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

If you enjoy repetitive circling while catching digital critters then this may be the edition for you, no I'm not talking about Pokémon Go but instead the Ranger games plus there's some Golf with Kirby on the side. Anyway enough from me and on with the games!  
  
Available for download this week we have...   

Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs
Kirby's Dream Course  

Price: GB £6.29, EU €6.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Creatures Inc
Released: 2008
System: DS

Continuing in the tradition of capturing creatures by encircling them, the second title in the Pokémon Ranger series is perhaps unsurprisingly very similar to the original, it contains more of those potentially repetitive strain injury inducing hand movements which players must have enjoyed from the first title for this one to get green-lighted and then proceeds to tell you about it before even considering letting your instincts kick in. Yes sadly even if you are already initiated in this series you will have to sit through an elongated tutorial section which starts off the game on something of a flat note; you begin as a young trainee enrolled (or should that be enslaved?) at a Ranger School within the region of Almia where you have to follow instructions to the letter, be dictated every single instruction no matter how small and comply until you've told the game that you understand before you can even think about going off on your rather limited, linear adventure of sorts. Hopefully you're still on board after that point.

You'll get the chance to encounter over two hundred and fifty Pokémon mainly sourced from the Fourth Generation of mainline titles (no Gen 1 pandering here!) which you have the chance to catch by drawing circles around them with your Styler device, of course this is performed by you by using the stylus on the touch-screen as you scribble furiously like a madman. Fortunately you no longer need to perform this in one fell swoop as a capture meter fills while you draw a line, upon stopping it won't simply revert back to nothing (which it used to in the original) but instead it will count the number of full circles meaning that you can relax a little bit knowing that if your loop is broken by an attack then it isn't as if you're starting the entire process all over again.

Just another day at the N-E office, where did I put that review?

 So you walk a little, you catch a little but you're wanting more, it never really happens though as the main source of variation seems to come from the different Pokémon abilities, you do at least get many partner Pokémon to choose from in addition to having many other creatures alongside as they assist you on various missions. The assist moves make a return as these help you in capturing other creatures, these vary from critter to critter plus they can be used as field moves in order to get rid of obstacles blocking the way, indeed it's interesting to see that after many generations the mainline games may well be taking a similar approach when it comes to HM's as instead it seems like having rideable Pokémon may be replacing the generally archaic system of having a "slave" character to teach a multitude of field-based moves to; so perhaps in some small way we have the Ranger series to thank for this.

It's plain to see that stylus control should be your main method of control during this "adventure" of sorts, while you can choose to use either the analogue stick or the d-pad for movement if you so wish, the moment you get into battle it's back to stylus scribbling so you may as well choose the gamepad orientation which suits you and get comfortable. Yes, I still maintain that having the game divided between the gamepad screen and your TV is the best way to play the vast majority of Nintendo DS titles on the Wii U because if anything it actually works well for the mostpart, making me wonder why titles from this library weren't leveraged much closer to launch; lest we forget though that developing such an emulator for the Virtual Console takes time, indeed we are grateful to Nintendo European Research and Development (NERD) for even making these titles virtual viability an option, plus it will be interesting to see what they've managed to achieve on the NES Classic Edition when it releases later this year.

Be warned, the capture rate on this one is simply Ghastly!

Back to the wonderful world of Pokémon Ranger though, which still looks reasonably good on the TV screen even though the main action is displayed on the gamepad screen, it's just as good as the original DS screen but obviously a bit better on the backlight front, I wonder how many people have actually played this title on an original DS as it's certainly not an experience I would have personally relished thinking back to those dark days even though the machine itself is a technical marvel. On the subject of sound I suppose you could call most of the music contained within the game repetitive yet inoffensive, making good use of sound effects at least but other than that coming across as being rather unremarkable in most respects; "an aesthetically average affair" would be how I might refer to this overall if I was to sum up a verdict based purely on sight and sound.

Featuring a basic story which puts you up against Team Dim Sun (not a patch on the Go Rock Squad) who are strategically placing machines in the world which alter the behaviour of Pokémon for the worst, a selection of missions with little variation and little in the way of any great challenge, it's hard to advise purchasing this weak but subtly-tweaked follow up. Of course if you are determined to "Play 'em All!" relating to every Pokémon game ever created or just released on the VC then you'll still find something to like about it; however the Special Missions are not loaded into the game already so aren't playable at all (thanks to Serebii for this info) and it goes without saying that you may want to consider using the Virtual Console Restore Point function if you so desire in order to alleviate at least some frustration, in the case of this game series I most certainly would being that it's an absolute chore to play for me personally.               

Verdict : A Pokémon Ranger sequel which will only prove fun for fans.

