Bring SimEarth to VC please NOA. Also why does Japan get around 5-10 games per every update?

Hope NA gets Contra ReBirth pretty soon.

"and finally a Famicom game from Technos that appears to be some kind of side-scrolling action game set in medieval Japan for the usual 500 points."

And why aren't you telling us its name?

The other VC game from Technos is titled "Downtown Special: Its Kunio's Period Piece, Assemble Everyone!"

7 releases...they sure do get it good. I hope we get Contra ReBirth soon. It looks pretty nice.

Catch up? They have WAY more than us. >:3

@Sean: Welcome back from your holiday trip! Having much fun?

The Famicom game's original title is: "Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki da yo Zenin Shūgō!". I suppose that Nintendo has spared the Art Style games to celebrate the 100th landmark on their Japanese WiiWare service (these are titles no. 99-101). I will also download Contra ReBirth (title no. 102) on Tuesday like you.

YESZ!!! Contra!! We need more Contra!! Please release it in Europe!! (Please call it contra lol)

Random information: Kunio-kun is the name of the franchise that River City Ransom comes from.

The Probotector name died a long time ago. The series has been named Contra in Europe since the PlayStation 1 days.

I await your impressions Sean. Hopefully they will arrive soon (unlike the Excitebots review ).

@Jhuhn "The other VC game from Technos is titled "Downtown Special: Its Kunio's Period Piece, Assemble Everyone!""

Yeah. It's sequel to River City Ransom, and it is set to medieval japan. Plays pretty much same way as RCR, although it does also have some unfortunate slowdown. It was never released in the west.

Can't wait to read your impressions Sean. Get to work...erm Play! lol

Dang,Nintendo must hate Americans and Europeans.
7 titles!? The Japanese are catching up ? Yeah,right.

@Sean Aaron
So Nintendo of Europe reads Nintendo Life? Good,but I don't think Nintendo of America does!

I hate Japan. They get like 4 VC games per Tuesday. Why can't North America get lots of VC games per Monday?

@TwilightV: Sure, they have a lot more games, but a lot of their recent releases have been games other regions already had, like three Art Style and Tower of Druaga this week.

@Sean Aaron: Of course they say that getting VC games up is more involved than we would think! They're assuming we don't think very much (which is probably true of a lot of Nintendo's consumer base nowadays, but not ALL of us!).

Still, if they say they hope to improve the release schedule, that's at least an acknowledgment that it's SUCKED lately. It's a start...

Geez, all pretty great stuff...

Nintendo prejiduce, newsflash Nintendo, we bring in most of the sales give us the 7 downloads.

(Dammit guys, stop being angry at japan. Not only do they make the games in the first place, they also get pretty much the same games we get, plus some other Japan-exclusives you most likely wouldn't care about anyway. You're not missing out on anything)

Jidaigeki isn't really that good. It's an attempt at revamping the prequel and put it in a new setting, but it comes out as a pretty failed experiment. Look into it if the idea of a sequel interests you, but don't expect too much.

They get Contra Rebirth already!? No way!

SEAN AARON! Review contra NOW!

Edit: Pretty please

i hate the fact that japan gets all the great stuff and we get total garbage for the most part. i've bit my lip for way to long. it's annoying to come hear and read about how awesome wiiware is in japan and then monday rolls around and you bet it , we get more shovelware or total utter crap.

Buy a Japanese Wii, then. Not that hard.

Never mind Contra. Just give us Gradius already!!!

CONTRA REBIRTH FOR EUROPE PLEASE PLEASE PLEEAAAAAAAAASE!

@16: No, it means the folks in Codestorm House read Nintendo Life. Am I right?

Although how hard can tying an emulator, a ROM and an electronic manual together be?

They're doing a contra rebirth? Sweet! Hopefull this means we'll eventually see the original on the VC.

@Adamant: That's not exactly a practical solution, y'know.

As for Japan-exclusive games "you most likely wouldn't care about anyway," I have this to say: Goemon. They have SEVERAL entries in the series on VC that were never released here, and I'm still VERY jealous of that fact. I'm sure that's not the only thing on their VC I'd be interested, but it does come to mind most easily.

@City Of Delusion: I doubt that's the hard part. Licensing is probably being more of a problem than it should be, even for games that aren't generally classified as "licensed."

It's not a practical solution, no, but come on - you must've been incredibly delusional to not know, from the point the VC was announced, that Japan would be getting more games than anyone else. The supported consoles each have massive libraries of Japan-only games, many of them text-heavy, that would never be released here. The non-Japan exclusives simply aren't that numerous (and they do exist - we got Star Tropics, for instance), so of course they're getting more games than us. Nintendo aren't going to NOT release certain games in Japan just to keep the number of VC games stable worldwide.
If it really bothers people so much that Japan gets more VC games than them, they should've imported a Japanese Wii to begin with, thus getting access to all these wonderful text adventures they can't understand.

Seriously, whining about Japan getting more VC games is just pathetic. Grow up.

In overall, the Japanese VC is much better for retrogamers like me (I have also a few disc releases) but it’s true that there are pretty many text-heavy games (2 or 3 Strategy/RPGs are released per month) or pure shitty games (like Bokosuka Wars or Takeshi’s Challenge) to avoid. Games sometimes get better ports on the VC and what if I already paid for an inferior version…?!

Currently, I’m lucky to be able to play Contra ReBirth within seven hours instead of waiting until… um, next year...! Let say if the game comes to Europe at all.

Contra ReBirth is a pretty fun game but rather short. Yeah, Konami did it again…! There are five stages in total, plus the final boss battle on the moon (not available in the easy mode). There are four modes in total (easy, normal, hard and nightmare, which is unlocked after clearing the hard mode) and I have already managed to finish the game six times (3 x easy, 2 x normal and 1 x hard).

There are four playable characters and you can play as either Bill or Yagyu from the beginning. After clearing the easy mode, the female robot Tsugu-Min will be unlocked and after the normal mode, the um… blue-coloured lizard named Plissken becomes free to play. Fun fact: A picture on some Hitler look-alike guy, who acts as a leader, will pop up between stage 2 and 3.

Hell yeah Contra! Kicking ass and taking names!