One thing that can always stand the test of time is a great story, and that's exactly what Famicom Tantei Club Part II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shojo delivers. It's a text adventure about a boy running from mysterious enemies and searching for his parents. The cut scenes are top-notch, and smart use of the SNES sound chips adds additional atmosphere. Don't let the English text in these screenshots get your hopes up, though. This game was never released outside of Japan and I can't imagine Nintendo localising it for other regions now, given the massive amount of text that would need to be translated, and the demise of text-based adventure games as a genre. However, it is accessible in ROM form, thanks to an incredible fan translation, courtesy of Neo Demiforce and Tomato.

Phantasy Star III also joins the VC library this week, but in addition to being the weakest offering in an otherwise awesome franchise, it is totally overshadowed by Tantei Club Part II's cinematic storytelling and rich characters.

It's hard for me to come up with additional commentary for Double Dragon. There should be little of surprise here: it arrives in America immediately after the European VC update; it's one of the most iconic examples of the beat 'em up genre; and to be brutally honest, Technos' sequel, River City Ransom, is a better game overall.

That's not to say that Double Dragon doesn't have it's perks. Remember that, proboably more than any other video game, Double Dragon put the beat 'em up genre on the map. That's got to pique your interest a bit. And did you know that in River City Ransom the penultimate boss fight is against Randy and Andy, the infamous twins of Double Dragon fame? That it's the hardest boss fight in the game is appropriate, since Double Dragon is such a milestone for the genre.

Double Dragon has also appeared on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360, with updated grahics, but amazingly the NES classic retains its supremacy. The supposedly updated port suffers from slowdown and other bugs. While the NES version may not be crisp and beautiful it works and plays very consistently.

Replaying Double Dragon all these years later on the NES, what surprised me most was the quality of the music in the first stage. It starts off quite well and ends with an excellent finale, before looping back to the beginning. Check it out here.

Well, Double Dragon for the NES is a faithful adaptation of the arcade classic. Losing two-player simultaneous action is tough, but one has to respect the limitations of the hardware. On the plus side, the graphics and sound are quite good--they were even admired back in the day. The biggest problem with Double Dragon has nothing to do with the game, itself, but the far superior Street Gangs (aka River City Ransom, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari), which was released only a year later. Expressive graphics, much deeper gameplay, and something awesomely impossible to properely describe that remains fresh to this day. That's why Double Dragon is a reluctant smile, compared to the enthusiastic thumbs up for its successor.

There are also two Commodore 64 additons this week: The Last Ninja and World Games. Truth be told, console games are my forté, so I'm a little out of my element here. World Games seems like an obvious sequel to California Games, but it's a little forced, less fun, and when you're not skateboarding or surfing how can anything compare?

The Last Ninja, on the other hand, is an early entry into the genre-bender sort of title that I deeply admire. To put it bluntly, it's an action-adventure game, but what that really means is a combination of exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving. Each level has a unique look, and combat is defined by authentic weapons like nunchaku, shuriken, and smoke bombs. Though not as "classic" as Double Dragon, The Last Ninja has style and gameplay galore.

The update could have ended there and everyone would still be overjoyed, but Nintendo also spoiled us with an iconic Neo Geo game and one of the all-time greatest run 'n gun games is also now available. Metal Slug is as fine an combination of hand drawn sprites, bullet-riddled mayhem, and humorous encounters that you will ever find. Though it spawned many sequels, the original is clearly one of the best. One of my favorite details is that when you run into a foot solider, you don't die instantly or take damage like in so many similarly designed games. Instead, your solider pulls out his knife and dispatches the enemy without missing a beat.

Adding diversity to the lineup is Herakles no Eikou IV - Kamigami Kara no Okurimono for the SNES. I'll admit that it was hard for me to assess this game with my limited understanding of Japanese. It looks like a pretty solid RPG, though, based on—surprise, surprise—Greek mythology. Nevertheless, the graphics and music definitely were not quite up to the standard of Square's games. In short, worth a look for RPG fans, but not a must download.

Staying in theme, there's also Phelios for the Sega Genesis. It's a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up where you play the roll of a sword-wielding knight atop a pegasus. While the graphics are pretty solid, the weak sound and boring gameplay are bad news. Options are ripped off from Gradius and it's lame that while you're holding your charged sword aloft you can't ram enemies with it for damage.

With such an awesome April VC lineup, it’s hard to believe that this update doesn’t feature a single game that gets the coveted Borat two thumbs up.  You know it’s bad when Europe’s last update features more titles and higher game quality overall.  Well, bad for the Japanese gamers, at least.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is the anticlimactic winner among this trio of updates.  Why anticlimactic?  We were spoiled with the SNES Kirby platformers, and everyone expected that legendary developer HAL Laboratory would dazzle players with a sequel on N64’s much more powerful hardware.  In addition, the VC N64 titles clearly trounce the other emulated consoles in terms of overall raw quality, so you would expect every re-released N64 title to be incredible.  In both cases, expectations are not met.  Alas, Kirby 64 is merely good, rather than great.

