Nintendo Wii Fanboy

I wish the prices were lower, but they're really not bad. Well, the NES and TG16 prices aren't bad. The rest are a little high.

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Sure, it's a GREAT price when you don't own the original cartridge or even the system, and you don't want to bother searching for all of it on ebay.

..On the other hand, think about it. With the Shop Channel, there are no shipping or manufacturing costs. Nintendo could honestly drop their standard pricing a couple of bucks and it wouldn't hurt them whatsoever (Hahah, as if Nintendo isn't laughing their way to the bank anyway).

It would just make people a bit more satisfied and compelled to buy, I think.

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I basically agree with everything he said. I haven't even rented most of these games and as soon as I get a Wii I can experience them. The price seems to be at the margin that I'll pay for good games but not impulsively buy everything. So while I would like them cheaper it is feasible and the game companies are getting their profit.

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I wish the games were free, but whatever. They aren't that expensive. I hear people say to just buy a NES and carts and play them instead. Again I say whatever. I love that the Wii can play every game Nintendo ever made.

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"You're scoring a discount on a relatively rare game..."

Excuse me? Once a game becomes available on the VC, it completely ceases to be rare. How is that even a point?

~j

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This basically said what we've known before,

it's a bargain for some games (Bomberman 93, ToeJam&Earl)

while its a ripoff for others (Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario 64)

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If a game is good, it's worth the price. If a game is bad, there is no price I would pay to play it.

I'd rather pay $8 for Super Mario World than get a game like Legend of Kage for free.

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To be honest, I haven't really bought any yet.

Although I do think that having to pay (albiet an artificially inflated price), means that I'm more compelled to get my money's worth out of the game. If they were free, I wouldn't really be bothered about beating the games.

I have to admit though, I would have prefered some more modded games, games capable of online play, or even extra levels etc... Then at least the Nintendo loyalists (like myself) whom still own older Nintendo hardware would be able to buy something more updated.

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"Excuse me? Once a game becomes available on the VC, it completely ceases to be rare. How is that even a point?"

Because, where we once had to pay over $35 for Super Mario RPG for the SNES before, we now only have to pay 800 points (8 USD). Pretty obvious choice here (actual cartridge benefits aside).

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And before anyone says "SUPERMARIORPG ISN"T OUT YET," it's been re-rated by the ESRB which means it's due to come out.

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Well when your already on a tight budget and you already had to pay 60$ for a new controller and possibly HD cords (if thats your thing), not to mention a good game like zelda or something I think that 5$ for an old nintendo game is a little bit much, I think some people are letting nostalgia get in the way of making a wise purchase.

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It took me time to get used to the pricing, but it's not unreasonable. It completely depends on the game, as people have been saying.
I think it's just that people have gotten so used to emulating them over the years. I have nothing against people who download ROMs, but even they have to admit, there's absolutely no sense of value and you're less compelled to even play the game.
8 dollars to play Super Mario World with the Classic Controller. It seems worth it to me.

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Seriously, if you think that bites, you should check the UK prices. We effectively pay 1.5x what people in America seem to pay. This means that SM64 is roughly $15, which, lets face it, is a bit of a joke for a 10 year old game. We're paying $9 for a NES game. Thats the same price I bought most of my NES games off eBay for and those come on physical media and can be played on any NES console I like. I would imaging the prices are even heavier in countries supporting the Euro.
Not only that but they're console specific so if your Wii goes mental at some point in the future and for some reason it can't be sent back to Nintendo, you lose all the games. The reason I have a problem with this is that I still play my consoles, even my Atari 2600, to this day, and I still maintain that my playing Nintendo 64 is the most fun I can have in front of a TV. If this stops working, I can get another and I still have my games. I fully intend to do this with Wii when the next gen of consoles is released, and I don't want to have to risk losing say £200 worth of downloaded games because my console bites the dust. VC games also take up a ridiculous amount of your flash memory as each game comes with its own emulator AFAIK which isn't very efficient, and they can't be run from SD cards. I haven't done any equations but I'm guessing it wouldn't take too many N64 games (that is, if they release any more) to completely rid yourself of Wii memory forever. Not only this but Nintendo can't even be bothered to emulate memory cards (ala Mario Kart 64). I can see the advantage of using the VC to get rare games (Mario Tennis 64 is VERY hard to come by over here, I would love to see that re released), but overall, I'd rather buy a SNES and carts for it than the virtual equivalent. That does remind me however, I guess the batteries can't fail on VC saves and lose all your progress, then require you to disassemble a cart to replace the battery. Both methods have their ups and downs IMO and it's really down to personal preference.
Rant over.

