The 3DS eShop launched this week, and with it the first round of handheld Virtual Console titles. What we got ranged from high profile Nintendo franchise titles to obscure and forgotten games. We here at Nintendo World Report have played all of them, and are here to offer you our opinions of which ones are worth your time and money in this bumper launch edition of recommendations. 

Super Mario Land kicks off the week, with J.P. finding the game a little on the short side, but ending with high difficulty. The unique formula for a Mario title makes it something that fans must see for comparison's sake at least. He also takes a look at Radar Mission for us, finding it to be a surprisingly good title that he missed the first time around.

Zach Miller finds that Alleyway is not worth his time, instead suggesting that you wait for a better version of Breakout/Arkanoid. 

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX adds a splash of color to the otherwise monochrome view. While it's a little more costly than the other titles, Andrew thinks the value is there due to the fun, charm, and game length.

Finally, Nick goes to the trials of basic tennis against a CPU player. He is happy with the controls overall, but there is some learning curve before you'll be consistently volleying with your opponent.

Super Mario Land is like no other Mario game you've played. Developed by Gunpei Yokoi's team instead of by Miyamoto, everything about this game is a little bit different from what we've come to expect from the series. The game features enemies never seen before or since, power-ups that function differently, and segments that abandon platforming altogether and turn the game into a side-scrolling shooter. In addition, the physics are different, not hugely, but just enough to feel off.

The game is also very short. Each world is only three levels long, as opposed to the four in the original Super Mario Bros., and there are only four of them. That's just twelve levels, so even with the high level of difficulty later in the game, you could blow through this in a few hours. Still, this is a game every Mario fan needs to play, just to see a very different take on the traditional formula.

Alleyway is basically Breakout or maybe Arkanoid, but it's not nearly as good as even those shallow block-busting games. The best version of this "puzzle" game is, of course, Kirby's Block Ball, but we're a long way from that. This is the Ardipithecus ramidus of Kirby's Block Ball, and even that might be giving it too much credit. In Alleyway, you bounce a very small ball with a paddle around a block-filled area at the top of the screen. You get points for breaking blocks, of course, and you lose a life every time you miss the paddle.

The unfortunate facts are that most of the stages are exactly the same, and appear to made from the same material as the Game Boy version of Tetris. The ball itself is also hilariously difficult to angle, far too often it will simply rebound off the paddle at exactly same (or directly opposite the) angle that it hit the paddle at, causing an endless feedback loop that drives you insane and makes it impossible to hit that ONE LAST BLOCK left. Alleyway is frustrating and should be avoided. Just wait until Kirby's Block Ball comes out, you know it will.

If you've played the classic board game Battleship, you know the basic idea behind this game. Radar Mission adds some interesting new mechanics to the formula, including some that would only work in a video game. The first match starts off just like the board game, with you and the computer deploying a fleet of five ships and trying to hunt each other down. After that, though, the game places you in more challenging scenarios where the computer opponent has more ships than you. After a certain number of turns, a carrier will launch an aircraft that will fly around it, and must be shot down to win the battle. There will also be instances where the player (or the computer) can fire a volley of five shots, arrayed in an X pattern.  

The AI in the game is very tough, and losing a battle sends you right back to the beginning, so the save state offered by the 3DS Virtual Console is very beneficial to this game. Radar Mission takes a very simple and familiar premise, and expands upon it in interesting ways. This is the kind of game that Virtual Console was made for: something less known that would have been sadly forgotten if not for the service.

A special edition port of the original Link's Awakening for the Game Boy, this souped-up version contained a full (albeit limited) color palette, an added photographer character who would snap up a collection of amusing pictures of Link for his gallery, and a super-secret additional dungeon with an extra special, colorful prize for completing it.

Everything you could expect from a top-down 2D Zelda game is present here, with the dungeon labyrinths full of traps, overworld exploration, a variety of unique items, a cast of memorable characters and a lot of foliage-chopping to collect the ever-important rupees. Controls are simple, allowing you to customize which button does what, including use of Link's sword and shield. The game is a little on the easy side, but some of the puzzles and enemies do require a bit of thought and some precise timing, and overall it's a satisfyingly long game with a truckload of secrets to discover.

The graphics, while retro, are cheerful and clean, showing just what they need to do without going overboard, and the 8-bit music is nostalgic and beautiful. With a surprisingly thoughtful storyline and a bittersweet ending, it's not hard to see why this one is an old favorite. Some might find the price a little steep, but the length, fun and charm of this title more than make up for it, and the Game Boy Color release is the better of the two versions of this game.

The Game Boy version of Tennis is quite a simple game, with four different difficulties to select from. There is not a whole lot of content to get through, although it seems to be quite tough.  

You play the game by using the A and B buttons in conjunction with the D-pad. If your character is between the net and the service line, your shots will lob. If you hit the ball while its above your head, your shot will change to a smash, while staying behind the service line will give you a simple stroke shot. It is also possible to use the left and right D-pad directions to aim the ball to different parts of the court, as well as using the up and down to increase the distance the ball will move. The different difficulty levels simply makes the character and ball movements faster, and the CPU smarter.  

The game is initially quite challenging, but you steadily adjust to it. The game controls fairly well over all, but tennis games have advanced quite a bit in the last 20 years. If you are after a short pick-up-and-play tennis game, then this will probably be serviceable. However, if you grew up on Mario Tennis, you might be disappointed.

Thanks to VG Museum for this week's Tennis screenshots.