VC/WiiWare Tuesday: Contra and more

Today's Virtual Console and WiiWare offerings in Japan are shockingly good. So good that if a release week like this happened outside of Japan even once every six months or so, nobody would complain about Nintendo's downloads. Even if we ignore the three WiiWare games that are already out in North America, it's wall-to-wall quality.

Well, we're kind of assuming that Contra Rebirth is quality. Even if it's terrible, we know we're in for a $10 download of an original Contra game when it shows up here. We know that the WiiWare Art Style games are fantastic, because we've been playing them since last year.

On Virtual Console, the PC Engine CD-ROM version of SimEarth and the arcade release of the brutal Tower of Druaga pale before Downtown Special, a Japan-only sequel to River City Ransom starring Kunio and friends as samurai.

Virtual Console:

• Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zenin Shuugo (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
• SimEarth (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• The Tower of Druaga (Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

WiiWare:

• Art Style: CUBELEO (1 player, 600 Wii Points)
• Art Style: DIALHEX (1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Art Style: ORBITAL (1 player, 600 Wii Points)
• Contra Rebirth (1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)