Growing up with a ZX Spectrum and a Sega Master System and his exhaustive knowledge in the fields of SEO and digital marketing, Darren's organisational prowess helps steer Hookshot's portfolio in the right direction.
Darren has previously worked for companies such as Nokia, as well as a diverse range of high-profile clients.
News US VC Releases - 28th April - Double Dragon
Hot on the tails of River City Ransom from last week the theme of violence continues with the legendary Double Dragon on the NES punching its way to the Virtual Console.
The NES version is a fun adaptation of the original arcade classic however there is no 2 player simultaneous option in the main game which is a crying shame (even the Master System...
News Top 20 'popular titles' on the Virtual Console - April 2008 (USA)
Bros!
Following last month’s look at the top 20 popular VC titles for the USA it is interesting to see how things have changed a month later. There are no surprises really, Americans can’t get enough of the old classics like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, they aren’t going anywhere!. Games from non-Nintendo consoles are nowhere to be seen. Surely...
News US VC Releases - 21st April - River City Ransom
Fancy a bit of a punch up this week? Maybe embarking on an epic quest spanning several generations is your thing? If so you are in luck!
What better way to herald in the series of weekly NES beat ‘em ups than to begin with the mighty River City Ransom? Our North American readers were green with envy when Europe got this in their Wii Shop (entitled...
News 3 NES Beat 'em Ups Coming To US Virtual Console Soon
The North American Virtual Console is in for a treat over the next three Mondays as our pals at IGN have revealed that River City Ransom, Double Dragon and Renegade will be punching their way to the Virtual Console in successive weeks.
Much to the annoyance of North American VC fans the rather excellent River City Ransom came out in February in...
News US VC Releases - 14th April - Mega Turrican
If you like blasting things then you are in for a treat this week as this Monday’s Virtual Console selection will give you hours of blasting pleasure.
First up is Mega Turrican on the Sega Genesis. You might remember this as Turrican 3 on the Commodore Amiga. It's kind of a mix between Metroid, Contra and Gunstar Heroes but that doesn’t really...
News WiiWare: Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
Telltale Games, developers of the excellent Sam 'n Max series, have announced their intention to give fans something new in the shape of the amusingly titled Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, debuting on WiiWare this June.
For those not aware, the Strong Bad animated series has been running at homestarrunner.com since 2000. Strong Bad...
News Wii to support BBC's iPlayer (UK only)
An update is now available to allow Wii users to use the BBC's iPlayer on their Wii console via the Internet Channel. The BBC said a message would be sent to Wii owners to alert them to its availability. This appears to be for the United Kingdom only at present.
The BBC's iPlayer video service will soon be available via the Nintendo Wii. The video...
News EU VC Release - 4th April - Yoshi's Cookie
So what’s up for grabs on the European Virtual Console update this week? Well, sadly nothing other than a rather lonely looking Yoshi’s Cookie!
It is hard to get too enthusiastic as the VC already has an abundance of Nintendo puzzlers such as Mario & Yoshi, Wario’s Woods, etc but it is not such a bad thing that this has finally come out...
News US VC Releases - March 31st - Wonder Boy
Not to be outdone by Europe getting the first Commodore 64 games on Friday it turns out that the North American Virtual Console service is getting its first Sega Master System game in this week’s VC releases!
For those not in the know about the Master System you can read up on the system in Damo’s hardware focus. Basically it was the 8-bit...
News US VC Releases - March 24th - King's Knight
Normally we lead with our favourite game of the week but as the Sega Genesis choice isn’t going to blow you away we’ll lead with Square’s King’s Knight this week just because, you know, um, it was developed by Square. Think of it as a skeleton in Square’s closet! This is no Final Fantasy it has to be said.
Here at the VC:R we admit we do...
News Virtual Console Top 20 - March 2008 (EU)
Top of the blocks
Below is a list of the top 20 most popular Virtual Console games for Europe as currently listed in the Wii Shop. As there is no exact time period specified for this list we can probably assume that these are the most popular games over the last month, not of all time.. Much like the USA top 20 for March the Euro list is also...
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 WiiWare microtransactions - good or bad thing?
