Street Fighter II,  Thursday, 22 March 2007 I've been an avid fan of video arcades my entire life. I've played a lot of arcade games over the years, but none have had such a profound impact on me like Street Fighter II: The World Warrior has. Street Fighter II was a massive hit in the arcades, and it was only a matter of time that it would be released on the Super Nintendo...but the question was...would the home port be as good as the arcade original?

Luckily, that answer was yes. With the exception of a few problems, the Super Nintendo port of Street Fighter II was virtually perfect. The graphics and animation was as close to the arcade version as the SNES would allow, the music was wonderful, and the controls and game play were perfect.

The graphics are close to perfect. The biggest issue the SNES had was that it couldn't handle the extremely large character sprites found in the arcade version and still have a playable frame-rate. Thus, Capcom was forced to use smaller sprites, and made the game "letterbox" -- black borders on the top and bottom of the screen. Some of the animation was also sacrificed. Any hardcore Street Fighter II fan could easily notice that Ken, Ryu, and Guile lacked many of their animations. The stage backgrounds were faithfully reproduced on the SNES, only missing some small environmental elements.

The sound was top-notch. The music and sound effects, although sounding different (due to the different synthesizers found in the arcade and the SNES), was faithful to the arcade. Only a few sound effects were noticeably missing, such as the elephant's shrieks in Dhalsim's stage.

The game play in this version of Street Fighter II was perfect. Every move and control combination was spot-on. The rudimentary combos that were performed in the arcade version could be easily repeated at home.

Street Fighter II was a revolutionary game that jump-started the fighting game craze which is still evident today. The SNES version is an accurate reproduction despite a few problems, and deserves to be in your Virtual Console collection.

 Super Castlevania IV,  Sunday, 18 March 2007 Once every hundred years, the powers of good mysteriously weaken, and evil attempts to resurrect Dracula. The Belmont family has defended civilization against Dracula and his minions for generations, and it is up to Simon Belmont, armed with the legendary whip -- Vampire Killer, to destroy the hordes of evil inside Dracula's Castle.

Originally released in Winter 1991, Super Castlevania IV is a 16-bit remake of Konami's original NES hit, Castlevania. Using the Super Nintendo's advanced technology, Konami has successfully expanded on all aspects of the original by adding additional stages, enemies, and game play techniques.

Super Castlevania IV was one of the first Super Nintendo (SNES) games to show off the features of the system. The graphics had a complete overhaul: character sprites were much larger and more detailed than it's NES predecessor, and the game made use of the SNES's expanded color palette. The game also made use of some new core features that became standard for the 16-bit era: “parallax scrolling”, and “Mode 7”. Parallax scrolling added a sense of depth and realism to the backgrounds as Simon Belmont progressed through the stages, and “Mode 7” allowed developers to add rotation and zoom effects, as seen in many stages throughout the game.

While graphics had a huge role in Super Castlevania IV, what really set this game apart from other games was it's soundtrack. Every musical piece in this game is memorable, and adds to the tense atmosphere. Old school gamers will instantly recognize such familiar tunes as “Vampire Killer” and “Bloody Tears”. Using the SNES's advanced music synthesizer, the developers were able to use realistic musical effects such as drum beats and organs.

The game play in Super Castlevania IV has remained largely true to it's predecessors. The biggest change is how Simon uses his whip. In previous Castlevanias, the whip had limited mobility. In Super Castlevania IV, the whip is multi-directional, allowing the player to strike enemies in any direction, and the whip can also be used as a shield against enemies and projectiles. Another neat feature that was added is the ability for Simon to swing across chasms using his whip, ala Indiana Jones.

Super Castlevania IV is a true 16-bit classic that every gamer, young or old should experience. This game offers amazing visuals, a fantastic soundtrack, and rock-solid game play. Konami successfully created a game worthy of the name “Castlevania”, and this title belongs in your Virtual Console library.

 Super Ghouls \'n Ghosts,  Tuesday, 27 March 2007 Released in 1991, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is the second sequel to the arcade hit Ghosts 'n Goblins. You play the role of Sir Arthur, a valiant knight who must travel through vast lands filled with zombies, demons, and other vile creatures, to rescue a princess who is being held hostage. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a classic platformer game that offers a more comedic, satirical take on the "horror/suspense" genre.

