Version tested: Wii
Midnight Bowling
- Developer: Gameloft
- Wii Points: 800
- In Real Money: GBP 6 / EUR 7.70 (approx)
Established mobile phone games publisher Gameloft has found a respectable niche on WiiWare. It's certainly one of the most prolific publishers on the system and between Block Breaker Deluxe, Wild West Guns and Midnight Pool has cornered the market in the sort of good-enough games that don't leave you feeling outrageously defiled by an impulse purchase.
That streak of mostly acceptable amusement, sadly, comes to an end with Midnight Bowling, an awkward and facile attempt to mimic the popularity of the Wii Sports rendition of ten-pin fun. Not that the existence of Wii Sports should preclude any other bowling games from gracing the system, but the fact that every Wii owner will have a perfectly enjoyable bowling game already does mean that subsequent efforts have to try that little bit harder to prove their worth.
In Party Mode, a Mario Party style board game based around wacky bowling challenges, Midnight Bowling almost has that edge, but it's undone by a clunky and often confusing control system that fails to satisfy the needs of dedicated bowlers or casual players alike.
Pressing the B trigger and swinging your arm is all you need to do to bowl. The game decides when to release, so all you're doing is setting the speed by your swing. However, for anything less than a full power wallop, the game has real trouble reading your intentions. A slow, methodical bowl confuses the game no end, with your bowler stuttering at the lane like a distracted penguin.
Even more ridiculous, the game relies on a barmy aftertouch system for the majority of its finesse. Once the ball is on the way, you can twist the remote to essentially steer the ball down the lane. You can't slalom left and right, but the fact that you can wait until the ball is right in front of the pins before making it veer sharply into the centre at an angle means that the perfect strike is easily achieved, once you master the timing.
It's a stupid idea, and one that pretty much breaks Midnight Bowling. It's too silly to work as a bowling sim, but it's also too open to unfair play to work as a fun multiplayer game.
4/10
Potpourri
- Developer: Abstraction Games
- Wii Points: 800
- In Real Money: GBP 6 / EUR 7.70 (approx)
How highly do you value originality? And what about challenge? Is that important to you? If you answered yes, then steer well clear of this bucolic puzzle game. It manages to feel like about twelve similar games, all at the same time, while being so phenomenally easy and uneventful that it might have been better packaged with a white plastic pillow and marketed as Wii Sleep.
The whimsical story is that an evil wizard has done some evil to a magical forest, and the nice gnomes must put it right by matching different-coloured forest sprites, each of which represents a season. Clusters of seasonal sprites can then by eliminated by firing a sprite of the ensuing season into their midst. The larger the clusters, the bigger the score multiplier. Complicating matters very slightly is the fact that the sprites are floating in a circular pool - called the potpourri for no apparent reason. Should the sprites touch the side, they stop spinning. Leave them in this state for too long, and its game over.
That's basically it, and the game has such a languid pace that you can easily reach level 30 without breaking a sweat or even paying all that much attention. It calls to mind dozens of similar games in the Zuma/Luxor style, while also feeling derivative of Puzzle Bobble, Pop N' Pop and many more. There's a two-player mode, but that just leaves you with half as much to do.
With its classical soundtrack and pastel shades, Potpourri is certainly pleasant and undemanding gamers may find its soporific style quite charming. As a game demanding 800 of your valuable Wii Points, however, it's a rather slim offering.
5/10
Earthworm Jim
- Platform: Megadrive
- Wii Points: 800
- In Real Money: GBP 6 / EUR 7.70 (approx)
Like many people, I harbour enormously fond memories of Earthworm Jim, having spent far too many hours in the early '90s playing pass-the-joypad with friends as we battled to get past some fiendishly tricky platforming moments. Away from the snug cocoon of warm boozy memories, it's precisely the sort of game that can shatter rose-tinted glasses when played through more experienced eyes. While the humour and art style are still hugely enjoyable, the game itself feels much cruder than I remembered.
Collision detection feels off, making the numerous precision leaps something of a chore, while the control is a touch too stiff for the fast-paced action the game often demands. It's not helped by the baffling decision to map Jim's gun to the A button on the remote, meaning that it's almost impossible to shoot and direct your fire at the same time. Since so many of the game's enemies must be defeated in this way, it makes progress much more frustrating than it needed to be.
There's still plenty to enjoy in Earthworm Jim, and it's one of the few deliberately funny games still capable of raising a genuine laugh, but when you push nostalgia aside it's not hard to see why the series never endured beyond the 16-bit era.
