Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The appeal of the Virtual Console is obvious: nostalgia. The VC is jam-packed with memories from yesteryear, spilling over with wonderful software that defined our childhoods. But it isn't all lollipops and puppy dogs. Nostalgia can also be very misleading, and some of those packets of data you download from Nintendo's service can end up souring childhood memories.

Personally speaking -- and this will probably sound like heresy in some quarters, so brace yourselves -- I was left disappointed by Mega Man 2, a game I adored as an eleven-year-old, but one that now seems slightly dated, with its repeated leaps of faith and enemies that like to spawn directly beneath you. On the other hand, a game such as Super Mario Bros. 3 still feels like a breath of fresh air, almost two decades after it was released.

Thinking about this some more, we have three questions for you. One: which Virtual Console games don't hold the same magic for you as they once did? Two: have any titles aged better than you suspected they would? And three: have you ever held off from downloading a certain game, concerned that it may ruin one of those precious childhood memories?

Aeropause's Steven Munn has compiled a list of potential Virtual Console games for suckers. These are all games that have superior versions that could show up on the Virtual Console, or, in the case of Street Fighter II, superior versions that already have shown up. Even without taking the arcade versions into consideration, there's still one more SNES Street Fighter II that could come out, so can you ever feel confident about buying one?

We take issue with a couple of the items on the list. Munn recommends against buying Super Mario Bros., because buying it later as part of Super Mario All-Stars with Super Mario World will be cheaper. We disagree, only because we think the NES version is the definitive version of that game. Same with Ninja Gaiden Trilogy: should Tecmo ever decide to release the SNES compilation on the VC, it will be cheaper than buying all three NES games. However, those SNES remakes are a mess of barely-upgraded graphics and ruined music.

The article does raise a good point, however. Why should we be expected to pay over and over again for inferior versions of the same game, when the best versions exist and can easily be ported? We're thinking of arcade games, here.

Have we mentioned recently how much we love Hudson? Not only did they make tons and tons of incredible games for the Turbografx-16 (and lots of other systems!), but they're better than anyone else about actually releasing their games on the Virtual Console. And now we have news that some of the best Turbografx-16 games are coming to the US in May! Also some stuff for Nintendo consoles in Japan, but we'll get to that.

It finally happened. A game we profiled in Virtually Overlooked has been officially announced for the Virtual Console. Even though IREM's Ninja Spirit was one of the best and most popular TG16 games, we're going to go ahead and declare this as a victory.

As if that weren't exciting enough, Hudson announced plans to release a personal favorite, Blazing Lazers, as well as Ordyne (excellent, adorable shmup) and World Sports Competition (we haven't played it, but we'll assume it's great because we're in a good mood).

Nintendo of Japan also has some fantastic stuff planned, including Super Mario Bros. 2 and F-Zero X, either of which would no doubt be the headline if anyone else were writing this. That's Super Mario Bros. 2, the Japanese version, released here as Lost Levels. The really, really hard one, as opposed to the silly one about throwing vegetables.

Looking for a way to waste time with the Virtual Console? Well, if you do this right, you won't be wasting much time at all. This Super Mario Bros. speedrun performed by Andrew Gardikis takes only five minutes. In comparison, the Super Mario Brothers movie is 20.8 times longer.

The coolest thing about this speedrun is that it makes use of Mario glitches inherent in the game, but seems to be done without save state assistance. That means that it's theoretically possible to replicate it on your Wii or your NES. Oh, but only if you're awesome. And just to rub it in a little, only Andrew Gardikis has proven to be this awesome. Sorry, everyone else, including ourselves!

[Via Game|Life]

Here's a bit of game history: when Super Mario Bros. was rereleased for the Japan-only Famicom Disk System, the "minus world" generated via a well-documented glitch changed along with the format. Instead of an infinite water level, players were treated to a whole suite of glitch-tastic levels, loaded with air-swimming and Princess Toadstool sprites floating in mid-air.
This kind of classic minutiae is exactly what we want out of the Virtual Console. We'd seriously buy Super Mario Bros. again for a crack at this new minus world. Check out the video after the break!

In one of the coolest school projects we've seen to date, some kids got together and came up with the following project for the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center's Building Virtual Worlds Show. That's a mouthful, yes, and the demonstration shown in the video, available past the post break as per usual, took place on December 6th. Punching blocks and smashing Goombas with our own two hands? Sign us up!