Metal Marines, Ninja Gaiden II, Gate of Thunder on Virtual Console
by Justin McElroy 
{ Oct 15th 2007 at 8:55AM }
- Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): Though you can't buy Game of the Year 2008 Ninja Gaiden II right now, you can at least have the experience of buying a Ninja Gaiden II. And honestly, if you like ninjas flipping out and killing people, why let a thing like the lack of a third dimension get in the way?
- Metal Marines (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Metal Marines is a real-time strategy game for the Super NES, considered by no one to be the very best platform for playing real-time strategy games. If you're not deterred, you can see a clip for yourself right here.
- Gate of Thunder (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): So, this is a rip-off. We finally get a TurboGrafx16 CD ROM game and what is it? Well, it's not Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, that's for sure. When will the FMV bias end? That said, this clip of this side-scrolling shooter looks pretty insane, so maybe it's not all bad.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DarthDavid @ Oct 15th 2007 9:03AM
Gate of Thunder.....Thank you LORD! The Wii got me in shump heaven dudes =)
Jerk Face @ Oct 15th 2007 9:13AM
That looks crap-your-pants hard!
DaiMac79 @ Oct 15th 2007 10:05AM
I remember Gamepro devoting a full spread to loving on this game when it came out, and me wishing I had several hundred dollars so I could get a CD-Duo to play it on. Definitely going to try out when I get home later.
danny. (fdf.) @ Oct 15th 2007 9:05AM
isn't that ninja gaiden I in the video?
Jerk Face @ Oct 15th 2007 9:13AM
Yes.
JodyAnthony @ Oct 15th 2007 9:05AM
NES NG2 is the best game in the Ninja Gaiden series, IMO
Fernando Rocker (NDF - Water Ring) @ Oct 15th 2007 9:25AM
Yes... its my favorite Ninja Gaiden game... but I want to try the DS version... hope they do a good work with the controls, ala Zelda Phantom Hourglass.
Victor @ Oct 15th 2007 10:09AM
I wish hudon/nintendo would just place a tg-16 cd emu for download.... i would love to replay gate of thunder, but my tg-16 cd power adapter is mia and i don't feel like buying a new one yet.
I wonder if they'll follow it up with Lords of Thunder next week. will genesis cd be coming soon?
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 15th 2007 9:33AM
TG-16 CD games needs less garbage and more Rondo of Blood.
Fandel @ Oct 15th 2007 9:46AM
Uh, Gates of Thunder was one of the best Shooters to come out in 1993.
This game is better than 80% of the crap that gets released on the Virtual Console.
Ed @ Oct 15th 2007 10:03AM
I think the point he was trying to make was that we NEED more Castlevania.
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 15th 2007 10:07AM
yes, but next to Rondo of Blood, everything is crap. Especially on TG-16.
Konny @ Oct 15th 2007 10:23AM
Rondo is too big.. esp. if they take the CD image... notice they never confirmed TG-CD games.. just the non-CD games.. same with sega and neogeo.
Too bad Wii is gimped with 512mb of built in memory.. you can get a 512mb usn thumbstick for $5 nowadays.
Jerk Face @ Oct 15th 2007 10:28AM
For once I actually agree with Konny - the Wii needs a bigger HD.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Oct 15th 2007 10:34AM
The Wii does need more storage space, but Konny is still an idiot because they've announced TG-16 CD games with the full soundtrack (most TG-CD games used the CD portion for audio only). With todays compression techniques they can get the image down to less than 50 meg
Still spacey for the Wii's internal memory, but not so large as to make it impossible, nor impractical.
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 11:45AM
Symphony of the Night is under 150 MB on the 360. Rondo of Blood is NO WHERE near that size. I think you could fit 10 Rondo of Bloods on the Wii's internal memory
NaeemTHM @ Oct 15th 2007 9:34AM
Hell yes! Ninja Gaiden Deuce is the best one out of the original NES trilogy.
johnny g @ Oct 15th 2007 9:50AM
do you guys think we'll ever see sega cd, gameboy, gamegear or virtual boy games on the VC? I'd be THRILLED to have some sega cd stuff!!
Jerk Face @ Oct 15th 2007 10:28AM
How in the holy hell would they do Virtual Boy games!?
LOL
Konny @ Oct 15th 2007 9:50AM
Meh, I'll be playing the Real Ninja Gaiden 2 on 360 in a few months... maybe it will be ported to Wii 4.0 in 2017.
Fernando Rocker (NDF - Water Ring) @ Oct 15th 2007 10:03AM
My guess: You are less than 20 year old and never played the original NES. Newbie.
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 10:07AM
Seeing as this predates the the first Xbox game by a good 14 years, I'm calling THIS the REAL Ninja Gaiden II.
samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 15th 2007 11:08AM
Wow, Konny. You're really settin' a record for saying stupid things today, aren't you?
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 15th 2007 10:13AM
Way to go Konny. The Xbox 360 games are but a shadow of the greatness of the original classics.
Or something. They're both classics, and both hard as all balls. I'm just an old-schooler.
