Nintendo Wii Fanboy

For those of you out there who fill your hobby hours with finding new and innovative ways to bring Commodore 64 games to new platforms (like the DS), we're sorry. Epyx is trying to trump you. On the bright side, at least we can enjoy some old school action on the Virtual Console. Epyx was responsible for a long list of titles in the eighties, and since there's no confirmation on precisely what they'll be offering on the Virtual Console ... that's right, it's speculation time. What would you shell out five bucks for?

If you need us, we'll be busy practicing our Hot Doggin' in anticipation of Winter Games.

Microsoft has garnered much praise for its Xbox Live Arcade service, which allows smaller developers to release casual games at a low price to the consumer. Some have been quite successful (see: Geometry Wars), and many had assumed Nintendo would offer a similar service through the Virtual Console feature of the Wii. With the low cost of development kits, many an indie game might grace the console, but nothing had been announced as of...yesterday.

Well, okay, it's nothing official. However, according to the UK magazine Retro Gamer, the extremely old-school company System 3 (most known for their works on the Commodore 64 and Amiga consoles, for Pete's sake) are going to be releasing two games at launch for the Wii, revivals of old franchises: Gottlieb Pinball Classics and Leaderboard (a golfing sim). While no other information was given, it seems highly unlikely that these two relatively unknown games would be released in hardcopy alongside the Wii launch lineup, especially as Leaderboard has to compete against Wii Sports and eventually Tiger Woods. Perfect candidates for the Virtual Console, if we do say so ourselves.

[Update 1: Changed Leadboard to Leaderboard, the proper name of the franchise.]