The visuals in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts are some of the nicest seen on the Super Nintendo. Character sprites are richly colored and animated, and the backgrounds are extremely well-done using common 2-D elements such as parallax scrolling. The design of the stages is what truly makes this game unique...one of the more memorable stages has Sir Arthur maneuvering through a sinking ship and then catching a life raft, while at the same time fighting off sea creatures.

The sound does a fantastic job at immersing the player in Sir Arthur's world. The music is eerie and very memorable, especially the main theme from Stage 1. The sound effects are also nice and add to the experience.

The game-play is great, yet extremely frustrating. Sir Arthur first starts his quest with standard armor and a lance as his weapon, and can upgrade to more powerful weapons and armor throughout the game. If Arthur gets hit by an enemy, he loses his armor, and must fight the un-dead in his underwear until he finds another suit of armor. If he gets hit by an enemy while in his undies, he dies. The controls can be a nuisance at times. The biggest problem is that jumping over chasms is difficult because you can't change Arthur's momentum or trajectory while in mid air. Also, at certain times there can be many enemies on screen at once causing slow down. The difficulty is quite high, and the extreme challenge is what has made this game so memorable over the years... it is one of the Super Nintendo's most difficult games ever released.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a classic that offers great graphics and sound, and game play that will have you cursing for hours. This is definitely a must-have game to own on the Wii Virtual Console.

 Super Mario Bros.,  Monday, 19 March 2007 I've loved video games my entire life. I started playing arcade games such as Pac-man and Donkey Kong when I was just a young child. In fact, I was so young that I didn't realize I needed a quarter to play! Like many children of the 80's, my first introduction to video games was Super Mario Bros. on the NES.

What made Super Mario Bros. a classic hit was it's simplicity...there wasn't a huge backstory to the game, or a bunch of button combinations to memorize. It was simple enough for children to play, yet offered older gamers more advanced difficulty in later stages.

By today's standards, the graphics in Super Mario Bros. is extremely antiquated. But back in the mid 80's, the imagery in Super Mario Bros. was a breath of fresh air for gamers who had been accustomed to Atari games. The most immediate difference that gamers saw was the size of the characters and the detail of the worlds, both in color and design.

The sound in Super Mario Bros. was quite good for a game of that era. The main theme was so memorable in fact, that 70% of Americans and Japanese would recognize it when heard. That said, Super Mario Bros. didn't have that much of a musical score, and the main theme is featured in 80% of the game. The sound effects are also well done, and offered more than the usual "beeps" and "boops" that gamers were accustomed to.

If you can only purchase one game for the Virtual Console, this is the game to buy. Super Mario Bros. offers great gameplay, visuals, and sound; and is the game that most of us grew up with.

 Super Mario World,  Monday, 19 March 2007 I still remember that humid August afternoon in the summer of '91. After weeks of playing Super Mario Bros. 3 relentlessly, the day had come. The local game shop at the mall, Babbage's, had called to tell me that my Super Nintendo had arrived. After purchasing the system, I raced home to play what I had waited months for: Super Mario World.

Not much had changed story-wise. Bowser and his Koopa kids were up to mischief again...kidnapping Princess Toadstool during a vacation in Dinosaur Land, and casting an evil spell on the inhabitants of the island, the Yoshis, confining them in dinosaur eggs. It is up to Mario and his brother Luigi to come to Princess Toadstool's rescue and help the Yoshis regain their freedom.

Super Mario World utilizes many of the new features of the Super Nintendo, including an enhanced color palette, larger sprites, parallax scrolling, and Mode 7 effects. The soundtrack in Super Mario World is in the classic “Mario” style, however it's soundtrack is largely lackluster when compared to themes from previous installments.

Game play in Super Mario World has remained true to the Super Mario Bros. series. For the first time ever, Mario has a sidekick named Yoshi. While riding on his back, Yoshi can stretch out his tongue and swallow enemies and other objects. The suits that Mario was able to use in Super Mario Bros. 3 are gone, however Mario now has a yellow cape that allows him to fly after getting a running start. The difficulty in Super Mario World is not as high as SMB3, with the exception of the special stages seen near the end of the game.

Super Mario World is a great launch title that introduced players to the world of 16-bit video games, while remaining true to it's roots. This is the game that defined the Super Nintendo, and makes a great addition to the Virtual Console.