JD @ Oct 15th 2007 10:18AM
Has anyone downloaded Gates of Thunder yet? How does the audio sound? It originally streamed from the CD so I'm wondering how they got around this in the limited memory of the Wii.
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 10:40AM
Compression. Duh.
JD @ Oct 15th 2007 11:15AM
Wow, thanks Mega, you really helped me out. Let's try this again. Considering even compression could take 5-10% of the total Wii system memory, anyone actually downloaded this thing yet?
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 11:43AM
The only thing taking up a lot of space on the CD is the audio. Compression techniques these days can reduce the size of a full 70-minute CD (roughly 700 MB) to about 50 MB or less.
I really don't see many Turbo Duo games being all too large. I doubt they'll ever be as large as a big N64 title.
AirIntake @ Oct 15th 2007 10:39AM
HAHA, I still have the Win 3.1 version of Metal Marines on my laptop and desktop. That game could be quite addictive.
Crowbar @ Oct 15th 2007 5:50PM
I still have copies of the Windows version too. A friend of mine and I used to have some intense matches to the point where I would freak out nearly anytime a missile came out from the other window. Good times!
Not sure how the SNES version compares, but at least the PC one was pure gold.
Chyld989 @ Oct 15th 2007 11:05AM
Here's hoping they do Lords of Thunder next week (or at least soon). Gate is good, but Lords is so much better.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 15th 2007 11:26AM
Ninja Gaiden II Hurray for ShadowClone-jutsu!
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Oct 15th 2007 11:31AM
Go Ninja Go Ninja Go!
WiNG @ Oct 15th 2007 11:37AM
I humbly request:
-Sonic CD
-Sonic & Knuckles with LOCK ON (TM) Technology
-NiGHTS into Dreams
-Conker's Bad Fur Day
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 11:47AM
I'm sick of Sonic & Knuckles lock-on. Sonic 3 is an average game. Sonic & Knuckles is an average game. Put 'em back to back and all of a sudden you have liquid gold? I don't think so.
WiNG @ Oct 15th 2007 12:17PM
megaStryke is just sad because he could never beat S3&K, or get a single chaos emerald.
S3&K is epic, and cannot be dismissed as easily as you have just tried.
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 12:37PM
I've mastered all the Genesis games, and I feel justified in crowning Sonic 2 as the franchise's magnum opus. Sonic 3 was bigger but lacked the heart. Sonic & Knuckles was bland until you locked it onto Sonic 3. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is BIG, I'll give you that, and it offered plenty more than either individual game, but Sonic 2 was the true labor of love. Sonic 2 is to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as Mega Man 2 is to Mega Man 3.
DaiMac79 @ Oct 15th 2007 1:40PM
Megastryke: I find it odd that you favor MM2 over MM3, as MM2 was significantly easier/shorter IMO, while 3 wasn't revolutionary either I prefer it to MM2.
I do agree with you about Soinc 2 being better than S3+K.
megaStryke @ Oct 15th 2007 3:09PM
Mega Man 2 set the standard for all future Mega Man titles. Sure, there was that ONE game that came before it, but most conventions began with the sequel. There is also that "almost never was" history behind Mega Man 2. The original didn't sell well, but Capcom decided to give Keiji Inafune one last shot. Inafune used every ounce of his creativity to craft the Mega Man he really wanted. In fact, you can probably find an interview or two where he admits that Mega Man 2 is his personal favorite entry in the series. It shows. It was a labor of love. We were introduced to the best music in the series and some of the best weapons as well (Metal Blades).
Mega Man 3 was a fantastic follow-up. It gave us more of what we wanted. Of course, at this point Inafune was golden, so this iteration wasn't leaps and bounds over its predecessor.
As for Mega Man 3 being harder? I beg to differ. Two reasons (among many) off the top of my head: 1) Quick Man. Everything about him. His level. The fight. Unless you had the Time Stopper, you had to be a master of quick reflexes before even attempting his domain. 2) The boss of Wily level 4. The security room with the wall-mounted laser eyes. You were screwed if you wasted even ONE Crash Bomb.
Mr Khan @ Oct 15th 2007 5:33PM
I prefer Sonic 3 & Knuckles
but Knuckles is the whole reason for that, Hyper Knuckles is awesome, and although Sonic 2 was great, i have never been very kindly disposed to Tails (but remember, i only discovered Sonic in the Dreamcast era, and fell in love with the cool Knuckles while turned off by that idiot Tails)
Martin @ Oct 15th 2007 2:35PM
I'm still waiting for Ys Book I&II.
Mr Khan @ Oct 15th 2007 5:40PM
I don't know, i wouldn't've handed GOTY 2008 to Ninja Gaiden 2 at this early juncture (there's still MGS4 & Crisis Core), but now that Brawl is back there too...
Of course, that's disregarding the silliness that comes from that whole consideration so soon in the game
Fish @ Oct 15th 2007 8:16PM
Metal Marines? : o
Good times... holy junk I must have it. : D