Classic whip-swinging goodness!

Believe it or not, this is the sixth week of this year in which we haven't gotten any new Virtual Console games. The amount of weeks in which we have is actually lower! Nintendo partially makes up for it by releasing a ton of games on the other services, but the situation on the retro front is obviously quite disappointing.

Without a doubt, the biggest hitter this week is Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth for WiiWare. Only very loosely based on the Game Boy game, this is basically just an all-new game in Konami's classic vampire slaying series, featuring the same stage-based platforming gameplay it was originally famous for. Anybody who likes classic Castlevania will not be disappointed by this installment - It perfectly captures the spirit everybody knows and loves. It costs 1000 Wii Points.

Reel Fishing Challenge has been out in North America for a long time now, but Natsume must've figured that late is better than never! Basically just an attempt at a realistic fishing game, it does its job fairly decently, but ultimately is really only worth it for true fans of angling. It only costs 500 Wii Points.

The last new WiiWare game this week is Dracula: Undead Awakening. A port of an iPhone release, in this title, your job is to fend off the undead in a Smash TV-like environment - That means that you're basically in a large arena, with enemies coming at you non-stop. The game has several different enemies and weapons to use on them, but for some reason, this WiiWare version costs 1000 Wii Points. Guess what - It's also available on DSiWare as of today, and that version only costs 500 DSi Points! We'll review both versions and inform you of the differences as soon as possible.

Also available on DSiWare is Bird & Bombs, released in North America as Spotto! Created by Intelligent Systems, this is an odd game in which you must play as a military bird, and chuck bombs upwards into the mouths of ghosts. It is as fun as it is strange, however - We thought it was quite addictive. And it only costs a mere 200 DSi Points, to boot!

Zoo Frenzy is Gameloft's latest DSiWare release. A simulation game, you must try to build and maintain a zoo, feeding and playing with the animals, through minigames, to train them for release back into the wild, where they will find other, new animals for you to put in your zoo. Sounds like it could go either way, just like pretty much every other Gameloft game! We'll have a review soon. It costs 800 DSi Points.

Finishing up this week's new games are the final two sections of Electroplankton for DSiWare, Marine-Crystals and Varvoice. As always, decide for yourself if what you can do with each of these would be to your liking - We personally think the former is decent, while the latter is the worst of the entire set.

Surely NoE will release something on VC next week?