From out of nowhere (It was not previously announced or rated) comes Pac-Attack, a surprisingly good Pac-Man rendition of the falling block puzzle genre. In this one out of few Pac-Man spinoffs, your job is to keep the screen clear of blocks and ghosts, by creating rows of blocks and letting Pac-Man eat the ghosts.
Today's other game is best left ignored. Riot Zone is a quite horrible attempt at cashing in on the popular arcade beat 'em up genre (Final Fight, Streets of Rage) by Hudson and, believe it or not, WestOne, the makers of Wonder Boy! The game is quite bland and utterly forgettable, which is strange considering it's a CD game!
It really does seem like the VC updates are getting smaller - Japan is now getting 2-3 games per week instead of 5-6, Europe hasn't had more than 2 games the past 3 weeks, and now the US has had two weeks with 2 games as well. Let's hope this doesn't continue! Check out the reviews:
Pac-Attack - SNES - 800 Wii Points
Riot Zone - TurboGrafx-CD - 800 Wii Points








User Comments
1. junkeR
14 Jan 2008, 13:13 GMT
LAME! I want Harvest MOON!!!!!
2. Kevin
14 Jan 2008, 13:19 GMT
Pac-Attack is a cool game but give us Mega Man and Vectorman for crying out loud!
3. neuzd
14 Jan 2008, 13:22 GMT
My greatest concern is that it was said that NA would have had 200 vc games for the end of 2007, but with this releases we're (well, you: I'm on the 'right' side of the ocean) just at 194.
Reggie, Reggie, Reggie!!!!!
And I'm reading on the internet:
'Nintendo PR have stepped in to "clarify" Reggie's comments, saying that the 200 figure was only an approximation, not a hard number. Sorry.'
Reggie, Reggie, Reggie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Ender2010
14 Jan 2008, 13:41 GMT
ugh this sux
5. SKKTR
14 Jan 2008, 14:00 GMT
Give us Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV !!!!!
6. J Bose
14 Jan 2008, 14:09 GMT
As long as were complaining, where is Y's Book I and II which were announced a couple of months ago?
7. dave
14 Jan 2008, 14:16 GMT
Awww man. Nothing but suck this week.
8. Mirokunite
14 Jan 2008, 15:18 GMT
Yarg...
9. PoisonRamune
14 Jan 2008, 15:28 GMT
No big loss for me... I'm semi-on a budget this week and I'm still working on Startropics.
10. deadly.by.design
14 Jan 2008, 15:52 GMT
Give us Mega Man 2, for crying out loud.
Also - I think that VConsole should give out free games to those who've already bought a few titles.
11. StarSoldier1
14 Jan 2008, 16:06 GMT
It definitely a slow week when I see a dud like Roit Zone get released. I hope they are not holding off on Y's Book I & II.
12. Don
14 Jan 2008, 16:12 GMT
Ign.com said that Super Mario RPG is supposed to come to VC in 2007. Where is it?
13. Bass X0
14 Jan 2008, 16:15 GMT
some sort of loyalty bonus perhaps? for every 10000 points (five cards) you use you get a free NES game of your choice or something.
14. Jazzman
14 Jan 2008, 16:24 GMT
Don't they do that with Star Points for people who've bought GBA/DS/Wii games?
I'm still keeping my fingers crossed on Unirally coming out soon. The wait is killing me!
15. MorikaWeb
14 Jan 2008, 16:26 GMT
Typical crap in the place of good games that could have been.
16. alvieao
14 Jan 2008, 17:15 GMT
In truth, Riot Zone is a horribly altered port of the mediocre Sega arcade game Riot City. Regardless of its good CD music, it is a must avoid...
17. Shahryar
14 Jan 2008, 17:37 GMT
Was really hoping for some good titles released on my birthday. pitty.
18. Razor61289
14 Jan 2008, 17:48 GMT
Thats not a bad week for the US. Had PA on SNES then sold it. Was very good though. Very underated game
19. John Hood
14 Jan 2008, 21:00 GMT
At least the CD game may foreshadow a certain Castlevania title! Otherwise...
20. donx998
14 Jan 2008, 21:28 GMT
crap don stole my nickname lol jk dont worry ill change mine so you wont have to im still waitin for tetris attack i cant believe we got two vcs today well it is a busy company they do have to manage messages ,check me out channel ,voting channel ,ds game ideas meetings,suers from wi accedents,firing people,hiring people,news channel ,weather channel,that new download channel coming soon,translating vc to english,making manuals for vc,making wii points and accesry.and btw what happens when we run out of wii point numbers.
21. Marioman64
14 Jan 2008, 21:51 GMT
zomg i love pac attack!
first you're building like tetris, then you're sending pac-man in to eat up all the ghosts like the energizer bunny, then POOF a fairy comes in and tornadoes a bunch of stuff away
^.^
22. ChocoDK
14 Jan 2008, 22:04 GMT
I want Harvest Moon and Super Mario RPG! Nice going Nintendo -_-. Great way to begin the New Year with another week of bad games. Although Pac Man is a good game but I wouldn't pay that much to play it.
