Adamant

Hi-Tech World isn't a real Alex Kidd game, anyway.
And it's somewhat doubtful it will se a VC release.

Well, since Monster Lair got a 4/10, this score seems appropriate enough.

No more stealing than how, say Sega again, can release a port/remake of Mercs, a Capcom arcade game. They obviously got the license.

It's a bit complicated in this case, actually. See, the Wonder Boy series is developed by Westone, but Sega owns the license to the Wonder Boy name. The original arcade version of this game, bearing the same name, was thus published by Sega. Since Westone owns the game, but Sega owns the license, Westone could make Hudson port the game to the Turbografx, but they were required to drop the license, and redesign the characters.
Later, as you see here, Sega made their own port for the Mega Drive, and since they own the Wonder Boy license, it could be retained for that port.

But yeah, all the Wonder Boy games were originally released with the Wonder Boy license, which had to be changed when Hudson ported them to non-Sega consoles.

"Was Pro Wrestling an import for EU?"

No, it was released there.

Ogre Battle, which was suggested above, was not, though, so we all knew that wasn't coming.
Plus, the lack of ratings and all.

Well, uh...

We knew they were coming, so at least they're out of the way now.
Still, why release these two together?
I know some people like Clu Clu Land, but it's a rather aquired taste, and it's probably the least popular score-based NES game Nintendo has made.

Europe got Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair and Clu Clu Land.

Snore.

"Someone should combine Tetris, fish, and shooting things. It'd never leave number one."

Big Kahuna Party has blocks, fish and blowing things up, is that close enough?

(and yes, seriously, it IS a good game. Not terribly original, but very fun)

Pst, guys, that post about how it could be an AAA game was just a snarky comment not intended to be taken seriously.

Come on, the parenthesis and the smiley didn't clue you in?

Given that they add 100 points for doing nothing but just bringing over a foreign game, I think it would be more like 5-600 extra points, especially for texty games like this. Why spend all that time and money when they can just release games that can easily be added with no translation nessecary?

@Objection_Blaster: Not if they translated them, lol.

They don't do that. Why waste time translating a game when they can just release games that don't require translation?
If they DID translate import games, they'd most certainly add a translation tax too, especially if the game was very texty, like the later FE games.

So I decided to give Pitstop II a try.
This has to be one of my most pleasant surprises on the VC so far. It's a very well-done racer mechanics-wise for it's time, with good controls, no silly "realism" to get in the way of your fun, and "obstacle cars" that, believe me, really act as obstacles, and do a fantastic job making 2-player mode really tense. The pit stop gimmick, though I suck pretty hard at it for now, is a fun and original addition to the game that really makes it stand out.
The VC doesn't have much in the way of racing games, with Cruis'n USA being it's only real opposition (Mario Kart 64 and the F-Zero games are very different from the norm, and Victory Run is pretty blah). Pitstop II is a very solid and unique racer, and great multiplayer fun.
Absolutely worth a download - don't make the mistake of looking at a screenshot and writing it off as generic. It's the kind of game pictures really can't do justice.

The classic Fire Emblem games are in Japanese, so I assume people would object rather vocally should they be brought over.

@Link79: " I can't wait til they give us one single Commodore 64 game that just so happens to be garbage as well."

Seems we're getting C64 games that have already been released in Europe, and they've only gotten good games so far. The C64 library is so massive, I assume Commodore will focus on the popular, big sellers, rather than crap no one liked, so don't expect much garbage from that part.

I assume it was changed because the creepy dude at the title screen makes small children and adults alike cry in fear.

Gammick is apparantly a Spanish developer, so I guess the description was originally written in Spanish, then half-assedly translated into English.

(If it's such an AAA title, why didn't it sell back in the day? )

i agree the boss on the second level is hard - I died a lot there when I first played it too, since he's nearly unbeatable if you don't have 2 speed-ups. Once you get level 2 down, though, he shouldn't be too tough.

And just wait until hard mode, where the boss changes the direction his arms spin at random. EVIL!

And no, I'm most certainly not good at shumps at all. I can count the amount I've managed to beat on the fingers on one hand.

@Bahamut ZERO: The surprise titles mentioned in the original post are Takeshi no Chousenjou and Revenge of Shinobi.

"I was pretty sure I remember when Rondo was announced for Japan it was part of one of these Hanibi festivals."

Why would a Japanese-only game being released on the Japanese VC service be part of an import month?

Only Europe have Hanabi Festivals, where they get a ton of import games at once. America get them at random, and I'm not sure if Japan gets them at all. There aren't many games on the VC that never originally got a Japanese release.

Yeah, Takeshi no Chousenjou is not coming outside Japan. It's more a practical joke than a game, and it's so famous for being this that people are very well aware of what they're getting. It's part of the appeal, just like how Plan 9 From Outer Space got released on DVD and actually sold.

Most non-Japanese aren't in on the joke, however, so Nintendo wouldn't dare bring it over. You need to know what you're going to with this game. (Plus, the game is somewhat texty).

But yeah, there's definitely an appeal here. It's not a bad release - those of you thinking it is aren't really understanding what the game is actually about.

" I still find this to be a walk in the park compared to Life Force, in which you're totally screwed as soon as you die once."

What? No no, it's fully possible to regain your powers upon death. In the original Gradius, on the other hand, you might as well dive for the reset button.

"And besides, you're addressing all of North America, not just the US of A."

All of America, actually.

