North America is playing catch-up with Europe for a change this week as Harvest Moon and Lords of Thunder hit the Wii Shop. Don't get too excited and rush to your Wii just yet though, we are being a bit naughty in breaking the news two days early! You'll have to wait until Monday to download these beauties!
The good old days of getting 3-4 new games a week on the VC may seem to be a distant memory but its hard to complain when both games are as good as this. So much so in fact that your pals here at VC Reviews awarded them both a mighty 5/5!
Harvest Moon is especially good value for money when you consider that it is so rare that you would have to part with around $100 to buy it from eBay! Its a great game worth checking out if 'The Sims' on a farm sounds like your sort of thing.
For those of you who are adrenaline junkies you might find the former a tad sedate for your tastes. Fear not! Hudson's mighty Lords of Thunder is up for grabs also. For shoot-em-up fans it doesn't get much better than this! It is one of the best examples of the shmup genre we can think of!
Check out this week's reviews:
Harvest Moon - SNES - 800 Points
Lords of Thunder - TurboGrafx-16 CD - 800 Points
PLEASE NOTE: These games will not be available to download from the North American Wii Shop Channel until 9 a.m. Pacific time on Monday 11th Feb

1. Jonno
09 Feb 2008, 01:09 GMT
Alright... its time to buy a points card.
2. ChinSpin
09 Feb 2008, 01:12 GMT
NICE!!!!!
3. marktheshark
09 Feb 2008, 01:18 GMT
Quite a good birthday present, if I say so myself.
4. Shortay
09 Feb 2008, 01:20 GMT
Good week for you guys, at least you get 2 games.
5. Steven
09 Feb 2008, 01:44 GMT
fantastic news!
6. Kawaiipikachu
09 Feb 2008, 02:20 GMT
In response to Jonno i dont need a points card as i got plenty in my account .
By 5he way nether of these catches my eye
7. The shoemaker
09 Feb 2008, 02:37 GMT
Happy birthday
8. agent_lime 09 Feb 2008, 03:39 GMT
harvest moon sounds cool, ive never played one before though...
9. Boredom v2.2
09 Feb 2008, 03:43 GMT
WHAT!!!!!!!!!! Hasn't Nintendo realized they're now at 201 games!? They've should've put something special for their 200th game. Harvest Moon is NOT from Nintendo! It's from Natsume!
I mean, i'm not complaining about this week's choices, i'm complaining that it doesn't seem to be the right choice for US's 200th game.
10. Jogurt the Yogurt
09 Feb 2008, 03:45 GMT
These are both good as the 200th game. Good week for North America. Cheers!
11. AlphaNerd01
09 Feb 2008, 03:55 GMT
Awesome. Great news. I'll probably wind up downloading both of these.
12. SuperMichael64
09 Feb 2008, 04:00 GMT
FINALLY HARVEST MOON! The only HM I have yet to play!
13. Mirokunite
09 Feb 2008, 04:29 GMT
Finally we get Harvest Moon! I've been waiting for this since the EU got it. Heck I've been waiting since the VC launched for it!
14. Superman64
09 Feb 2008, 05:48 GMT
I hope you guys keep announcing VC titles early like this. It's just nice to know ahead of time.
15. Tim
09 Feb 2008, 06:03 GMT
Boredom v2.2 haven't you learned yet that Nintendo doesn't care about vc milestones? They just dump what ever and figure they'll make money off of it regardless. The only time I can remember them actually planing anything was when they released Metriod to hype up Metriod Prime Corruption.
16. RevolverLink
09 Feb 2008, 06:34 GMT
Looks like I'll be getting Harvest Moon soon. As soon as I have some extra cash to spare, that is.
17. catfud
09 Feb 2008, 07:36 GMT
I have 4000 wii points sitting there waiting for something to buy
and i think this week they get used
18. Adamant
09 Feb 2008, 07:43 GMT
Ooh, need to get both of these. Damn it Nintendo, quit making me broke like this.
19. brooks83
09 Feb 2008, 07:44 GMT
Tim - Nintendo made kind of a big deal out of the 100th game and released Zelda 2 for the NES
20. Clayfrd
09 Feb 2008, 07:53 GMT
That is awesome. I need another points card!
21. saturnkid
09 Feb 2008, 11:58 GMT
Excellent releases, enjoy North America!
22. Yoshi175
09 Feb 2008, 14:13 GMT
there not really playing catch up since they have 14 more games than EU...
23. ATRUEZELDAFAN
09 Feb 2008, 14:27 GMT
Sweet. I gotta go buy a points card this weekend, so i can get the awsome looking lords. Harvest Moon aint my cup o tea, but congrats to those americans who couldnt wait for it!
24. Master Chief53
09 Feb 2008, 14:47 GMT
Woot!!
25. Kevin
09 Feb 2008, 14:50 GMT
@Yoshi 175: You got that right. Still no mega mans or vectorman. Like I said last week I've basically lost all hope with the past weeks giving me nothing I've wanted or appeal to me. The last game I got was Super Street Fighter II.
