I hope everyone had a happy and delicious Thanksgiving holiday. We sure did, which is why we fell a bit behind with our Virtual Console recommendations. Oh, and I guess a little game called Super Mario Galaxy had something to do with it, too. Also, our dog ate our homework.

Enough with the excuses. We've got nine whole games to recommend, so let's get straight to it. Normal VC Mondays recommendations should get back to their normal schedule next week.

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Volleyball was Nintendo's attempt to emulate the sport of the same name on the NES. You can select to play on the men's or women's squad of eight different countries, including volleyball powerhouses CUB, URS, and TUN. Like real volleyball, the tricky part is getting the set-spike timing down so you can crush the ball down onto the opponent's side for a point. This is kind of hard to do, especially since you are in control of a seemingly random number of players your team. Sometimes, you'll move three players. Sometimes, just one. It's not that hard to get someone over to the ball (it casts a shadow), but it's impossible to direct the ball to the point where you want it to go.

Long story short, Volleyball is terrible. No, not the sport (I like playing it, actually), but the NES video game that costs 500 Wii Points. It's very boring to play, the music will get on your nerves, and the players look like they are humping air when standing around. (It looks even worse if two players are standing next to each other.) The only redeeming quality about this game is that it reminded me of Beach Spikers, a wonderful GameCube volleyball game from Sega. If you look around, you might be able to find it for not much more than the VC equivalent. I'd recommend that game without batting an eyelash. But NES Volleyball? Nope.

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Axelay is a classic Konami shooter released in the early days of the SNES that mixes horizontally- and vertically-scrolling levels with

extensive Mode 7 effects. A showpiece of the SNES' graphic capabilities at the time of its release, its top-scrolling levels use hardware

scaling to give enemies the appearance of approaching from the horizon. Side-scrolling levels are more graphically straightforward, but still

sport great backgrounds and cool enemy designs. Bosses are huge and very impressive for a 16-bit game, and while there is obvious

slowdown in more hectic areas, Axelay remains one of the prettiest SNES shooters available. Its sound effects and music are also top-

notch, featuring excellent digitized speech and a soundtrack that meshes perfectly with the game's consistently fast pace.

Axelay's primary weakness lies in its

weapon selection. Only one of your three weapon types is truly useful, and once you take a hit you lose the use of that weapon until you

die. That typically comes quickly, since your other two weapons are much more difficult to use effectively. This makes Axelay quite difficult,

and while there's an easy setting, you'll need to learn each level inside and out to make any headway on normal or hard. This steep

learning curve may turn off more casual gamers, but for hardcore fans of the genre, Axelay is a must-have piece of shooter nostalgia. -

Jonathan Lindemann

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Before you go and download this game, you should know that you can’t play it (or other Neo-Geo titles, I imagine) if you’re using component cables. You’ll have to switch out to composite, which is a chore. But is this game, an arcade game that borders on the archaeological, worth the trouble? Not really. The overall gimmick is kind of cool—stun enemies, then throw their corpses at other enemies. The graphics are nice and colorful. There are lots of enemy types, item shops, alternate paths, and plenty of interesting power-ups. On the other hand, it only takes two hits to die, and you only have two lives. Enemy movements tend to be sporadic, and jumping toward moving platforms is an unnecessarily

tense affair.

The game is a little better with two players, though, so Blue’s Journey has the makings of a fun game to run through with a friend; solo play, however, tends to be a chore (like most arcade quarter-munchers). Those who like arcade games and have fond memories of Blue’s Journey might want to give it a try, but there are better VC games out there for the rest of us. Furthermore, Nintendo really needs to fix the component/composite problem. It’s unreasonable to force players to switch to a different set of video cables in order to play a Neo-Geo game.

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Wrecking Crew is another one of the launch titles for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It features Mario and Luigi, who trade in their ball caps for hard hats and use a large hammer to break down walls. These walls are scattered throughout vertically-scrolling stages similar to those seen in Ice Climber, complete with wrap-arounds on either side of each level. Stages in Wrecking Crew are completed when all of the walls and/or breakable ladders in the stage have been destroyed. This isn't as easy as it sounds. A few different elements could possibly keep Mario from finishing the stages. Firstly, there are two different enemies that will kill Mario on contact: wrench-like guys who climb ladders and follow Mario at a slow pace, and eggplant-shaped men who move much quicker along a predictable path. The stages themselves are also designed in such a way that breaking things in the wrong order or falling from the wrong ledge renders them unsolvable. Spike, whom some have theorized is the precursor of Wario, appears in some stages. He does not affect Mario directly, but will randomly break walls. At first glance this may seem helpful, but due to the puzzle-like design of the stages it is usually

more of a hindrance.

Overall, Wrecking Crew is one of the best games of the original NES crop. While it doesn't feature any cooperative gameplay like Ice Climber or Balloon Fight, the puzzle-like feel of the stages makes the core game design significantly more sophisticated and interesting. There are 100 different levels built into the game, with a level designer thrown in for added lastability. Wrecking Crew is one of the best ways to spend $5 on the Virtual Console.

