This week’s virtual console titles include Capcom classics and Konami’s Super Contra

This week on the Wii Virtual Console, we have 2 Capcom classics as well as Super Contra (for 500 points). Capcom features Breath of Fire 2 (for 800 points) from the Super NES and Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (for 800 points) from the Sega Genesis.

The games are available now on the Wii Virtual console. Oddly, Nintendo didn’t include any descriptions of the games. How weird. But can always check out the games yourself by logging into the Wii Shop Channel. 

Today’s Wii Virtual Consoles games are Super Metroid, Shinobi III and Neutopia

Ack! I forgot to tell you what today’s Wii Virtual Console games are! I have been so entranced into Custom Robo Arena (Which is okay. The story line sucks and is extremely tedious. But the battling is awesome). Anyways, this week’s virtual console titles are Super Metroid, Shinobi III and the LOZ clone, Neutopia.

And like every week, here are the descriptions:

Super Metroid (Super NES, 1 player, rated E for Everyone – Mild Violence, 800 Wii Points): The Space Pirates, merciless agents of the evil Mother Brain, have stolen the last Metroid from a research station, and once again Mother Brain threatens the safety of the galaxy. Samus Aran must don her awesome array of high-tech weaponry to retrieve the deadly Metroid hidden deep within the cave-riddled planet Zebes. Super Metroid features excellent graphics, with a huge variety of enemies and worlds to explore. The side-view action will be familiar to many players, only now there are new weapons and items, including the Grappling Beam, which allows Samus to swing across large chasms, and the X-Ray Scope, which reveals secret passages.

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Sega Genesis, 1 player, rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older – Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): In this thrilling sequel to The Revenge of Shinobi, Joe Musashi finds that Neo Zeed – the crime syndicate he believed he had wiped out two years earlier – is indeed still alive and well. The return of Neo Zeed and its leader, the mysterious Shadow Master, forces Musashi to return from exile and confront the growing evil. As the Shinobi, the master of long-forgotten Oboro Ninjitsu martial arts, Musashi must utilize all his powers to overcome his various enemies. Thanks to his considerable combat skills and special Ninjitsu moves, only the Shinobi can thwart Neo Zeed and vanquish the Shadow Master.

Neutopia (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 600 Wii Points): In this action role-playing game, you take control of a brave boy who sets off on a journey to rescue the kidnapped princess and reclaim the eight medallions that were stolen by the evil demon, Dirth. You’ll need to rely on your magic compass and information you’ve gathered to find entrances to labyrinths and defeat the bosses in them. Solve puzzles, avoid traps, move blocks and destroy walls to uncover secret rooms in the labyrinths. Carefully use your map to uncover hidden treasure and powerful equipment. Travel the land, underground, sea and sky on your quest to recover the medallions. With a save function, the right difficulty level and a system that doesn’t include experience points, this is truly an RPG that anyone can enjoy.

Wii Virtual Console games- Cratermaze, Metroid, Shining in the Darkness

This week’s Virtual Console theme is “all about evil”. It does feature the somewhat odd Cratermaze, and Shining in the Darkness as well as the original Metroid. Anyways, the games come out in about 30 minutes on the Wii Virtual Console.

Here are Nintendo’s descriptions of the games:

Metroid (NES, 1 player, rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): The first installment of the immensely successful Metroid series introduces us to the hideous title creatures and the slick, cybernetic bounty hunter Samus Aran. As Samus, your mission is to penetrate the space pirates’ home planet, Zebes, and keep them from destroying the galaxy with the dangerous life forms known as Metroids. Metroid has all the high-tech weaponry, creepy tunnels and crawly alien creatures that anyone could ask for. With its deep and complex game play, excellent music and a rare sense of setting, it establishes a frightening ambience that will haunt and entertain you for a very long time.

Shining in the Darkness (Sega Genesis, 1 player, rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): Dark Sol has vowed to reign over the enchanted Kingdom of Thornwood, and only you can stop him. Find the powerful Arms of Light and battle the deadly beasts that keep your people desperate and starving in this epic journey for peace. Roaming the dark Labyrinth, you’ll seek out enemies and collect weapons, all of which will help you pass the test of the Ancients and become a shining knight. Get into the adventure with a stunning 3-D perspective, amazing cinematic views and fast-paced scrolling. You’ll move from battle to battle, solving puzzles and discovering secret items in this engrossing struggle between good and evil.

