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Virtual Console Mondays: April 16, 2007

by Steven Rodriguez - April 16, 2007, 9:11 pm
Total comments: 16

This week's VC theme: Hitting things really hard.

It looks like Nintendo is happy with releasing three games a week now. It's previously said that anywhere between two and five games could be coming with each update, but recently it looks as if three is the magic number.

If you look hard enough, each Monday also brings with it a theme of some sort. Last week, it was animals. This week, it's all about hitting stuff. One is about hitting stuff with your head, one is about punching people out, and the third is a straight-up fighter. Which one should you hit up? Here are the recommendations you seek.



Virtua Fighter 2

SystemVirtual Console - Genesis

Cost800 Points
Players2
ControllersWii Remote,Wii Nunchuk,GameCube
ESRB Rating
ReleasedYear 1996

Virtua Fighter is Sega's long-running fighting series, and the first up on Virtual Console is edition two. Originally released in the arcades, the Genesis version made some sacrifices for it to work on a 16-bit home console. Critically, VF's trademark 3D gameplay had to be dumped, meaning all the beauty and finess that is an open arena arcade fighter got turned into a button-mashing bore-fest. There's really no strategy involved during gameplay here. Even against a human opponent, it's a matter of who can hit randomly hit who more before the quick round timer expires. Even for fighting game fans, that's too great an insult.

Oh yeah, and there's the little matter of price. 800 points? There are better games out this week you can get for less than that. A VC release like Virtua Fighter 2 kind of makes you wonder why certain 16-bit games aren't less than $8, because many of them are clearly rip-offs like this one. If you're really desperate for a VC fighting game, stick with Street Fighter II for now.

Not Recommended

- Steven Rodriguez



Punch Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream

SystemVirtual Console - Nintendo Entertainment System

Cost500 Points
Players1
ControllersWii Remote,Wii Nunchuk,GameCube
ESRB RatingEveryone
ReleasedAug 1990

Punch-Out!! is one of the great NES games. As scrawny-but-courageous Little Mac, you must work your way up through the boxing ranks, taking on opponents such as Piston Honda, Bald Bull and King Hippo. When you block and dodge enough incoming attacks, you can use the bone-crushing uppercut punch to down an opponent rather easily. If you win enough fights, you'll get a title shot at the one and only Mr. Dream. Despite it being an NES game, it portrays the sport of boxing fairly accurately. It also has a bit of the squared circle drama, too: Your trainer can instantly pep you up for a round with a encouraging speech!*

It's an NES title that's totally worth the five dollar asking price, and for good reason. It's fun to punch people out! However, there may be people out there that will complain that this isn't the original NES game, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! Well, we're never going to see that version re-released ever again. Besides, the only difference between the Tyson version and the Mr. Dream version is that you fight against a different sprite in the last match. Either way, the game gets super-hard. You've got to battle if you want to be a champion, though!

*Hit the Select Button between rounds. Or is it the Minus Button now?

Recommended for Everyone

- Steven Rodriguez



Bonk's Revenge

SystemVirtual Console - TurboGrafx-16

Cost600 Points
Players1
ControllersWii Remote,Wii Nunchuk,GameCube
ESRB RatingEveryone
ReleasedYear 1991

Bonk's back in this head-bashing sequel. Much like the first game, Bonk's Adventure, Bonk the Caveman must run through colorful levels and crush anything in his way using only his noggin. If you can grab enough meat in a stage, the happy-go-lucky Bonk transforms into something not to be messed with. New abilities like triangle jumping and tree-climbing make the platforming parts of the game a lot more engaging than the original, and the hidden bonus stages will want to make you explore everywhere you can.

If you liked the first—and chances are good you liked the first—you'll like Bonk's Revenge more than that. It seems as if there's a clever or novel section in every level, and it's fun to run through it as fast as you can. There are three difficulty settings to choose from, but if you want to get through all the levels you'll need to pick the Expert difficulty from the start. The game is a good challenge, and at only $6, it's not too shabby of a deal, either.

Recommended for Everyone

- Steven Rodriguez


Talkback

MesuApril 16, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: NewsBot virtua fighter 2 not recommended


Your review is most likely good advice for most people only curious about virtua fighter 2 for genesis, but I'm going to go ahead and buy this game anyways when I get a wii.

I know that this game is flawed from when I rented it on genesis but I can't seem to pass up any virtua fighter game. One thing I didn't like about your review though is the lack of objective information about the game itself.

Without objective information it only comes down to: "how much do I trust you"? But it shouldn't really matter if I trust or not(except in extreme cases) since no two people have the same tastes.

I know that there only the original 8 fighters from VF1 in this game from when I played it but I wanted to know if all the moves from VF2 made it in and if they have the same properties(I only played it for a few hours with a sluggish genesis controller).

Also:

Quote

Even against a human opponent, it's a matter of who can hit randomly hit who more before the quick round timer expires


can you turn off the timer like in every other virtua fighter or is it fixed(It's been so long since I played but I think you can turn it off)?

and:

Quote

Even for fighting game fans, that's too great an insult


What was the point of saying that?