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Sonic's in 3D, dude! Sonic 3D Blast features an isometric view of a world where Sonic must run around in open areas to save bird-like creatures known as Flickies, which of course have been turned into robots by Dr. Robotnik. Like previous games, Sonic can spin dash through loops and find power-ups enclosed inside television monitors, but now he can also bounce off walls in his ball form to speed to new locations. If you collect enough rings and find Tails or Knuckles, you can enter a bonus game to try to win a Chaos Emerald. These levels features quasi-Mode 7 horizon effects, where Sonic must run forward and avoid barriers to collect more rings.

Sonic 3D Blast just isn't fun. The camera view is restrictive, the controls are unresponsive and slippery, and the level design is confusing. Sonic's first foray into the third dimension should have been an early warning sign that Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay simply does not work in 3D. Just look at the modern console Sonic titles (excepting Sonic Adventure, perhaps). A game like this one makes me long for the days of classic run 'n jump Sonic. Luckily, you can get the original Sonic games on Virtual Console, which are far better. Plus, Super Smash Bros. Brawl isn't too far off...

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Instead of spaceships, Hudson gives you a big-headed cyber kid flying sideways across your screen. Instead of futuristic synthesized beats, you get delightfully different rockabilly music. Instead of monstrous aliens, you’re graced with colorful and wacky character art. Super Air Zonk is a breath of fresh air, and you’ll know what I mean when you save a fish from a rampaging chef, and are then granted the power to fire loads of sushi instead of bullets.

I normally completely suck at side-scrolling shooters, but I had almost no problems getting to Super Air Zonk’s fifth stage on normal difficulty without having to continue. It’s a far cry from the bullet-hell shooter experience, and in fact dispenses with some conventions of the genre. You won’t get hurt by bumping into walls, and when you lose a life you don’t blow up but merely have a life subtracted from your life counter. This lets you keep on playing as if nothing has happened.

All this makes Super Air Zonk a great purchase for players like me who love shooters but can’t get past the first level in R-Type. It’s just too bad that experienced players will find the game too easy, too short, and ultimately, nothing to write home about.

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I hope I'm spelling everything correctly right now; I can't see my keyboard through this thick fog of nostalgia. Double Dribble, originally released for the NES in 1987, is one of the most beloved sports games in the NES catalog. It features 5-on-5 basketball action, cut-scenes showing stop-motion slam dunks that would make Dominique Wilkins blush, and a whole lot of the quirky personality that only comes from Japanese developers recreating what was, at the time, an American sport. Back in the day, gamers fawned over the beautiful dunk scenes and realistic gameplay. Now it feels more like a bunch of discombobulated first graders running around making every shot they toss up. That's not to say it's not still fun, because it is, especially with a second player to face off against. There's even some mild strategy involved in avoiding the sporadic defense, but in the end it reminds you how much sports games have evolved since the eighties.

The graphics are simple, the sound is sparse, and there are only four available teams. It definitely hasn't aged as well as Tecmo Bowl, which was released the same year. But for fans of the era, there's more than enough charm to warrant a purchase. When you commit a back court violation, the game calls it a "back pass." Come on, isn't that cute? I guess you had to be there.

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Vegas, baby. Even Nintendo couldn't resist making a gambling simulator, so it commissioned HAL to make Vegas Stakes for the SNES. This package includes five games: blackjack, slots, 7-card stud poker, roulette, and craps. As you win more money you can go to different casinos on the strip with higher wagering limits, with the ultimate goal of becoming a millionaire. While you gamble your money away, random people will ask you for favors or to buy some expensive item from them with the promise that you can sell it back later for more cash. These mini-interludes are high-stakes events in themselves, because sometimes they'll pay big ("thanks for taking me to the hospital, here's $6000!") and sometimes they'll cost you a lot

("that guy took my wallet and I lost half my money!").

Vegas Stakes is a good game. It's better than your average gambling simulator, with good animations and catchy music. The random events you have with strangers are also interesting, although you have no control over their outcome. However, I've never really understood the point of gambling games like this. You can spend a half-hour on the slots, pulling the handle over and over and over again trying to win it big, but when it's all said and done, the only thing you've done is made some fake money. In fact, I think this game is a little dangerous. You could want to be as aggressive in real-life Las Vegas as you normally would be in virtual Las Vegas. The stakes change a lot when there's real money on the line, and although Vegas Stakes makes a good time-killer, there are better Virtual Console games to bet on.

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Ecco Jr., as the name suggests, is targeted towards young gamers. Each stage gives you a simple task to complete, usually a fetch quest of some kind. You navigate Ecco Jr. and his two other cetacean friends through various seascapes, using your sonar to locate whatever it is you’re supposed to find in that stage. Ecco Jr. never gets hurt or killed, and he never has to restart a level. The game’s simplistic passwords are made unnecessary by the Virtual Console’s save system, and the entire game can be completed in less than two hours.

There are some cool features, like breaching to get over a rock poking out of the water, and the fact that exploration is encouraged over avoiding enemies is a nice break from previous Ecco games. However, Ecco Jr. is certainly not worth $8, and will bore any serious gamer to tears within a half hour. It’s a good game to play with your (very young) kids, but otherwise there’s no good reason to download it.

Thanks to VG Museum for the classic screenshots.