If you live in the Portland, Oregon area or will be visiting there next month, check out their Retro Gaming Expo. The expo will take place from September 18-19, 2010 at the Portland Crowne Plaza. The Portland Retro Gaming Expo celebrates anything and everything related to classic video games.

The Xbox Live Arcade is to retro video game stars what VH1 is to aging rock stars: One last chance to rock the masses and show these kids they’re still cool.

Konami digs deep into its character archives for this one, as Sparkster the Rocket Knight hasn’t been seen since the early ’90s. Hard to say why he never made it big. Maybe he got lost in the “me too” mascot craze as a wave of Sonic the Hedgehog impersonators assaulted video game store shelves back in the day.

The 16-bit era was chock full of cute little animals trying to win our hearts and slip into the cartridge slots on our consoles. Many of them faded away and deservedly so. A few, though, are still remembered fondly. Sparkster is one of the latter and Konami has announced he’s coming back may 2010 in a new game, Rocket Knight.

Sparkster first appeared on the Sega Genesis in 1993′s Rocket Knight Adventures. His games were directed by Nobuya Nakazato, who also brought us the Konami classic Contra. Though they starred a cute little animal, Sparkster’s games were more about run-and-gun action than platforming. The games really pushed the graphic and gameplay capabilities of the 16-bit era machines.

In honor of today’s launch of WiiWare titles, there is no regularly scheduled update to the Virtual Console. I’ll take this opportunity to pine (once again) for a VC release of Majora’s Mask, one of the most innovative (and, in my opinion, under appreciated) Zelda titles of all time. It also happens to be a game I got 75% of the way through, then my N64 broke down – hence the need for the VC treatment. What else are you itching to see on the Virtual Console?

In case you’re wondering, here’s gaygamer’s list of launch WiiWare titles, available now:

After a long-ish drought, it looks like the Virtual Console is getting the goods again. With the recent news that SNES classic EarthBound is likely to land on the VC and today’s release of super-addictive N64 puzzler Pokemon Puzzle League, I’m happy to be a retro gamer again. Also on tap this week is NES brawler Renegade, but I’m going to be too busy with my Tetris Attack Clone to bother. All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM Pacific time. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new games bring the North American count to 223.

It’s actually a totally decent week on the Virtual Console – with two NES classics that are both worth their 500 point asking price. We’ve got super addictive puzzler Yoshi’s Cookie and the awesome (if simplistic) Baseball sim Bases Loaded. All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM PST. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new games bring the North American count to 216.

Nintendo’s descriptions, from the press release:

It’s another week of two on the Virtual Console. This time around, we have our first Sega Master System game, Wonder Boy; along with shallow-yet-fun Nintendo 64 racer Cruis’n USA. Both are worth checking out, especially Wonder Boy (which is a steal at $5). All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM PST. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new games bring the North American count to 214.

Nintendo’s descriptions, from the press release:

This week, the Virtual Console is receiving two retro-tastic titles (as per the usual). We have King’s Knight on the NES and Genesis sports mash-up Powerball in a rather low-key lineup. I’m still waiting for Majora’s Mask, but hey, to each their own. All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM PST. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new games bring the North American count to 212.

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This week, the Virtual Console gives us one of the most beloved classic shooters (Super R-Type) and the NES version of Spelunker, another classic in its own right. All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM PST. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new games bring the North American count to 210.

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After last week’s rather anemic VC update (of only one title – Super Turrican), Nintendo is bringing two import-only selections to the VC this week. DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure is an action-packed sequel to Milon’s Secret Castle, and Puyo Puyo 2: Tsuu is one of the best iterations of classic puzzler Puyo Pop/Dr. Robotnick’s Mean Bean Machine.

All VC titles are available on the Wii Shop channel, with a fresh batch arriving every Monday at 9 AM PST. Wii points can be purchased at a rate of $1 for 100 points. The new games bring the North American count to 208.Nintendo’s description from the press release: