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Posts with tag WiiPoints

Wii Warm Up: What do you hate about the Wii?

Surely, such a post title is hard to read, quite possibly causing a massive heart attack in our older readers. But, we all must face the fact that, although we love it, the Wii is in no way perfect. It has its issues, which we've talked about before. Some are more like little pet peeves, while others are full-blown deal breakers.

For us, our biggest nuisance is the fact that we have to enter our credit card information every time we go to purchase some Wii Points (outside world, be damned!). It's caused us to be the unwitting recipient of memorization, as we no longer need to grab our wallet and extract the card to input its long chain of numbers. How do you know we haven't reserved that space for some other, more useful, knowledge, Nintendo? Like ... how long is the perfect time to cook a burrito in the microwave. That's knowledge that was fought for, and won! Many burritos gave their lives to provide us with that information ...

Take those two cents of yours and toss 'em right in! What bugs you about the Wii?

Wii Warm Up: But what about five dollars?

Do you ever get the urge to put, say, just outright buy an NES game on the Virtual Console without leaving extra money lying around on your Wii in the form of points? If so, too bad. Suffer.

There's a lot to love about the Virtual Console (we've downloaded several of the reasons), but the system for adding points is not one of them. Does it bother you that you must add funds in set increments? Is it time for everyone to get away from these point systems and buying blocks and just let us perform direct dollar-for-dollar transactions? It's not like they're fooling us. Even if converting points-to-dollars required a complex mathematical formula, we'd be able to perform it lightning fast. After all, we're serious fans here. Or do you feel it's a non-issue? It's likely that we'll spend the points anyway. We did mention that we're serious fans, right?

Turtle power envy

Seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game on the ESRB's list of upcoming Virtual Console titles should bring joy to our nostalgia-ruled hearts, but we're finding it hard to not be pessimistic about this particular release. We've put more hours into Konami's beat'em up than you can shake a bo staff at, so it's not the actual game that we have problems with.

No, it's just outright jealousy over the XBLA port of the arcade version. While we're stuck with 8-bit graphics and support for only two players, the 360's turtle fans have the original cut scenes, arcade graphics, and online co-op for up to four players! Inconceivable! To add insult to injury, we might have to shell out 600 Wii points for the NES game instead of the usual 500 because of licensing issues. If that'll be the case, we would actually be spending more than what 360 gamers are paying!

We can at least find solace in the NES version's extended levels, extra stages, and Pizza Hut advertising. Also, TMNT II wasn't the only new ninja release spotted on the ESRB's Virtual Console catalog. Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo's 1989 platformer, will also be stabbing its way onto the Wii. Let's see the Xbox try to top us with a game like that! Oh wait...

Five TG-16 games coming to VC next month

Not to be outdone by Capcom's Virtual Console plans revealed earlier this week, Hudson has announced five TurboGrafx-16 games coming to the the North American shopping channel this April: Battle Lode Runner, Bonk's Revenge, Bravoman, Dragon's Curse, and Shockman.

Bonk's Revenge builds upon the original adventure's headbutting formula, adding more complex levels and tightened graphics. Battle Lode Runner gets a similar visual upgrade from its Commodore 64 trappings, and it even features multiplayer action.

Dragon's Curse, or Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap in Japan, should be available to purchase by next Monday. Players will be able to take on the forms and powers of five different creatures in this side-scrolling RPG, questing to regain their original human body. Bravoman and Shockman sound like Mega Man spin-offs, and you wouldn't be too far off with that assumption! They're both action-platformers overloaded with robots and larger-than-life bosses.

All five of the Virtual Console games will be priced at 600 Wii points.

New videos and updates for the Internet Channel

We spent the morning crying into our pillows and refusing to come out of our rooms after we heard about the final version of Opera's Wii browser being delayed. Nintendo eventually called to console us though, directing our puffy eyes to an interview with the company's Internet Channel development team at its Japanese site. We had a really good talk.