Cratermaze (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, rated E for Everyone – Comic Mischief, 600 Wii Points): Cratermaze is a comical action game set in a parallel world. While on a trip through time, you and your friends are confronted by Kublai, henchman to the evil Zenzombie. He traps your friends at separate points in the space-time continuum. Now you must fight your way through 60 rounds of mazes to save your friends. Dinosaurs, ninjas, robots and other enemies lurk within the mazes, spanning from primitive times to the future. Escape the enemies by digging holes to trap them in and then filling the holes to finish them off. Collect all the chests within the time limit to get the key and exit to the next round. With special items such as shovels and spring platforms, Cratermaze takes its game play to new heights, making for an unforgettable gaming experience.

Wave Race is on this week’s list of Virtual Console titles

Man, the classic Wave Race is listed on the Wii Virtual Console. I remember that game, it was the first game I ever lost to.

Without further ado, here is the list of the newest titles:

Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64, 1-2 players, rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Take to the waves on your own personal watercraft and experience some of the best water effects in video game history. Choose one of four characters, each with his/her own unique abilities and style, and master the game’s excellent controls. Make your way through nine courses, each with its own challenges. If the ramps, mines and hairpin turns aren’t enough, you’ll also have to deal with varying weather conditions that can make the water choppy or cover the course with fog. And if you ever feel like taking a break from racing, then try out Stunt Mode to polish your skills by pulling off handstands, rolls and more. Get good enough and you might even be able to ride a dolphin-just don’t get seasick.

ADVENTURES OF LOLO (NES, 1 player, rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): This was the first game in the Eggerland puzzle series to be released in North America. After the love of his life, Lala, is kidnapped by the Great Devil and taken to a haunted castle, our hero Lolo sets out to rescue her. The journey is perilous because the Great Devil’s fortress is guarded by a massive army. But Lolo has a few tricks up his sleeve, including a Magic Shot that turns enemies into eggs and an Emerald Framer that shields him from attacks. Combining clever environmental puzzles with tricky enemies and an engaging style, ADVENTURES OF LOLO is a true classic.

GALAGA ’90 (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): This is an updated version of the classic arcade shooter Galaga. Set in the vast reaches of space, you will fight your way through all 29 rounds to reach the enemies’ stronghold on Planet Galaga. Game levels consist of a few rounds with changing enemies and backgrounds. To top it off, the nostalgic “Galactic Dancing” lives on to mark the end of each level. With the new addition of dimensions, you can choose your attack route. Collect capsules and open dimension warps at branch sections to take on even tougher enemies. GALAGA ’90′s inclusion of the triple fighter, scrolling backgrounds, boss Galaga and even new system effects make it nothing less than a masterpiece.

Marathon: Durandal is now on XBL

Wow, Bungie’s second game in the Marathon Trilogy, Marathon 2: Durandal, is now on Xbox Live. In Marathon 2, you play as the Security officer guy that you did in Marathon 1, except this time you are trying to stop an attack on earth (among various other tasks). You continuously are taking orders from Durandal, the AI which has gone insane in Marathon 1. Here on the new planet which you inhabit for the rest of the game, you must stop the Pfhor from advancing and destroying earth throughout a variety of missions.

Marathon had many themes in its series, like the recurring number 7, stuff about dreams and etc. Marathon 2: Durandal for the Xbox Live Arcade has been revamped from the original 1995 version by a company called Freeverse Software, with support for 4 player split screen, better graphics, a new game mode named Survival, support for Xbox Live (that’s a given) and 8 player co-op over XBL.

The game is 138.25MB and is priced at 800 MS Points. It’s still rated M for mature.

August Wii TurboGrafx-16 Virtual Console games revealed

Hudson Soft decided to start the month out early and put up their TurboGrafx-16 release list for the month of August. I love how they take away the surprise and let us know early. I wish Nintendo would do this.

One of the games coming next month is the Legend of Zelda clone, Neutopia. Neutopia actually looks like a good LOZ clone, so it might be a good pick me up. Neutopia will probably be released near the end of the month, while Cratermaze will be released somewhere in mid-August.

Cratermaze is a bit different from other Wii Virtual Console games, where the bosses kill you instantly and you dig holes to defeat enemies. The various levels are weaved together via the back story of you “traveling time” to various eras (each era is about 15 levels) trying to collect treasure and save your friends.

And the last (and the one to probably release first) is Galaga ’90 which is really a PC port of the Galaga ’88 game. However it’s not called Galaga ’88 but Galaga ’90 in the states because of release times. A bit confusing, but they are the same games. Galaga ’90 is an improved version of the original Galaga game. It feature better graphics, harder game play, more pickups, better bosses, and a bunch more. It’s kinda like the Deluxe version of Galaga. Basically you shoot bosses and bad guys in the scrolling arcade shooter style.

