Two old favorites return in this week's Wii Update, with the rebirth of Konami's classic shooter, Gradius, and the re-release of Sega's Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars.
Gradius ReBirth (1,000 Wii points) is a remix of Konami's classic shoot em up series. Players get five levels worth of frantic shooter action, which can be played in their entirety with unlimited continues in standard mode, or taken on in Score Attack mode, where players have a single credit to beat the game. Score Attack mode also supports online leaderboards, and the kids do love online leaderboards.
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (500 Wii points) is of course the classic Sega Master System platformer, released on the Virtual Console in its original glory.
Check out the official Nintendo descriptions below for more info, while I try to figure out whether or not I should be excited.
WiiWare
Gradius ReBirth (Konami, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Blast your way through levels filled with alien spaceships and otherworldly creatures in this retro side-scrolling shooter. Pick your weapons carefully and upgrade them to create a devastating arsenal of space-aged weapons that will aid you in your challenging mission. Players can post their high scores to worldwide leader boards via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection and see where they rank against all the other Gradius ReBirth players. Test your skills with Gradius ReBirth and see if you have what it takes to beat this action-packed arcade shooter.
Virtual Console
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars™ (SEGA MASTER SYSTEM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, Crude Humor, 500 Wii Points): In this platformer from the 1980s, help Alex Kidd in a race against time to find the 12 missing zodiac signs hidden in six challenging levels-including toyland, the robot factory and an outer-space level-all complete with crazy enemies.