It’s been over a months since a new N64 game has been released for the Virtual Console and this week we get one.

Pokemon Puzzle League - N64 - 2000 - 1000 Wii Points

Get ready for a new kind of Pokémon battle where the power and speed of your brain are just as important as the strength of your Pokémon. Join Ash, Brock, Misty and many more characters from the Pokémon animated series as they gather in Puzzle Village to compete for the title of Pokémon Puzzle Master. [Originally published by Nintendo]

Renegade - NES - 1988 - 500 Wii Points

Renegade follows the story of a vigilante who fights his way through countless gangs in order to bring peace back to his city. Battle your way through subways, parks, alleyways and parking lots. [Originally published by Taito]

Because it’s always encouraging to see another N64 title for the VC, our pick this week is Pokemon Puzzle League. What’s your pick?

This week marks the debut of Sega Master System games on the Virtual Console. What better way to kick it off than with Wonder Boy!

Wonder Boy - Master System - 1987 - 500 Wii Points
Just when things were going great with Tom-Tom and his girlfriend Tanya, some thug of a woodland king had to kidnap her and hide her away, and Tom-Tom doesn’t have a clue where. [Developed by Westone]

Cruis’n USA - N64 - 1996 - 1000 Wii Points
Slam the pedal to the metal and hang on for a wild race across the highways of America. [Developed by Midway]

Having a new console available virtually makes Wonder Boy our easy pick of the week! What’s yours?

Virtual Console goes psychedelic this week!

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - N64 - 2000 - 1,000 Wii Points
Kirby’s first 3-D adventure is also his Nintendo 64 debut, and it finds the always-versatile hero battling a new enemy called Dark Matter. Dark Matter is after a distant land’s powerful crystal, but a young fairy named Ribbon attempts to save it by escaping with the gem to Dream Land.

Psychosis - TG16 - 1990 - 600 Wii Points
This is a side-scrolling shooter played in a world created from the mind of a twisted demon. Your soul has suddenly wandered into that evil world that exists in every person’s heart.

Will either of these games entice some Wii Points out of your virtual pocket?

Another week, another game .. wait, just one game?

1080° Snowboarding - N64 - 1998 - 1,000 Wii Points
Hit the slopes for some serious shredding in one of the first truly realistic snowboarding games ever created! Start in the lodge and select from five characters, each with his/her own particular attributes and special tricks. (more…)

The recently released Wave Race 64 for the Virtual Console has been updated to include Wii and DS ads.  I’m not pointing fingers or naming names, but didn’t they tell us that the classic games would go unaltered?  I’m assuming they removed the old Kawasaki ads.  What’s next, the Burger King mascot in the 64 version of Smash Bros?

[Check out Wii Fanboy for more pix.]

The Tanooki has one of the finds of the century in this sleek, modified TIE Advanced x1 fighter. Who knew Vader needed a Zelda fix while chasing Luke down that trench?

On Monday, June 4th, Nintendo will make Zelda II: The Adventure of Link available for the Wii’s Virtual Console. This marks the 100th game added to the list of titles available in the Wii Shop Channel.

Nintendo hasn’t really ever provided sales data for the Shop Channel before, but they let us know what the top five downloads are thus far:

1) Super Mario Bros. (NES)
2) Super Mario 64 (N64)
3) Mario Kart 64 (N64)
4) Super Mario World (SNES)
5) The Legend of Zelda (NES)

With 40% of their top 5 made up by N64 games, Nintendo needs to put some more titles from that console on the market. What games are you still waiting to see added to the Virtual Console?

A lot has been said about Nintendo’s love/hate relationship with 3rd party publishers. Infendo decided to take a look at review scores for 3rd party games released on N64, GBA, GameCube, DS, and Wii. Comparing the aggregate scores from Metacritic, we were able to mathematically determine the Top 10 3rd Party Nintendo Games:

We discovered that 3rd party games for DS and Wii just don’t stack up against those for Nintendo’s legacy systems. In fact, the overall top games for GameCube were mostly 3rd party titles, none of which remained exclusive to the system.

There were significantly more 1st party releases getting top scores for N64, GBA, and DS. This shows us that Nintendo’s recent home consoles get good 3rd party support, while primarily leaving the handheld software to the Big N.

What would your list look like?