Nintendo World Report

Super Mario World, Gain Ground and Vigilante were released today. Besides the obvious, which ones are worth your Points?

Welcome to another week of classic game downloads on Nintendo's Virtual Console service. The Big N is coming out of the gate again this week with another 16-bit heavyweight, while Sega finally releases the last of the three games that should have been available last month. A whimpy TG16 game rounds out the three newbies that you can nab through the Wii Shop Channel.

Here's all you need to know about this batch of games.

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Super Mario World - SNES

Released 8/13/1991
1-2 Players
Cost: 800 Wii Points ($8)
Controllers: Wii Classic, GameCube

Super Mario World should need no introduction. It was the Mario title that launched with the SNES and introduced a number of things to the series. It was the first Mario game that featured Yoshi. It was the first Mario game that let you take an extra power-up item with you into a level. It was also the first game that let you play as a bona fide Super Mario, courtesy the magic cape. Nintendo took all the good things from the previous Mario games and put them into a single SNES cartridge, then added in a map with secret paths and a super-hidden set of special stages. Groovy.

Those without a Wii Classic controller should be aware that the giant gap between the B and Y Buttons on the GameCube controller will make things a little hard to handle. The SNES buttons translate directly to their GameCube counterparts, meaning that run and jump are not easily pressable at the same time. It looks like the only way to play Super Mario World on the Wii is to use a Classic controller (or an SNES RetroPort).

Super Mario World is another essential SNES game that you should own in one form or another. There's really nothing more that needs to be said about it. Now that there's a big-name Mario game from each of the three Nintendo systems available to download, we can all die happy. Well, maybe not until Super Mario Bros. 3 gets here.

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Gain Ground - Genesis

Released 1/2/1991
1-2 Players
Cost: 800 Wii Points ($8)
Controllers: Wii Remote, Wii Classic, GameCube

In the 31st Century, a peaceful human race decided it would be a good idea to create a war simulator to train people to deal with a possible alien invasion. Before that happened, though, the simulation system went haywire and trapped a bunch of people inside of it. The premise of Gain Ground is to go in to the system, battle through a room full of enemies and projectiles, get to the exit and repeat until everyone is dead. Players can choose between a 20 different characters with different attributes and weapons to help clear the way. Each stage is set up in a way where there is an optimal character to use, so you'd best rescue as many as you can along the way. You'll need them all to get through the game's 50 stages.

At first, Gain Ground seems like an extremely boring rip-off of Smash T.V. However, the further into the game you progress, the more it stands out on its own. The different characters provide an interesting twist on the gauntlet-shooter genre, and the ability to mix and match abilities with two players simultaneously opens up more possibilities. Despite it being rather slow, we'll still recommend it to people who like to take on waves of enemies with their backs to the wall.

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Vigilante - TurboGrafx 16

Released 10/1989
1 Player
Cost: 600 Wii Points ($6)
Controllers: Wii Remote, Wii Classic, GameCube

The bad guys have taken Madonna! (No, not that Madonna.) Playing the role of the Vigilante, you must battle through five puny levels filled mostly with enemies that go flying back with a single punch or kick. Once and a while you'll find a nunchuk on the ground (no, not that nunchuk) that you can use to make quick work of most enemies, which is especially important for the tougher baddies that have weapons of their own. The boss fights at the end of each level are pretty challenging, though.

Vigilante is too simple and too short for the price. The difficulty is there, but by the time you start to get the hang of things you will have beaten the game. It wouldn't have been much better if there were any two-player modes. Steer clear of this one.

Steven Rodriguez, Director