Wii Virtual Console Reviews
Review Mario Tennis (N64) - The Game That Gave Us Waluigi
Ace
This review originally went live in 2010, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. When Mario Golf was released back in 1999, it was already known that Camelot was working on another Mario sports title for the N64, and following a decent title released for the sadly ill-fated Virtual...
Review Sin And Punishment (N64) - A Genuine Treasure And No Mistake
Run-and-gun fun
This review originally went live in 2007, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Tiny Japanese developer Treasure has a back catalogue packed with classic titles, but one that sticks out more than most is Sin & Punishment. Released in the twilight days of the N64...
Review Mario Kart 64 (N64) - Frantic, Formative Four-Player Karting Chaos
Welcome to Mario Kart
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Taking a bunch of Mario characters and having them speed around race circuits using a range of special items to rush or smash past each other is something that has worked very well since...
Review Yoshi's Story (N64) - Pleasant, But Not A Patch On The Dinosaur's Best
A pretty but short story
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. There's a lot to love about Yoshi's Story. The presentation is gorgeous, the mechanics are solid, the music is fantastic, and seeing a bunch of Yoshis wandering about remains adorable...
Review Star Fox 64 (N64) - A Cinematic Series High Point
Do another barrel roll
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Despite Star Fox 64 (or Lylat Wars in Europe) being only the second (released) game in the series, Nintendo decided it was time for a reboot and so, similarly to the SNES original, this...
Review Super Mario 64 (N64) - The Best Launch Game Ever Made
Mario steps into a whole new dimension
Mario's first foray into the world of 3D is regarded by many — most, even — as one of the greatest video games of all time, and with good reason. It ranks as the first really convincing realisation of a 3D world in a platform game and it introduced the concept of analogue control to a generation of console...
Mini Review Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 (SNES) - 16-Bit Sports With Super Powers
Serious simulation, honest
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! With a name like Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, you mig
Mini Review Spanky's Quest (SNES) - Surprisingly Charming Monkey Business
Bubbles from Natsume
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! In the late 1980s, a simian named Jiro was one of the most popular monkeys in Japan, becoming famous for his 'reflection' pose. He also...
Mini Review Magical Drop II (SNES) - Fun And Colourful Puzzle Action
Grab, toss, and match three
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! Magical Drop is Data East's take on the competitive puzzle game, but with a major twist - instead of fallin
Mini Review Joe & Mac (SNES) - A Comical But Flawed Prehistoric Platformer
No third character called Cheese, amazingly
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! There was a period in the early 1990s when the video game industry was in love with caveman cha
Mini Review Prehistorik Man (SNES) - The Stone-Age Platformer That Time Forgot
You're in real Barney Rubble now
For a brief, shining period, the video game industry seemed to become obsessed with cavemen. We’re not sure why this is – the Flintstones remake can’t have accounted for all of it. Bonk’s Adventure, Caveman Games, BC Racers, Joe & Mac, Bignose the Caveman and more absolutely flooded the market with...
Mini Review Fire 'N Ice (NES) - A Fine Puzzler That's Worthy Of Rediscovery On Switch
I've got the (Solomon's) key, I've got the secret
Sokoban, initially released in 1982 for Japanese home computers, is the first “block-pushing” puzzle game that challenged players to move around boxes to accomplish some kind of goal. Of the numerous similar games it inspired, one of the most popular was Tecmo’s Solomon’s Key, released for...
Mini Review Doomsday Warrior (SNES) - A Street Fighter II Clone That's Doomed From The Start
Welcome to your doom
The Super Famicom port of Street Fighter II was released in June 1992. Telenet’s Doomsday Warrior then hit the market later that year in November. It’s unknown how long it was in development, but based on the final product, one could easily surmise that it was slapped together as quickly as possible to capitalize on the...
Review Psycho Dream (SNES) - The Flawed Yet Fascinating Cult Classic Finally Comes To The West
Import Inception
To best understand Psycho Dream – which has finally come to the west thanks to its addition to the Nintendo Switch Online SNES line-up – you first need to understand Nihon Telenet. It was a prolific company throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, and while its games often had some interesting concepts (and some legitimately...
Review Super Mario All-Stars (SNES) - All That Glitters Isn't Necessarily Gold
Has this star begun to fade?
On its mid-1993 bow, Super Mario All-Stars was greeted with the sort of rapturous praise usually reserved for pontiffs, or a new Daft Punk album. This was a compilation of a generosity never-before-seen goodies, packing in the stone-cold classic NES titles Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3...
Review Pop'n TwinBee (Switch) - Konami's Colourful 16-Bit Shmup Shines With Couple Mode Co-op
Colour me glad
The TwinBee series enjoyed relative success in Japan throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Pop’n Twinbee was the sixth game in the series, and the last proper shoot ‘em up entry before Konami took it in a different direction with things like spin-off platformer Rainbow Bell Adventures. Because it was never released in...
