nother two videogames titles from yesteryear appear to prove their mettle on the Virtual Console in North America this week. Well, three in fact, if you take into account that one of the downloads includes the first two entries into a Turbo-Grafx Action RPG franchise. Not an RPG fan? Perhaps you’ll enjoy a beat-em-up fan favourite from the Neo Geo era instead.

Samurai Shodown II (Neo Geo, 1-2 Players, 900 Wii Points):

Following up on the extremely enthusiastic fan reception to the first SS game, SNK rebuilt the sequel from the ground up, including almost all of its predecessor’s cast, adding several new characters, and refining the overall gameplay with more responsive control, more moves.

Regarded as one of SNK’s greatest games ever produced, SAMURAI SHODOWN II successfully integrated a brand new, dynamic fighting system that was years ahead of its time. The fighting system introduced players to several new offensive and defensive maneuvers including the ability to roll both forwards and backwards, ducking to avoid high attacks, hopping to avoid low attacks and the implementation of a ‘parry’ system that would allow players to deflect incoming attacks at the last second if performed successfully. In addition to the newly revised fighting system, SAMURAI SHODOWN II also features 16 unique playable characters, hidden bosses, a two player versus mode and of course all of the wonderful translations fans have grown to love.

Ys Book 1 & 2 (TurboGrafx-16, 1 Player, 800 Wii Points):

The Ys series chronicles the adventures of Adol Christin, a red-haired young man from a Germanic country with a zest for adventure and an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time. Gameplay always revolves around Adol, though his comrade, Dogi, is a frequent companion in his travels around Esteria.

This is a Turbo CD release of the first two games of action RPG series Ys. You control a young red-haired hero named Adol Christin, whose task is to find the six books of Ys, an ancient paradise-like land that mysteriously disappeared long time ago. It is said that whoever possesses the six books can gain access into Ys. In the first game, Adol is on the quest to find the books and to enter Ys. The second game takes place in Ys itself, and Adol must defeat the evil Dark Fact to liberate the land.

Until next week… spend those Wii Points wisely!