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Super Mario RPG was a great game. Hopefully this leads to Squaresoft bringing out their catalog of NES/SNES RPGs.

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I don't think it's too much to pay for any of them.
When you pay $10.00, you get 1000 points. equal exchange.
Microsoft gives you 500 points for $6.25, plus they get my money for XBL. I haven't followed up on 360 news until recently so I don't know if anyone complained about that but I think the VC pricing is fair. I won't pay for anything I've never played so I know my money is being well spent. All I know is that I have the chance of playing some of my favorite games without wasting time and money on ebay. With a free online service, 5-10 bucks, a minute to download and not having to worry about hardware or software failure? sounds great to me.

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I've been thinking about it, and I actually am beginning to think that the prices aren't so bad. Five bucks isn't a bad price for a good game, period. If it's a game that stands the test of time and is still a blast to play today, then it's well worth it. Things get grey for games that don't age quite so well, but you can just not buy them. Perhaps Nintendo will take the lack in interest for certain titles as a cue to do something about the flexability of thier pricing structure.

However, that rant is just a fanboy making a big deal out of fairly standard things. They're ports of old games. They're good ports, but that's all they are.

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I don't believe 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 dollars is bad for a single game.. considering you can't even get game boy advance games for those prices.

The reason why people find it's a rip off is because they can get them for free illegally..and general consumers want things cheaper..

The games they sell are meant to help out nintendo... and to help with their server.. besides running the server. nintendo makes a profit off of it.. it doesn't matter if few people want a game or not.. they're not really losing anything.. but that's the purpose.. selling crap without any fall backs.

If there's really not a game you want.. it's cool not to buy it, it's your money.. the VC is optional at most.. it can't be the reason why you got the system, no?

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Anything over free is overpriced.
Why?

Half of these titles I already own. I bought them full price years ago. If I wanted to play them, I could dig them up, hook up the systems, and play for free.

What's the motivation to pay for a game I already have?

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I think the prices are justified. Well, most of them. Not just because a lot of the games are worth considerably more if you buy them anywhere else, but because I'd be willing to PAY considerably more for some of them.

Take Gunstar Heroes, for example. For a commercial re-release that plays exactly like the original available for a platform like the GBA, I'd be willing to pay around $40. On the Virtual Console, I can get it for a fraction of that.

Of course, it may still be silly to be charging as much as they are for the trash games, but that's kind of the only convenient way to handle this. Otherwise, they'd have to price individual games based on popularity, which would mean having some NES titles up at $10 and some N64 titles down at $5 (which, needless to say, is a bit ridiculous).

Oh, and Trauts: the point isn't to pay for a game you already have. Some people might do that, but I sincerely doubt that's where Nintendo expects to get most of their revenue from the service. The point is getting older titles that you DON'T have.

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Considering, the games are obviously extensively play tested within the emulator to make sure they perform as close to the original hardware as possible...

And Considering that with third party titles. Nintendo, the developers and any publishers who still technically have exclusivity to the titles all had to sit down and hammer out a legal framework to make this happen.

And the fact Nintendo must pay for bandwidth, server maetenance & etc.

PLUS the small detail that all interested parties probably want to turn a profit...

AND the sad reality that 90% of every piece of software (game or otherwise) ive ever purchased digitally independend or name-brand has been above five bucks.

Makes me think the virtual console prices are reasonable. In fact they are exactly what I HOPED they would be pre-launch.

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i've weighed in on the VC issue already, but i gotta say again, i'm a big fan. i love that i can get budget games i've never played before (the last Nintendo system i owned was the NES), and i', even willing to but Genesis games i already own because you know what? it's really convenient having them on a menu instead of in a shoebox o' games.

also, wireless control is the best thing that ever happened to 16 bit gaming

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I honestly don't mind the pricing. What bothers me is that you have to purchase Wii Points in $10 quantities, so unless you're buying an N64 title, you'll have extra points lying around that you can't spend. Granted, the NES games leave a nice round 500 left over, but the Turbografix or SNES games leave you with an uncomfortable 400 or 200 points that can't be used on any title until you buy more.

Nintendo should change the system so that the buyer can designate how many points they wish to purchase, so they don't have to keep adding 1,000 points at a time to even them out.

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Those arguments hold up fine when you're comparing VC games to buying used consoles and cartridges. But that's just not realistic. What they should be compared with is flash games and the downloadable stuff offered on the 360 and PS3. These prices don't hold up so well when you do that, considering the other consoles offer new games or enhanced versions of these old games for less than you pay on the VC. Something's out of wack.

