Virtual Console Roundup Review

Gate of Thunder

• Platform: TurboDuo
• Wii Points: 800
• In Real Money: GBP 6 / EUR 8 (approx)

They don't come much more hardcore than Gate of Thunder. For one thing, it was released on an incredibly obscure console - the TurboDuo, a souped-up combination of the TurboGrafx 16 and the TurboGrafx CD. In fact, Gate of Thunder was actually bundled with the USD 299 machine when it launched in the US in 1992, so well did it show off the advantages of the hardware.

But Gate of Thunder is also hardcore because it's one of those intense horizontal-scrolling shoot-'em-ups that attract the gnarled fingers of dedicated arcade gamers like Japanese puzzle games attract Tom Bramwells. Swarms of them. Terrifying.

At first, you'll be hard pushed to see what makes it so special. You scroll into the guts of an enormous mothership, blasting waves of enemies as they float or crawl along the top and bottom of the screen. Pick-ups unlock the obligatory floating appendages which can be used to absorb attacks, or to fire behind you. Weapons include three-way lasers, missiles and the sort of ultra-wide screen-clearing beam weapon that you desperately try and keep hold of. If you've played any entry from the R-Type or Thunderforce series, you'll be on extremely familiar territory.

The music, which originally used the CD technology to wow players with its high fidelity sound, is worthy of special note. It's a catchy dose of melodic rock that wouldn't sound out of place in a Brat Pack movie, probably during the final act climax where Rob Lowe (or maybe Andrew McCarthy) runs through rain-slicked streets to proclaim his love for Molly Ringwald.

So, cheesy musical bombast aside, Gate of Thunder isn't the most innovative shooter around, but it is still one of the best. It is, like so many of its peers, absolutely brutal but, unlike many of its peers, it never feels unfair. I've railed before about the notion that old arcade games which slaughter the player somehow represent a pure state of "hardcore gaming", because most of these games were simply responding to the need to keep coins shovelling into slots rather than providing a true challenge. While Gate of Thunder may be hard it doesn't take long to realise that, as with all the great shmups, every wave of enemies and every nook and cranny of the seven frantic levels has been carefully crafted to reward concentration and punish stupidity rather than simply throwing a million bullets at you for the sake of it.

It's fair to say that few players will rise to the challenge, making it more essential for the genre completist who has already defeated R-Type III, Gradius III and all the other shooters available for download, but there's no denying it's yet another great cult title getting a deserved airing thanks to the Virtual Console.

9/10

World Heroes

• Platform: NeoGeo
• Wii Points: 900
• In Real Money: GBP 6.30 / EUR 9 (approx)

Despite the ubiquity of Street Fighter across multiple formats, the Neo Geo was, of course, considered the spiritual home of the 2D fighting game. It hosted more exclusive sprite-fighters than any other handheld (probably any console, period) and so it seems silly to complain when last week's addition of Fatal Fury is followed up with another brawler from the Neo Geo library.

World Heroes centres around yet another martial arts tournament, but this one has a twist. The combatants have all travelled through time to take part, often loosely based on real historical figures. So you get a Genghis Khan guy. You get Rasputin and Joan of Arc. You get Japanese legends like Hanzo Hattori and Kotaro Fuma. You get, er, Bruce Lee, Hulk Hogan and a Nazi cyborg. And an alien.

OK, maybe thematic consistency isn't the game's strong point but nor, sadly, is combat. It's not bad, just rather flat and lifeless compared to what other series were doing at the same time. Combo options are limited, with special moves that are so specific to certain situations that you soon forget they're even there. The best thing you can say about it is that it's a lot easier than some of its peers, making it more appealing to those who are sick of being massacred by M. Bison.

So it's not that World Heroes is another fighting game, it's just a rather limp and pointless one when compared to the wealth of combo-pummeling classics that are out there already. There are better fighters on the VC - like the aforementioned Fatal Fury, for one - but there are also far better Neo Geo fighters that deserve this download slot more. King of Fighters, perhaps? Samurai Shodown? The Last Blade? All more worthy of our time and frankly ridiculous 900 point price tag than World Heroes.

5/10

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

• Platform: NES
• Wii Points: 500
• In Real Money: GBP 3.75 / EUR 5.00 (approx)

Normally, the arrival of a Castlevania game on any retro download system should be cause for celebration, but in the case of Simon's Quest the reaction is more like a curt nod of the head and, "Oh, it's you. I suppose you'd better come in."

The original Castlevania could only hint at the greatness that lay ahead years down the road, but this first sequel made the common mistake of changing too much too soon, and losing sight of our old friend Fun in the process. It does introduce the free-roaming level design that would become a series hallmark (even if it was borrowed from Metroid) while the addition of adventure game elements such as chatty NPCs, shops and a character who levels up all should have resulted in a much better game.

Unfortunately, the freedom to wander back and forth through the game - searching for five bits of dead Dracula, in case you were wondering - leads to confusion rather than excitement, as new areas are only accessible when you perform stupidly obscure tasks that the game is in no hurry to explain. Objects must be purchased using hearts dropped by defeated enemies, but die and you lose them all and have to start over. Add in the "realistic" day and night system, which basically closes all the shops and fills the game with monsters every few minutes and you've got a game that frustrate more than it entertains.

For all the ideas it introduces which would go on to become central to the Castlevania experience, Simon's Quest is full of inconsistent rules, clunky gameplay and slack pacing. It does at least continue the fine tradition of gothic bollocks dialogue though. What a horrible night to have a curse indeed.

4/10