Download Digest: curse that bull charge!
- April 16, 2007 17:25 PM PST
- Email this!
GamePro lists the available downloads this week for the Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, and the PlayStation Store.
By Eugene Huang
This week looks to be a strong one for downloadable content, with all three next-gen systems providing new treats for online consumers. Let's hope this trend continues, because I think we're all tired of playing the waiting game at this point. Let's start, as always, by examining what the Wii has in store for its Virtual Console:
Wii
I think this is what we all would have preferred, but c'est la vie.
You can make a strong case that any one of this week's three downloadable games is the "crown jewel" of their collection, but my bets have been placed on the first game, Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream. Of course, Nintendo abandoned the Mike Tyson license ever since he first lost his title against "Buster" Douglas, so this version automatically loses points with fans of the original. But, still, for the 500 Wii Points you need to cough up to buy this game, everything else besides the final boxer you face has essentially remained the same -- even Bald Bull's accursed bull charge.
Next up for 800 Wii Points is the Sega Genesis port of the arcade classic Virtua Fighter 2, which was an astronomical step up in graphical complexity from the original Virtua Fighter. Truly a groundbreaking pioneer in the 3-D fighting genre, this game sparked an intense rivalry between VF and Tekken that continues even to this day.
And last up for Virtual Console this week is Bonk's Revenge -- part two in the epic saga of Hudson Soft's Bonk the Caveman. Although the Bonk series producing some of the best platformers of the 16-bit era, the fact that the TurboGrafx-16 turned out to be somewhat of a failure also made the series one of the most underrated. But for 600 Wii Points, you can finally continue Bonk's story left off from Bonk's Adventure (already available on VC). Just don't let that overly-sensitive caveman from those insurance commercials find out you're playing it -- he's liable to call poor Bonk a sellout.
Xbox 360
Surprisingly, Microsoft has put two games up for sale this Wednesday on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The first is 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures, which was developed by Sierra Online's Wanako Studios, the same creators of Assault Heroes. The game features 36 holes, with each of them containing crazy ramps and other wacky three-dimensional obstacles. 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures can be purchased for 800 Microsoft Points.
The second game to appear this week is Konami's arcade classic Gyruss, which was created by game designing pioneer Yoshiki Okamoto shortly before joining Capcom to create the Street Fighter series, as well as a laundry list of other classics. For those too young to remember this game from 1983, think Galaga meets Tempest. But if you've never heard of either of those classic games, you're really on your own. This XBLA version can be purchased for 400 Microsoft Points, and contains both an original arcade mode and an enhanced Xbox 360 mode with updated 3-D graphics and sound.
PlayStation 3
Those of you who thought, "Well, Lair and Heavenly Sword might be nice, but I'd really rather see Sony give us a game that features those adorable little rubber ducks!" Well, my friend, your requests have been answered because this Thursday, Sony gives you Super Rub a Dub, which blends elements from Kororinpa: Marble Mania, ChuChu Rocket!, and those annoying little puzzles where you have to get all those marbles in all those tiny #$%!&@* holes. Use the Sixaxis controller to tilt a bathtub platform around to lead all your rubber duckies to safety, but beware of sharks, which are, for some inexplicable reason, swimming around in your bathtub. Unfortunately, Sony has yet to attach a price to this game, but as a means of comparison, it sold for 4.99 EU/3.49 GBP in Europe, meaning possibly US $6.99? We'll see on Thursday.
