It's another week, and the memories of lazy gaming at the weekend are already drifting away. Still, we have the Nintendo download details for Europe to look over, and it's a rather motley mix of retro titles, puzzles and a super demo for everyone to try. Let's get on with it.
3DS Virtual Console
Donkey Kong Jr. (Nintendo, £4.50/€5) — After hogging the headlines for so long, Mario now has to take a turn as the villain in Donkey Kong Jr. This NES title brings back memories of more primitive, single-screen days as you swing and hop your way to rescue DK, and it must be said that it's not exactly a sweeping adventure with a lot of environments to conquer. Some retro fans may enjoy having this one on the go, but as our Donkey Kong Jr. review explains, it struggles to justify the cost of entry.
NES Open Tournament Golf (Nintendo, £3.60/€4) — Another Nintendo NES title to arrive on the 3DS Virtual Console this week, Open Tournament Golf is exactly as advertised, avoiding excessive Mushroom Kingdom touches to provide a fairly standard game of golf over three courses. As detailed in our NES Open Tournament Golf review, some of your favourite mascots will make cameo appearances, while prize money and multiplayer add a bit of longevity; it may be worth a punt for retro golf fans.
3DS Demo
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Warner Bros., Free) — This latest LEGO title on 3DS puts Batman and Robin up against The Joker and Lex Luthor, though plenty of other famous DC characters weigh-in on each side to keep it interesting. This one was released in shops two months ago, but this demo may help you to decide if you're still on the fence about picking up the blocks this time around.
3DS Add-On Content
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy — £0.90/€1 each:
The Royal City of Rabanastre / Town Ward Upper Stratum (FF12 - FMS)
Crystal Cave (FF03 - FMS)
Ragnarok (FF11 - BMS)
Challenge (FF10 - BMS)
DSiWare
Rummikub (Games Factory Online, 800 points) — This is one of those titles released in North America nearly two years ago that just now makes its late entry onto the European scene. It's also DSiWare, so it shouldn't surprise us that this is a puzzle game, in this case the tactical task of clearing all of your tiles while outwitting your opponent. There's local multiplayer if this is your kind of game and you want to play it with friends, but as our Rummikub review makes clear, this title is really only for fans of the original game.
Wii Virtual Console
2020 Super Baseball (D4 Enterprise, 900 points) — It's a NEO GEO Virtual Console release that isn't a fighter, so this one wins some novelty points right away. Although this game's vision of baseball in 2020 is running out of time to become a reality, this is a sports title that may be appealing to retro gamers. It may not have aged as well as some, however, while some of the design quirks and features may bother gamers with modern sensibilities. Check out our 2020 Super Baseball review for details.
So there you have it, all three systems served with something to play this week. The question is, will you be downloading any of them?
What will you be downloading first this week? (122 votes)
- Donkey Kong Jr. (3DS Virtual Console - NES)
- NES Open Tournament Golf (3DS Virtual Console - NES)
- Rummikub (DSiWare)
- 2020 Super Baseball (Wii Virtual Console)
- Nothing for me this week
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Comments 49
ooo, Nice double dose of the NES games. now they're caught up with NA.
Was hoping for Picross-e but oh wel..
Will try the demo though..
Two games to update, a demo to try out and some new songs to purchase... not a bad week but not overly great either.
The only thing good about this download is we all get to update our ambassador games as @Chris720 said. Though I'm puzzled as to why we haven't recieved any more non-ambassador NES games yet, japan has several including Fire Emblem, but we got squat ('cept for punchout).
I want them to release an eshop VC copy of Final Fantasy, we have it on Wii VC, so why not surprise us with FF on our 3DS'?
Nothing I want to buy this week but I will download the demo to give it a try.
It brings us all closer to the multiplayer of Ice Climber and Balloon Fight - so I'm not complaining.
Lol 100% nothing for me this week at the time I posted this. I might grab the demo but I probably won't end up buying the full game.
A little disappointing week but I'm glad about the demo, which NA got at the start of June, during E3.
Ooooooooh another FF XII song But why can't I vote that I'm gonna download Theatrhythm songs? You could in the NA poll last week iirc.
Updating my Ambassador games and downloading the demo.
So far, Square have released:
Will they even out eventually? Because as rousing as the tracks from XII are, there's too few tracks from VII & VIII for my liking.
Otherwise, I already have Donkey Kong Jr. because I'm a lucky ambassador, ditto NES Open Tournament Golf, and the two remaining games just don't pique my interest.
Will download the demo and that's it. Pretty crappy week but I'm not complaining. The eshop has been pretty solid lately and NSMB2 is much better than I expected, I've played it for about 8hours and still have a lot to do.
ZOMG, weird box art Mario in that pic! O_o Big difference between early 80s Mario and 2012 Mario!
