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Virtual Console Roundup Review
Wii Retro Review by Dan Whitehead
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At a rough estimate, I'd say it's been about 84 days since we last looked at the Virtual Console in any detail, which means it's high time to rummage in the old games jumble sale and see what's new.
Arcade games, for one thing, with the long overdue addition of Virtual Console Arcade, but with a 500-Point price-tag per game it doesn't seem likely that this will grow into an official alternative to MAME any time soon. At a guess, and based on the initial line-up, I'd expect lots of cheap oldies from the dawn of gaming, but won't hold my breath for any sprite-busting favourites from the late eighties and beyond.
It's worth pointing out at this juncture that all arcade games on Virtual Console come with infinite credits - you can add more to the game at any time by pressing + and 1 together.
Gaplus
- Platform: Arcade
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 4.50 (approx)
The follow-up to Galaga, this single-screen shooter monkeys around with the details of Namco's beloved blaster but shmup addicts still argue as to whether the changes are an improvement or not.
As in the original game, tenacious aliens swoop around the screen and settle into formations if you fail to blast them in time. You now have freedom to move up and down the screen, rather than just left and right, and the tractor beam system is now reversed - rather than rescuing your own ships from being hoovered up, you can slurp up enemy ships to bolster your own firepower. There are also challenge stages, where you use your shots to spell out prize-winning words.
Gaplus is a weird one. On one hand it's incredibly similar to Galaga, right down to the same graphics, in that clone-happy style that early arcade cabinets so loved. On the other, it's different enough in the details that some will find the balance of the original has been lost, replacing a near-perfect learning curve with some of the most brutal gameplay of the series. One for the dedicated arcade buff, then, which is just what you'd hope from a dedicated retro arcade download service.
8/10
Mappy
- Platform: Arcade
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 4.50 (approx)
Mappy is a mouse. A police mouse, no less, and he's infiltrating the lair of a gang of light-fingered cats to retrieve the household appliances stolen by these feline felons, presumably from innocent mouse houses.
He's also a remarkably pacifist police mouse, given that he refuses to retaliate against the numerous cats who gladly kill him with a single touch. Evasion is the aim, as you use convenient trampolines to bounce to different floors of the buildings, where opening a door in a cat's face is the closest you'll get to self-defence. You're safe on the trampolines, but linger on them too long and they break. That kills you as well.
It's fast and, as with all coin-hungry example of early arcade gaming, pretty unforgiving in its gameplay. It's also reasonably good fun, once you adjust to its breakneck pace, and while it's hardly the most obvious choice for an inaugural arcade download, there are far worse choices.
7/10
The Tower of Druaga
- Platform: Arcade
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 4.50 (approx)
Notorious for its epic length and diabolically obtuse design, this sword-waggling maze game is interesting from a historical perspective but sadly not much fun to revisit.
You are Gil, a knight hellbent on ascending through all 60 floors of the titular tower. Every floor contains a maze, with both exit and key randomly placed each time you play. Monsters roam the narrow hallways, and later levels introduce wizards and other foes who lob fireballs and projectiles at you. Your shield will deflect them if you're facing the right way, but since you can only swap between sticking your sword out for attack and holding your shield up for defence - a motion that is just slow enough to prove problematic - it soon becomes fiendishly difficult.
The game also features a secret treasure on each floor, but the means of finding them are up to you (or Google) to discover. It's a neat idea, but since a lot of these treasures are power-ups that are absolutely essential to success, long-term progress is really only feasible for the incredibly dedicated player.
Sluggish and basic in execution, there are good ideas in Tower of Druaga but its main draw is to see where other, better, dungeon romps like Gauntlet and Atic Atac got their inspiration. As an actual game, it's a bit of a slog.
4/10
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Comments: 1-42 of 42 in total
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MisterCraig
12/04/09 @ 10:03
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Because it doesn't suck. You suck.
Sucker!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 12/04/09 @ 11:03
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GiarcYekrub
12/04/09 @ 10:52
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I like MM but my N64 is dying :( and I don't have a Wii :( and my months of refreshing the Ninty Stars Site never got me the Zelda Collection :(
I esspecially like the ability to replay Bosses and affect the world, I luv doing all the Bosses in one 3 day window along with some more exiciting side missions like the Ranch and I think there was a wedding one too.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 12/04/09 @ 11:52
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I'm really tempted to search cupboards, hunt memory cards and sellotape things together to play Majora's Mask again, spent ages playing it but there's so much left to do there.
And yeah, Super Punch Out is much better than a 7. I'd go so far as to call it the best boxing game ever in terms of entertainment, if not realism. |
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Doctor_What
12/04/09 @ 11:12
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I've thought that every Zelda game I've played has been over-rated tripe, but every time I hear 'this is the greatest game ever' I try them again. MM is one that I've not bothered with yet. Would it really change my mind, or would it be yet another illogical, characterless snore fest that I feel like I'm punishing myself with? I just don't see the appeal of them. There are plenty of classic games that I adore, but in my 25+ years of gaming, Zelda has never once entertained me.
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retr0gamer
12/04/09 @ 12:11
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3/10 for mercs? How wrong can you get. Not only is it a wonderful conversion of an excellent arcade game bu it's also got an arranged mode which is a completlely new game. 8/10 surely?
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Doctor_What
12/04/09 @ 13:24
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MrZ and Locky: I don't think it's number three. I went all the way through Wind Waker and felt just as 'meh' at the end as I did at the start.
