The grey Xs of doom return, almost rendering this week worthless. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/vcArt.cfm?artid=13407 After a few good weeks, the three new games on Virtual Console for this week have taken a turn for the worse. Luckily for you, we've already tested the games on offer for this week. Be sure to read our recommendations if you're considering getting a new release. As you'll soon see, if it wasn't for yet another decent VC SHUMP, today might have been a total waste.
Be sure to check out the new "video preview" link with each game. It'll take you to the official Nintendo Virtual Console page for that particular game, where you can see a small gameplay clip and find more information to help you out in your purchasing decisions.
Mighty Bomb Jack - NES
Released 1987
1 Player
Cost: 500 Wii Points ($5)
Controllers: Wii Remote, Wii Classic, GameCube
Click here for a video preview
Mighty Bomb Jack (MBJ) is just a little too hard to control and lacks depth. The gameplay is basically about avoiding enemies by moving, jumping and floating while moving toward the nearest exit. The jumping controls are unintuitive. A single tap sends Bomb Jack soaring, another tap stops his ascent, and additional taps cause him to float slowly downward. Each level is filled with power-ups and unlit bombs (points). At the end of each level, you'll find a "bomb room" where you have to collect a number of bombs to open the exit while avoiding monsters. You can also perform a rather difficult trick to use the bomb rooms to warp through the game, but there are no other tricks or codes. You have 3 lives and no continues.
To give you a better idea of where MBJ is coming from, if you collect more than 9 Mighty Coins (a useful power-up), you're sent to the "torture room" where you're forced to jump a number of times while avoiding enemies to have your current life spared. If you manage to survive, you go back to the beginning of the level you were on minus the coins. Anyone who fondly recalls this game knows what they're getting into, but in general, I can't recommend MBJ. It's really a poorly conceived action-adventure version of the original arcade Bomb Jack, which only featured the bomb rooms. If you're looking for a unique, Tecmo classic that's really worth playing, try Solomon's Key instead. - David Trammell
Ordyne - TurboGrafx-16
Released 2/1990
1-2 Players
Cost: 600 Wii Points ($6)
Controllers: Wii Remote, Wii Classic, GameCube
Click here for a video preview
Oh gee, look at that. Another shoot-'em-up for the Virtual Console. Ordyne is a horizontal shooter where your Cadillac-shaped fighter does the usual spiel of taking down wave after wave of enemies. Destroying a group will cause a points-pickup to appear, and if you have enough points when coming across a weapons shop, you can fly on in and cash in for some extra firepower. These power-ups only last for a limited time, though, so make the most of them.
The gameplay is sluggish. Unless you get the speed-up ability, the movement speed of your craft doesn't match the speed of enemies. (Even with the ability, it will only last a limited time.) Everything else seems pretty solid though, including the music, so for all you out there that can't get enough of the already crowded shoot-'em-up genre on VC, here's another one you may want to consider adding to your queue. - Steven Rodriguez
Final Fight - SNES
Released 11/10/1991
1 Player
Cost: 800 Wii Points ($8)
Controllers: Wii Classic, GameCube
Click here for a video preview
Final Fight is a weak SNES port of the classic arcade beat-em up. The game has no co-op mode in this iteration, and one of the three characters was cut. Cody is the average character, Haggar is the slow powerful one, and Guy (not present) would have been the fast but weak one. Each character has a number of different moves, including a life-draining special move. There is some depth to the fighting as different moves have different recovery times and damage potential, but it doesn't help much. Boss fights always devolve into jump kick festivals.
Beating the game using your allotted number of lives and continues will take relentless replaying as you master the fine art of getting to level 4 without wasting a continue. Brawlers like this have gone nearly extinct for a reason. And with no co-op to speak of, there's little reason to resurrect this one. - David Trammell
Thanks to VG Museum for this week's screens. They're swell!
Topic: Virtual Console Mondays: (Read 9252 times)
