SNES News
November2008
News EU VC Update: Metal Slug 2, Forgotten Worlds and Space Invaders
Not many surprises for Europe again this week! It's basically the exact same as the US update last week, with the addition of one more game.
Metal Slug 2 basically just builds on the standard set by the original Metal Slug. If you like rock-hard shooting/platforming action this is the game for you! This time, there's four characters to play as, more...
News USA VC Update: Forgotten Worlds and Space Invaders
Hot on the heels of Mega Man 3, Capcom has released yet another of their classics on VC! It's accompanied by a popular, yet aged arcade game by Taito.
Forgotten Worlds is the Genesis port of Capcom's arcade shooter. You control a flying warrior in a robotic suit who, as is usually the case in shooters, has to take down an evil overlord and his...
October2008
News USA VC Releases: Secret of Mana and Street Fighter II Genesis
It's another big week for the USA. A timeless Square classic and yet another update to Capcom's fighting series will be available later today.
Aside from Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana is one of Square's most highly regarded games. While it's not readily apparent, the game is actually a sequel to Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game...
September2008
News USA VC Release: Super Turrican 2
Just one Virtual Console release this week, and it’s the second coming of everyone’s favourite death-dealing cyborg, Turrican. Based on the home computer original, Super Turrican 2 is a radically retooled sequel that takes advantage of the console’s unique capabilities. It retails for the usual 800 Wii points, so be sure to check it out should you be a fan of the first game.
Super Turrican 2 (Super NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Violence, 800 Wii Points): As the last survivor of the United Freedom Forces, it is your duty to destroy the Machine's forces that have devastated the galax...
News EU VC Releases: DoReMi Fantasy and Ys Book I & II
Can you believe it? It's already time to say goodbye to the Hanabi Festival, as this is presumably the last week with imports. But it goes out with a bang - Not only are there two more imports available, they're accompanied by two Turbografx games, one of which is spectacular.
First, the new imports: DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure was...
News USA VC Releases: Super Mario RPG and Clu Clu Land
If you're one of those people who, for some reason, didn't care that great games like Ys Book I & II, Samurai Shodown II and Mega Man came out recently, and only care about Nintendo games, maybe you can finally stop complaining this week - There's not one but two Nintendo games available later today.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars...
August2008
News EU VC Releases: Super Mario RPG and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Exciting times for Europe today, as it seems to be the start of the third Hanabi Festival - That means that you can once again probably expect a bunch of import games the coming weeks!
The Festival starts off with a bang, just like the first one from 2007. Finally making its debut in Europe (After 12 years!) is the fantastic Square/Nintendo...
June2008
News EU VC Releases - 27th June - Super Fantasy Zone
After this week, it is rather safe to assume that Nintendo of Europe is indeed following a pattern. There's 5 new VC games to pick from, and like two weeks ago, no WiiWare games.
The top pick might be argued about, but if you ask us, it's Super Fantasy Zone for the Mega Drive. The game plays pretty much exactly the same as the original Fantasy Zone...
Feature Secret of Evermore - Brian Fehdrau Interview
Developer of Secret of Evermore
Our resident reviewer Corbie Dillard has been busy securing some fresh content for his SNES fansite. He really struck gold with a recent interview which he did with Brian Fehdrau, the lead programmer on the Squaresoft USA team that developed the Super Nintendo rpg hit Secret of Evermore. At the present moment, Square...
April2008
News Super Turrican - Director's Cut Possibly Coming To VC?
As you might know, videogame forum NeoGAF is quite popular among people in the industry - Various videogame developers and publishers post there. One individual, called Turrican, claims he works at Factor 5, and has given some information on Turrican's VC future in NeoGAF's Virtual Console thread.
First up, if you downloaded Super Turrican, you...
News Wii SNES Controller Hits Japan
We don’t get jealous often here at Virtual Console Reviews – we don’t need to, being the famous international playboys that we are – but when we spotted some shots of one particularly lucky chap unpacking his limited edition Wii Super Famicom (SNES in the West) controller, we couldn’t help but go a little green with envy.
It was reported...
News OFLC Update - Another Konami Import Title
In an OFLC update today, three more titles have been rated for eventual Australia release (As always, this should most likely mean they will also come to Europe).
The only "new" game of the bunch is Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (Bio Miracle Baby Upa), a Kirby-esque game starring a baby called Upa. This baby would later appear in a few of...
March2008
News US VC Releases - March 17th - Super R-Type
This week’s theme for the North American VC releases is frustration. After getting DoReMi Fantasy last week Nintendo must have been concerned that they had been letting gamers have an easy ride. Not so this week as both of the games on offer this week are devilishly fiendish by comparison!