This week’s Wii virtual console list game are…

Sorry for not updating as much last week, ThunderBrowse (my current project) has been taking up way too much of my time. Wail was out on vacation and I was busy writing the biggest release of ThunderBrowse.

Anyways, this week Nintendo has the theme of “variety”, as they name the Wii Virtual Console as a box of chocolates. Apparently we are supposed to “savor” this week’s virtual console titles, and speaking of which, they are Star Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, and Drop Off. While some games listed (Dynamite Headdy) don’t look super great (you will love how cheesy the description is), but some other games look pretty good though. The games will appear on the Wii Virtual Console at 9:00AM today.

And to leave you off with tradition, here are the descriptions of the games from Nintendo:

Star Soldier (NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): The standard for vertically scrolling shooters, Star Soldier is the original game that spawned all of the titles in the long-running Soldier series. Go inside a floating space station inhabited by a giant computer known as Starbrain. Your mission: to stop Starbrain’s galactic invasion by piloting Caesar, a new, compact space fighter through 16 deadly stages. Collect power capsules to increase three different attributes of your ship: firepower, movement speed and defensive shields. Blast wave after wave of approaching enemies or use the innovative Trap Zone feature to fly beneath a land mass and avoid incoming fire. Conquer each stage to make your way to the final confrontation with Starbrain.

Dynamite Headdy (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Comic Mischief, 800 Wii Points): Headdy, a toy with a detachable head, arrives in North Town to find that the evil puppet king Dark Demon is causing serious problems. Dark Demon is gathering up all the puppets in town and turning some into his own evil minions, while eliminating the rest of the puppets that aren’t good enough to join his legions. Headdy is captured and is targeted for the incinerator, but escapes in the nick of time. Now he’s got to save the town. To do so, Headdy has to take on all manner of bad guys and even has to contend with his lifelong nemesis, Trouble Bruin the bear. Can Headdy overcome all his foes and take down Dark Demon?

Drop Off (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Brave five rounds of haunting, nightmarish dreams in this take on the classic arcade puzzler. To save his dearly beloved from the malicious demon that controls her dreams and holds her captive, our brave hero plunges himself into the nightmare to vanquish this evil foe. Deftly use the arrow items and control the angle of the ball to shatter the blocks that descend from the top of the screen. Set your sights on the joints holding the blocks together and knock off multiple blocks in one exhilarating blow. As you drop more and more blocks, their shapes will change, allowing you to earn bonus points. You must use your concentration and reflexes to defeat the demon and save your beloved.

Classic Summer Leisure activities is this week’s Wii Virtual Console theme

This week Nintendo put up some classic summer games for the Wii Virtual Console. While I can’t see how the second one is a leisure activity (except for the people that play WoW), the selection of games is pretty decent. So this week’s Virtual Console titles are Kirby’s Dream Course (Kirby Golf), Shining Force (defeating hordes of enemies), and Devil’s Crush (pinball).

The games go live in 23 minutes, so check out what interests you. And here are Nintendo’s descriptions of the games:

Kirby’s Dream Course (Super NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): Step up to the tee for the wackiest golf game of your life. This one- or two-player game features a floating golf course in the sky. High above Dream Land, players can pitch and putt the ever-popular puff ball, Kirby, through a maze of three-dimensional obstacles on a zany checkerboard course. Players must aim for the multitude of enemies that are spread throughout each fairway. Kirby must hit all the enemies to make them disappear, and the last one becomes the hole. Sink Kirby into the hole to advance to the next stage and clear all 8 courses – 64 holes in all.

Shining Force (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): In ages long forgotten, Light fought Darkness for control of the world. Finally, the Ancients defeated the evil ruler of the dark forces known as Dark Dragon and cast him into another dimension, though he vowed to return in 1,000 years. As time passed, all memory of Dark Dragon was buried, and the land of Rune enjoyed 10 centuries of peace. Yet, as promised, the dark ruler returned, along with hordes of evil creatures that ravaged the land. As chaos erupted, several strongholds of Good still held out, awaiting a hero who could wield the Powers of Light.

