Sega lead an onslaught of a whopping 5 titles on the Virtual Console in Europe this week.

God bless Sega. Once Nintendo's fiercest competitor in the console market, they are now one of the biggest third-party supporters of the Wii and Virtual Console. This week sees five Mega Drive titles from Sega, which is a hell of a lot of games compared to the usual two or three. Read on to find out more about this week's retro gems.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was first released in 1994 and is the third (no shock there) installment in the hugely popular franchise starring the anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who became the face of Sega. The story takes place shortly after Sonic 2, which saw Robotnik and his Death Egg space station defeated in an epic battle with the 'hog. Robotnik crash lands on Angel Island, the home of Knuckles the Echidna. Robotnik uses trickery to befriend this new villain and convinces Knuckles to steal Chaos Emeralds for him in order for the evil doc to rebuild his highly satirical Death Egg and finally thwart his arch-nemesis, Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is available now for 800 Wii Points.

Ghouls 'n Ghosts, originally released in 1989, is an amazingly difficult cult-classic platformer developed by Capcom. You play as Arthur, a knight with the near-impossible quest of thwacking undead fiends in order to collect souls stolen by Lucifer (or Loki in the localised version). The difficulty was astounding even in the 1980s, due to Arthur's inability to keep his armour on if he was hit by an enemy. Running around in his Y-fronts, one more hit would see poor Arthur winging his way straight to hell. Ghouls 'n Ghosts is available now for 800 Wii Points.

Crack Down was first released on the Mega Drive in 1990, and has nothing to do with the popular Xbox 360 title of the same name. Crack Down is a run-and-gun title from Sega which sees you playing as Ben and Andy (criminals beware), racing against the clock to beat down your enemies with a vast array of weapons and explosives. Crack Down is available now for 800 Wii Points.

Adding another title to the Wii's growing list of RPGs is the 1991 classic Shining in the Darkness. Set in the fictional fantasy land of Thornwood, evil sorcerer Dark Sol has arisen to threaten peace in the kingdom, and the main character's father and the princess of Thornwood have been kidnapped. You are tasked with retrieving the Arms of Light in order to defeat Dark Sol and save Thornwood from a magical doom. Shining in the Darkness is available now for 800 Wii Points.

Last of all this week is ESWAT: City Under Siege, which was first released in 1990. ESWAT is a side-scrolling platformer which sees you as a RoboCop/Terminator type guy working for a cyber police force, whose aim is to catch, neutralise and incarcerate Liberty City's biggest and most dangerous criminals. ESWAT: City Under Siege is available now for 800 Wii Points.

Look out for Sam's verdict on these classic titles over the next few days in the newest edition of VC Weekly.