Virtual Console Roundup Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 7 March, 2008

Psychosis, Super Turrican and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

Version tested: Wii

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

The Virtual Console may still be filling up with all the speed of a particularly unmotivated terrapin, but the past two weeks have yielded three new games, and two of those are the sort of good solid videogaming fun that make it worthwhile blowing the dust off your Wii Points. And the third is pretty good as well, if you like that sort of thing.

What sort of thing? Why, let me show you...

  • Platform: N64
  • Wii Points: 1000
  • In Real Money: GBP 7.00 / EUR 10.00 (approx)

I like Kirby. His games have always existed in the shadow of the mighty Mario, never quite matching their genius but tagging along closely enough in his wake to benefit from the reflected glory. Mostly though, I just like the character. I like the sheer videogamey randomness of his appearance and nature, and the world he inhabits. I like that there's a game series about a pink blob.

For his solitary N64 outing the testicular champion resisted the urge to go fully 3D, and it's ultimately a wise decision. This is no Mario 64, and Kirby's gameplay remains much as it was on the SNES, only now it's played in a linear 2D plane in a 3D world. So, sort of like Klonoa. Or Pandemonium.

'Virtual Console Roundup' Screenshot 1

Kirby still sucks up enemies, and either spits them out or digests them to absorb their abilities, but now he can combine two of these powers at a time. This creates a rather daunting list of over 40 potential power combinations to discover, and much of the fun of the game is meeting new foes, mixing and matching the available abilities and seeing what the result is. Thankfully the game doesn't rely solely on this trail of discovery to keep you interested, and the gameplay is as breezy and deceptively rich as ever.

It may look fluffy and cute and pre-school, but there's a fiendish platforming heart under that marshmallow exterior. As with all the best games of this kind, it's easy enough to make progress, but those looking for 100 percent completion will have a sizable task on their hands. There are also some multiplayer mini-games on offer, none of which are particularly amazing or memorable, but if you're looking for that little something extra to justify the 1000 point price tag, it can only help.

Kirby 64 clearly doesn't do as much with the N64 as it could have done, and remains a perennial second-stringer in the Nintendo pantheon for that very reason, but that's no excuse to dismiss something this engaging and polished.

8/10

Psychosis

  • Platform: TurboGrafx 16
  • Wii Points: 600
  • In Real Money: GBP 4.20 / EUR 6 (approx)

Let's get this one out of the way first. Yes, it's another scrolling shooter to add to the list, and it's one of those that struggles to justify its existence - let alone its inclusion on the VC - when ranked alongside the greats of the genre.

The best thing going for it is the concept. The Devil Ugar has invaded your mind and is trying to dominate your subconscious. Luckily, you can enter your mind (in a tiny spaceship, for some reason) and repel him by shooting loads and loads and loads of bullets at the strings of enemies that swoop and circle in your brainsoup. This doesn't really affect the gameplay one iota - it's a pretty shameless R-Type rip-off - but it does mean that the graphics take on a certain Salvador Dali flair, with symbolic rotten apples as mini bosses and more sinister hovering eyeballs than you can shake The Residents at.

With almost nothing else to add to the shoot-'em-up tapestry it's hard to recommend Psychosis, especially when so many of its superior peers are already available. If you've already played through R-Type and Gradius and all the other decent-to-great shmups on the Virtual Console then...well, then play them again. Beat your high score. There's little here to justify another purchase.

5/10

Super Turrican

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

Before everyone laughed at them for Lair, and even before everyone wanted to kiss them for Rogue Squadron, the folks at Factor 5 were best known as the developer that ported Turrican all over the 16-bit platforms. This version isn't the best, but since the VC has foolishly neglected to add an Amiga channel it'll be more than enough for all but the most fussy Turrican purist.

'Virtual Console Roundup' Screenshot 3

Factor 5 also ported Contra, and it shows in the willingness to upgrade your weapons at a ridiculous pace. Factor 5 also developed the SNES Indiana Jones game, and the first level certainly calls that to mind, with its blowing leaves and fiddly jumps over bottomless waterfalls. New to the series is a grappling arm, blatantly swiped from Bionic Commando, which can be used to grab and swing about. Oh, and you can also duck and roll around like a ball, so you can add Metroid to the list of games supplying second-hand DNA.

