On the heels of Super Street Fighter II (again) coming to the Virtual Console (but now with online play!), Sega have put out three more releases over the last couple of Thursdays, with at least one of them being kind of a big deal in some gaming circles. Yesterday saw another two Wonder Boy/Monster World titles make their appearance: the arcade title Wonder Boy in Monster Land, whose Sega Master System port has been available for some time; and Monster World IV, a 1994 Sega Genesis game, the final game in the series to date, and which makes its Western debut with this release. Not only is it another VC import title, but Sega have actually gone through the trouble of translating the whole thing, making it another Virtual Console first five and a half years into the Wii’s lifespan. I’ve played a bit of it today and it’s lovely- like a polished Zelda II in some ways. READ MORE
Striking while the iron is hot, Nintendo have today released the Sega Genesis version of Capcom’s Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers to the Virtual Console, with online multiplayer, and at the standard Genesis price point of 800 points, or $8 US (unless you took advantage of a sale on video game accessories that included point cards.)
By the way, I was being sarcastic. Not about the release—that actually happened, and has been expected for some time. That first part, though, that was sarcasm. What with multiple versions of Street Fighter II having long ago seen release—in fact, every console Street Fighter port for a system featured on the VC, save for today’s release but including the SNES port of the exact same —as well as the Wii being nearly six years old, the decision to finally add online play to a Virtual Console game, and it being a different port of a game that is already on the service and that some people presumably already own, seems to be striking while the iron is, in fact, COLD, and is a puzzling one to say the least. Still, that beguiling quality and curiosity as to how online play is implemented is almost enough to entice one to check it out. Well-played, Captendega? READ MORE
Our long national nightmare is over today, as Capcom and Nintendo have combined their powers to form Captain Planetbring the arcadeSega Genesis version of Strider to the Virtual Console, ending a multi-month drought of retro releases for those Nintendo fans who are waiting for a hardware revision before picking up a 3DS (*cough*.) The last VC release on Wii in North America, if I recall correctly, was Super Adventure Island II (EDIT: It was The Ignition Factor, but I was close!) back in August (Europe’s had a couple of recent releases these past few weeks, breaking an even longer drought for them.) Strider will set you back 800 points, which isn’t too bad, unless you already have the Capcom collections on the PS2/Xbox/PSP. Then it’s ludicrous! LUDICROUS!
Also, the NES classic Super Mario Bros. is now out on the 3DS Virtual Console for plebeian non-Ambassadors, at a price of $4.99, a whole cent cheaper than on the Wii. This release was anticipated, as earlier this week people with ambassador systems noted that there was an update for the game that added the full-featured interface Nintendo had promised. Care to give more info on how that looks and works, Ray?
Two and a half years since it was first publicly playable at the San Diego Comic-Con, Abobo’s Big Adventure has today finally been unleashed on an unwitting populace. The latest Flash game created by I-Mockery.com site founder -RoG- and his usual partners in crime, Abobo’s Big Adventure is a love-letter to a disturbing number of NES games (in fact, it’s subtitle is “The Ultimate Tribute to the NES!”), and I’ve personally only played the first two levels as of this post. The game follows Abobo from Double Dragon as You The Player control him in his quest to rescue his son, Aboboy (a new creation for this game.) The first level sees him in familiar territory, playing out as a beat-em-up on a city street (with characters from all sorts of games making appearances,) but gameplay wildly shifts from then on: for example, the second level is underwater and largely cribs its style from the underwater levels of Super Mario Bros. Play control is tight and the game is visually impressive, remaining true to the NES style while not being arbitrarily constrained to the limitations of the NES, thus allowing for creative liberties in the number of sprites/colors/etc.
OCRemix.org, famous Internet home of a bunch of talented folks and the re-imaginings of video game music that they create -including a plethora of Zelda tunes- have just released another plethora of Zelda tunes all at once, which I guess makes it an album! 25YEARLEGEND: a Legend of Zelda indie game composer tribute is, as the title indicates, a project started to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series and consisting of tracks composed by the musicians behind “notable project[s] in the indie game community.” There are 18 tracks in total, including one each drawing from Skyward Sword and The Adventure of Link. As of this writing, I’m about a third of the way through, and it’s fantastic so far. Click below to go to the project page, with links for the torrent and a .zip file containing both FLAC and MP3 versions of the album.
One of the best and most technically advanced NES games was recently revealed to be undergoing the 3D-ifying process in the same manner as Excitebike and a handful of othergames, and today this game is available! 3D Classics: Kirby’s Adventure arrived today in North America on the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS. It’s listed at $5.99 on the Nintendo website, but apparently shows up at $6.99 in the eShop proper. Despite this little snafu, it should still be as great a game as the original NES release, unless Nintendo has somehow really gummed up the works, which is doubtful. You people with a 3DS can go take a much closer look now. The rest of us will have to do with this simulation of looking at a 3DS with one eye closed, or playing the original on the NES, or Wii, or the GBA remake, all in plain ol’ dos dee.
I spent a good portion of Sunday cobbling together this YouTube playlist of ghoulish game music, which I will probably set to shuffle and blast out my window at tiny children and teenagers without costumes who just want candy. Now it is yours to enjoy and complain about! Share the love, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
(Of particular note are the tracks from Addams Family Values for the SNES, which I had never heard before but are perfectly moody!)
I am currently caught in the grasp of Pocket Monsters White and three or four other Pocket Monsters games, attempting to accrue the lot. This is possible due to a ridiculous variety of connectivity methods available between the various games across four hardware platforms, possibly more including ancillary peripherals (though I am uncertain on this last point having relevance to the above mentioned goal.) It is a glorious daisy chain from Hell, somewhat reminiscent of this beauty in conception, if not actual appearance. Furthermore, this one is Internet connected. READ MORE
Wow, playing Super Nintendo Virtual Console games and fighting games is no longer a gigantic pain in the ass! Some Nintendo 64 games are still better served by the Gamecube controller, but if you like being able to run/attack AND jump at the same time then I highly recommend the Classic Controller Pro.
Don’t ask me how I beat ActRaiser with a Gamecube controller. I still don’t know.