23. Abodi
14 Jan 2008, 22:15 GMT
i got a bunch of points for christmas, and there hasn't been a good game to interest me since.
anyone else think nintendo is doing themselves a disservice. i'm almost to the point where i'm not gonna look every week like i currently do.
24. koolkitties
14 Jan 2008, 23:26 GMT
I WA WII WARE!
25. Jonno
14 Jan 2008, 23:56 GMT
Ah yes, Pac-Attack. Good game...
26. Zyzzybalubah
15 Jan 2008, 01:06 GMT
Yeah, no. Harvest moon would be nice
27. Cloud789
15 Jan 2008, 01:23 GMT
@abodi:
Y'know, you could be buying some good games. In PAL regions, Nintendo has been releasing a good game a week since Christmas (DKC3, Harvest Moon, StarTropics). If you don't enjoy these games, then VC is probably not for you.
Anyways, I must say America sort of missed out this week. I don't think Pac-Attack would appeal to many people, and, from what people have been saying, Riot Zone is utter crap. And to think... Riot Zone's coming to PAL on Friday and Pac-Attack will be coming soon (already got a rating from the OFLC).
28. PumpkinPieman
15 Jan 2008, 04:23 GMT
I've kind of given up on virtual console to be honest. I'm not too keen on the stuff they put out, so recently I have got in to collecting. I dug out my n64 and have been buying games for that and my SNES\NES at microplay. It's more expensive, but ... You get all the titles you really want to play, and you get a controller that they are designed for to boot. It's hard to beat it.
29. Kenji510
15 Jan 2008, 05:03 GMT
the games i want are to come to VC...
super mario kart
super mario RPG
earthbound
mortal kombat
super street fighter 2
rockin roll racing
hogans alley
and other cool games!!
30. NESgamer
15 Jan 2008, 06:21 GMT
--abodi
I think you're right, i don't have much with my Wii, at first i thought there was a lot of things to download, but now that i have everything i wanted i don't look forward to next releases, except for KOF 94 the past week (took so long to come to the Americas) i really don't know what to do with my left wii points.
31. i8cookie
15 Jan 2008, 10:35 GMT
and Secret of Mana
32. Drake
15 Jan 2008, 14:08 GMT
Cloud: Yes, Pac-Attack does have an OFLC rating... But it's from the original version in 1994. It's impossible to tell if it's coming to Europe/Australia right now (Probably is, but you never know, US has quite a few games we don't have yet after all).
33. S. Chao
15 Jan 2008, 16:15 GMT
I want my Ogre Battle 64!!!!! ;_;
34. Bass X0
15 Jan 2008, 16:52 GMT
Russ - I don't know what Square's problem is with the original SNES Secret of Mana. They don't release it in any collections, they don't port it to a handheld and they say they don't put their big name games on Virtual Console because they won't get much profit from them.
If they're not going to do anything with it, they should put it on VC.
35. Jonno
15 Jan 2008, 19:25 GMT
Zyzzybalubah, everyone has their own opinions, its just that mine is the widely accepted one.
Harvest Moon is better but, I'm going with the Europeans on this one, us Americans complain WAY TOO MUCH.
36. sweetgb
16 Jan 2008, 03:06 GMT
How about Mortal Combat? 'FINISH HIM!' I freakin' love that game.
That game is the reason that I got crappy grades my freshman year of college(not to mention beer bongs and dumb broads).
TechmoBowl, Blades of Steel and Excitebike remind me of my grade-school youth. Ahh, the Nintendo memories.
37. GamerWho
16 Jan 2008, 11:29 GMT
Bass X > I imagine Square don't release their bigger franchines (i.e Final Fantasy) because of all the FF ports and remakes on DS and PSP. They'll probably release their better RPG catalogue once their hand held sales dwindle.
38. Nipahc
16 Jan 2008, 16:14 GMT
Get a good game like Startropics and get crap the rest of the month. I don't get it. I'd be wanting to make the VC that make you all cry because you don't have enough Wii points to get them. Not so you cry because the VC suck!
39. Betagam7
16 Jan 2008, 23:06 GMT
Pac attack is okay but you can get it along with Pc man, pac mania and a pac man remake on the GBA Pac Man collection available for about the same price
40. whalleywhat
17 Jan 2008, 02:33 GMT
I could write a long wishlist of games like Ogre Battle 64 and Snatcher, but a two game where one is complete garbage and the other is a puzzle game is ridiculous when stuff like Mega Man 2 and Castlevania III is just sitting there.
41. StarSoldier1
17 Jan 2008, 18:15 GMT
Snatcher might be difficult to get since there are no Sega CD or exclusive Japanese Turbo Duo games on the NTSC Wii Virtual Console yet.
42. donx998
20 Jan 2008, 03:00 GMT
im waitin for simpsons and tetris attack for snes and clayfighter for n64
@PumpkinPieman that sound good but vc games run faster on wii and you cant lose them cause its virtual and what happens if they stop selling them or what if your systems eternal batterys dies out