Oh come on, Life Force isn't hard. Hell, besides Star Parodier on the lowest difficulty, it's probably the easiest in the genre on the VC (and I can't really think of any other easier ones off the top of my head either)

" level 3 has these enemies that take up over half the screen in a second with little warning"

You see them coming, and they won't hit you if you're hugging the left edge of the screen anyway.

"Another odd thing is, once I had presumably finished the game (I fought this snake thing atop an orb with a mouth? After was an escape sequence), it just sent me back to some random previous level without any explanation, and I died at the boss of it, with no continues left."

One you've killed the dragon, you can damage the core itself. Once you've killed it, the ending will roll after the escape sequence, and the game will start over in Hard Mode.

" I can't think of a game that is more iconic of C64 gaming"

Flimbo's Quest.

Come on, release it already!

Really, now, Nintendo has been releasing nearly nothing but great games on the VC lately. If your tastes are so narrow you don't find anything you like in those, you should either consider broadening them a bit, or accept the fact that you like so few games you're probably not going to get something from that list all that often.

If you only like the works of one director, you're probably not going to find much treasure in a movie bargain bin.

(and yes, while it's true America has been luckier than Europe with their selection so far this year, each European VC release day has had at least one good game)

@Yossarian: The Master System Sonic games are completely different from the Mega Drive games. It's like complaining about Nintendo releasing SMB3 on the VC because SMW is already out.

Wait, they left arcade mode out of the European version?

Original mode can be tough, yeah. Not horrendously hard, but you'll spend some time with it.
Arcade mode is relatively easy.

"Capcom? The title screen does say reprogramed by SEGA suggesting SEGA handled coding the game while Capcom gave them assests to work with or something..."

Oh yeah, that too. Sega licensed Capcom's game for their system, and handled the port themselves. They did so with a couple other Capcom arcade games too, like Forgotten Worlds.

"This lacks the arcade version's co-op, but Capcom tried to make up for the mistake by giving the Mega Drive version an extra level."

Surely you mean 8 (7?) new levels and an all-new mode with tons of new gameplay features.

Mega Drive Mercs is an massive expansion of the arcade game, not just a mere port with a couple new things thrown in.

Yes. This only concerns the American VC, and Nintendo of Japan can put whatever characters they want in their games without being concerned about where their games have/will be released.

Jesus, guys, the game isn't even that good.

How about "there are even more C64 classics to be released, and we dont even have a single one yet"?

"However, the VC was Earthbound's one chance to gain leverage in the states"

Based on comments I've seen here and on other VC-related boards, no one would buy it anyway, because people don't buy games they haven't played before/heard of, and as you said yourself, barely anyone has played/hear of Earthbound.

Amazing. Love it. Why didn't you give this 5 stars? Apart from being a tad on the easy side, you don't get much better than this on the NES.

@pikmin95: "I've never played a shmup before, so is this a good game to start with?"

Absolutely. Great level design, an easy-to-grasp weapon system, a relatively forgivable difficulty level, and support for 2 players simultaneously, for only 500 points. Aside from the fact that it doesn't have the flashiest grahpics or the most advanced music in the world (which, being a NES game, I doubt you'd expect anyway), you can't go wrong with this.

Haha.
Awesome.

@The Fox: That would be bad design, then. You simply cited "you can quickly in about 3 hits" as if that was a flaw. Challenge on it's own is not a bad thing, a game being challenging for the wrong reasons is.

The Turbo Duo was a Turbografx with a built-in Turbo CD/Super CD player.

And yeah, asking for "Turbo Duo games" is like asking for "Sega Nomad games" - it's not a platform that had games developed for it, just a device that plays games made for something else.

I don't know if they have the rights to them or not, but the Legendary Axe series definitely needs to be on the VC, as does Side Arms.

And of course, Rondo of Blood as an import.

The Valis series would be nice, too.

Plus, challenge is not a negative.

You know, having invested some more time into this title now, I think I'll have to retract my earlier statement - this game IS better than Bloody Wolf.

Bloody Wolf is still great, though, and absolutely worth your money.

You know, having invested some more time into this title now, I think I'll have to retract my earlier statement - this game IS better than Bloody Wolf.

Bloody Wolf is still great, though, and absolutely worth your money.

Well, in Street Fighter's case, it's only been the Mega Drive Champion Edition that's been really pointless.
But, like Capcom, Sega now seem to want to release different versions of games that are already available, and with these one-game weeks, we'll probably end up getting it as the only game of that week.

Not to mention, if they release WB3:ML in the US, it'll be 900 points as opposed to ML's 800, as the Mega Drive version was never released there.

Well, in the game's defense, it's only 5$, and offers more gameplay than the 50$ (or whatever it costs) "board game" version.

But eh, this isn't really a game you need a review to know whether you'll enjoy or not. It offers exactly what it says on the tin.

Two more games got announced too: Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars and Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair. God, what's the point of these Wonder Boy duplicates?

@Link79: "This game looks similar to Bloody Wolf on Turbo grafx.
Which one should I get?"

I prefer Bloody Wolf over this one. Plus, BW is cheaper. So yeah, go for that if you're only getting one.

So... would you say this is better or worse than Bloody Wolf?

Edit: It's worse. Still good, though.

Eh, Claymates was a decent platformer, but nothing incredibly amazing.

Clay Fighter wasn't particularly hot when it first came out, either.

"Is this the same as the Game gear version?"

For the most part, except the screen isn't as zoomed in, so it plays better.