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

A good selection for those who like lots of digging and running in their games, but a rather mediocre update for everyone else who has seen these titles before. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Dig Dug
Lode Runner

 

Price: GB £3.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco
Released: 1982
System: NES

This age old popularly ported arcade game was surprisingly not released in NES format outside of Japan, in it you play as the titular "Dig Dug" with the objective being to well... dig and defeat all the monsters in each stage before moving onto the next... and the next and the next.

You can do this in one of two ways, firstly there are rocks which if you dig underneath them and time it right you can make them fall on your enemy crushing them instantly; alternatively there is the slightly more inventive hook which you throw into your enemy and then use the attached pump to inflate them until they burst.

Of course you don't always have time to fully inflate them and so you can choose to inflate them a little bit before running, but beware as they will then deflate and give chase again however you may run past them while they are in a state of deflation and not take any damage. There are only two kinds of enemy that inhabit the stages, Pookas which are red, round and have yellow goggles who can move through earth in later stages as time decreases and Fygars which are green fire breathing dragons.



It doesn't take too long to work out their attack patterns however so the only other things you need to worry about is the route you are digging and the fruit in the centre of the screen if your able to collect it within the allotted time which gives you bonus points. Not much else can be said here really, the graphics are decent but nothing special, the music only playing when Dig Dug moves is innovative but thats about it.

An arcade classic this may be but in this day and age it's rather short and there isn't a great deal of variation to the levels; by all means though if you have never played Dig Dug before then feel free to give it a go but for everyone else who's played it before there really is no point to dig deep into your pockets and shell out for this again.

Verdict : Dig dug is damn good fun but ironically lacking in depth.

Price: GB £3.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Hudson
Developer: Broderbund
Released: 1987
System: NES
 
This seems like a somewhat needless addition seeing as the superior Battle Lode Runner was released a couple of months back which begs the question, why would you want to take a step backwards? Well for anyone wanting to own the original this is your chance but for everyone else wanting the best version, it's already available at only one hundred points more and is far superior to this once classic game that has aged rather badly.

You take control of a guy called 'Lode' who loves nothing more than to collect treasure, to do this however he must traverse many dangerous areas full of ladders, pitfalls and lots of earth. Unfortunately for Lode he does not possess the ability to jump which is bothersome to say the least but for what he lacks in agility he makes up for in excavation skills as he can dig through the earth at the press of either action button.



It really is simple, all you do is go around the stage digging earth, avoiding enemies, collecting treasure, climbing ladders until you come to the level exit; then it's on to the next stage for... more of the same.

Basically if you're feeling nostalgic and want to play this game once again then go ahead, but for everyone else it's passable and not really worth downloading. If you want a Lode Runner game the battle variant that's already available and has been for some time would be more worthy of your points.

Verdict :  A run-down and rather rubbish title, one for the fans only.

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!