Well it was inevitable really, along with the first pieces of pricing information for the Japanese WiiWare lineup we are now already hearing about WiiWare microtransactions.
According to this week's issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Genki will be releasing an add-on pack for its Japanese WiiWare launch puzzler, LONPOS for 500 Wii Points. We...
News WiiWare Footage - Pokemon Ranch, Star Soldier R, Final Fantasy
During our travels we've discovered this fantastic promotional video for the upcoming WiiWare games due on the 25th March on the Japanese Wii.
This video contains 59 seconds of WiiWare-related goodness in which you will glimpse such wonders as Dr Mario, Pokemon Ranch, Star Soldier R, Lonpos and Final Fantasy: CC - all of which look pretty good, if...
News Konami to bring us WiiWare goodness?
In a recent interview with IGN Fumiaki Tanaka the president of Konami has hinted that Konami may be looking at bringing classic franchises to WiiWare.
Tanaka stated that Konami will be releasing more remakes of old titles and revisiting past projects as the company moves forward. He suggested that digital distribution services like WiiWare could...
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 WiiWare interview - Plättchen Twist 'n' Paint (Bplus)
In our series of exclusive interviews with up and coming WiiWare developers we have been lucky enough to grab a few moments with Bernd Geiblinger, the art director of Plättchen Twist 'n' Paint.
The veteran Viennese developers at Bplus certainly appear switched on and want to make a name for themselves on the new WiiWare service. Let's see what they...
News Wii TV Guide channel available for Japanese users
There is a new channel available from the Wii Shop in Japan. Hold on to your hats! It's a TV guide which will let you share information about your favourite programmes with your Wii buddies, and Nintendo. You can even change channels on your TV with your Wiimote.
Aside from saving you a few hundred yen on TV Guides this is a bit of a waste of 135...
News Major League Eating munches its way to WiiWare
The upcoming WiiWare roster has been accused by some as having more than its fair share of shovelware. This may literally be the case with newly revealed Major League Eating which is set to come to WiiWare later this year. From what we can tell it is looking like it might be a lot of fun as players compete against each other locally, or online to determine who is the greediest virtual gobbler!
Here’s a bit more from Mastiff Games press release: Mastiff Consumes Video Game License for Major League Eating SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - (February 7, 2008) - Vi...
News Master System games hit the Japanese VC
Japanese Wii owners will no doubt be rubbing their hands with glee as the first Sega Master System game is released in their region today.
Sadly its not the greatest game to grace Sega's 8-bit wonder, Fist of the North Star (Black Belt to you!) wouldn't have been my first choice for the system! In celebration of this monumental occasion why don't...
News Everyone's Pokemon Ranch - WiiWare - New Details
The official website for the upcoming Pokémon-themed WiiWare title, Everyone's Pokemon Ranch, has been given an update.
A few new details on the WiiWare project: Renamed Everyone’s Pokémon Ranch (was Pokémon Farm) Transfer Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl, storing up to 1000 creatures on the Wii. Interact with your Poké-friends through...
News EU VC Releases - 22nd February - Street Gangs
Two classic NES games join the European Virtual Console library today! First up we have Street Gangs (River City Ransom in the USA). This is a scrolling beat-em-up in the same vein as Double Dragon, but it is also much more! The characters are all in Japanese super deformed manga style for starters. It’s not as shallow as your average beat-em-up either, there are some basic RPG elements on offer here: you have an inventory, can buy and sell items, and you can learn new abilities and skills. The co-operative play is also really good in this game, so it comes highly recommended from the VC:R team.
...
News Commodore 64 coming to Virtual Console
Regular readers will remember that quite some time ago we reported on C64 games coming to the VC. We ended up with egg on our face as it turned out to be some sort of mistake on Nintendo's Norwegian website and no more details about this ever materialised.
It is now the turn of Nintendo's Finnish site to break the news about C64 games coming to the...
First Impressions World of Goo
Our new found friends at 2D Boy were kind enough to provide the team at WiiWare World with a playable demo of the first level of their upcoming game World of Goo. Whilst it’s not 100% confirmed to be a downloadable WiiWare game yet, the guys at 2D Boy are expected to spill the beans soon on if this is the case, or not.
Having only seen a few press...
