Kelvin

I would have picked Road Rash 2 over the original, if only because it's a bit more polished, and includes more gameplay options.

I'd also pick Stunt Car Racer for the C64, an absolutely mental game which sees you racing cars on elevated tracks more like roller coasters than a traditional circuit. Wonderful, manic, stuff.

Honourable mentions would go to Power Drift (remember when your driver would swear at the racers he passed?), Super Monaco GP and Lotus Turbo Challenge.

I can't argue with Super Mario Kart though. One of my favourite games of all time, and despite its age, easily my favourite of the series. I love the purity of the concept and gameplay, something I feel has been lost over the years with all the additions and tweaks. My perfect Kart would have exactly the same gameplay as the original, coupled with the multiplayer options of the newer games. As such, the Gameboy Advance port is almost perfection for me. If Nintendo surprised us with an online-capable version of the original game on VC, I'd be happier than Mr Happy of Happytown!

I believe the Lost Vikings show up in World of Warcraft if you know where to look...

Solid list there. I'd also add Sensitive for the C64, but as it was a public domain game, I'm not sure it's a likely release!

truercki, Xenon 2 also made it to the Master System and, I think, to the Mega Drive too, so it could happen.

I'm a bit disappointed not to see Katakis (C64) on the list though.

The original MS Sonic does feature the spin. You can only activate it by holding down when running, rather than being able to do it on the spot, but it's in there. I don't think the in-place spin dash arrived on the MS until the third game.

The GG versions had more colours than the MS editions, but since the screen was smaller, the action was slightly "zoomed in". This made the games a bit more difficult than the Master System versions, as you couldn't always see what was coming, and for a game based around speed, this could be a problem sometimes. So generally, the MS ones play a bit better, and the GG ones look a bit better, but are otherwise pretty much the same.

As I recall, the C64 was pretty good at parallax effects.

Tony, yes the original MD Sonic is indeed a classic, but the MS version, despite being graphically inferior (although not by much) is just a tad better, I think. Give it a try; you might be surprised.

classicmike, in my opinion, MS Sonic 1 is better than MD Sonic 1, but Sonic 2 on the MD is better.

Rapadash6, the MS/GG Sonic games are very different to the MD versions. There are nods to the 16-Bit games with level names and some design elements, but otherwise they're completely different games.

Neher, not exactly. Take a look at my earlier post, above.

The Master System Sonic games were really good, just as strong as the Mega Drive versions in their own way, so I hope we'll be seeing them.

hansolo, the GG versions were slightly different. They had tweaked graphics, as I believe the GG had more colours than the MS, and the screen was more "zoomed in". The side-effect of the latter was that you had less visible playing area, so the games were a touch more difficult as you could not see what was coming as early as you could on the MS.

Keeper, I'd imagine that the cheats don't work, as I can't see how you'd do the joystick and keyboard presses at the same time on the virtual keyboard.

Fierce, it's not a frog, but it looks like one.

Press "T"
Great game, and really impressive to see running without glitches on the humble C64.

Now you know what our December and January were like. Bad week for you guys, but you got some decent Wiiware stuff at least.

Lugia2, since we didn't get Chrono Trigger at all the first time around, I'd say it's fair if we get it first this time.

Mummydaddy, Quazatron was not a sequel, but a remake. They apparently tried to port Paradroid to the Spectrum, but it didn't work out to well, so they redid it in a 3D isometric style, which was an engine that the Spectrum was especially good at handling (hence all those isometric games on the system).

Great game, although I think I'd only give it 4/5. Like Uridium it's idiosyncratic and more than a little odd, but Paradroid refuses to be confined to a genre; it's a little bit shoot-em-up, a little bit puzzle game, and a little bit of an exploration title.

The hacking sub game is both my favourite part of the game, and the bit that still haunts me to this day. It's feverishly difficult, especially when you try to hack some of the higher robots.

Excellent game!

Waxxy, I still like to use wired controllers now and then. But then I'm old, and wireless is still futuristic and strange to my ancient eyes.

But will Tetris cure a cold? WILL IT?

Well, "Rx" is a term for prescription drugs which is used far more widely in the US than it is in Europe, so I'd guess that's the reasoning behind the name change. "Rx" means something to North American audiences, but it would go over most Europeans' heads.

