StarTropics and Alien Storm on VC

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 January, 2008

More chances to give Nintendo money.

After Harvest Moon gave last week's Virtual Console update an air of warmth and happiness, StarTropics for the NES (500 Wii Points - GBP 3.50 / EUR 5.00) arrives this Friday, 11th January aiming to maintain the high.

The US-developed, narrative-driven top-down action-adventure sees players hunting down their missing uncle on foot and in a submarine. It sounds quite enchanting, but is 50 years old so probably isn't.

And then it's back to earth with a bang in SEGA's latest 16-bit, 800-Wii-Pointer (GBP 6.00 / EUR 8.00), Alien Storm, which is a side-scrolling action-adventure game where you fight aliens. It sounds a bit like Golden Axe, and you can play as people called Garth, Scooter or Karen, who was apparently absent in the Master System version. Thanks, Wikipedia.

For more on whether they are worth spending money on or whether you should just keep playing Harvest Moon instead, hang around this weekend for our usual Virtual Console Roundup. Or, cast your eyes over StarTropics and Alien Storm screenshot galleries, assuming I've got the links the right way round.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • erp #1 4 years ago

    Oh jesus.

  • jonsaan #2 4 years ago

    Between Sony, MS and Nintendo it's hard to say who's update was the shittiest this week. There comes a point where you have to ask 'Why bother?'

  • Singularity #3 4 years ago

    I'm fairly sure that AS is the worst game I've ever played.

  • SlackMaster #4 4 years ago

    I really likes AS, although I don't think I'd spend 800 points on it.

  • Daryoon #5 4 years ago

    Cue another week of "I haven't heard of it - it must be shit!" style comments!

  • skillian #6 4 years ago

    Wow, Alien Storm, I spent hours playing that on the MegaDrive. Can't really remember if it was any good, but I certainly loved it at the time and I'd love to play it again.

    I remember those weird levels where you were sprinting along, kind of like an old-school scrolling shoot-em-up. Great box cover too.

  • cawley1 #7 4 years ago

    Alien Storm is a top game - I had a Jap import back in the day and the box art was fantastic, the game is basically Golden Axe with lasers, although it came out around the time Sega was releasing loads of MD games which were pretty easy and I remember the magazines of the time marking it down due to it's ease.
    The arcade board is even better with proper scaling!
    I am sure it will get shafted in the weekend roundup and I can't imagine buying it again in this day and age, but it is still a fun multiplayer title.

  • Svecke #8 4 years ago

    Ahhh, StarTropics. One of the best NES games out there. A good kind of Zelda-clone, but on and under tropical islands. Also has great music, aliens, robot submarines and people asking you if you have bananas in your ears!