Took long enough!

It took quite a while, but one of the most wanted Virtual Console games has finally been released in Europe, after hitting both North America and Japan last year. This week's WiiWare and DSiWare releases consist almost exclusively of games already released in North America as well, with just one DSiWare title being "new"!

Super Mario Kart really needs no introduction. It's the first game in the series, and the only one not to feature that awful blue shell everybody's grown to hate. Making very impressive use of Mode 7, each race takes place in a 3D environment with nothing but 2D spritework. With 20 tracks, it's got more than most games in the series, but be prepared to put up a fight on all of them - The AI loves to cheat in this game, pulling out endless items which they throw with deadly precision, while continuously staying right behind you! It still holds up very well today, check out our review to see why.

Chronos Twins DX was originally released on the DS as Chronos Twins, but despite being quite a good game, it sold rather poorly and never managed to get much acclaim. It's now been upgraded and rereleased for WiiWare, giving it a whole new chance to shine. The game's main gimmick is that you control two characters at the same time, one on the top screen and one on the bottom (Yes, that means you see two screens on your TV). Both characters must work together to solve various puzzles and get past devious platforming sections. In North America, the game cost 1000 Wii Points due to the DS version never seeing a release there, but they've given us a generous discount, making it cost only 700! You can read what we thought here.

Family Mini Golf is yet another title in that series. You know the one! Surprisingly, this particular game actually turned out to be somewhat decent, which is quite a shock as every other instalment so far has scored a 5 or lower. Although the presentation is still quite lacking, the gameplay is actually fairly fun and the courses are well designed. There's also additional courses you can pay for, but you've got to ask yourself if that would really be worth it! The game itself only costs 500 Wii Points. We reviewed it (almost a year ago!) here.

It's no surprise that DSiWare once again gets the largest share of new games, with a total of four new titles. Oscar in Movieland is the follow-up to Oscar in Toyland, and is technically a port of the Amiga/SNES game simply titled Oscar. As the title reveals, you're going through a bunch of worlds based on general movie themes, such as western and fantasy. There's 7 worlds in total, each with 3 levels. While some problems from the previous games, such as the incredibly obnoxious backgrounds, have been dropped, the game still has other issues, such as it almost being impossible to tell what's part of the background and what's not. Enemies also pop up out of nowhere and, before you know it, you've lost another life! The core game just teeters on the edge of being decent, you'll have to read our review to see if it might possibly be to your liking.

Spaceball: Revolution is pretty much a port of the already released WiiWare game, omitting multiplayer mode and some other tiny things for an otherwise almost completely identical experience. Your main goal is to fire a ball at a grid, attempting to light it up in the same way as shown on the other screen. Things gradually get more difficult though, and before you know it you'll have to try and dodge a variety of obstacles that obstruct the path to the grid. All in all, it's a competent port, so if you don't mind the lack of multiplayer, then the portability of this version might make it a more appealing choice. It costs only 500 DSi Points, and you can read our thoughts here.

AiRace: Tunnel is sort of similar to Paper Plane - The objective is to get as far down a tunnel as you can without being blown to smithereens. The difference is that there's quite a bit more on offer here, with a number of different stages, 3D, and more. And all that for the same price of 200 DSi Points! A good buy, in our opinion.

Puzzle to Go Diddl is a followup to Puzzle to Go Wildlife and today's only truly new game! It features puzzles based on the cartoony mouse, Diddl. If it's anything like the last game, the puzzles will take forever to unlock, requiring you to play each image three times at different difficulties to unlock everything. Like the previous game, it costs 500 DSi Points. We'll have a review soon, let's hope it's a bit more lenient!

Quite some decent games, even with Super Mario Kart looming over everything. Will you buy anything?