The biggest—at least in terms of size—title this update is the TurboGrafx-16 CD spin-off of the Wonder Boy franchise known as Monster Lair.  Nevertheless, Monster Lair never comes close to reaching the levels of greatness seen in so many other shooters for the venerable TG-CD.  Offhand, here are four other shmups infinitely more deserving of a place in the VC library: Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire, Seirei Senshi Spriggan, and Star Parodier.  And you thought there couldn’t possibly be any other worthy shooters remaining!

While the TurboGrafx-16 represents a glorious monument to shoot ‘em up fans, Digital Champ is a fine example why the console was never appreciated for its sports games.  The overall Punch-Out concept can certainly succeed, as the NES demonstrated, but in the place of Little Mac Naxat Soft gives you an awkward pair of disembodied boxing gloves.  And in front of the gloves is an opponent who jolts left, right, up, down, into the foreground, and into the background with the barest of animation.  The result is a boxing game where your most fearsome adversary is the gameplay.

If you like shooting things, you should be pretty happy this week.  Maybe you prefer getting your dirty work done from the comfort of your spaceship.  In that case, Fantasy Zone for the Sega Master System should please you.  Or perhaps you’re the type who likes to get up close and personal, jogging across terrain with you own two feet and pulling the gun’s trigger.  Then I recommend you check out Mega Turrican.

While Mega Turrican looks more impressive with its 16-bit visuals, don’t underestimate the little sentient spaceship known as Opa-Opa.  Mega Turrican has to answer to the likes of Gunstar Heroes and Super Turrican (SNES).  It’s a tough race.  Fantasy Zone, on the other hand, doesn’t have to compete with any doppelgangers.  Sure, there are lots of shoot ‘em ups on the VC, but none of them look or play like Fantasy Zone.  Opa-Opa can scroll in the direction of its choosing, and the levels are populated by bright colors and graphics that challenge even the most hallucinogenic and acid-dropping of gamers.  Who needs drugs when you can play Fantasy Zone?

In horse racing terminology a trifecta is a bet in which you predict the exact the horses that will finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the exact order.  Combing the recent news on the Net, it’s clear that Hudson Soft has three upcoming winners on their hands: Deca Sports (Wii), Dracula X (Wii Virtual Console), and Alien Crush (WiiWare).

Deca Sports cannot avoid being compared to Wii Sports, and that’s not a bad thing.  As the name suggests, Deca Sports features ten different sports, each having a distinctive Wii contoller scheme.  Rumor has it that it is currently the most popular game that employees play at Hudson Soft’s headquarters, and it may very well be the game that best takes advantage of the Wii’s unique controls since, well, Wii Sports.  Initial sales in Japan are very promising for Hudson Soft; Deca Sports debuted at 2nd place in the charts with weekly sales of over 65,000.

Dracula X (officially known as Akumaj? Dracula X Chi no Rondo in Japan), is 15 years old, yet it remains the most significant Castlevania game ever created.  Following an excellent start in the 8-bit era, the Castlevania franchise faltered and very nearly failed entirely—think Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge (Game Boy), Castlevania 64 (N64), and Castlevania Chronicles (Playstation).  The sequel that saved the series, Castlevania: Symphony of Night, drew heavily from the gameplay of the original—and Japan only—Dracula X.  The 1993 Arcade-card enabled Turbo Grafx-16 CD-ROM has aged incredibly well and remains one of the greatest Castlevania games ever.

While pinball games will never die and continue to be widely imitated in digital form, only one franchise in this genre ever pushed the gameplay envelop and developed a cult following: Crush Pinball (Alien Crush, Devil’s Crush/Devil Crash, Jacki Crush, and Dragon’s Revenge).  What sets these games apart from their peers is the fantasy theme and the addition of Gauntletesque elements.  What happens is that certain parts of the pinball board spawn creatures, and by destroying them you get points and can unlock bonuses.  There are even boss battles!  Not much has been revealed yet, but here’s an early screenshot of an Alien Crush sequel for WiiWare.  I applaud Hudson Soft’s use of the Virtual Console to reintroduce the original Crush title, and taking advantage of WiiWare to give fans the sequel they’ve been waiting for.

Valkyries, airborne kids, mutant turtles, street brawls, and even a Full Metal Fighter Ellinor—this set of new games has it all. But there is definitely some filler padding the numbers. I’ll start with the most Wii-space-threatening one of them all: Riot Zone for the Turbo Grafx-16 CD. Beat ‘em up games are not exactly known for their complexity, originality, or variety, but Riot Zone establishes record lows in all of those categories. Think generic. Think boring. Think Streets of Rage 2 instead—much kinder on your precious disk space as well.

Sky Kid for the NES is very first-generation in every bad way imaginable. Piloting the Kid during takeoff, I counted a total of 8 different colors displayed on the screen. The music and sound effects operate at a similar level. There are already so many better shoot ‘em ups available. Konami’s platformer Gekikame Ninja Den (a.k.a. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) at least taps the potential of Nintendo’s 8-bit hardware. Nevertheless, it’s not among Konami’s many critical successes. While the game offers good scope and variety in gameplay, the finishing touches are lacking. You can only take so many cheap hits from annoying enemies before you lose it.