Critiquing the Virtual Console

[BoringSupreez]

This gives me the opportunity to post a list I made this January. All the titles in red aren't available on the VC:

Super Mario World
Yoshi's Island
Super Metroid
Link to the Past
Earthbound
Castlevania IV
Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy II
Secret of Mana
Super Mario RPG
SimCity
SimCity 2000
Pilotwings
Kirby's Dreamland 3
Kirby's Avalanche
Kirby SuperStar
Super Star Wars
Super Empire Strikes Back
Super Return of the Jedi
Star Fox
Super Mario All-Stars
Chuck Rock
Illusion of Gaia
Lemmings
Street Fighter II
The Lost Vikings
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim 2
F-Zero
Super Mario Kart
Super Punch-Out!
Contra III
Super Ghosts 'n Ghouls
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures

This is only for SNES. And, obviously, this list is far from complete.

[MrPopo]

Your list is out of date. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, and Mega Man X are on the VC. Star Fox and Yoshi's Island both require SuperFX support. Most of the others are due to licensing issues.

[BoringSupreez]

Your list is out of date. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, and Mega Man X are on the VC. Star Fox and Yoshi's Island both require SuperFX support. Most of the others are due to licensing issues.

I fixed it. But that still leaves several quality games which aren't on the VC.

[timewarpgamer]

In an effort to highlight at least one good thing about the VC, I recently wrote a feature about the best bargain downloads on the service:

http://timewarpgamer.com/features/wii_vc_bargains.html

[AznKhmerBoi]

i thought nintendo won the case in the court of ownership of Tetris?

Tetris.

How the FUCK is the VC not selling Tetris?

Because no one knows who actually owns the rights to the game.

[Opa Opa]

In an effort to highlight at least one good thing about the VC, I recently wrote a feature about the best bargain downloads on the service:

*link*

I enjoyed the article but this:

Granted, it's unlockable on the PSP's Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, but who wants to go through the trouble of playing a so-so Castlevania game in order to unlock a much better one? Think Castlevania: Symphony of Night is fantastic? Find out where Konami started to develop that incredible Metroidvania template with Rondo of Blood.

Now in terms of value, the Dracula X Chronicles is worth it over the VC download. For around $11 you get the Rondo of Blood remake, the original Rondo of Blood, and Castlevania: SotN. Last time I checked, SotN costs $10 on PSN. The game compilation is worth that alone considering you get it on a physical copy.

Is it worth spending 15 minutes to unlock these games? Yes, it most certainly is.

[fastbilly1]

Tetris.

How the FUCK is the VC not selling Tetris?

500 points for NES version of Tetris or 1200 points for Tetris Party wiiware that is four player, has a dozen game modes, and online multiplayer.

[timewarpgamer]

In an effort to highlight at least one good thing about the VC, I recently wrote a feature about the best bargain downloads on the service:

*link*

I enjoyed the article but this:

Granted, it's unlockable on the PSP's Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, but who wants to go through the trouble of playing a so-so Castlevania game in order to unlock a much better one? Think Castlevania: Symphony of Night is fantastic? Find out where Konami started to develop that incredible Metroidvania template with Rondo of Blood.

Now in terms of value, the Dracula X Chronicles is worth it over the VC download. For around $11 you get the Rondo of Blood remake, the original Rondo of Blood, and Castlevania: SotN. Last time I checked, SotN costs $10 on PSN. The game compilation is worth that alone considering you get it on a physical copy.

Is it worth spending 15 minutes to unlock these games? Yes, it most certainly is.

Point taken. I completely forgot that Symphony of Night was unlockable as well. Thanks for the comments. Just updated the feature, so it now reads: "Keep in mind, though, that it's unlockable (along with Symphony of the Night!) onCastlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, so if you have a PSP that's an even better deal than downloading just Rondo."

[k.vlaros]

I read the original critique blog post and the followup bargains post. Thanks for the links; I hadn't been to your site before.

Your critique misses a bit in so far as you want to nudge Nintendo's clear aim to something else than theirs. Nintendo is obviously dead-set on delivering strict recreations of what current gamers experienced as kids in the late 80s and early 90s. Yes, they could easily give "us" the JP ROM for Castlevania with different audio. But that's beside the point. We experienced X and Nintendo wants to give us X again. And hey, there are a handful of revival WiiWare titles like Castlevania ReBirth, Contra, Star Soldier, etc, that take a different angle on the "Retro but better" niche.

I like the idea of including a voucher for 500 or 800 points with every system to encourage users to log in and buy one (and probably subsequent) digital product. Would it have to be locked to Nintendo-published titles?

Your point about presentation does and doesn't hit with me. I would kill Princess Peach to be able to sort my 100+ VC titles by system, publication date, title, and genre in a grid. The presentation is a total mess as is. It seems that Nintendo thought the average buyer would only pick up perhaps 3 or 5 of his old favorites and organization would be a non-issue. Perhaps Nintendo was right. Though I do not want a "virtual game room" shell I have to wade through- that sounds gimmicky and time consuming.

It's hard for me to really complain about titles that aren't on VC when I have so many already bought and downloaded that I've barely played. Setting to one side games encumbered by licenses or games requiring translation, and even ignoring the SuperFX titles, there are some like Illusion of Gaia or Secret of Evermore or Lufia or Monster World IV or etc etc that are pregnantly absent. But still, there are at least 75, perhaps 100, B-or-better grade games to pick from, and a couple hundreds more for niche fans or people with specific nostalgia. So I'm not sure selection is the biggest issue.

But yeah, why did I pay $5 for Pinball... I don't know. I bought the original Star Soldier for completeness but it was not worth the price. Nintendo's flat-pricing is frustrating and don't even consider looking 'over the fence' at prices on Steam or GoG [Earthworm Jim 1 AND 2 with more features for a combined $6!!]. But your bargains blog shows the other side of the coin and I do really like the Classic Controller Pro as well as the [imported] Club Nintendo SFC Classic Controller. And I like the 'plug and play, virus free, instant load' aspects of the Wii vs computer-based gaming.

My main pet peeve at the moment is communication. Nintendo World Report spotlighted this a few days ago. North America has now gone over a month without a new Wii VC update, and there's no word from Nintendo on what, if anything, we can expect down the line. I want to hear they have more coming and I REALLY want to hear there will be day-1 transferability - including save states - to WiiU.

Side-question: how do you think the PSOne Classics selection on the PSN is building in comparison to the whole of the VC library? Have you considered adding these to your 'system selector' in your existing PSN section [just Turbografix and NEO GEO at the moment]? And do you think there's any hope of Nintendo adding newer arcade support (early 90s-level tech... PLEASE Nintendo?) on WiiU, or possibly Saturn or Dreamcast titles?

[BoringSupreez]

Side-question: how do you think the PSOne Classics selection on the PSN is building in comparison to the whole of the VC library?

I've been more impressed with the PSone classics on PSN than the VC, for two reasons. First, the PSone classics were not promised to us in some huge way and then under-delivered. Second, they've done a better job giving us the expensive, hard-to-get games on PSN than they have on VC, which is missing the blindingly obvious titles like Earthbound.

And do you think there's any hope of Nintendo adding newer arcade support (early 90s-level tech... PLEASE Nintendo?) on WiiU, or possibly Saturn or Dreamcast titles?

Nope on both counts. Sega's shown more tendency to put their Saturn and DC stuff on XBLA than anywhere else.