I suspect it was less to do with the magazine poll, and more with the characters' appearances in Smash Bros. After all, didn't the Fire Emblem series finally start to appear in the West after their lead characters' appearances in the previous Smash?

Many congratulations Damo!

To be fair, Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat don't exactly hold up very well nowadays. Should we consider them rubbish too?

Not all NES/MD/SNES/N64 games are worth more than 500pts either.

Tony, Life Force was a spin-off which was released as Gradius II in the US and Salamander elsewhere (including an excellent Commodore 64 port). The spin-off series was designed for those who found the Gradius series too difficult.

v404, the 8-bit era, and the early days of the 16-bit generation, were ruled by shooters and platformers, so expect a lot more!

expa0, you may be familiar with the band Machinae Supremacy, who use a C64 sound chip in their music. The sound capabilities of the machine were well ahead of their time, and quite unique in comparison to other machines of the era. It's probably the only 8-bit machine where the soundtracks are still so fondly remembered (aside from classic theme tunes like Mario and Zelda, of course).

expa0, you'll find that C64 games pretty much always have great music. As DOOM mentions above, the machine had great sound hardware, and in many cases, the games are fondly remembered more for the music than the gameplay.

You're right, there must be regional differences on the DTV. Wikipedia claims IK is on it, but apparently not in Europe.

That Guy from Faxanadu I believe IK is on the DTV under another name... World Karate Champion perhaps?

The controls were never brilliant to start with, but they're a bit wobbly on the d-pad.

As for ninja games, I'd love to see Saboteur, but I'm not sure it's likely!

PlayerOne and Bananiac, I might be wrong, but I think that Last Ninja is the first C64 game on VC that isn't also on the DTV.

thewiirocks I'm not sure about your popularity theory. The C64 was huge in Europe, particularly the UK, Italy and Germany. At least half of the C64 games released so far for the VC were originally released by European publishers, for example.

Looks pretty good. I wonder whether it will be controlled via the pointer, or more traditionally? The ship movement seems a bit wobbly in the trailer, so it might be pointer-based.

To be honest, I don't reckon the graphics matter that much. HD visuals are worthless if the game's naff.

The Nintendo Channel sounds intriguing. It would be nice if they expanded it to include demos of Wii and VC releases instead of just DS.

You'd think that the ease of access to these games would mean that people would be a bit more adventurous with their choices. Apparently not...

Crikey, I can't imagine how tricky the joystick-waggling events will be on a d-pad! I can foresee many busted analogue sticks...

And really, there's very little difference between the Amiga and C64 versions of Nebulus. The gameplay is the same, and the graphics are largely identical, with some sharper sprites and some ugly backgrounds on the Amiga.

Good point, Manicfatty.

Now all we're waiting for is the Snail Game !

No, no, no, Alex Kidd's "finest hour" is Shinobi World. Miracle World is a close second though, and an excellent game in its own right.

Wow, lots of whinging! They announce the mighty Earthworm Jim for release on VC, and you're still complaining!

Great news. On the Jim games at least. The other titles were a bit ropey.

Adamant, except we don't want Tecmo Bowl.

Splash, I wouldn't put my hopes on getting any of the old Ultimate games. Ultimate don't seem too keen on supporting the Virtual Console.

mikevanpwn, the Mega Drive six-button pad came out around the time that the beat-'em-ups were becoming a big deal, with stuff like Street Fighter II coming out on the MD. There was a way to play these games with the standard three-button pad, but it obviously wasn't ideal, so Sega brought out the six-button version. I think it came packaged as standard with the Mega Drive 2, but I'm not sure.

You can see a picture of it here:
http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/detail/genesisb.html
(I think that's the Genesis version; I'm pretty sure that the top line of buttons on the European model had red buttons, or maybe that was the MD2 packaged version.)

Aside from the beat-em-ups, I don't know that many games made use of all six buttons. I think some of the Virtua titles did, but other than that, dunno.

The original Saturn controller is essentially the same piece of kit, just a bit chunkier, and with shoulder buttons.

Tony, yeah, the art is pretty good. Even the Master System original has a pretty good cover, a step up from the basic cartoon-on-grid design of most of the early games.

RCR has pretty good graphics for the NES, I reckon. I know I was pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up, even on a widescreen HD telly.

Yeah, it's not bad.

Tony, I wouldn't mind them doubling up on some games either, but I'm just not sure they will, that's all.