Super R-Type on the SNES isn’t such a bad game and is...
News EU VC Releases - March 14th - Super R-Type
With the US releases of Do Re Mi Fantasy and Puyo Puyo 2 last Monday, and both having an OFLC rating already, you'd think that Nintendo of Europe would release them over here as well - Unfortunately, it's not the case this week.
Prepare for a pretty bad week if you don't like shooters - Then again, it's also not very good even if you do like them...
News US VC Releases - March 10th - DoReMi Fantasy
Break out the sushi and sake because this week the Virtual Console is turning Japanese! Platform and puzzle fans are sure to be delighted with these two choices. Both DoReMi Fantasy and Puyo Puyo 2 never saw the light of day outside of the land of the rising sun, which is a crying shame as both are excellent. Finally Nintendo have addressed the balance and done all the legal business to get them on to the VC this week.
DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure is the sequel to Milon's Secret Castle on...
News US VC Release - March 3rd - Super Turrican
A lot of people were expecting Super Smash Bros. to hit the US VC, in preparation for the US release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl next week, but let's be honest here - That was a bit of an unrealistic expectation. Japan didn't get the game when they got Brawl, and the US already got a N64 game last week.
What you did get, though, isn't such a shabby...
February2008
News EU VC Releases - 29th February - Super Turrican
Let's get this out of the way first - Sadly, there are no 3D games involving a pink puffball for Europe available this week.
What is available, however, is Factor 5's SNES blaster, Super Turrican. It got rated long ago, in mid-2007, so fans of the series (Which has achieved cult status) were wondering where the heck the game was. Worry no more...
News US VC Releases - 11th February - Harvest Moon
North America is playing catch-up with Europe for a change this week as Harvest Moon and Lords of Thunder hit the Wii Shop. Don't get too excited and rush to your Wii just yet though, we are being a bit naughty in breaking the news two days early! You'll have to wait until Monday to download these beauties!
The good old days of getting 3-4 new games...
News Kirby's Dream Land 3 Reclassified by ESRB
After the somewhat dismal pair of US Virtual Console releases this week we thought you could all do with some slightly more joyous news. Kirby’s Dream Land 3 has been re-classified by the ESRB!
For those of you that don't know, ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board. These guys rate all of the software that is released in the US and...
January2008
News EU VC Releases - 25th January - Super Street Fighter II
VC gamers in Europe only get one game tonight in what seems to be becoming a trend for recent releases on the VC. C'mon Nintendo, surely you can give us more games than this each week? Anyway, lets not look a gift horse in the mouth - when the game is as good as Super Street Fighter II on the SNES who can complain?
For somebody only wishing to buy...
News US VC Releases - 21st January - Super Street Fighter II
The second update to Capcom's legendary fighter Street Fighter II arrives in the US today - Super Street Fighter II introduces many new things (Including fan favourite fighter Cammy), but also removes some things from the first update - Street Fighter II Turbo. There's only one SNES Street Fighter game left now - Street Fighter Alpha 2!
It was a bit...
News US VC Releases - 14th January - Pac-Attack
Pac Attack
From out of nowhere (It was not previously announced or rated) comes Pac-Attack, a surprisingly good Pac-Man rendition of the falling block puzzle genre. In this one out of few Pac-Man spinoffs, your job is to keep the screen clear of blocks and ghosts, by creating rows of blocks and letting Pac-Man eat the ghosts. Today's other game is...
News Harvest Moon Is Sole Euro VC Release
Time to get your hands dirty with Natsume's classic farming simulator
If crop rotation, livestock breeding and getting up at the crack of dawn seem like entertaining concepts to you, then you’ll no doubt be over the 'moon' (ho ho!) with the latest serving of retro goodness on the European Virtual Console. It’s hard to believe that a game about...
News EU VC Release - 4th January - Harvest Moon
After ending 2007 with a one-game week, people hoped Nintendo would start the next year with multiple games. Unfortunately, they fail to deliver, and it's one game once again!
Just like last week, it's not a complete mess, however, as it's a quality title - Harvest Moon for the SNES. This is the first game in the popular farming series, and it's...
December2007
News EU Christmas surprise - Donkey Kong Country 3
Many gamers in Europe and Australia were feeling left out when North America got Donkey Kong Country 3 for their Christmas Eve update. Don't worry Nintendo of Europe haven't forgotton you and have sneakily released it on Christmas day instead! Now stop your moaning! :-)
DKC3 is the final game in the DKC trilogy. The game was released late in the...
