BurgerTime Deluxe (eShop)

With a next-gen game from the classic BurgerTime franchise recently out for Xbox 360, the latest Virtual Console release for 3DS may well whet your appetite in anticipation.

BurgerTime Deluxe, originally released for Game Boy, features all the same burger-dropping, ingredient-dodging action from the very first release, with that familiar monochrome glaze over the top.

As with many of these old arcade titles, the game has lost a lot of its charm now. But for the hardcore among us, seeing it through to the end will take a good few bus journeys.

What time is it?

You play as Peter Pepper, walking along platforms, climbing up and down ladders, and dodging enemies who are constantly homing in on you - if you've played the classic Chuckie Egg you'll know what to expect (although BurgerTime was actually released before it).

Peter's task is to walk over various burger bun fillings, knocking them down a level and eventually piling them all on top of each other at the bottom to make a full burger.

You can't attack the hot dogs, pickles, and eggs that are coming for you, but if one of them happens to be on a filling that falls they'll go splat, before respawning elsewhere.

The trick is to drop the fillings that are up at the top, as these will cause a chain reaction and knock down fillings that are below them. If you can knock out multiple enemies at the same time, you're laughing.

It's a lot of bun

Other elements add extra dimensions to the action. You can grab power-ups that make you invincible, kill everything on the screen, and give you extra lives.

You also have pepper shots that you can fire to disable enemies for a while, but you only have a finite number of these. Extras can be picked up, but it doesn't take long to run out of those too.

BurgerTime is frantic and good fun, but it also feels very aged. It won't take long for the average gamer to become bored, and only the most dedicated will see it through to the end.

As usual with the 3DS Virtual Console, the multiplayer is also missing, which is a huge bummer. There's also the issue of price, in that it's really not worth £2.70 - especially when you consider that the new Xbox 360 version costs only a fraction more.

BurgerTime Deluxe is a classic and well worth experiencing. But you may well want to find a cheaper, alternative way to play.