Review Smash Tennis - One Of The Best Sports Games Of The 16-Bit Era
A stroke of genius
There have been plenty of underrated games over the years, but every now and then you get an entire series that hasn’t enjoyed the level of success and attention it deserves. That’s the case with Namco’s Smash Court Tennis franchise, which has consistently served up (ahem) some top-quality arcade-style tennis action, but –...
Review Pilotwings - 16-Bit Flight Simulation, The Nintendo Way
Mode 7 is the wind beneath my Pilotwings
Upon introducing its new Super Famicom console in late 1990 it wasn't just critical for Nintendo to showcase technical advantages over its 16-bit competition, but it was also important to persuade gamers who were clinging on to their 8-bit systems to purchase the new hardware. Considering parents in North...
Review Super Mario World - Phenomenal Platforming Perfection
It's-a Mario masterpiece
Impressive software is vital for a console's launch, and the powerful one-two combination of the Mode 7 razzmatazz in F-Zero and sublime gameplay in Super Mario World ensured that Nintendo's November 1990 Japanese launch of the Super Famicom would sting its Mega Drive and PC Engine competition from the outset. Since then...
Review F-Zero - The Game That Sold Us Mode 7
What a way to launch a console
At their very core, futuristic racing games should have visual flair, and there was already an early history of this sub-genre before F-Zero released – including Nintendo's Mach Rider on NES in 1985, Powerdrome on 16-bit computers, and Atari's arcade S.T.U.N. Runner in 1989. Following these games, late 1990 became an...
Every McCloud has a silver lining
It's hard to believe that sat here in 2017, we're actually getting the chance to review Star Fox 2. The Super FX-powered SNES swan-song has gone down in gaming folklore as a perfect example of Nintendo's ruthless approach to the video game business. When faced with the possibility that it could be compared...
Review Shin Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun: Kunio Tachi no Banka (SNES)
Say that title three times in a row
With the celebrations of all these other anniversaries going about it is easy to forget the adventures of Kunio, which also celebrated thirty years in 2016. Despite being absent from most Western gamer’s memories in the past several years (despite the odd virtual console re-release), the legacy of Technōs most...
Review Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard (SNES)
Out Of This Valken World
The original Front Mission raised the bar very high indeed for what we have come to expect from mecha games on Super Nintendo. Just one year later, Square released a sequel - but don't be fooled, Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard is everything but a traditional follow-up. In fact, it's not even in the same timeline as the...
Review Super Boss Gaiden (SNES)
Bad Day At Sony Headquarters
The retro gaming world came to a halt on Sunday when Chrono Moogle and Dieter von Laser released this game to the unsuspecting Super Nintendo-loving crowd. Understandably only one person in the world will be able to play Super Boss Gaiden on the SNES Playstation prototype, but for the rest of us the
AKA: Xandra, the legendary klutz gummy hero
You might have stumbled upon Namco's love letter to Norse mythology, the Valkyrie series, in the past. Of the few games released, there is one rather noteworthy entry for the arcade named Walküre no Densetsu, a one or two player overhead shmup/platformer hybrid with a lot of impressive scaling effects...
Metroidless Bounty Huntress
Banpresto always boasted a healthy lineup of anime and manga licensed video games. If you had a favourite series, there would be a good chance if there was a video game counterpart made for your video game console of choice, it was probably released by Banpresto. Of course, getting a western release was easier said than...
Review Kaite Tsukutte Asoberu Dezaemon (SNES)
Super shmup construction kit
How would you like to make your own video game? The incredible Super Mario Maker was not the first time a company gave players the tools to produce their own interactive entertainment. In fact, such titles predate the online infrastructure which modern examples of the genre rely on for growth, idea exchange and level...
Review Rendering Ranger: R2 (SNES)
Shoot or Die
Are you familiar with the name Manfred Trenz? How about a company called Rainbow Arts? Perhaps the name Turrican will be more relatable? It all depends on how far back you started playing video games, especially in Europe. All three names warranted attention for Commodore 64 and Amiga owners, since they were synonymous with arcade...
Review Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (SNES)
Never Cling Alone
There are some video games that show up late in a console generation that push boundaries and defy preconceptions on what was considered possible. Resident Evil 4 immediately springs to mind, not only pushing the series to a point Capcom that hasn't been able to match since but also serving as a template to every other game in...
Hell is the impossibility of reason… but it's very pretty
The Super Nintendo (even in Japan) was marketed as a family friendly system, something easily proven by taking a glance at its excellent game library. Despite that, you can find yourself a few horror gems targeted at a more mature audience that naturally never made it out of Japan. KSS...