News US VC Releases - Christmas Eve - Donkey Kong Country 3
Merry Christmas! Nintendo's gift for Americans is the final game in the DKC trilogy, Donkey Kong Country 3! The game was released late in the SNES's life, meaning a lot of people missed out on it. Now is the time to make up for that mistake, as it's a great game, although not as good as DKC2. Here's a secret - Enter your name on the file select screen as "MERRY" for a very Christmas-y experience!
Today's other releases probably won't cater to as much people, unfortunately. Blades of Steel is one of very f...
News US VC Releases - 17th December - Cybernator
A lot of shooting in today's three US games! First up is Cybernator, the SNES game where you control a large robotic suit and blast your way through a multitude of stages. It's one of the more popular "lesser known" SNES games and as such is quite a cult classic.
The second game today is Monster Lair, the TurboGrafx-CD version of Wonder...
News EU VC Releases - 7th December - Sega Week
Breaking the norm again this month, Sega only releases two games instead of the usual three. No matter though when both of them are great! Rolling Thunder 2 is one of Dazza's favourites. It borrows some elements from Shinobi and combined it with arcade action, as there's enemies coming at you from all sides. While somewhat short, the game just oozes quality every step you take, with great music, graphics and gameplay.
The other Mega Drive offering is Light Crusader, an isometric Action RPG which is somewhat similar to Landsta...
November2007
News US VC Releases - 26th November - Vegas Stakes
After last week's "big" releases for the Wii's one year anniversary, calling this week "underwhelming" would be an understatement. While it's a total of three games, we can't really seriously recommend any of them to everybody. The only good game this week is Vegas Stakes, a gambling simulation for the SNES. It's all well and good for gambling fans, but everybody else (Which is very likely a lot of people) would be better off skipping it unless they're really interested in finding out how the casino world works.
...
We're not jealous types here at VC Reviews but the news that Japanese Club Nintendo owners will be getting their hands on a Wii version of the classic SNES control pad has made us green with envy. Nintendo of Japan's 'Club' service is clearly head and shoulders above its Western counterparts! Why can't we get fantastic goodies like this over here?
C...
News US VC Releases - 12th November - Axelay (+ Worldwide Mii Contest Channel)
Only one exciting VC game for the US today, but it doesn't matter too much - Super Mario Galaxy is out in the US today!
This week's great game is Axelay. One of the SNES's finest shmups (And one of the most loved ones of all time!). It has very unique 3D-esque effects which give it a unique style almost no other game has copied. This one's worth...
October2007
News US VC Releases - 15th October - Gate of Thunder
You only got Neo Geo games last week, but now it's time for another treat - The first TurboGrafx-CD game! Gate of Thunder is a stunningly good shoot 'em up that has the power to pretty much destroy any other shmup on VC. A fantastic soundtrack, great graphics (Check out the parallax scrolling!), and fair, fun gameplay (Nothing overly cheap!) all make this a great game to have for any shmup fan. Not one to miss!
Second today is the second title in most peoples' favourite NES ninja series - Ninja Gaiden II. It's a g...
News EU VC Releases - 12th October - Super Metroid
After many long, long months, the time has finally arrived for Europeans: The legendary Super Metroid is now available on VC! In the third Metroid game, Samus travels back to Zebes to dispose of the Space Pirates once and for all. It's one of her longest and greatest adventures ever, and if you haven't played the game before, you honestly owe it to yourself to experience it, as it is often classed among the top games in Nintendo's history. Also, this is the 150th game on the European VC!
...
September2007
News EU VC Releases - 28th September - Sci-Fi Week
Get to your Wii! It's Sci-Fi Week! Part of this final Hanabi Festival update is Sin and Punishment, the highly anticipated N64 action game never released outside Japan! It has an inflated price like most Japan-only games before it - 1200 Points. If you love yourself, get this. It's an extremely good game, somewhat like Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars, except even better. This is the first Japan-only game to be translated! All menus and such are in English!
Gradius III for SNES makes up the middle of this week's p...
News US VC Releases - 24th September - Streets of Rage 3
The long-awaited final part of Final Fight's rival series, Streets of Rage, hits the American VC today. Yup, it's Streets of Rage 3! The game's had quite a lot of criticism over the years (Especially compared to Streets of Rage 2), but it's still a great game and any beat 'em up fan should check it out (Though SoR2 should still take priority).
Secon...
August2007
News Hardware Focus - Super Nintendo
Though Nintendo's domination of the 8-bit era - attained through a combination of the company's business acumen in entering the market when most other were hesitant at best and the practices employed post-success to ensure the monopolistic domination of said market - had, in terms of units sold, been their most successful, the 16-bit era brought...