I knew this week would come. I’ve been fearing it ever since I started writing posts on VC releases (since the VC started). This is the first week that I have never even seen at least one of the games being released in motion. I think that’s pretty good as far as track records go but it leaves me a bit out of luck for saying anything about Fantasy Zone (Sega Master System, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points) or Mega Turrican (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older-Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points), the two games released this week. Really I’ve got two options here. I can research the games via the wonders of the internet or I can make things up based on the screenshots and press release. I choose the latter.

Fantasy Zone has an obnoxious amount of pink in it and despite Aerosmith repeatedly saying that “pink is my favorite color” it is still not. The press release says it’s a shooter but that is ridiculous because shooters don’t have pink in them they have gray scales and aliens. OK, in all honesty the game looks quirky and fun enough to download and have a go at it. The gameplay involves killing enemies, then killing the boss and then moving on to the next level. Since the press release notes this I’m assuming that at the time of the game’s release this was a novel idea in the world of abstract, quirky, cute shooters. Actually, this is probably the only game that falls into that category so it is still is a novel idea.

Mega Turrican is the third game in the Turrican series, of which I’ve played the SNES games. So I’ll make the assumption here that it plays like the other ones in which you shoot bad guys using a plethora of weapons and the power of your assault suit. Shooters are always fun and the Turrican series always stuck out to me because of its Metroid like focus on exploration but with way more shooting. Also, Mega Turrican has a plasma rope weapon which is better than a regular rope weapon because it’s made of plasma.

All games go live at 9 p.m. Pacific time.