I don't care about Link, and the other characters never interested me much either. The combat is lousy. There is no reward - more rupees? For doing all of that? There's nothing to buy anyway. I chop down all the grass, I get more rupees. Meh. Ooo look, it's a baddie with an obvious weak spot. There's nothing much wrong with them, there's just nothing much spectacular either... In my opinion. |
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One_Vurfed_Gwrx
12/04/09 @ 13:32
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Hmm, I enjoyed Majora's Mask yet could never get into Ocarina of Time and always got bored of it too quickly... Enjoyed later games despite their flaws too (and enjoyed earlier games) , just something about Ocarina...
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Mario Golf is superb, even if you have zero interest in golf. Really.
MM is in many ways a better game than OoT. Although, some of the dungeons felt..hmm, not as good. I remember a certain Goron-rolling part in the end being a bitch aswell. If id replay one of them, Id probably choose to play MM. It just stans out when it comes to Zeldas. |
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While I think Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the best games ever made, I thought Majora's Mask was really disappointing, not least because the time loop concept made things very confusing. It's a clever idea for sure but that in itself doesn't make the game great for me. Ocarina of Time is still worthy of 10/10 from me but I'd struggle to give Majora's Mask more than 5/10. I have both games on the free GC Zelda Collector's Edition and it works perfectly on the Wii so I had no need to buy either of the N64 games from the VC.
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>In that time [the C64] offered nineteen games, which seems like a fairly paltry amount considering the vast software library the platform offers.
Probably because it was still all bedroom coders at the time, who might not have the resources to get Nintendo's attention. A shame. Sounds like a job for a Justin Lee Collins show- "Bring Back The C64", where JLC runs around the country trying to find all the C64 developers who are still alive and point a Nintendo exec at them. |
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@Doctor_What
I don't care about Link, and the other characters never interested me much either. The combat is lousy. There is no reward - more rupees? For doing all of that? There's nothing to buy anyway. I chop down all the grass, I get more rupees. Meh. Ooo look, it's a baddie with an obvious weak spot. MM is probably the only Zelda that isn't like this. There's a lot more to the game than rupees and pieces of hearts... there's a whole bunch of different masks to collect for one thing, and nearly every single one is tied to its own side quest. All of which are brilliant, btw. The 10/10 score was a bit surprising, I have to say, but fully deserved. There will always be people who don't get MM, to me it ranks alongside OoT as one of the greatest games ever.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 12/04/09 @ 15:48
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I've seen the first season of The Tower Druaga a couple months ago, and have to say I really enjoyed it. I'm about to start watching second one sometime soon. But, I haven't really played the game this anime is based on, so this is a good incentive for picking it up and giving it a quick blast some evening..
edit: sodding typos.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 12/04/09 @ 16:44
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notmyrealname
12/04/09 @ 17:23
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so? You probably bought that game a looong time ago. Why shouldnt you be allowed to download it now?
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ChadSexington
12/04/09 @ 17:30
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Fuck me, seven quid for N64 games? The Virtual Console can shove itself where the sun don't shine.
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SlackMaster
12/04/09 @ 20:13
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Mercs was an awesome game and is still fun to play. I never really got into MM, and got bored of OoT eventually. I loved Lttp but I didn't like the dark, grittier tone they took with the N64 Zelda games and found the tone and muddy visuals a bit drepessing.
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Sky Blue Sam
13/04/09 @ 11:23
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I think I might actually top up my Wii Points to get Majora's Mask. I've never played it, and I feel like I should.
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MM is a Marmite game I suppose. I think it either appeals massively or you just wont get into it. I for one rate it up there with OOT. Though not as vast it really did take the small ideas from OOT and make them into something special whilst keeping the whole ethos of Zelda intact.
I still have the N64 vers and also the GC vers that Darren mentions so I certainly wont bother. Though if you do like Zelda (havent played MM) and have the time to invest and can just get your head round whats essentially a move in pace and general Zelda structure you'll thank yourself for it I think. Then again - You may just not like Marmite!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/04/09 @ 13:52
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Quote, the article: "Why do they keep doing this? Wonder Boy III is already on the Virtual Console in its Turbografx incarnation, and yet here comes the virtually identical Megadrive version, for no good reason. They did the same thing with Wonder Boy in Monster World, which also appears in the Turbografx line-up as The Dynastic Hero, while the original Wonder Boy is available in both its Master System and NES incarnations. Ooooh, it makes me mad."
Yeah, how irritating! How could they! Offering choices to people! Ohnoes! Really though, if you're going to annoyed about something, why not the lack of any kind of demo mode? Or something, y'know, actually worth being annoyed about? |
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cerebralbored
13/04/09 @ 16:18
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"...but they haven't jiggered about with the code to allow access to the bonus characters you could unlock by using the GBA."
That's incorrect. Technically it's the GBC Mario Golf game that originally connected up to the N64 original (albeit via the Transfer Pak). The GBA game connects up to the Gamecube version. I know, because I have both the GBC and N64 games, as well as the Transfer Pak. Still, I'm glad Eurogamer likes the N64 Mario Golf game too.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/04/09 @ 17:25
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I love Zelda MM.
In my opinion, this game has the best story in any Zelda game. I love the repeating 3 days, in which you can change the fates of the people for good or bad. I love the dark theme of the game and the world ends feeling. And I love the masks that allow you to alter your abilities... Did I mention that I love this game? |
Comments: 1-42 of 42 in total
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