VC Monday Madness: Gate of Thunder heralds a new system

Not only do we get our first originally-CD-based game on the Virtual Console, but Hudson skipped ahead and went straight to the more powerful version of their Turbografx-16 CD platform, the TurboDuo (for which Gate of Thunder was a pack-in). And by all accounts, Gate of Thunder is among the best of the Turbo's many shooters. In fact, reviewer Malc said "Gate of Thunder is living proof that there's such a thing as a perfect shmup." So it's got historical significance and, apparently, awesomeness going for it.

If you're not up for another shmup, there's also Ninja Gaiden II, which is a whole lot like the first one (which is not at all a bad thing) except you can get two shadow-clone Ryus to run around behind you like in Ninja Spirit. Or Metal Marines, which is a rarity-- a turn-based strategy game for the SNES. Overall, this is a very nice VC week-- at least all of the games should display correctly.

• Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES, 1player, 500 Wii Points)
• Metal Marines (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Gate of Thunder (TurboDuo, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)