Nintendo Download: Wii U Virtual Console edition

[compl3x]

The Wii U update is finally here, and with it, the Virtual Console has launched today in North America. While the choices are far from impressive, mostly consisting of promotional $0.30 gamesthat were already offered, I'm just glad the Virtual Console is finally here, and hopefully Nintendo won't stagger releases as much as they have in the past.

Today, you can pick up Super Mario World ($7.99 - yeesh), Ice Climber ($4.99), Kirby's Adventure($0.30 temporarily, $4.99 regularly), Donkey Kong Jr. ($4.99), Balloon Fight ($4.99), Excitebike($4.99), Punch Out!! ($4.99), and F-Zero ($7.99). If you already own an NES game, you can pay $1 to upgrade to the Wii U version, or pay $1.50 for SNES games. You'll net customizable controls, remote play, restore points (save states), and Miiverse support for your upgrade.

As a recap, that's only the NES and SNES available right now. I've already had my fill with the anniversary games, so I don't think I'll quadruple dip on Super Mario World just yet.

http://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-download-wii-u-virtual-console-edition-252538.phtml

Yeah. Those prices seem reasonable . . .

[fusi0n]

Sweet! Thanks for sharing!

[Azies]

Holy crap that's pathetic, what happened to all the Wii Virtual Console games? Especially the ones that can STILL be played on the Wii U by importing your content over...?!

[HawkMan]

They're being redone for the WiiU and the new VC .

[Azies]

They're being redone for the WiiU and the new VC .

LoL But they still work.

[HawkMan]

on the old VC yeah...

[Guest]

Wait, so purchases from the Wii Virtual Console are not brought across onto the Wii U Virtual Console?

[neufuse Veteran]

SK[' timestamp=1367008816' post='595659976]

Wait, so purchases from the Wii Virtual Console are not brought across onto the Wii U Virtual Console?

how else could they milk you for more money? you can play the Wii VC games on the Wii U Emulator but that's it

[HawkMan]

SK[' timestamp=1367008816' post='595659976]

Wait, so purchases from the Wii Virtual Console are not brought across onto the Wii U Virtual Console?

why would they...

[epk]

Typical Nintendo. I used to love them but they've been like this since day one :D

On an unrelated and too wishful-thinking note, wish they would port their games to iOS :)

[HawkMan]

old controller based games just don't work on touch.

[compl3x]

old controller based games just don't work on touch.

Why do you need touch controls for something like Super Mario World? The Wii U gamepad has all of the necessary controls. $7.99 - That pricing is absurd.

[HawkMan]

I was referring to the iOS thing.

and why is the price absurd. it's what people are willing to pay for it, and there's hours and hours of entertainment in it. even if you only play it 4-8 hours that's 1-2 dollars per hour. Better than most entertainment.

[johnnyq3]

You have to also think of the manhours that people put into making the emulator for this. Not a lot of people realize the amount of effort it takes to code an emulator.

[compl3x]

8 dollars for a 20+ year old game. Sounds reasonable. I love the apologist mentality some folk have for Ninty.

You have to also think of the manhours that people put into making the emulator for this. Not a lot of people realize the amount of effort it takes to code an emulator.

Doubtful. Nintendo already have all of the resources/code etc. to do this. It's confusing as why it took them this long. Nintendo making a stable emulator for the Wii U isn't like hobbyist coders who made Znes or Snes9x.

[HawkMan]

8 dollars for a 20+ year old game. Sounds reasonable. I love the apologist mentality some folk have for Ninty.

Doubtful. Nintendo already have all of the resources/code etc. to do this. It's confusing as why it took them this long. Nintendo making a stable emulator for the Wii U isn't like hobbyist coders who made Znes or Snes9x.

contrary to popular belief, companies like ninendo don't just have developers hanging around doing nothing that they can throw random project to give away for free.

There are several reasons for the price.

- developer cost of the emulator

- Developer costs of customizing the roms to work with the new emulator and support the new WiiU features

- QnA teams costs to check the games actually work without errors and bugs in the new emulator. with the new features.

