character system works to a degree but being that you can only switch out upon continuing rather than after each life it's of limited use.

Stages are sparse in number which is unfortunate being that most of them seem somewhat similar and almost all of them play out in the same way which basically means you fight your way in one direction occasionally having to figure out which door to take then when you arrive at the end of a stage you're faced with a simplistic boss battle before moving onto the next area then rinse and repeat. You'd think that a game being based upon beating bodies to a bloody pulp would have the actual fighting mechanic well-programmed but unfortunately enemies aren't that easy to hit and rely on you being on the right plain plus directly in front of them otherwise your hits simply will not register; this was a problem with the prequel and it's still a problem here which is sad to see indeed.

In addition to being able to hold an array of weapons you can also 'carry' food items if your health happens to be full which would be beneficial if you had some sort of mini-inventory but sadly you don't so this 'feature' seems wasted being that you can't do much which holding said item other than get hit. Fortunately the visuals are vastly improved upon and look reasonably decent even if they're not on par with Streets of Rage and the same can be said for the music; a collection of decent enough tunes which do the job but are in no way either iconic or even vaguely memorable, the sound effects are notable but again aren't one of the games stronger selling points.

So better than Rival Turf this may be but it's still not a decent enough game to recommend getting over the true greats of the genre which remain unbeaten and so basically I would only advise getting this if you happen to be really into beat-em-ups and have played everything else that the Virtual Console has to offer. Really there isn't a great deal to see here that you won't have already seen before in a similar game, it's entertaining for a short while if you can play it with someone else but on your own your time and points would be better spent elsewhere.

Verdict : A sedate side-scrolling scrapper.

Price: GB £4.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Released: 1986
System: NES

One of the most important arcade games that Nintendo ever made at the time, Donkey Kong has certainly done well over the years but today it perhaps doesn't quite stack up in the way that it once did, this is definitely an example of a title that is showing its age but that doesn't make it any less fun to play. We must give it its dues though, as this was one of the titles that helped to launch the NES all those years ago so it's hard to imagine that there are many people left who have yet to play it but just in case here's a rundown of how the game works.

Everyone's favourite ape Donkey Kong has captured Pauline, taken her to the highest point possible and is generally casing trouble, it's up to you as Mario to make it to the top so that you can resue her, of course this sounds simple in essence but when you take into consideration that you'll be jumping over many barrels plus avoiding other obstacles along the way you can see how things start to become a bit more interesting. Once you get through the initial stage which is more about timing plus the climbing of ladders, the second one involves a lot more careful jumping, once you get to the third stage you must jump over eight rivets that hold the place together while avoiding fire enemies; if you can do this then DK falls off, you win and the stages start all over again only with an increased difficulty level.

There are items to collect perhaps the most memorable being the hammer as this is a power-up which allows Mario to smash up many barrels that come his way for a limited time, using this will probably be key to your success the further you progress; other items include Pauline's parasol plus bag which are purely there to boost your score but are worth picking up. As you'd expect from an early Nintendo game the controls are absolutely spot-on, they may be simple but there is an undeniable joy that comes from simply moving left, right in addition to jumping when it just feels right; watch out when jumping though as if you fall too far Mario will lose a life quite easily so you'll probably be wanting to use save-staes rather regularly.

Visually you should know what to expect here as this was one of the very first NES games but when you consider that it was an arcade port, it was actually done very well indeed as it brought a much-loved title that could once only be enjoyed on a cabinet, to the home console ready to be enjoyed any time, back in the eighties the sprites on this game were very accomplished. Aurally there is quite a simple theme that plays quietly in the background of each stage, they are all looped but have a certain charm to them without getting annoying, the 'hammer theme' is nothing short of magical and the sound effects will always being a smile to your face.

It's just a shame that many gamers will possibly tire of the game quite quickly due to it being rather 'short' and repetitive but really my advice would be to play this game in short bursts as you will get a lot more out of it that way, with the addition of save states you could even go for a 'perfect run' saving when you complete each level or three, then going back to it a few days later to see if you can cope with the increased difficulty level. As aforementioned, Donkey Kong may be showing its age but it is by no means a bad game, this is a true Nintendo classic which you cannot go wrong with especially at its current low price; the Miiverse community will ensure that it exists in the hearts and minds of gamers for a very long time to come.

Verdict : Donkey Kong is an age-old classic that still manages to deliver fun for all ages.

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!