People with virtual currency burning pixelated holes in their alternate reality pockets can check out the Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii Virtual Console this week for some new (or perhaps old) titles. The most exciting offerings this week look to be the Jeff Minter shooter Space Giraffe and the wonderful SNES classic, Super Metroid.

Xbox Live Arcade

• Street Trace: NYC (800 Microsoft Points): A futuristic 3D multiplayer racing hoverboard game, it seems fairly bland but does offer the all too rare drop-in multiplayer feature plus a slew of different game modes for both single player and multiplayer with the latter including both online and split-screen play. The game may not have a lot in the way of a compelling premise but it does have a good number of checklist features.
• Space Giraffe (400 Microsoft Points): 100 levels of psychedelic shooter goodness from the maker of Tempest 2000. Do you really need more reasons?

Wii Virtual Console

• Super Metroid (800 Wii Points): The Super Nintendo had an inordinate number of very noteworthy games. Even among those, this one should be counted among the very best. If you haven’t played this and kind of wonder what the big deal is with Metroid, here’s your chance to find out. This continues Nintendo’s march toward next week’s release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
• Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (800 Wii Points): A Sega Genesis sequel that is probably better known for it’s strange development course correction and the fact that beta versions that never got released can be found online than for being what some consider to be the pinnacle of the series. Any other week this might be a great release but considering their identical prices, if you only have 800 Wii Points to spend, go with Metroid first.
• Neutopia (600 Wii Points): It looks like the TurboGrafx-16’s answer to Legend of Zelda. Assuming the question is, “What are you going to do to rip off one of our most popular franchises, Hudson Soft?”