Yet for all its derivation Super Turrican is a hard game to dislike. This is a solid, beefy side-scrolling shooty platformer which stuffs each level with enough hidden secrets to have you backtracking all over the place. The difficulty is pitched just right, and it takes advantage of its late arrival on the SNES to offer up some impressive visuals and sound. Despite its dependable charms, I'm still not sure that it's worth the asking price in today's marketplace but if you've made your peace with the VC's price structure you can download this and be sure of a good time.

7/10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Dan.

About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (15) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Machetazo #1 4 years ago

    "since the VC has foolishly neglected to add an Amiga channel"

    I'd like to see them fix that oversight.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #2 4 years ago

    Amiga channel?

    Pffft, I want an Atari ST channel... You know that thing could do MIDI properly !!!

  • convercide #3 4 years ago

    Kirby sounds like a good one to me. *buys*

  • muftak #4 4 years ago

    Cough Ripoff Cough

    way to expensive for retro games

  • Retroid #5 4 years ago

    STlol channel? :D

    I'll say again: C64 games for 250 points and you're ON. 500 points? Bugger off, I'll play them on my GP2X instead. Along with the ST games because they're easier to emulate in comparison to Amiga hardware ;)

  • keep #6 4 years ago

    So Kirby the Crystal Shards as good as Halo then? You have to laugh sometimes.

    I'm the biggest Kirby fan in the world, got all its games and Kirby64 is probably one of the worst ones. It's got great presentation but little, very little substance (in a series already lightweight in that regard).

  • Skeletor #7 4 years ago

    "Despite its dependable charms, I'm still not sure that it's worth the asking price in today's marketplace..."

    It's not, especially if you can play stuff like Hurrican on the PC for free.

    http://www.hurrican-game .de/

  • smelly #8 4 years ago

    Hmmm..

    Super turrican was one of my favouritist games ever... Maybe i have rose tinted specs?

  • smelly #9 4 years ago

    >they'd probably end up charging you a fortune as they did with the c64 debacle.

    Has the c64 channel started yet?

    I wasnt aware it had.. How do you know about pricing?

    Are you either:

    a) correct and it has started and im an idiot?
    b) making it up and are a troll
    c) some sort of top secret insider/time traveller/etc?

    if it's not A, then i'm guessing B

  • Muddtallica #10 4 years ago

    smelly - You're off base here, I'm afraid; the C64 games haven't gone up yet, but they did announce the pricing in advance as being 500 Wii Points, or 3 quid 50, which, I have to say, IS pretty steep for games that go for next to nothing on eBay these days.

    The N64 games, on the other hand, are actually fairly decent value; seven quid sounds like quite a bit, but it's quite close to what you'd pay for an actual cartridge, and quite a bit less for uncommon titles like Kirby 64 (someone sold one for a whopping 62 pounds last month). I'm a pretty big Kirby fan, so that one might be worth picking up at that price...

  • Alphonz #11 4 years ago

    When is banjo kazooie coming to VC? It would be a huge oversight if this didn't come out. Well worth 1000 points tho.

  • Bru-Man #12 4 years ago

    "testicular champion" = best laugh all week. Thanks Dan!

  • aine #13 4 years ago

    When is banjo kazooie coming to VC? It would be a huge oversight if this didn't come out. Well worth 1000 points tho.

    possibly never? it's a rare game (and not one that nintendo own the rights to), so if it's going to show up anywhere it'd most likely be XBLA.

  • oerhoert #14 4 years ago

    "the VC has foolishly neglected to add an Amiga channel"

    I imagine they haven't "neglected" this at all. I bet Nintendo would very much like to hav an Amiga channel. It is, however, likely that this quite difficult, knowin how many rights-owners there are for that platform.

    Hence this remark seems a bit silly and childish.

  • RandomTerrain #15 4 years ago

    I'd buy a Wii tomorrow if it had an Atari ST channel. Don't see it happening though.