This week is Virtual Console week for Wii owners in both the Australian and European territories, and Nintendo has released three more classics onto the retro download service for fans to lap up and enjoy. This week features two Commodore 64 titles and one for the Master System.

Whilst people eagerly await next week’s WiiWare release of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free, this week gamers will have to make do with three very old hits:

Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System, 500 Wii Points)
The gameplay featured slightly different mechanics to the 16-bit version. Level designs were different and new stages were created for the game. Chaos Emeralds now had to be found within certain levels, as opposed to finding them in Special Stages, and boss levels did not have any rings, requiring you to beat the level without getting hit. At the end of an act, the panel would land on an icon that, based on certain requirements, would offer a bonus such as extra rings, lives or access to the Special Stage. The designers intended for the graphics to be easily viewed by the players. The designers used “soft” colours, which do not cause eye strain. At the same time the designers ensured that the graphics did not heavily differ from the Mega Drive games. This Master System version contains six Zones, each made up of three Acts. In each zone, the third act contains a boss battle with Dr. Robotnik and a Chaos Emerald is hidden in one of the first two acts.

Jumpman (Commodore 64, 500 Wii Points)
Jumpman is a platform game written by Randy Glover and released by Epyx in 1983. Originally developed for the Atari 400/800, versions were also released for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM PC. The object of the game is to defuse all bombs in a platform-filled screen. Jumpman defuses a bomb by touching it. According to the story, these are placed on Jupiter by terrorists. Jumpman can climb up and down ladders, and of course jump, and there are two kinds of rope each allowing a single direction of climbing only. Hazards include falling, ’smart darts’ (small bullets that fly slowly across the screen, but when orthogonally lined up with Jumpman, greatly speed up and shoot straight in his direction) and other hazards that are unique to a certain level. Points are awarded for each bomb defused, with bonus points available for completing a level quickly. Jumpman’s game run-speed can be chosen by the player, with faster speeds being riskier but providing greater opportunity to earn bonus points. “Jumpman” was the original name used for Mario in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, which featured several elements (such as the ladders and levels aspects) that would appear in Jumpman. Randy Glover has stated that Donkey Kong was the original inspiration for Jumpman, although it is not clear that the naming commonality is anything but a coincidence.

Boulderdash (Commodore 64, 500 Wii Points)
Boulder Dash, aka Rockford, originally released in 1984, is a classic series of computer games for the Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari 400/800 home computers, and later ported to the NES, Acorn Electron, PC, Amstrad CPC, Amiga and many other platforms. It was created by Peter Liepa and Chris Gray, and on October 28, 1983, acquired and later published by First Star Software, which still owns the rights to the game. The hero of the game, whom the player controls, is the brave prospector “Rockford”. He must dig through caves collecting gems and diamonds, while avoiding various types of dangerous creatures as well as obstacles like falling rocks and the constant danger of being crushed or trapped by an avalanche, or killed by an underground explosion. Boulder Dash is one of the very few computer games ever to be ported from home computers to arcades (contrary to the other way around).

So which, if any, out of these will you be considering picking up? Be sure to let us know your thoughts by posting below…