North American Virtual Console Update (03/31/08)
While Japan didn’t see any releases on its Virutal Console last week, they did receive a boatload of new games for the new WiiWare. What are us dough-boys getting this week? Well, the launch of a new console for future game downloads and, um, well, something truly awful.
Wonder Boy (SMS; 500 points) - The first game made available from Sega’s Master System, Wonder Boy follows in the bizzare, sorted tradition of Wonder Boy/Monster World/Adventure Island/Dragon’s Curse/Dynastic Hero games. While far too complicated to explain within a few sentences, here is the gist: due to some weird licensing agreements, all of the aforementioned games are actually sort of sequels to one another, made by different publishers and developers and often staring different and unrelated characters. So, despite not sharing a namesake, Wonder Boy is incredibly similar to Advenutre Island, a game already available on the VC. If you’ve already downloaded Adventure Island, then Wonder Boy won’t offer you much. However, if your decision is between the two games, pick Wonder Boy. It has better graphics.
Cruis’n USA (N64; 1,000 points) - Well, here is the other end of the stick. Cruis’n USA wasn’t a particularly good game when it came out near the N64’s launch and unforunately, time has not been kind to the game. Don’t bother with it, there are far better wastes of your money.
A hit and a miss. At least now we can look forward to some Master System games in the future.
- Rob O’Reilly
