Three new games is typical, but gift-giving? Insanity!

by Benjamin Buday, Editor-in-Chief

Now that my schedule accommodates my fondness for loooong weekends (read: no Monday or Friday classes), I can finally stop checking damn wikipedia and Joystiq and boot up my own console to see for myself what’s new for download. Chances are I’ll be making the rounds on the ‘net anyway, but in the name of journalistic integrity, I can report the releases knowing with complete accuracy. If I ever report rumored releases or speculation, you’ll know, and you’ll know where I first heard it from. That’s how I roll.

Okay, on to the goods. This week’s VC releases:

-Baseball Stars 2 — Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 points. Can’t say I’ve played this game, but I’m still holding out for the Ken Griffey series on Super Nintendo or the RBI Baseball series for Sega Genesis. I’d wait on dropping $9 on this unless you know it’s good.

-Ghosts ‘n Goblins – NES, 1 player, 500 points. Personally, I’d opt for this game’s sequel, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, because well, it was more fun. Better graphics. Better gameplay.

-Pokémon Snap – Nintendo 64, 1 player, 1000 points. If there’s money to be spent on virtual console gaming this week, this Pokémon spin-off is most deserving of your cash. This on-rails photography game also has new functionality for Wi, allowing players to send photographs to the message board and to other Wii owners. I didn’t play more than a few minutes of this back when it was released, but it’s definitely something I’ll be checking out once my bank account stabilizes.

But what’s this? A new feature in the Wii Shop Channel? You betcha. As announced last week (initially for Japanese gamers), Wii owners can now purchase and send Virtual Console games to each other. As long as you have the person’s friend code and their parental limits match the rating of the games, you can avoid showering and going out and instead send your friend Super Castlevania or Streets of Rage 2 (which both he and you should already own, by the way). When you go to pick a game, at the usual download screen, you’ll be greeted by a new, shiny button. Take a gander.

I’ll be posting a video of how to do this later tonight, so check back in the wee hours of the morning or tomorrow to check it out. And yes, I purposely avoided a chance to be punny with “wee hours.” The phrase is silly enough as it is.

(Photo Cred: Wii Shop Channel is from Nintendo.com, Wii Remote image from wikipedia.org)

Benjamin can be reached at Benjamin@megazinemedia.com.