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I don't think the prices are too bad, but I just wish Nintendo would also offer some sort of subscription service for, oh, say 15-20 dollars a month, where you could just download whatever you wanted, or say X number of titles each month.

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In Nintendo's defense, offering unlimited downloads for each title is a godsend. If your HD dies and all of your itunes music is on it, tough s***.

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I don't have much money to spend on anything.
But I like the fact that for $8 or whatever I could go get myself a copy of Zelda Link to the Past, that to my knowledge should stay with me for years and years to come.

I have no argument about paying even twice that for that game, but other less known games, or even games I don't think are as good are going for the exact same amount. And when I compare the amount of fun per $ the other games just don't come close. And thats the big reason Nintendo won't be getting much money out of me outside of the must have games.

If only there was a way to Rent or maybe trade in these VC titles, thats what I'm waiting for.

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Commodore announced they will market a powerful gaming PC, I wonder if they will sell the thousands of C64 games now availabe for free on the net. NES games haven't aged any better, 5 bucks is way too much. A dollar a game and I wouldn't complain..

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It's not a rip-off. However, it sure would be nice if Nintendo would throw a bone to their loyalists by giving some free downloads to game buyers. You know...purchase a new $50 game and register that on their site, and you get 1000 Wii points.

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Every time this subject comes up, I am reminded of a local pub. They are a 'game place' with board games and retro video games. The NES and Genesis games are 2 bucks to play. In the pub.
With that in mind, the virtual console games don't look expensive anymore.

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@Trauts:

Anything over free is overpriced.

Why?

I have a chair in my living room. If I want to sit in a chair, I could just go into the living room and sit in the chair for free.

What's the motivation to pay for a chair if I already have one?

Also:

I have a milk in my fridge. If I want to drink some milk, I could just go into the kitchen, dig up the milk, and drink it for free.

What's the motivation to pay for a milk if I already have some?

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"Excuse me? Once a game becomes available on the VC, it completely ceases to be rare. How is that even a point?"

Because we ALL KNOW HOW EASY IT IS TO GET A WII!

As well as that, it doesn't completely cease to be rare. Because you don't get the actual cartridge in your hand, which is what MOST people that buy it, want. Whereas others , like you and me that shop in the VC placeizzle, just want a bit of nostalgia that they can play time and time again when Excite truck is being a bitch.

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If I had not got the $20 VC credit with my wii I would not have any VC games and until the 8-bit games are $1 and the 16-bit games $2 and the rest $3 or $4 then I won't be getting any more. And are the VC games not tied to your current wii only and your store account also tied to a single wii, What happens when your current wii blows up. I had many a xbox over the years...

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I think they should lower the cost because i could just download a emulator and the Rom for free, yes i am risking getting caught but i will get bored with the game fast (because it's old and you can't do as much) and i don't want to keep on paying $5 i would rather pay nothing for a game that came out over 7 years ago

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@20 and whoever belives in the same principle...

Most of the costs you brought up are fixed, therefore once they are paid for the rest is profit. The variable costs are minimal. Think about it, NES game sells for $5.00, it sells ONLY 500,000 copies in its life span, thats $2,500,000 in revenue. The profit they gain from this is substantial no matter what costs you believe factor into VC games. So do you still believe they are a bargin?

So I say if Nintendo is charging us this amount of money they have a responcibility to fulfill and they have not doen so... One day when your wii craps out and all your games disapear, when you go over to your buddies house and cannot share the game with him, and when you run out of space for more games and cannot transfer games to another space, you will realize what I am ranting about!

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I haven't download any game from the vc yet, haven't see anything that i like. But i think when the Neo-Geo port start to come in I will be buying some games, games like Last Resort, Fatal Fiery and Samuri Showdown (let's hope they do come) will be so worth it. And for those of you who think the vc games are a little over price? Don't buy it!! But know that our gaming root are tied to these classic vc games. These are the games that made use who we are today.

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Trauts if you already own them then don't buy them again! There - end of story.

I don't see where this becomes an issue. I mean - why are you even bringing it up? I like buying the games I never got to play when I was a kid - but if its a game I already have, I simply don't buy.

I mean, how is nintendo supposed to motivate a buyer to get something they already have? I don't think that's their aim. I think they are trying to sell to people like me, who missed out on most of these games because I was poor when I was a kid and I couldn't afford them.

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#11 you're tight on money and buying "HD cords"? I don't think anyone who is truly tight on money would have an HDTV, let alone a Wii.

I'm not saying that the VC games are justified in price, but I don't think your argument really holds any water.

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