Devil’s Crush (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone – Animated Blood, Mild Fantasy Violence, 600 Wii Points): Devil’s Crush is the exciting sequel to the hit pinball game Alien Crush and features even smoother ball movement and enhanced special effects. Shoot the ball onto the board with the Devil Shooter, then use flippers and nudging to keep it in play and rack up a high score. Complete certain conditions to play up to six different bonus stages. Get a “Perfect Clear” on those to earn a huge amount of points. The game’s ominous theme is enhanced by its enemies: wandering skeleton knights, sorcerers and even a giant face that changes from a goddess to a sinister serpent.

Devil’s Crush is tomorrow’s TurboGrafx-16 VC game

Hudson Soft stated that Devil’s Crush (for 600 WiiPoints) is tomorrow’s TurboGrafx-16 Wii Virtual Console game. The game doesn’t look super great, despite the title, it’s really just a pinball game, a very odd one in fact. The port of Devil’s Crush hasn’t been modified much from the original game so it relies on passwords to save (that is so GameBoy Pocket). However, there is a button combo (+ then – then 2 and then 2 again) you can press to save your data to the Wii rather than have to write down the password.

Devil’s Crush has a Pokemon Pinball style to it, rather than showing the entire board, it will show whatever part of the board the ball is on. There are a lot of objects you can interact with (like all pinball games should have) but the downside is that there is only one main pinball board and six small bonus boards. The game looks pretty decent for a pinball game but it is not something I would spend $6 dollars on.

Manhunt brings a bad name to video games

It’s really odd when you hear about news that happened a year ago but no one really reported it until just now. Apparently, some 19 year old decided to try out killing styles found in the game Manhunt. And he happened to murder a 33 year old nurse by beating her with a hunting knife on April 19^th 2006. And now the parents are blaming videogames. Specifically, Manhunt.

While Manhunt is a violent videogame, it is possible that it could drive one (that has a weak understanding of reality and fiction) to do such actions. But Manhunt isn’t the only thing to blame. Of course not. The parents bought Manhunt for their son because all the other kids had the game. Now the parents exclaim that their angel of a child has been turned into a killer because of sadistic video games.

Doesn’t this seem a little odd to you? It should and it gets better. The mother stated to the newspaper where this article is featured (The News Of The World is the newspaper) that “I knew he was playing the video games but we didn’t really know what went on in them; how brutal and graphic they were.” *cough*checktheratings*cough* Just goes to show you that some people don’t read. “For a long time I didn’t even realize games had age limits on them.”.

The 19 year old was convicted two weeks ago. His sentence was not revealed in the newspaper.

PAPER MARIO IS ON THE WII VIRTUAL CONSOLE!

Nintendo really came through for us this week! One of my favorite games is now on the Wii Virtual Console! The long waiting for Paper Mario is finally over! But the NES game was disappointing. I was hoping for Duck Hunt. Oh well. So the games this week are: Paper Mario, Balloon Fight, and Silent Debuggers.

The games are now on the Shop Channel, and of course, Paper Mario is totally recommended.

Here is Nintendo’s descriptions of the games:

Paper Mario (Nintendo 64, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): Paper Mario is a graphically innovative game that breaks from the confines of the RPG genre. Now slimmed down, everyone’s favorite plumber flips, spins, jumps and hammers his way through scads of exotic worlds that teem with a huge and hugely entertaining supporting cast. Players control numerous old and new characters in a complex, nonlinear story that follows different scenarios depending on player choices. A dizzying collection of spells, attacks, skills and special items can be collected by players willing to thoroughly explore the lush 3-D environments.

Balloon Fight (NES, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Control a character to pop your opponents’ balloons before they pop yours. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Don’t be fooled by this game’s simple premise or cute exterior. Underneath you’ll find a surprisingly addictive game with strategy to spare. After mastering the easy-to-learn controls, you still have to get a grip on the game’s impressively realistic physics. And if that’s not enough, there are the ever-increasing enemies and environmental hazards like lightning and water. Try the game’s second mode, Balloon Trip, if you feel like taking a break from the action and just want to see how long you can stay aloft. And hey, who doesn’t like popping balloons sometimes?

Silent Debuggers (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Fantasy Violence, 600 Wii Points): Make your way through a dungeon-like space station and defeat the prowling monsters in this real-time first-person shooter. You’re a member of the elite Debuggers, a group of warriors who are jacks-of-all-trades. Assigned to inspect an unmanned space station, you have exactly 100 minutes to get in, destroy the monsters lurking in each block, make your way to the lowest level and deactivate the automatic detonator placed there. With each monster that slips by you, the core block becomes harder to survive in, so speed is key in preserving the facility and each separate block. Experience the thrill of survival as the timer ticks away and you uncover the truth of the events that occurred.