This Week in Defunct Games - March 22, 2011

What Is It? Natsume Champion Wrestling is a rare breed. No, it's not because it's a Natsume game that has absolutely nothing to do with Harvest Moon. It's rare because it's a sports game on the Virtual Console. What's more, it's a wrestling game. By my count there hasn't been a wrestling game on the Virtual Console since Pro Wrestling in 2006! It may have taken them five years to upload another wrestling game, but you could do a whole lot worse than Natsume Championship Wrestling.

As the title suggests, this is a Japanese wrestling game for the Super NES. You play as one of a few fictional fighters, including Asteroid, Fangz, Phantom, Big Ape, Python, Spike and a whole bunch of other characters with stupid names. The game offers a few modes, such as the Championship Mode, Tag Team, Round Robin, etc. Of course, the real fun comes from the two-player action. Learn the moves and take on your friends in Natsume Championship Wrestling.

Does It Still Hold Up? I've never understood the appeal of wrestling games when there are perfectly good fighting games on the market. Who wants to grapple and toss when you throw fireballs and do a spinning bird kick. Natsume Championship Wrestling plays like most Japanese wrestling games of that era, it's slow and methodical. The controls are easy enough to learn, but the technique takes some time to master. Even after I got the hang of the game, I never found a compelling reason to continue. The two-player mode can be fun, but it doesn't last long enough.

Is It Worth The Money? I'm not a big fan of traditional wrestling games. Even modern updates (with their fancy WWE licenses and production value) bore me to tears. Natsume Championship Wrestling has a few interesting characters and I can see the appeal of the multiplayer mode, but there's nothing here for me. The controls feel stiff and there's little to do but fight the same AI opponents over and over. I'm sure that there are people elated at the news of another wrestling game on the Virtual Console; I'm just not one of them.

What Is It? Sold as a cinematic role-playing game, Parasite Eve mixes equal parts Final Fantasy and Resident Evil. This story-driven adventure may not be as scary as Capcom's long-running horror franchise, but it steals enough of the trappings to be considered a turn-based survival horror game. Fans of cinematic pre-rendered camera angles, mutating goo and thick atmosphere will get a kick out of this Square game, even if the simplistic combat is a letdown after some of their past RPGs.

In Parasite Eve you take control of Aya, a rookie cop who is the lone survivor in a horrific opera massacre. The things she witnesses (instantaneous combustion, floating women, mutant rats, etc.) is enough to convince her to take on the case, which has her running around NYC fighting monsters in the city's biggest landmarks. Although Parasite Eve was far from Square's most popular game, it did manage to spawn a PlayStation sequel (as well as a third installment on the PSP, due out at the end of the month).

Does It Still Hold Up? After spending so much time comparing it to Resident Evil, I was elated to find that Parasite Eve does not control like a tank. For the most part, the game's controls are solid. I also enjoyed the simple combat, which works extremely well for this style of adventure game. Unfortunately, the game's difficulty takes a hit in the second half. I found that around the halfway point I was so powerful that I had no problem steamrolling over the competition. I also never had to worry about bullets, which kept Parasite Eve from hitting the same scares as Resident Evil. It's also worth pointing out that there isn't any voice acting, a design decision that dates the game.

Is It Worth The Money? Critics were not kind to Parasite Eve. When it was first released, this Square role-player was maligned for its linear story and short adventure. Yes, Parasite Eve is short ... but only if you compare it to Final Fantasy VII. The adventure wraps up around the twelve hour mark, which is paltry for an adventure game. After spending the week speeding through the narrative, I came away impressed. The fact that it's not 40 hours is one of the reasons why I was able to finish this game; it was the perfect length for the price. There's just enough of a storyline to keep me going and I felt satisfied by the ending. It may not be Square's finest 32-bit game, but Parasite Eve is definitely worth the six dollars.