Anyways thanks for attempting to examine every virtual console that gets released. I think this could be useful some day to me in narrowing down the risk of buying games I never played before to an extent.

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusApril 16, 2007

Keep in mind that the length of the reviews and the need to get them up on the same day keeps them from being in-depth. That's why they are judged on a different system from the usual 10 point scale.

Ian SaneApril 17, 2007

Two out of three recommended is pretty good!

Aside from trying to trick people into buying junk I see no reason to have ever re-released Virtua Fighter 2 on the Genesis. That's like re-releasing the Gameboy and Game Gear "ports" of Mortal Kombat. At the time the only people dumb enough to buy those games were people who lacked the hardware to play a "real" version of the game. Why stop here? Let's re-release all those Tiger Electronics "ports" of popular games while we're at it. And the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man.

It bothers me enough that the NES ports of games like Galaga, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong are being released instead of the arcade versions but this is just Sega trying to con us.

KDR_11kApril 17, 2007

Sega threw VF2 onto the Mega Drive Collection for the PS2, I guess they figured they can throw all of those games on the VC as well.

I've NEVER played Punch-Out! before.

Thank you Nintendo.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

MesuApril 17, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: Ian Sane

Aside from trying to trick people into buying junk I see no reason to have ever re-released Virtua Fighter 2 on the Genesis. That's like re-releasing the Gameboy and Game
Gear "ports" of Mortal Kombat.


Not really a good comparision, virtua fighter 2 was always a 3 button game even in the arcades and the genesis has 3 buttons. While mortal kombat is a 5 button game which was way too much for the gameboy or gamegear.

The game is different from other VFs since it uses sprites instead of polygons. Sprites and polygon both have advantages, although in genesis VF2 it needs much more frames of animation than it had to feel as fluid as the 3d games(probably a system limitation that they thought they could get around during the planning stages of this game).

It is also possible that the most of the core game is still there(I will test this extensively after I download it). I'm fairly sure the high/mid/low attack system was there but my memory might be off.

I do think that virtual console games are overpriced but most people in my area don't seem to care since wii points cards sell out almost as fast as they get here.

DjunknownApril 17, 2007

Quote

I've NEVER played Punch-Out! before.


Be prepared for some cheap fights frustration with this one. I recommend Punch-Out in small doses once you get done with the minor circuit. 'Nuff said.

UltimatePartyBearApril 18, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: Djunknown
Quote

I've NEVER played Punch-Out! before.


Be prepared for some cheap fights frustration with this one. I recommend Punch-Out in small doses once you get done with the minor circuit. 'Nuff said.


It's mostly a matter of exploiting a specific weakness in each boxer or figuring out how to avoid/counter their signature moves. Piston Honda is pretty much the only character in the game you can box normally. That doesn't stop it from being one of my favorite NES games, though. I still get the music stuck in my head regularly, too.

CericApril 18, 2007

I'm glad my old skills for the game aren't totally degraded. I got all the way to Soda Popinsky with no real problem after not playing it for at least 10 if not more years.

GoldenPhoenixApril 18, 2007

I never found Punch-Out that hard, except for Tyson always beating me up (I think I beat him once).

Ian SaneApril 18, 2007

"Not really a good comparision, virtua fighter 2 was always a 3 button game even in the arcades and the genesis has 3 buttons. While mortal kombat is a 5 button game which was way too much for the gameboy or gamegear."

My point was that it was a port put on hardware that was obviously WAY too underpowered to handle it. Thus the purpose to just to make a quick buck and not provide a quality home version of the arcade game. It has nothing to do with the controls. It's like Double Dragon for the Atari.

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorApril 18, 2007

Punch out is too hard. It totally shouldn't be recommended for everyone.

::rollseyes::

vuduApril 18, 2007

Don't worry Pale; I still plan to buy Kid Icarus one of these days.

that Baby guyApril 18, 2007

I bought Kid Icarus. I haven't beaten it yet, but it's way better than the original Metroid, by a long shot, IMO.

Smoke39April 18, 2007

No way. Metroid is unrefined, but it's a lot more interesting than boring ol' Kid Icarus.

MesuApril 18, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: Ian Sane
My point was that it was a port put on hardware that was obviously WAY too underpowered to handle it. Thus the purpose to just to make a quick buck and not provide a quality home version of the arcade game. It has nothing to do with the controls. It's like Double Dragon for the Atari.


I don't think it was that obvious.

Tony Hawk 2 for GBA is very fun and it's played on a system that's a whole console generation weaker than its original just like genesis VF2.

Also even though I haven't played it, Monkey Ball Jr is TWO console generations removed from Super Monkey Ball and the main complaints people tend to say about the game are:

* the d-pad isn't a great analog replacement

* the length(actually I haven't heard anyone say anything about this I just saw the ammount of levels advertised was much lower)

* and issues they had with monkey ball in general(this shows the characteristics of monkey ball games were probably captured).

super monkey ball and tony hawk 2 are both reflex based games with decent animation. It's possible that sega did only want make a quick buck and nothing else but I won't know that till I play it a whole bunch more.

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