@edhe Taken a look at the Japanese music list and this is the Japanese total so far, bearing in mind they've only had a total of twelve updates thus far:
Square Enix must really like Final Fantasy X...
At least for 5 bucks instead of DK Jr. Nintendo should have brought Donkey Kong Classics (That is Donkey Kong + Donkey Kong Jr. on the same NES cartridge).
Heck, I had a NES back in 1986 and I can't even remember seeing DK Jr. boxes on the shelves! I still remember I saw a lot of (unsold) copies of DK Classics in every toy shop I visited.
Hooray, nothing.
My bank account is empty so that's good.
@poll I'll take the demo.
I''l also update DKJR.
Will be updating the two ambassador games, these were two of my favourites from the NES ambassador games. I'm perfectly happy with the basic versions of these two, but it will be nice to have the updated versions, - I'm really waiting for Zelda II to be updated.
Will also try the Batman demo. I really enjoyed Lego Star Wars (Wii).
@BenAV Mine's getting that way too... come on pay day! I want some money in my bank account! I can't eat or game without monies!
@RetroGBHippie92 I think they might be holding off on the rest of the VC games like FF until the Will U shows up as i last heard we will be able to link our will shop and eShop accounts. So from that i guess we would be able to DL all our NES games to our 3DS and have access to the Library of games already available to buy?
Well thats one of the hope i have for the linking of the accounts.
Now both North America and Europe are half-way through the NES Ambassador games.
He was called Mario in the NES games. He was only called Jumpman up until Mario Bros. in 1983.
I thought NES games were £4.50 standard on eShop. More NES games should be £3.60 too - Donkey Kong Jr. definitely since it only had four screens. Its still a fun game for an Ambassador title though. But I wouldn't pay for it.
You know, it's kinda odd that they keep re-releasing Donkey Kong Jr. but have never revamped it like they did with the 1994 Donkey Kong (which was so good they retooled it with the cast's modern incarnations in Mario vs Donkey Kong). Granted, DK Jr. has no place in the current mario-verse (unless you count today's DK), but I don't think a one-off title akin to the the '94 game would be too much to ask. Or they could use Diddy and pit him against Wario or something (Mario has an image to protect and all).
Lame.
I just have to update those NES games.
Whats in these updates for these Ambassador games thats due ?
@SRArter And Japan has one more
Will Donkey Kong JR receive wireless multiplayer, like Ice Climbers?
Yes finally I´m able to get.....nothing
The only game that could interest me is the VC title. Too bad it's one of those sports titles.
I never did like DK Jr. for the NES. I think the Game & Watch DK Jr. is much better.
Also, I am very disappointed at the lack of any FFVIII DLC. Not one has been released since Ride On! at launch. I'm holding off buying any DLC until I get all the VIII ones first but at this rate it's never going to happen.
Aren't those last week's Theatrhythm DLC songs?
@Donjwolf
"I think the Game & Watch DK Jr. is much better."
Totally agree.
NES Open Tournament Golf for 4€ is a very good price (is it a typo?).
Donkey Kong Jr. for 5€ is too expensive.
I don't feel comfy in voting this week. I will download the demo and updates for DK Jr. and Golf but since i'm not paying anything for these i don't think i should choose one of 'em. And i don't want to be ungrateful and vote for "Nothing for me this week" either.
Anyway, as others already said, it's interesting to see Open Tournament Golf is only 4€.
Rummikub's way too expensive for my tastes. If i ever want to learn the rules of the game i'd look out for a version you can play online for free.
I might download 2020 Super Baseball one day but for now Baseball Stars 2 on the SNK Arcade Classics looks way more attractive.
It's nice to se one by one the ambassador games released on the console please nintendo bring them all.
BORING!
Golden sun yes this one as well!
It'll be the demo for me, but I'll be waiting for Picross-E and Cave Story.
Waiting indeed.
Meh.
No sakura samurai.... are we ever going to see it
Ha. I didn't know that baseball game had come to the US VC. I really should look into getting it, if nothing else than for nostalgia. I really liked playing it in the arcade alongside Metal Slug.
Meh...
Will try out the Lego demo, but I already have DK Jr. from the Ambassador program and nothing else interests me at all...
WOW! THAT'S a misleading article picture there. For a second I thought Ninja Baseball Batman was coming t the Wii's VC. SO disappointed!
After playing "LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes" I'd conclude that is game is pretty fun.. but the 3D needs to be a lot more deeper(especially cut scenes).
All I ever see on the Vote Results is the vast majority going with "None for me this week".This cannot continue, Nintendo need to seriously up their game (pardon the pun).
It can't be that hard to get NES, SNES, GBA, N64 games onto the system. Heck, ROMs have been going round for years. Sort it out Ninty!
@Retro Agreed
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