We're counting down to the Wii's launch with a daily look at what retro games we'd like to see on the Virtual Console. Each also features a Virtual Console Likelihood rating. A rating of 5 means the game has officially been announced for the service. Click here for an archive of previous days, or keep on reading below!
Released: 1988
Developer: Tecmo
Console: NES
Players: 1-2
Save: none
Virtual Console Likelihood: 2 / 5
A lot of older gamers have fond memories of Tecmo Bowl. This is where American football began in video games. Sure there were earlier games that attempted to replicate the sport, but none had the features and depth to deserve the popularity Tecmo Bowl had achieved. A whole twelve teams with accurate rosters (albeit lacking the rights to use the NFL team names), each with four whole plays. An innovative overhead camera angle allowing players to see every bone-crunching tackle in all it's 8-bit glory. And the brand new ability to break tackles - something no football game had attempted before! Sure, compared to Madden 2007 on the Wii, with its motion controlled passing, hiking, juking, and kicking, it seems insignificant. But the truth is, without Tecmo Bowl, the trend of football games consistently on the bestsellers list and yearly releases would never exist. One game per company per sport per console generation. That would be the reality.
Luckily for us, and even more importantly for real, true football fans, Tecmo Bowl happened and happened big. Big enough to warrent a sequel, which like I said was a pretty new idea for sports games. Tecmo Super Bowl was also released for the NES with more new features like Season mode, the full NFL and NFLPA rights, fumbles, and player injuries. Virtual Console needs a football game right now, and what better way to increase your appreciation for today's games than by revisiting the one that started it all?
Released: 1995
Developer: Nintendo
Console: SNES
Players: 1-2
Save: battery
VCL: 4/5
If you've heard anything about this game so far on the Internet, you know it was originally a game called Panel de Pon in Japan, and got reworked for the North American audience using characters and music from the recently released and widely successful Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It's a good thing too, because Panel de Pon is the most girly game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It's full of flower fairies and looks like it was designed to sell Polly Pockets to girls too young to understand the plot of Super Mario Bros. I honestly had to take a good look at my own sexuality after playing it. And I had a couple showers. I can't even use Lip's Stick in Smash Bros. anymore thanks to Panel de Pon.
Anyway, Yoshi and friends are living on Yoshi's Island after Mario World 2 ended, and they're pretty happy. Yoshi even has a little yellow kid dino buddy appropriately named Little Yoshi. Suddenly, Bowser and his minions show up and place all of Yoshi's friends under an evil spell, and Kamek the Magikoopa creates eternal rain over the whole island. Yoshi has to battle all his friends in Tetris Attack to free them from the spell. After everyone is free from the spell, they all head for Mt. Wickedness to face their enemies.
Tetris Attack is one of the best puzzle games ever. Basically, blocks of different colours filling the puzzle area slowly rise from the bottom of the area. If they hit the top of the puzzle area, it's game over. Blocks are cleared by lining up three or more of them of the same colour in a vertical or horizontal line. To create these lines, you get a cursor that highlights two blocks next to each other horizontally. The blocks inside the cursor can be switched. By switching blocks with each other, you can move them wherever you want. You can even switch blocks with empty space to move a single block across the puzzle area. Combos are made when four or more blocks are cleared at once. When the blocks disappear, any blocks on top of them fall into place. If these blocks end up clearing more blocks, it's called a Chain. Using Combos and Chains when playing against an opponent causes garbage blocks to fall onto that opponent's playing field. Clearing blocks that touch garbage blocks will turn the garbage blocks into blocks that can be cleared the normal way. It's fast and totally addictive, like a puzzle game should be. It also has many different play modes beyond the story mode that are tons of fun. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes puzzle games. And if you don't want to play because you think Yoshi and his friends are too "kiddy" - believe me, it could have been so much worse...
#16 (Third Party) - Tecmo Bowl
Released: 1988
Developer: Tecmo
Console: NES
Players: 1-2
Save: none
Virtual Console Likelihood: 2 / 5
A lot of older gamers have fond memories of Tecmo Bowl. This is where American football began in video games. Sure there were earlier games that attempted to replicate the sport, but none had the features and depth to deserve the popularity Tecmo Bowl had achieved. A whole twelve teams with accurate rosters (albeit lacking the rights to use the NFL team names), each with four whole plays. An innovative overhead camera angle allowing players to see every bone-crunching tackle in all it's 8-bit glory. And the brand new ability to break tackles - something no football game had attempted before! Sure, compared to Madden 2007 on the Wii, with its motion controlled passing, hiking, juking, and kicking, it seems insignificant. But the truth is, without Tecmo Bowl, the trend of football games consistently on the bestsellers list and yearly releases would never exist. One game per company per sport per console generation. That would be the reality.
Luckily for us, and even more importantly for real, true football fans, Tecmo Bowl happened and happened big. Big enough to warrent a sequel, which like I said was a pretty new idea for sports games. Tecmo Super Bowl was also released for the NES with more new features like Season mode, the full NFL and NFLPA rights, fumbles, and player injuries. Virtual Console needs a football game right now, and what better way to increase your appreciation for today's games than by revisiting the one that started it all?
#16 (Nintendo) - Tetris Attack
Released: 1995
Developer: Nintendo
Console: SNES
Players: 1-2
Save: battery
VCL: 4/5
If you've heard anything about this game so far on the Internet, you know it was originally a game called Panel de Pon in Japan, and got reworked for the North American audience using characters and music from the recently released and widely successful Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It's a good thing too, because Panel de Pon is the most girly game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It's full of flower fairies and looks like it was designed to sell Polly Pockets to girls too young to understand the plot of Super Mario Bros. I honestly had to take a good look at my own sexuality after playing it. And I had a couple showers. I can't even use Lip's Stick in Smash Bros. anymore thanks to Panel de Pon.
Anyway, Yoshi and friends are living on Yoshi's Island after Mario World 2 ended, and they're pretty happy. Yoshi even has a little yellow kid dino buddy appropriately named Little Yoshi. Suddenly, Bowser and his minions show up and place all of Yoshi's friends under an evil spell, and Kamek the Magikoopa creates eternal rain over the whole island. Yoshi has to battle all his friends in Tetris Attack to free them from the spell. After everyone is free from the spell, they all head for Mt. Wickedness to face their enemies.
Tetris Attack is one of the best puzzle games ever. Basically, blocks of different colours filling the puzzle area slowly rise from the bottom of the area. If they hit the top of the puzzle area, it's game over. Blocks are cleared by lining up three or more of them of the same colour in a vertical or horizontal line. To create these lines, you get a cursor that highlights two blocks next to each other horizontally. The blocks inside the cursor can be switched. By switching blocks with each other, you can move them wherever you want. You can even switch blocks with empty space to move a single block across the puzzle area. Combos are made when four or more blocks are cleared at once. When the blocks disappear, any blocks on top of them fall into place. If these blocks end up clearing more blocks, it's called a Chain. Using Combos and Chains when playing against an opponent causes garbage blocks to fall onto that opponent's playing field. Clearing blocks that touch garbage blocks will turn the garbage blocks into blocks that can be cleared the normal way. It's fast and totally addictive, like a puzzle game should be. It also has many different play modes beyond the story mode that are tons of fun. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes puzzle games. And if you don't want to play because you think Yoshi and his friends are too "kiddy" - believe me, it could have been so much worse...