There are several videos and screenshots scattered around the Japanese transcript, demonstrating the changes with the Wii browser's final build. It's clear that Nintendo and Opera Software addressed a lot of common complaints users had with the trial version, making sure to implement variable zooming, improved starting times, and faster scrolling. Here's a list of all the other things we spotted on the page, mixed in with Nintendo's announced updates:
  • new introduction animation
  • new start page with search button
  • auto-hide feature on navigation bar
  • search and address buttons on nav bar
  • multiple cursors (only one will be functional)
  • quicker access to "favorites"
  • an improved zoomed font
  • buttons that will instantly type common preset letters, such as "www" or ".com"
As we regretfully announced earlier, the release date for the final version of Opera's Wii browser has been pushed back to April. The Internet Channel will be available to download for free until the end of June. After that, users will be able to download it from the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points.

In Defense of the Virtual Console's pricing

We've surveyed your irritation with the Virtual Console's rates and even had you calculate the exact amount of Wii points you've been swindled out of so far, but VGamp's Chris Sinclair argues that the game downloads aren't expensive at all. Chris listed eleven reasons to support his claim, even admitting that he would be willing to pay more for the retro titles. While he might come across as an inflexible apologist, some of his points make sense.

According to Chris, you're getting a deal whenever you make a purchase on the Shopping Channel. For example, let's say that you put out the cash for Soldier Blade, a title that sometimes sells for $50+ on eBay. You're scoring a discount on a relatively rare game that's guaranteed to work decades from now, and you don't even have to pay for the TurboGrafx-16 console or the controllers to play it with. As an added bonus, many of these emulated games look better than they ever did before.

Alright, so we're still not entirely convinced that Altered Beast is worth the 800 Wii points Sega is asking for, but we can see where Chris is going with this. What do you think? Does the pricing seem justified after considering his points, or do you still feel like you're being fleeced?

Virtual Console cost calculator

According to the poll results we posted earlier today, 70% of our readers think Nintendo's Virtual Console pricing is way too expensive. If you're anything like us, however, you didn't let that get in the way of purchasing a few retro games anyway. Gunstar Heroes? The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past? Overpriced or not, how are we supposed to pass on that?

We spotted an online calculator that adds up the total amount of Wii points you've spent or can expect to spend on the current Virtual Console lineup (Sorry, North American releases only!). If you have some Wii points saved up, the application will even display how much more points you will have left or will need to buy.

So how much has Nintendo robbed you of so far? How many more Wii points will you have to shell out in order to complete your dream collection? Drop a line in our comments and let us know!

[Via The Tanooki]

Wii Warm Up: Costs of the Virtual Console

Prices for games vary on the Virtual Console, with many games available for as few as 500 Wii points, or a measly five bucks, up to twice that ... and it's rumored that some games may be even more expensive than that. Sure, five or ten dollars doesn't sound like that much, but considering your other Wii costs, which we discussed over the weekend, many gamers are more frugal when it comes to choosing their Virtual Console purchases. After all, most of us have played these games before. Still, when it comes to reliving a beloved game experience, what's a few dollars?

Today's question is how you really feel about Virtual Console pricing, and what's driven you to start spending Wii points. What's been released that you just couldn't go without? How many games have you purchased so far?

Watch movies on your Wii!We debate the topics in the communityFun facts about Mario!

This Month's New Games

Name Date
NBA Live 09 All-Play
Oct 7
Army Men Soldiers of Misfortune
Oct 7
Crash: Mind Over Mutant
Oct 7
Sam and Max Season One
Oct 16
Safecracker
Oct 16
Monopoly
Oct 20
Carnival Games: Mini-Golf
Oct 20
Celebrity Sports Showdown
Oct 20
Circus Games
Oct 21
Pet Pals: Animal Doctor
Oct 21
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon Oct 21
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Oct 21
KoF Collection: The Orochi Saga
Oct 21
Naruto: Clash Of Ninja Revolution 2 Oct 21
Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun Oct 22
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Oct 27
MySims Kingdom
Oct 28
FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play Oct 28
Cooking Mama: World Kitchen
Oct 28
Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009
Oct 28

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