You'll find quite a few titles below, but overall it was a pretty low-key month for the VC. Basically, the PAL Region caught up on games already released in North America. The only real excitement for these two regions came in the form of Pulseman, a top-notch platformer import, featuring some of the best graphics offerred on the Genesis and a sense of speed that resembles that of Sonic. Imagine that...

Japan scooped two classic arcade games, along with the third installment of the anything-but-Final Final Fantasy series. While the vintage RPG definitely shows it's age, the size of the adventure, story, and amount of gameplay hours provides a hell of a lot of bang for the buck.

The overall quality of NES games is staggering. It's a constant struggle to limit my greatest games list for Nintendo's iconic console to something manageable (ideally 100 or less). I've added everything from puzzle games to strategy ones and even an adevnture title as well as a run 'n gun, including:

While flying across the Atlantic today, I played the hell out of Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Hot Damn! It has to be one of the best turn-based strategy games ever, channeling the greatness of games like Military Madness and Fire Emblem. AWDS is very deep in gameplay, but you can do just fine without analzying every stat and ability of units. Very playable yet hard to master. In a word: Brilliant!

I've always entertained the idea of opening up my own bar, one that features an amazing line-up of craft beers, classic arcade games, and unusually good snack food. Just recently, during a bachelor party, I discovered that such a bar already exists in Brooklyn. It's called Barcade and features an amazing selection of vintage arcade games, probably around 25 to 30 cabinets in all, ranging from Tetris and Galaga to Contra and Joust. The beer selection is almost as fabulous—no Budd or Miller or similar swill clogging the taps—rather, you're treated to local craft brews (Sixpoint, Chelsea) as well as wider ranging ones (Lagunitas, Victory). The only thing that's lacking—I wasn't in the mood for it and didn't see any on the web site—is food. So maybe there's still some space for me to outdo Barcade one of these days...