26. Jogurt the Yogurt
09 Feb 2008, 17:09 GMT
Yoshi, they're playing catch up in the sense that neither game is completely "new" to the VC—they're both games Europe already had.
Kevin, you'll be waiting a looooong time for Mega Man. I can't explain why we don't have Vectorman yet, though.
27. Drizzt
09 Feb 2008, 17:54 GMT
No Harvest Moon! I have 400 points which is useless and I don't want to go and buy a points card right now. Unfortunate but I'm going to have to wait. Glad to see Harvest Moon up now. Finally....=P
28. mario221
09 Feb 2008, 18:55 GMT
woohooo!!!!!!!!
29. KirbyPunk
09 Feb 2008, 23:46 GMT
I've always wanted to try Harvest Moon. I've borrowed one of the GCN ones from my friend before and enjoyed it. I might download the original, especially since everybody seems to love it.
30. DEMON212
09 Feb 2008, 23:49 GMT
Boredom. The EU got JJ And Jeff as there 100th. I expect Elevator Action as our 200th.
And least your getting 2! Games. Our 200th release, will just be Elevator Action.
31. Tides of Chaos
10 Feb 2008, 00:29 GMT
Kevin, you know you can just get the Mega Man anniversary collection for the GCN or PS2? It probably costs like $15 used and $20 new so that would be like 3 or 4 NES mega man games. OH, and for Vectorman, there is the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2 and PSP if you have them.
32. ChocoDK
10 Feb 2008, 03:07 GMT
Yay finally Harvest Moon THANK YOU NINTENDO AND NATSUME! And wow I can't believe that the SNES cart of Harvest Moon really goes for around $100 O_O. I only have 700 points though so looks like I will need more points so maybe I'll try out that other game. I am so happy I have been waiting for Harvest Moon for so long. Now please release Harvest Moon 64.
33. JZLAM
10 Feb 2008, 13:57 GMT
The topic of the game sounds like it'd be good for younger kids, particularly those kids that like to help in the gardend. Is the game wordy? Do you need good reading skills? Thanks!
34. Zyzzybalubah
10 Feb 2008, 19:21 GMT
Finally, HM is all i've been waiting for for more than a month...
35. voicesoffcamera
10 Feb 2008, 19:59 GMT
YES!!! Harvest Moon!! Finally!! And to the people who are complaining that they didn't get any good games for the 200th release...these are both 5 star games and what else would you expect? Some amazing N64 title completely out of the blue? Ooook...
36. Kawaiipikachu
10 Feb 2008, 22:08 GMT
Well i can't see why you guys complaining besides a game you may hate somebody might love .
37. BJ
11 Feb 2008, 13:40 GMT
They'll be playing "catch up" when Mega Man and Vectorman come out.
38. Rapadash6
11 Feb 2008, 15:32 GMT
Hmm, I really was expecting Kirby's Dreamland 3 as our 200th release. Gah! VC releases are so unpredictable anymore. I can't really complain, though as this year has actually had a lot of good games, although not many have really peaked my interest at all. I got 8000 points for Christmas and I've only used 1000 of them so far this year... maybe next week will bring something I can enjoy.
39. Adamant
11 Feb 2008, 17:36 GMT
JZLAM: It's a good game for everyone, your kids will probably love it. There's quite a bit of talking, yes, but most of the actual farming work is done by simply using the right atems in the right places, with no text input nessecary.
40. JZLAM
11 Feb 2008, 19:28 GMT
Adamant: Thanks for the help. I look forward to trying this one. Cheers!
41. donx998
11 Feb 2008, 19:35 GMT
hope we stay 2 vc a week
42. Viral
11 Feb 2008, 19:37 GMT
I think that the Nintendo needs to have a Vote for the VC game channel. And your votes count. And they release 3 a week no matter what and people can vote based on 10 entries that Nintendo has already "acquired" and has waiting in the cue to be posted. If Wesker owned Nintendo, he would've chosen Resident Evil 2 for Nintendo 64 as a downloadable title as well as Super Mario RPG.
43. Tim
11 Feb 2008, 23:20 GMT
I like the voting idea. It will probably never happen. It could happen if we get that special Nintendo channel the Japaneses already have.
44. superduper
12 Feb 2008, 03:55 GMT
the harvest moon video looks kinda boring, maybe it has a secret charm.
45. KhaoShar
12 Feb 2008, 15:35 GMT
This might not belong here, but where the lovemaking do I find older articles on this site?!? I can't find the results of that caption-contest from the other week, and where can I access the japanese release-list once it's gone from the mainpage ?°_°? ???
46. Dazza
12 Feb 2008, 15:53 GMT
LOL
Its a little off topic but we will forgive your impetuousness. To find older news stories you will have to use the page tabs at the bottom of this page:
http://www.vc-reviews.com/news
We are working on a search function, and also tagging features to make this sort of thing easier for the future - watch this space!
47. KhaoShar
12 Feb 2008, 17:07 GMT
Big THANKS ^^_
Leave A Comment
Please login to post a comment.