Game Stooge

Today’s Virtual Console Titles: May 21

• Scribbled on May 21st, 2007 by Devin Grimes
• Filed in Action, New Release(s), Nintendo Wii, Platformer, Press Release, Retro, Virtual Console

Summer is nearly upon us, and with the Halo 3 Beta currently sucking up the majority of our gaming time, and little else on the retail horizon, we’re once again turned to old, but faithful classics via the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console.

Today’s releases on the downloadable front include:

• Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy’s Kong Quest (SNES) - 800 Wii Points
• Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis) - 800 Wii Points
• Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx16) - 600 Wii Points

Donkey Kong Country 2 is more of the same ape-platforming adventure that we were treated to a few months back with the original Donkey Kong Country on the Virtual Console, this time centering specifically on the imprisoned Donkey Kong’s sidekick, Diddy, who’s tasked with saving the titular character.

Ah, who cares about the story, though? The game is pure platforming genius at its best. It may not be as memorable and groundbreaking as the original, but it took an already proven formula and helped perfect it.

Growing up as “the Genesis kid,” I may not have been as exposed to the great gaming classics now synonymous with the name “Nintendo,” but there were a hell of a lot of great games that did what Nintendon’t better than the others. Seeing Streets of Rage on the Virtual Console is definitely pleasing, although 3 would have been even better.

WII-KLY UPDATE: THREE NEW CLASSIC GAMES ANNOUNCED FOR WII SHOP CHANNEL

May 21, 2007

The elves mining Nintendo’s vaults for classic games have unearthed three new ones to add to the Wii Shop Channel. They feature ragers, lasers and, um, monkeys not in cages. Anyway, it’s unlikely that you’ve played all three of these, so go ahead and check ‘em out. Or the elves will cry.

The three new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the channel every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

Donkey Kong Country 2™: Diddy’s Kong Quest™ (SNES®, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): In the sequel to the immensely popular Donkey Kong Country™, Diddy Kong® gets the spotlight, along with his girlfriend, Dixie Kong™ - a great little monkey with a dangerous ponytail. The action starts on the wreck of King K. Rool’s Gangplank Galleon that has apparently broken up on a reef offshore from the Kremlings’ Island. Diddy and his friends will have to work together to rescue Donkey Kong®, exploring all the hidden areas of the Kremlings’ island: a spooky haunted forest, treacherous swamps, a giant beehive oozing with sticky honey and lava-filled caves, just to name a few.

Streets of Rage™ 2 (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): To celebrate their defeat of the Syndicate exactly one year before, Blaze, Adam and Axel met for drinks. The next morning, Axel received a frantic phone call from Eddie “Skate” Hunter, Adam’s younger brother, whom he was living with on the edge of the city. Blaze and Axel found Adam and Skate’s house wrecked, and a picture showing Adam chained up at the feet of Mr. X. The city then once again returned to its nightmarish state as criminals ran rampant. Unable to contact their old friend in artillery, Axel and Blaze team up with Skate and Max Thunder to free the city and rescue Adam from the Syndicate. It is up to you to take down Mr. X once and for all.

Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): Blazing Lazers is a vertical-scrolling shooter that was praised for surpassing the limitations of the hardware of its time. Players control the extraordinary firepower of their Gunhed Star Fighter to take on the Dark Squadron that has begun its invasion of Earth. Collect power-ups to increase your ship’s battle strength so it can cut through enemies and defeat the bosses in all nine areas. Of course, as part of the “Soldier” series, the game contains a good combination of fast-paced speed with catchy, drum-propelled background music, coupled with the Field Thunder that can be used to destroy enemies in one fell swoop for the ultimate sense of satisfaction. With its fine-tuned difficulty levels, Blazing Lazers is a shooting game that anyone can enjoy.