Pocky & Rocky With Becky (GBA)

$6.99

So, we have the GBA Pocky and Rocky game, but we still have yet to see the SNES game see the light of day on the Wii U Virtual Console. Pocky & Rocky with Becky is one of Natsume's weaker titles, as the game is too short and easy, and takes away most of the charm the original game had. Then again, it could be worse. At least it's still better than Heavenly Guardian... Pocky and Rocky's spiritual successor.

On a side note, according to a tweet from Natsume themselves after a fan asked if they plan on bringing some of their Game Boy titles to the 3DS Virtual Console... they said that Nintendo has completely moved on from the 3DS Virtual Console, and we're not going to see any more Game Boy titles, or any other game released for the 3DS Virtual Console service. Unfortunately, I kind of believe them. The 3DS Virtual Console has pretty much dried up. The last game we saw on there was the Donkey Kong Land trilogy. Of course, they were wrong before when they said that Nintendo is looking to stop releasing SNES games on the Wii U Virtual Console. But this, I think they're actually right about.

But at least the 3DS is still getting Sega's 3D Classics. And this week, 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has been released. It was a bit of a long wait too, as the game was announced for a while now. Just like with the other games in the Sega 3D Classics line, 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 allows you to play between the Japanese and International versions, as well as CRT filters, and two player co-op. It would be nice if this version had the scrapped stage, Hidden Palace Zone like the Android and iOS remakes had. But nevertheless, this is still a good addition.

Final Fight One (GBA)

$7.99

The GBA port of Final Fight is basically what the SNES version of the game should have been. The SNES version of Final Fight is butchered in so many levels, as some of the stages were missing, and you couldn't play as all three characters. The GBA port reinstated all of that. However, the game still has it's problems. The American version still has Billy and Sid left in from the SNES version, and there's a lot of crappy character transitions with poor artwork. Also, because the game required the GBA Link Cable to play two player mode, then that feature is going to be useless on the Wii U Virtual Console.

Super Ghouls N Ghosts (GBA)

$7.99

This seems to be released for Halloween. Though this is a pretty weak choice. This GBA title is a remake of the SNES Super Ghouls N Ghosts... another game that was already released on the Wii U virtual console, thus making the addition of the GBA game very redundant.

But you know what... this really bothers me. In Europe, they released Wild Gunman on the Wii U Virtual Console in celebration of Back to the Future Day. There were articles all over the internet saying that Nintendo was going to be releasing the NES classic, and I was awaiting for this release. Instead, we get a GBA remake of an SNES game that's already included. They really couldn't wait another week to release this along with a few other Halloween themed games? After all, Halloween would be a few days away. This is one of those times where Nintendo of America really dropped the ball.

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA)

$6.99

Well, it's Halloween week, and Nintendo seems to have started too early last week, as there are no Halloween themed games released this week. Yeah... I said this before and I'll say it again... they REALLY should have released Wild Gunman last week, and have this week be the Halloween game. Not to mention the Halloween selection this year was also pretty weak as it was just a GBA remake of an SNES game that is already on the Wii U Virtual Console.

Stinger (NES)

$4.99

Man, I'm surprised Konami is still distributing some of their older titles on the Wii U Virtual Console, considering what's been going on with the company in recent years. What's interesting about Stinger is that this game is a sequel to the Japan only Famicom game, Twinbee. The Twinbee franchise, along with Ganbare Goemon, has had a number of games released by Konami in Japan. For a while, Stinger is the only game out of the series to actually be released in North America. It wasn't until 2011 that the original Twinbee got a North American release for the first time as part of the 3DS' 3D Classics series.

Nintendo listed Stinger as a 3DS Virtual Console game as opposed to Wii U. That ended up being an error. A shame too considering that this could have been the first Virtual Console game on the 3DS since February when the Donkey Kong Land trilogy was released. 

Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX (GBA)

$7.99

The newest Nintendo Direct may have been yesterday, but that sadly doesn't make this week's Virtual Console release any less of a weak one. Contra Advance is a remake of Contra 3: The Alien Wars for the SNES, though there actually did exist a Game Boy port that was released a few years after the SNES game. Even though the GBA version is better than the Game Boy port... it's still far inferior to the SNES version. For instance, you can only hold one weapon at a time, and the mega bombs were removed in the GBA port, despite being intact in the Game Boy version. Also, due to the Mode 7 graphics... the overhead stages were removed and replaced with two stages from Contra Hard Corps. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the experience any better as the slide move makes it a whole lot harder. Yeah, it's a really crappy port. On top of that too, the SNES original is already on the Wii U Virtual Console, so that makes this release redundant.

However, there is some good Virtual Console news that came in the wake of the recent Nintendo Direct. First off, Japan announced that they're going to be getting Mother 3 on the Wii U Virtual Console in December to coincide with the Lucas Amiibo. Hopefully, this means that the game will also come to the states. Also, this February, we'll be getting the original Pokemon games on the 3DS Virtual Console. Yeah, that's the first piece of news we've heard at all about the 3DS Virtual Console... and the release date is in February... a year after the last 3DS Virtual Console games (Donkey Kong Land) were released. Maybe soon, we'll finally see an end to this drought of releases we've been seeing on the 3DS side of things.

Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival (GBA)

$7.99

One thing that's interesting about this Wii U Virtual Console release of Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival is that it fixed the glitch where you fight Akuma instead of M. Bison as the final boss. It was never an issue in the Japanese version, but international versions from North America and Europe has that glitch where it causes the game to crash, and messes up your times on Survival and Time Attack. The Wii U Virtual Console version fixes that issue, at least going by the Europe release.

Of course, with this being the GBA version of the game, there are still limitations. You can't do 6 button combos due to the GBA's button layout. However, you can enable "Easy Specials" of which the game plays similar to Super Smash Bros. Also, because this is on the Wii U Virtual Console, the multiplayer is useless due to it requiring the GBA link cable.