December2006
Review Urban Champion (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
More like Urban chump!
It's impossible to overlook the fact that many of the earlier NES releases were extremely simple in design and took very few chances when it came to gameplay design and visual substance. While many of the games were classic arcade titles from Nintendo, there were a handful of original releases that tried to up the ante. Urban...
Review Donkey Kong Jr. (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Donkey Kong has finally been captured by Mario!
Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo's quintessential characters; pre-dating even the illustrious Mario as a video game lead, the goofy simian was enthralling arcade-goers the world over during the early '80s. However, once the Italian plumber decided to star in his own game, Donkey Kong's appeal started to...
November2006
Review Donkey Kong (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
It's on like Donkey Kong
As many will know, the mighty Miyamoto made his mark at Nintendo and indeed the world with this very game in the arcades. Donkey Kong was quite unique for its day; in arcades full of Space Invaders and Pac-Man clones, a platform game like was something new. Playing as Jumpman — who would later become known as Mario —...
Review Mario Bros. (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Will it clean your pipes?
When Mario Bros. hit arcades in 1983, most Nintendo fans were expecting yet another Donkey Kong release and weren't quite prepared for the spin-off Nintendo served up. Now it was Mario and his brother Luigi who were at war with a constant flow of pests coming though their sewer pipes. The game was yet another hit with...
Review Pinball (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Pinball wizard
Back in the '80s, pinball simulations became quite popular on home game consoles of the time period. Pinball for the NES takes a very basic approach with its presentation, but still manages to include just enough variety to keep it interesting. Toss in a Mario mini-game to spice things up and what you have is a fun little pinball romp...
Review Soccer (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
This is most definitely not super soccer
Soccer is one of the earlier titles in the NES Sports series, it also ranks amongst the worst. Back in 1987 it might have cut the mustard, but in this day and age it is too dated to be worthy of splashing the virtual cash on. Rather than support a full team of eleven players you only get five players, and a...
Review Wario's Woods (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
If you go down to the woods today...
Toad, the hero of this story (or Mushroom-head to his mates) gets to show off his muscles in this Tetris-style falling block game by lifting and stacking bombs and monsters. Our friend Toad cleverly discovered that if he puts monsters of the same colour in a row along with a bomb of the same colour that they will...
