VC Tuesday: Pop-up Ping-pong

The Virtual Console releases are pretty slim this week in Japan, but still just unlikely enough to show up outside of Japan to make them super interesting. First, Smash Ping Pong, a Nintendo-published Famicom Disk System version of the arcade Konami's Ping Pong. There's something hilarious about playing retro sports games, with their archaic button controls, on the Wii. Maybe it's just us.

The other game is one of the many entries in Falcom's Dragon Slayer series, Legend of Xanadu. It's a "ram into enemies" action-RPG like Ys -- and a side-scrolling RPG like Ys III.

• Smash Ping Pong (Famicom Disk System, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu (PC Engine CD-ROM, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)

WiiWare in Japan, like in the US, has a sudoku game, though it is a different one. @Simple Series Vol. 2 THE Number Place Neo is part of the super-budget WiiWare version of D3's famous Simple series. Milestone, developers of shooters like Karous and Chaos Field, contribute a poker-based falling-block puzzle game. But the most exciting release is no doubt Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu Wii, Takara Tomy's adaptation of the Pop-up Pirate toy that Chris raved about.

• @Simple Series Vol. 2 THE Number Place Neo (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu Wii (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Pokers Wii (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)