Virtual Console Reviews - Page 9

Play the heroic dragon Tamagon, who must defeat evil by collecting Boa-Boa Dots inside a maze and destroying enemies with his fire breath

Devil World is one of extremely few Nintendo titles that was released in Europe, but not the US. Most likely this was due to Nintendo of America's strict rule not to feature any "religious" factors in...

Take on the role of Trevor Belmont, forefather of Simon, and battle Dracula in a time long before the events of the first two Castlevania games.

After the success of the original Castlevania title on the NES system, Konami decided to change things up quite a bit for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Gone was the straight-ahead platforming action of the original, replaced with a much more rpg-flavored..

Blow your mind in a fantasy zone

When Sega released the Master System back in the ‘80s the company was facing an uphill struggle against Nintendo’s NES. The NES had the software support and thanks to Nintendo’s nefarious practice of making developers agree to keep their titles exclusive, it left Sega with little in the way of third party...

Mayhem is an unhappy dinosaur, as Monsterland is an unhappy place, due to an apprentice magic dinosaur who decided to practice some of his master's spells, after drinking too much cactus juice.

The year 1993 saw the last of the full-price commercial games for the C64 hit the shelves as the market for 8-bit fare was finally grinding to a halt. In amongst the classics such as Alien 3, Lemmings and..

Street Fighting SEGA style.

Back when Street Fighter II-mania was gripping the global gaming community, Capcom’s decision to release the first home port of the game on Nintendo’s SNES spoke volumes. This move showed that the company was backing Nintendo in the 16-bit war (up to this point all of Capcom’s Megadrive/Genesis games had actually been re-programmed by Sega under license and not..

Good and evil battle for a young warrior’s heart. There is one force in the universe that keeps good and evil in perfect balance.

As action rpgs started to gain in popularity during the 16-bit era, many game companies began cashing in on this new trend. Some were good, and some not so good. Enix had already created a hit with their action rpg Soul...

Tee off with Mario and friends as they put a new spin on golf!

After Mario's forays into non-platforming genres, such as Mario Kart, Mario's Picross and Dr. Mario, Nintendo realized something: Whatever you put Mario in, it will sell. Soon after, they made loads of Mario sports games - Starting with Mario's Tennis on the Virtual Boy, Nintendo soon made the plumber try golf, and, more recently,..

It’s a dark and stormy night in the kingdom of Granseal when a thief steals two jewels from the Tower of the Ancients.

The original Shining Force was a massive success for Sega, granting the Genesis/Megadrive with a strategy RPG to rival Nintendo’s popular Fire Emblem franchise. A sequel of some description was inevitable and when it arrived the result was truly mind-blowing; it’s little..

A crow is chasing a worm named Jim, while in outer space, Psy-Crow is chasing a renegade ship.

If you were at all interested in videogames or cartoons in the early 90's you were no doubt a fan of Earthworm Jim. Originally appearing in this game, the unusual hero went on to star in his own cartoon and a number of sequels to the videogame. Earthworm Jim is all about the titular Jim - He used to be a..

As the last survivor of the United Freedom Forces, it is your duty to destroy the Machine’s forces that have devastated the galaxy.

The Turrican series began life on the Commodore 64 computer and would soon see quite a few releases on the various personal computers of the time period. The series made its first appearance on a console with the Sega Mega Drive release of Mega Turrican and would..

In Super Dodge Ball, you take control of the USA Dodge Ball team and travel the world in an effort to become the best dodge ballers around.

The characters from River City Ransom (Of which the main character is known in Japan as Kunio-kun) are back for a friendly game of dodgeball. Or are they? If you've played the aforementioned game, you'll know that the Kunio series hilariously overdoes..

Jumpman is a bomb disposal expert. He is called on to save the Jupiter headquarters after the evil Alienators invade it and booby-trap its 30 levels.

While the video game industry was crashing down around us, personal computers were beginning to invade households around the world. The Commodore 64 was one such computer and went on to become one of the most popular home computers of its time period..

Oh Boulder Dash!

Boulder Dash is a fondly-remembered classic and was so popular back in the day that it spawned umpteen sequels and numerous ports and remakes which continue to appear even today. It was perhaps inevitable that the game would appear in some capacity on one of the Wii's download services, so how does the old classic stand up today? Well first things first, it can't be denied that the..

Take a deep breath and prepare for a puzzle game set in the underwater kingdom of Clu Clu Land.

First, a lesson in linguistics – ‘Kurukuru’ in Japanese means ‘turning around’. Why am I telling you this? Well, it neatly explains Clu Clu Land’s rather unusual title, and also gives some insight into the mechanics of the game. You assume the role of a funny-looking fish called Bubbles, who..

Ys Book I & II chronicles the first adventures of Adol Christin, a young, red-haired swordsman on a quest to unlock the secrets of an ancient kingdom.

Even the most hardened TG16 fan will admit that the machine wasn’t exactly a massive success when it was released in the States. It struggled against the Genesis and SNES despite having some great...

Mario + RPG = WIN!

What do you get when one of the best RPG creators in the world decides to build an RPG around one of the most recognizable video game characters in history? What you get is a video game that is considered one of the greatest ever made and an RPG that's not only unique, but extremely playable as well. Many were skeptical when the news first broke that Squaresoft was creating an..

First released in 1994, this fighting game follows 15 samurai in their individual quests.

Let's face it, the majority of SNKs existence is based around their unrelenting quest to come up with a fighting game for their system that could stand toe-to-toe with Capcom's immensely popular Street Fighter II arcade game. Samurai Shodown has the unique distinction of being the fighting game that finally..

Pitstop II is the first racing game that brings you the thrill of battling an opponent, the excitement of fighting for the lead out on the track and the suspense of struggling to be the first out of the pits.

Racing games, as a whole, haven't exactly aged as well as games from other genres over the years, but there's still something to be said for the classic arcade racers of old. Sure they were..

Sonic's back in 8-bit style.

Following the undoubted success of Sonic The Hedgehog on the Mega Drive it seems only fitting that a version of the game was created for the Sega’s 8-bit wonder, the Master System which still had strong support in Europe at the time. This game was also something of a swan song to North American gamers who had took a...