Nintendo Wii Fanboy

This week, Europe gets its own milestone 100th game on the Virtual Console in the form of an N64 racer. And it also gets a Turbografx-16 game that most people apparently hate. Not us, though. If we lived in Europe, we'd be downloading right now. Just sayin'.

This week's offerings:

• F-Zero X - N64 - 1000 Wii points
• J.J. & Jeff- TG16- 600 Wii points

Let us know if you go for either of these fine games! We kind of like to talk about games occasionally.

We need to write Virtually Overlooked columns about Turbografx-16 launch games more often, because we look really cool when those games show up on the Virtual Console. Last time it was Ninja Spirit; this Monday: J.J. & Jeff! We'll say it right now, before the actual Madness ensues: buy it if you like Adventure Island. We obviously love it. Sure, it's not the Japanese version, but it's functionally identical. We'd like to personally thank Hudson for pushing World Sports Competition back a month to give us J.J. & Jeff that much sooner.

And after capping off May with a great game that only we like, Hudson is giving us more weird, wonderful TG16 stuff in June. We might be the only people who like China Warrior, but we really like China Warrior. It's a Kung Fu clone starring a Bruce Lee clone, and it has giant sprites. Also flying tea. It's weirdly enjoyable, and one of the games we've been waiting for since we first heard about Turbografx-16 games on the Virtual Console. Also coming in June: Dead Moon, Bloody Wolf, and, of course, World Sports Competition.

But, as usual, Japan's getting the real treasure: Bonk 3, China Warrior, Neutopia 2, Silent Debuggers, and ... Devil's Crush. We wish we had the money to buy everyone a copy of Devil's Crush. Even if you don't think you'll like it, you need it.

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Hudson's J.J. & Jeff isn't particularly obscure. But it happens to be one of our favorite Turbografx-16 games, and we really like talking about it. If Hudson really plans to release every US Turbografx-16 game, then we have to hurry up and get our longform rambles out while we can! Plus, apparently some people don't like this game, and, while they're entitled to their crazy, wrong opinions, we feel like it deserves defending.

As you may have guessed, we're big Turbografx-16 fans here, so Brandon Sheffield's interview with Hudson USA president John Greiner, who was with the company through that system's lifetime, was an especially good read for us. The interview is long and detailed, and covers a lot of Hudson's lesser-known franchises like Tengai Makyou, as well as the fantastic Kato-chan and Ken-chan, which we got as JJ & Jeff. It also talks about how Hudson got into the Virtual Console biz.

Here's the quote of the freaking millennium for us: "We're looking at...you know, eventually all Turbo Grafx games will be on the Virtual Console, because they're going to be emulations." Oh, no, wait, that's awesome, but here's the quote of the millennium: "We're going to work on the Turbo Grafx titles, but there were 600 some-odd PC Engine titles, and there were only 150 or so Turbo Grafx titles, so I think that if people tell us they want these games, absolutely."
We cannot control our dancing. It is difficult to type at the moment.