Welcome to another glorious edition of This Week in Downloads. The content on a few platforms this week was sparse, but another platform more than made up for it. Tired of me talking in code and rather I just spill it? Okay, okay, don’t push me when I’m hot.

The new year has brought changes – many businesses are reducing expenses and cutting back, and apparently we can also include Nintendo on that list. I know you’re saying, but Dan, don’t they pretty much print money with their Wii and DS, and the answer is yes they do. However, for the first couple of weeks of 2008, we are seeing one less game on Virtual Console. It’s only been a two game week and unfortunately the games haven’t been anything to write home about. Hey, we all know that every console had its share of stinkers but we all know the SNES and Genesis have some pretty good games which haven’t yet made it to the VC. Well this week we have two games that it’s even tough to find a common theme with – they puzzler Pac-Attack, and the Turbo Grafx 16 game Riot Zone, a run of the mill platformer/shooter. Pac-Attack may have some value as one of the games that has nothing to do with a maze involving Pac-Man, but for me I’d rather have seen Kickman on there instead. All Nintendo has to do is release Earthbound for me and all will be forgiven.

Moving right along, the GameTap library has three new games, none of which I’ve heard of. The first one is from their GameTap Indies program (so it makes sense I hadn’t heard of it) and it’s called Gumboy Crazy Adventures. It’s a fun little game and may remind you of a PSP puzzle game released not too long ago. Another puzzle game, D.N.A, and one action title called Drop Team round out the offerings this week. I’m a little disappointed at the lack of familiar new titles on the service – I appreciate how they are releasing games we may not have heard of but give us something name brand now and then, ok?

The Xbox 360 had some content this week worth mentioning – my personal favorite is the new table on Pinball FX which goes for 200 MS Points. The table is called Nightmare Mansion and it evokes fond memories of the old Haunted House pinball game from some time ago, even with the split “below the table” playing field. I’ve been a big fan of the Pinball FX game and this table is a lot of fun.

A new “title update” (I love that euphemism – heaven forbid we call it “patch”) has been released for Virtua Fighter 5 – and it’s not your run of the mill update. This update gives you the same version of the game as is in the arcade hardware (remember those?) so you can save those quarters, if you could find an arcade. It’s definitely worth finding your VG 5 disc among the dust and loading it up to get the update.

A new demo for EA’s FIFA Street series was put on the service, and unlike NFL Tour, I have to say that Street 3 keeps a lot of the qualities that made the franchise so popular. That being said, FIFA Street was one of the weaker entries of the franchise, so I’m going to ask you to hold all tickets until we see the final version, but there’s no harm in grabbing the demo.

One new Live Arcade game was released this week – Sierra’s Boogie Bunnies. Sorry guys but I’ve had my fill of “connect three or more balls/glow discs/rabbits” puzzle games. It could be the best one of these types of games ever released but at this point, I really couldn’t care very much. It’s a cute puzzler but I’ve been there, done that and I have better things to blow 800 points on.