- market research, what price is the market willing to pay for games they cannot LEGALLY play otherwise without buying expensive old consoles and expensive rare out of production cartridges.

[compl3x]

contrary to popular belief, companies like ninendo don't just have developers hanging around doing nothing that they can throw random project to give away for free.

There are several reasons for the price.

- developer cost of the emulator

- Developer costs of customizing the roms to work with the new emulator and support the new WiiU features

- QnA teams costs to check the games actually work without errors and bugs in the new emulator. with the new features.

- market research, what price is the market willing to pay for games they cannot LEGALLY play otherwise without buying expensive old consoles and expensive rare out of production cartridges.

Who said anything about free? I never said free. I might believe what you were saying if Nintendo weren't notorious for having over priced games.

[+Warwagon MVC]

$8 for Mario world? :D

SNES9x FTW

[theyarecomingforyou]

and why is the price absurd. it's what people are willing to pay for it, and there's hours and hours of entertainment in it. even if you only play it 4-8 hours that's 1-2 dollars per hour. Better than most entertainment.

It's absurd because the company has already made money on the game the first time around and the games are dated. You can usually pick up contemporary titles for that price within a year of release and they tend to offer a better experience as they're designed to modern standards. And let's be honest, most Nintendo games are pretty much remakes of these earlier games so people have already bought them multiple times over.

Charging ?4 / $6.20 is the most I think reasonable and really ?2.99 seems the appropriate price. These releases should be more about giving something back to fans than trying to fleece their loyal customers. Capitalism dictates Nintendo can charge what it wants but I personally think the price is excessive.

[HawkMan]

I dunno about any modern games giving you better gameplay experience than Mario World.

and again. they're charging what people are willing to pay, would I like them to be cheaper yeah sure, do I think they're expensive, sure. are they worth it, yes, in general they are. at least for the titles I'm interested in.

they have valuable assets and they can charge for them. Lets see if the third parties lay on the same price or not.

as for emulators and downloaded roms, sure, but they're not really legal, this is legally owning the games in playable form again.these are also individually properly tested to be stable and play correctly.

[JustGeorge]

I dunno about any modern games giving you better gameplay experience than Mario World.

and again. they're charging what people are willing to pay, would I like them to be cheaper yeah sure, do I think they're expensive, sure. are they worth it, yes, in general they are. at least for the titles I'm interested in.

they have valuable assets and they can charge for them. Lets see if the third parties lay on the same price or not.

as for emulators and downloaded roms, sure, but they're not really legal, this is legally owning the games in playable form again.these are also individually properly tested to be stable and play correctly.

No they're not. An example would be F-Zero X on the VC. Games suffers from artifacting on the track and I think some slow downs that weren't in the original N64 version.

I also take issue with your claims that they put a lot of hours into creating emulators as there are open-source emus like MAME, Nestopia, BSNES, etc. that are nearly pixel perfect. Do you really think Nintendo and other companies don't examine those resources and "borrow" from them?? I've read some posts by members of MAME Dev that they don't really mind if its the original content creator using their emulation. Some of these talented guys are even on board with commerical emulation.

[Veiva]

I personally don't have a problem with the costs of the VC software. Yes, it's not cheap, but quite frankly I can't stand how top games sell for $0.99 on the "App Store" and/or are filled with IAP/microtransactions to get the "full" experience. People don't realize that free/cheap apps on Android, etc are actually much more expensive when you factor in such "features."

[johnnyq3]

Doubtful. Nintendo already have all of the resources/code etc. to do this. It's confusing as why it took them this long. Nintendo making a stable emulator for the Wii U isn't like hobbyist coders who made Znes or Snes9x.

It still takes time and effort to code everything to work right. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate just recently added on the feature of screen switching. Building infrastructure for Miiverse. A lot of work goes into making each of their VC titles, at least for the WiiU ports which have more features than the Wii version.