Operation Wolf and Columns III: Revenge of Columns are this week's Virtual Console releases, Nintendo has announced. Both will be available for download from the Wii Shop Channel beginning at 12 PM EST/11 AM CST.

Following the first-person exploits of a soldier tasked with liberating a concentration camp, Operation Wolf is an on-rails light gun shooter that predates such well-known examples of the genre as Mesa Logic's Area 51 and Sega's House of the Dead. Developed by Taito, the Nintendo Entertainment System port of the arcade game will sell for 500 Wii Points ($5), though it is unlikely to allow gamers to use the Wii Remote as a light gun.

Sega's Columns III, meanwhile, continues the series' penchant for providing an unrelenting assault of jewels that fall from the sky. As with other titles in the puzzle-action franchise, the former Sega Genesis-only game involves matching three or more pieces of the same color, all for the price of 800 Wii Points ($8).