Okay, so what the hell happened to the Virtual Console? It seems like just last year it was churning out retro games left and right, and once 2008 hit, bam. Two games in one week, and sometimes one of them is Riot Zone. Then last Monday we get the sick joke of releasing only one game, and it's 1080 Snowboarding. I mean, seriously. 1080 is good, or should I say, it was good when I played it in 1998; nostalgia factor and a dearth of alternatives are not enough to make me re-purchase a snowboarding game.

I could whine a lot about what Nintendo thinks they're doing. Perhaps they're not aware that Super Smash Bros. Brawl was delayed, or rather, that they delayed it. This leaves third parties to pick up the slack, and miraculously this week saw the release of No More Heroes and Endless Ocean, perhaps the black and white, the Republican and Democrat, the um...the Tarkovsky and Bresson of videogames. What I'm trying to say is they're opposites. And what I'm really trying to say is that this is the third party onslaught. It happened. Whoosh, where'd it go? Now what, Nintendo?

Go to various internet forums (including our own, holla!) and you'll find a pretty substantial list of old games, and those are just the ones that we can remember from our ancient childhoods. Who knows what Nintendo is hiding in their vaults, especially now that they're willing to translate stuff that never reached our shores (except Mother 3).

Anyways. Here are the Virtual Console Recommendations for the last three weeks. Enjoy.

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A crime syndicate has taken hold of a city, but even worse, they've kidnapped your girlfriend. Riot Zone hearkens back to the glory days of side-scrolling action brawlers with two characters to play as, an attack button, a jump button, and a special move that can nail enemies but costs you a huge chuck of precious health at the same time. Each stage has a time limit (which is a negligible concern), enemies have simple A.I., and health-replenishing items are few and far between. However, the game is immensely beatable thanks to a select difficulty option and up to five continues.

Riot Zone is a rather plain example of its genre, which is why it's difficult to recommend. It lacks a lot of features that other side-scrolling games benefit from, like a two-player mode or destructible environments. There are only six different varieties of enemies, and they only have two or three different names, so you'll be fighting a "Fast Eddy" five times in one level. The game isn't horrible, but it has no spice or uniqueness. Only the most accepting, or die-hard, of game collectors will appreciate having this in their collection.

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Pac-Attack is Tetris meets Pac-Man, which seems like a terrible combination, and in practice is not that bad. You manipulate falling pieces that are comprised of blocks, ghosts, and Pac-Men, with the hopes of clearing lines just like in Tetris. The problem is that Ghosts don't help you clear lines - only Pac-Man can destroy them.

My first complaint with Pac-Attack is that it doesn't feature Tetris gravity; once a piece is placed, everything falls directly to the ground. Though this is not a bad design choice, when combined with the Ghosts and Pac-Men that must be maneuvered, playing the game is hard and the learning curve is steep. I consider myself to be very good at Tetris, and I have a rough time getting past level 20 of Pac-Attack. Nonetheless, the combination is inspired, and for puzzle game fans (those who bought Columns for eight dollars) this game is just as worthy.

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Do you love Adventures of Lolo, a previously-released and much lauded NES puzzle game? If so, you'll probably enjoy its sequel, which is exactly the same as the original. Aside from some minor tweaks to enemy design, Lolo 2's only real differences include a new tile set for the last few stages, a boss fight at the bitter end, and four secret "pro" levels accessible via passwords (now all over the Interweb). The basic gameplay revolves around shoving blocks around, collecting hearts, and avoiding enemies in a decidedly puzzle-esque fashion. Lolo 2 is significantly more difficult than its predecessor, and so I would recommend the original over this sequel to a general audience. If you crave more of the same, though, go for Lolo 2. The most interesting sidenote about this game is that some of the puzzles are taken directly from the Lolo's ancestor, the mainly MSX-exclusive Eggerland series.

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We all knew Capcom was going to pull this stunt the moment Street Fighter II came out. After milking the first two versions of the game to see who would bite, it's finally made good and released Super Street Fighter II, the last in the line of SFII games to see a release on the SNES. It's got a boatload of new features, including four new characters (making 16 total), tournament and group modes for playing

with multiple people, and additional single-player modes to test your might against the computer. You could say that it's the ultimate Street Fighter II experience.

And it is ... almost. I personally feel that the fighting action in Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting is slightly better. It's more straightforward and down-to-earth. I think Super Street Fighter II began the road to the complexity that is prevalent in modern fighting games. They're still fun, of course, but a simple, straight-out slugfest is good to have, too. So while you lose a little bit in SSFII, the extra modes and new characters more than make up for it. But don't feel screwed if you bought Hyper Fighting, since it's just as good of a fighting game.

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1080 Snowboarding was, at the time of its release, the best snowboarding game on the planet. It may no longer be as cutting edge as it used to be, but the tight gameplay hasn't aged a bit. Just as Wave Race 64 took jet-ski racing to another level of realism, 1080 is a snowboarding game with realistic physics and sensitive, unforgiving control. While this can be frustrating at first for gamers accustomed to landing every jump, it ultimately leads to a deep, nuanced experience that is different in every run down the mountain. The sense of total control that 1080 gives you remains unequalled by any other snowboarding game. Originally released at a time before SSX made tricks an essential part of all snowboarding games, 1080 is more of a downhill racer with a primitive-but-decent stunt mode tacked on. The courses, though few in number, are perfectly designed. They give the gamer constant variations and decisions to make, with risk/reward shortcuts and surfaces ranging from ice to waist-deep powder.

As with some other N64 VC releases, the analog thumb stick on the classic controller is a little too sensitive. If you have a WaveBird, this is a good game to use it on. Regardless, 1080 Snowboarding is worth every precious block of system memory it takes up.

Thanks to VG Museum for the classic screenshots.