Mario Bros. 2 heads VC update

Nintendo has updated Virtual Console in Europe with Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES, 500 Wii points), Mach Rider (NES, 500 points) and Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx-16, 600 points), which should give you something to do this weekend in-between all the sneezing and cursing the world.

Famously, SMB2 wasn't conceived as a Mario title, but rather was appropriated and reskinned with Mario characters and graphics after the official follow-up to the first Bros. game proved rather difficult (that game eventually went on to become The Lost Levels, which was bundled into the Super Mario All-Stars SNES compilation in 1993). As such, SMB2 is distinctively different, with a floatier jump, differently proportioned characters and a feel all of its own.

Unfortunately for you, in comparison Mach Rider and Blazing Lazers rather passed me by (the former's a quad-bike action game, by the sound of it, while the latter's a scrolling shoot-'em-up), but with Dan Whitehead's Virtual Console Roundup due up later today, you won't have to wait that long for an in-depth assessment of what makes each of this week's VC additions work as the service closes in on 100 titles. It's currently up to 89 according to Nintendo's maths department.