Price: GB £6.29, EU €6.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Creatures Inc
Released: 2010
System: DS

So here we are on another circular adventure, this time within the idealistic Oblivia region which has all of the sun, sea and sightings of Pokémon you could possibly wish for. It's just a shame that this peace is so predictably short-lived as a gang of ne'er do wells known as the ruthless "Pokémon Pinchers" (how long did it take to come up with that name?) show up on the scene as they start well... presumably pinching Pokémon for their own nefarious schemes; indeed you are introduced to them right away as you assume control as one of two Rangers as you're flying through the sky and witness creatures being taken. Naturally you give aerial chase as you avoid projectiles, then you descend into an underwater section as you forge forward without letting the bubbles get in your way, this acts as your tutorial for these newly added elements which add at least a touch of variation to the otherwise plain proceedings.

Thankfully it seems like third time is a charm in some respects as you do start up as a fully fledged Pokémon Ranger for a change, so you don't have to go through yet another awfully drawn-out tutorial with the game instead just stopping as it explains the mechanics to you on the fly (Noooo!) though you can opt to skip these tips (*Sigh* of relief) which is just as well. You have around three hundred different Pokémon which you can capture this time, there is no choice of which Partner Pokémon you get this time, instead you get a Pichu but not just any pre-evolved version of Pikachu, oh no... this one can play a Yooka-Laylee! Wait what? Ah sorry that should have been a Ukulele of course (what a time we live in) which can help you when soothing music is played on it, aiding you in your capturing efforts as you combine this skill with those of other members in your team which you can now call on multiple times when the meter permits.

How many Gen 2 Pokémon can you get in one image? A few... plus Bulbasaur!

You can use these moves quite a lot if you wish, though as with previous titles which have been a little light on the difficulty level this does make things even simpler, until you run into an "Agitated Pokémon" that is because these are encounters which you cannot flee from and in addition to this you need to get rid of the red energy meter before you can even think about capturing. Even so it's still rather easy, this becomes even more the case as you play more, levelling up which gains you Ranger Points which let you upgrade your Capture Styler and there's still a fair amount of hand-holding even if you are at least allowed to think for yourself on a limited amount of instances.

Visually the entire game has been polished for the better, it has all of the usual staples except everything looks a lot better than it did in previous iterations, you have more detailed backdrops wherever you go (even in battle) plus the animation is pretty decent. The music isn't too bad either, providing you with at least some contextual pieces which are rather jovial in nature most of the time, even adding in a touch of drama here and there where required; of course the sound effects are still as solid as ever plus you have those sounds you don't like hearing as well if you fail a capture, it's all here to enjoy... or not.

A Pichu! Wait I already have one of tho... *Bzzzt!* Ouch! OK! One more it is then.

Possibly trying to give fans more for their money you seem to get a lot of story at times, most of it will have you frantically stabbing away at the touch-screen just to move things along a bit as not all of it is that interesting on the whole. It's worth mentioning that again all of the usual downloadable missions are absent and while you can play the multiplayer mode on your own initially it's really not advised as you won't be able to get very far so it's a waste of your time. In the interests of saving you time though, at least you can again use those Restore Points to save you some pain if you do ever get into trouble later on in the adventure but it's not that likely.    

For what it's worth (probably very little) I really don't think that there should ever be any more entries in the Pokémon Ranger series, with three titles under its belt now only released on the Nintendo DS console, none made since this title it should be clear that this spin-off series has just been one big experiment which has quite literally gone around in circles. The only thing which could be considered worse for Pokémon would be a smartphone based title which eschews everything but the basic principles into a free-to play framework which has you wandering around the real-world catching nothing but Pidgey and Rattata; oh wait... nevermind. Maybe the Pokémon Ranger games aren't so bad afterall.  
 
Verdict : Pokémon Ranger comes full circle.

Price: GB £7.19, EU €7.99
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 that creature then turns into the hole; welcome to the wonderfully wacky world that is Kirby's Dream Course.

Taking 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 to use to your advantage.

Watch out for the water... Oh you brought goggles? OK then...

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

Another solid distraction to the proceedings is the games two player mode in which you compete to obtain bonus stars and then go 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. 

Don't fall off the edge Kirby, that wouldn't be so hot... oh, nevermind.

This is still possible on the New 3DS for those wondering, you just need to use the switch controller option as you take turns passing the console between two of you, hold ZR and ZL in SNES games and press Y to switch between 1st and 2nd controller. 

It's a brave attempt at an original take on a sub sport, 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 it's own right; with an amicable amount of replay value and commendable character this is worth its price of entry.

Verdict : A successful sport spin-off featuring Kirby. 

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!