Virtual Console Reviews - Page 20

Double the dungeons, but half of the fun!

Dungeon crawlers became quite popular back in the early 80's on many of the personal computers like the Commodore 64 and Apple II series of computers. I actually owned an Apple IIc computer and played many of the popular titles like the Wizardry and Bard's Tale series myself. It's probably the main reason that I'm such a huge RPG fan to this very day. So..

Grabbed by the ghoulies

Ghouls ‘N Ghosts was an arcade classic, and Sega Mega Drive / Genesis owners were undoubtedly over the moon to be treated to an almost arcade perfect conversion in 1989. When the Super Nintendo came out, it needed some games to compete with its rival; quite soon after its launch Capcom was kind enough to treat Nintendo fans...

Who would have thought that elevators got any action?

Originally released in the (very) early 80's, this spy action title was a real eye-opener for gamers of that generation. The premise is simple, yet instantly appealing; the player is dropped onto a series of buildings and has to make their way to the bottom, taking on evil agents and entering certain rooms along the way. As the title suggests,..

Get your revenge and defeat Tsarkon to free the world of Vermilion from evil.

Famously developed by Virtua Fighter creator Yu Suzuki, this was one of the first RPGs for Sega's 16-bit system and to be brutally honest, it shows. The graphics are basic and the sound is average so be prepared for a technically underwhelming experience. Thankfully the actual game is very enjoyable, if a little on the..

Chew Man Fu has set a curse to rob the world of fried rice, egg rolls and all its other favourite foods.

This is no doubt a game that not many will be familiar with. I think an award should go for best named game 'Chew Man Fu'. The Japanese release was called 'Be Ball' so for once the western name is much more fun! Basically this is a puzzle game where you have to push large coloured balls around..

An army of biogenetic mutants has gone haywire, terrorizing the world and putting the future of the planet in jeopardy.

Released as Crying in Japan, this horizontally scrolling shooter was largely ignored by western Megadrive owners due to the sheer volume of shoot-em-ups available on the console at the time. The unusual organic graphics probably didn't help either, but if you give it the time of..

As legendary hero Link, you must journey across Hyrule, and even through time itself, to thwart the plans of Ganondorf.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time did for the Zelda series what Super Mario 64 did for the Super Mario Bros. series. It successfully brought one of the most beloved game series in video game history into the magical new world of...

This city was once a happy, peaceful place... until one day, a powerful secret criminal organization took over.

It's tricky to review Streets of Rage and be fair to it in light of the goodness that was to come in its sequel! Still it laid the foundations for even more future greatness so it is only fair to give the original game the respect it deserves. Basically Streets of Rage is Sega's answer to..

This classic ninja-action game first appeared in arcades in 1985 and became instantly popular.

After the recent release of the sublime Kid Icarus you might have expected the quality of NES Virtual Console games to rise, but unfortunately The Legend of Kage is an almost catastrophic true drop in standards. No need for rose tinted specs here, retro fans - this game was a stinker back in 1986 and is..

This bike still excites

Excitebike will no doubt be remembered fondly by older gamers. After all, it was one of the original launch titles for the NES way back in 1985. Some might be dubious and question if a game this old is worth purchasing for the Virtual Console, but worry not — this classic game has somehow managed to retain its appeal...

New Adventure Island is perhaps Master Higgins best adventure to date.

The Wonder Boy and Adventure Island games have seen releases on just about every 8 and 16-bit console you can think of, not to mention a few remakes on some of the more recent systems. Having said that, if you want to play the best the series has to offer, you need only download...

Kirby's first adventure

Kirby’s Adventure was released in 1993 when many gamers had packed up their NES in favour of the shiny new Sega Mega Drive / Genesis or a SNES. Those who stayed faithful to the mighty grey toaster and picked up this game at the time would have been in for a real treat. It really pushed the boundaries of the NES hardware,...

Ice Ice Baby

Ice Climber is another classic NES title for the Virtual Console — and thankfully, it's decent enough to be worth considering for download. Ice Climber is a fantastic little game, if somewhat basic. Graphically it's exactly what you'd expect an 8-bit game from 1985 to look like — simple. The premise of the game is pretty bizarre. A...

In 1986, a new Nintendo hero was born: Pit; otherwise known as Kid Icarus.

Kid Icarus is one of those games that makes you think 'they sure don't make them like they used to'. Graphically it's very basic - this is from 1986 after all - but the charm simply shines through regardless. This is a game from an era where developers had to really make an effort and use what simple technology they had..

The black sheep of the family?

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is often referred to as the black sheep of the Zelda family. Unlike the original Zelda games, the top-down perspective is replaced in favour of side-scrolling platform action, similar to that found in Castlevania. Perhaps more significantly than that, it is the only Zelda game to offer...

Simply superb

It was hailed as the greatest videogame of all time when it was released, and even after all these years it still has a pretty solid claim to that title. Super Mario World is without a shadow of a doubt one of our favourite Mario games, and when SNES was released some members of our staff played very little else until they'd discovered...

Brave the streets of New York City in this side-scrolling beat-'em-up game.

One of the first side-scrolling beat-'em-ups was Irem's Kung Fu. In it, you, as a lone martial artist, had to make your way to the top floor of a five-story temple by dispatching successive waves of bad guys with only a limited repertoire of punches and kicks. Four years later, Irem produced a spiritual sequel in the shape..

It's the 31st Century, and science and technology have progressed to the point that the human race is approaching perfection.

Gain Ground started life as a largely unpopular 3 player arcade game. Surprisingly when taking into account the relative lack of commercial success it was ported to the Sega Megadrive/Genesis and Master System pretty swiftly. The gameplay is similar to Gauntlet but with a..

Sketch Turner is an artist in New York City. One day while Sketch is drawing, there is a huge thunderstorm and a bolt of lightning hits Sketch's image, bringing it to life.

Released fairly late in the life of the Megadrive/Genesis, Comix Zone didn't exactly set the world alight in terms of sales but is now rightly regarded as one of the better games...