7/10
Shining Force II
- Platform: Megadrive
- Wii Points: 800
- In Real Money: GBP 6 / EUR 7.70 (approx)
Shining Force II opens much like every other JRPG of its era - plucky kids, wizened old mentor, a small town populated by rosy-cheeked yokels with nary a locked door in sight, and a castle where you must hurriedly meet with the king before embarking on an epic quest that conveniently starts just around the corner.
It doesn't take long for Shining Force to distinguish itself from the Final Fantasy copyists, however. For one thing, it actually has more in common with tactical role-players like Fire Emblem. Combat is turn-based and takes place on a grid. You move your characters around, one at a time, and try to achieve various victory conditions - usually killing all the enemies or killing their leader.
There are items and spells and other familiar tropes of the RPG genre, but strategy trumps special moves every time. Also noteworthy is just how open the gameworld is. You're free to roam, almost from the start, and while the story keeps moving forwards, it never stops you heading back to previous areas to hunt for more items.
The only major criticism is that battles can become long-winded and rather frustrating. Nowhere is this more evident than in your very first encounter, which pits your trio of novice adventurers against seven demonic enemies. None are particularly tough, but chipping your way through them, two or three hit-points at a time, isn't a particularly thrilling way to get things started.
If you're interested in tactical RPGs, such things probably won't bother you. The first game graced the VC last year, and Shining Force II is every bit as big, bright and fun to explore. If only more games offered this much for your 800 Points.
8/10
Space Harrier
- Platform: Master System
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 4.50 (approx)
Space Harrier may have been a wow in the arcades, with its into-the-screen gameplay and bulky pneumatic sit-down cabinet, but I don't think I've ever played a home port that was worth the effort.
This Master System version is particularly difficult to enjoy, blighted as it is by lumpy scrolling, jerky graphics and ugly borders surrounding sluggish sprites. It's crap, basically.
It's also an especially bewildering choice, given that the Megadrive version of Space Harrier II has been on the VC for almost two years.
3/10
Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition
- Platform: Megadrive
- Wii Points: 800
- In Real Money: GBP 6 / EUR 7.70 (approx)
I hate it when they do this. Quite apart from the wisdom of having three versions of essentially the same game on the VC, it means I have to rummage around in the internet yet again to remind myself what makes this version of Street Fighter II different to the others.
The main difference, it transpires, is that it came out on the Megadrive - the first in the series to do so. Other than that, it actually predates the other Street Fighter IIs already available - Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - and while it offers yet another slightly tweaked rule-set, and a group battle mode, it's really not enough to make it an urgent purchase, especially since the Megadrive version's best feature - the six-button joypad - is no longer a factor.
Trouble is, Street Fighter II is an undeniably great game in pretty much all its forms, so logic means I can't really mark this particular one down too much just because it's a variation on a theme. Suffice to say, as always, that if you've yet to download a Street Fighter II then this one is as good as any. Or one of the others.
I do, however, find myself wishing that Nintendo would just upload the best entry from all these really long-running series and then move on to harvesting some of the games as yet untouched by the Virtual Console.
8/10
Mayhem in Monsterland
- Platform: C64
- Wii Points: 500
- In Real Money: GBP 3.50 / EUR 4.50 (approx)
The Commodore 64 clearly has a vocal and powerful defender in the Virtual Console control room. Ever since the format was added to the VC, the selections from its vast software library have been mostly shrewd and knowledgeable picks, clearly made by someone who actually knows which titles are worth the effort.
Case in point: this utterly obscure yet rather wonderful platform game, which was one of the last commercial games to make its mark on the moribund home computer. Only a true C64 geek would even know about Mayhem in Monsterland, so to find it on the Virtual Console is a real treat. If you listen very carefully, you can still hear Kristan squealing in excitement. [Incorrect. I shot him. - Ed]
Mayhem owes a very obvious debt to Mario, but what impressed back in 1993 was the way it managed to make the creaky Commodore architecture look and behave so much like an NES. There's even smooth horizontal scrolling!
Even the gameplay is clever, making you tackle each level twice. First time through, the world is sad and must be cheered up by collecting a set number of magic bags. After that, the world is happy and you're now seeking gold coins. Okay, it's a fairly obvious bit of padding, but it's done with such verve that it's almost impossible to be aggrieved by the repetition.
It's just a shame that, once again, the Wii remote proves a poor substitute for a proper 8-bit joystick. Jumping is mapped to the up direction on the d-pad, rather than a button, which makes the game's many lengthy leaps across deadly gaps slightly hit or miss. Aggravating, but not enough to dim the shine of a lovely little game.
It's also worth pointing out that the original creators, Steve and John Rowlands, will receive royalties for all Virtual Console purchases, so retro fans can spend their points in good conscience.
8/10
