What’s Missing on the Virtual Console?

I have a love-hate thing with the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console.
I love it on principle, but hate it in practice. It’s over-priced, unpolished and lacks the right games.

Super Mariokart

Why didn’t Nintendo release Super Mariokart on the V.C. alongside Mariokart Wii for a double-whammy of handling goodness? I saw a SNES + Mariokart bundle at a local game shop going for £45. The demand is immense.

Sonic The Hedgehog (Master System)

(Update: This is now on the U.K. Virtual Console)

Already released in America, but held up here in Europe. This is not the same as Sonic The Hedgehog on the Mega Drive. What the 8-Bit Master System couldn’t do with graphics, it made up with gameplay. The levels are creative and well designed, adding clever additions like the auto-scrolling Bridge level and my personal favourite the vertical waterfall level that (a bit like Super Mario Bros. on the NES) would not allow you to go back; which when climbing a waterfall meant that if you missed a jump, you died – there was no retracing your steps. The Game Gear version of the game however left this facet out as the screen was too small to do the tricky jumping sections.

The only letdown with the game is the lacklustre bosses. The 8-Bit system was just unable to fill the screen in the same way the 16-Bit Mega Drive could.

The strength and longevity of the 8-Bit systems even meant that it remained commercially viable for some time to release new games on the older Master System as Sonic The Hedgehog was followed up by a number of Master System-specific games that did their own thing, rather than trying to imitate the Mega Drive releases; most notably Sonic 2 and Sonic Chaos. (Both of which of course should be on V.C.)

Pokémon

What are you afraid of Nintendo? That somehow V.C. sales will prevent people from purchasing DSes?

Love or hate Pokémon, the original games ( Pokémon Blue / Red) stand alone as superb R.P.G.s in their own right, before all the Pokémon craze took off. If anything, the over hype / marketing / craze of Pokémon that followed soured the image of the games in some people’s minds.

Much like how Tomb Raider lost the plot when the marketing-men ran with the idea that everybody liked the game solely because of Lara Croft©, when the truth was that the first Tomb Raider was I.M.O. the nearest to perfect game ever created. Ignore what you don’t like about the Pokémon brand, and you will find an R.P.G. that will truly grip you.

That said, I am still of that crowd that swear by the original 151 and refuse to get with the times. Just keep remaking Pokémon Blue every five years, and I’ll be happy, thanks.

Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel (Gameboy Advance)

Everything that made Metal Gear Solid great, in a Gameboy. Sheer 8-Bit brilliance.

Ys (Master System)

(Update: The Turbo Grafx 16 version of Ys Book Ⅰ & Ⅱ is now on the U.K. Virtual Console, but it lacks the difficulty level of the Master System version, and what took me weeks, only takes a few days)

Just the most immensely big R.P.G. for the Master System. Huge. How it was crammed into a Master System cart I will not know. The combat would be considered very weak now, but it struck a balance between Zelda-esque exploration and stat-based battles without being turn-based. Yes, you just “bumped” into each other until HP≤0, but the immense maze-like world you had to explore and the equipment upgrades made it worth it.

Commodore 64 games that matter

There’s about 6’000 games for the Commodore 64. During late 80s the U.K. was the centre of the gaming world, with America having to wait to get games released in Europe first (imagine that!). During those years, you could quite literally code a game in your bedroom and it become a top-selling game overnight. Many of the companies in the industry now came from those days of idea-tolerance. Your game’s hero could be anybody or anything – even if it was ridiculous. You didn’t need millions in V.C., a strong “brand” and “attitude” just to make an entrance into the market.

Do you honestly think you could get away with “James Pond” now?

Here’s some “missing” C64 games in the V.C. from my stand-point: (In no order)

• Stunt Car Racer
• Elite
• Any Dizzy games, especially Kwik Snax
• Mayhem in Monsterland (now available)
• The Sentinel
• Flimbo’s Quest
• Midnight Resistance
• Fiendish Freddy’s Big Top o’ Fun

Any other suggestions of your own? Mail me on the signature link below.

Sentinel Returns: A Guide

Sentinel Returns is often described as genre-busting.
The concept is so off-the-wall, yet creative and well designed that it’s a game of elegance, but also of fear.

Sentinel Returns is scary in the way modern horror movies are not: calmness.
There is more fear in something malicious taking its time, than something that is too quick to ever see.

When I played this game back in 1998, I would restart the level if one particular music track was playing, I found it way too disconcerting. The game, whilst simple, is very atmospheric, dark and brooding.

The Sentinel itself is Lord Fear over the landscape. It slowly rotates at the highest point, observing the landscape around it, looking out for you. If it spots you, it will try to absorb your energy.

Blind panic usually ensues.

I recently started playing the game again, and decided that since the game can be difficult to understand for newcomers (and that more people really should play this game), I’d contribute a strategy guide of sorts to gamefaqs (writing in pure ASCII-code is quite fun). It’s going through their review process at the moment It’s now on their website, but a copy is enclosed in this blog entry (at the bottom of this entry, and as an RSS enclosure in your reader).

I hope you enjoy it, and that it enlightens you about how this odd game functions. I also hope it proves to be useful to those playing the game too!

If you’re into puzzles, particularly abstract ones, then this is a good game. It’s available on Playstation, or PC from any second-hand place you can find it. eBay, Amazon, Local Swap-Shops &c.