Mario Golf, Gunman Clive hit Wii U in latest eShop update

By Danny Cowan Published September 3, 2015

This week’s Nintendo eShop update brings the N64-era golfing sim Mario Golf to the Wii U along with a selection of other retro-inspired standouts.

Originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, Mario Golf assembles the Mushroom Kingdom’s cast for a cartoonish take on the sport across multiple featured gameplay modes. The game offers a multitude of unlockable characters and even a mini-golf mode, for added gameplay variety.

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Mario Golf originally launched alongside a substantially different Game Boy Color edition, giving players the option of linking up both versions for bonus unlockables. To date, the Virtual Console versions of Mario Golf do not include support for these Transfer Pak-enabled features.

Also arriving on the Wii U eShop this week is Gunman Clive HD Collection, a bundle featuring a pair of visually updated run-and-gun shooters originally released for the Nintendo 3DS. Inspired by the Contra series, the Gunman Clive games boast a unique sketchbook artstyle and gameplay that grows in complexity and weirdness as players progress.

Though Gunman Clive begins in a fairly typical Wild West setting, later levels find the cowboy hero battling robots, dinosaurs, and other unlikely threats. The Gunman Clive HD Collection, priced at $4, updates the original games with HD-quality textures and adds support for Wii U GamePad off-TV play.

Vs. Excitebike rounds out this week’s Wii U eShop lineup. A sequel to the classic Nintendo Entertainment System motocross racer, Vs. Excitebike features a split-screen two-player mode in addition to a revised track creation toolkit.

Initially released exclusively in Japan for the Famicom Disk System add-on peripheral, Vs. Excitebike‘s Virtual Console debut this week marks the first time the game has ever been available in North America. Vs. Excitebike is up for grabs from the Wii U eShop for $5 this week.

Over on the 3DS, eShop customers can expect to see the quiz show adaptation Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? this week, along with a new demo version of Engine Software’s forward-scrolling racer Proun+.

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