Is the Virtual Console family about to gain another two members? If the above graphic from the Japanese Virtual Console website is anything to go by, we'd have to say: HELL YES. And then possibly head outside to whoop loudly with excitement. After all, surely Nintendo wouldn't have added those tantalizing, enigmatic gray boxes to its site for no good reason? They must be there to accomodate some future goodness.
Digging further around the aforementioned site basically confirms that the MSXwill fill one of those slots, but the other? Given the space that would be required for games from disk-based systems and the Wii's 512mb of internal memory, our money is on the Master System.
Reggie's recent address in New York failed to tell us much that we didn't already know, though it did throw up the slide you see above, indicating that Nintendo is promising us 200 Virtual Console games in the US by the end of this year. We can probably all agree that the world would be a better place if Pilotwings 64 and River City Ransom were included in that number.
But we digress. See, the folks over at Game|Life did the math, and discovered that would mean Nintendo has only eight Mondays left in 2007 to deliver 34 games. Average that out, and you get 4.25 games a week. Currently, of course, we only get three titles every Monday. So, is this a genuine miscalculation on Ninty's part, naughty marketing hyperbole, or will we really be seeing more retro goodness than normal pumped down our tubes in the coming weeks?
Either way, Nintendo, we are now absolutely holding you to this. 200 by December 31st or you're ripped from our BFF collage. And we do not make such threats lightly.
Australia getting a Virtual Console game before anyone else? Maybe! We can't be sure when Sonic 3 and Super Mario Bros. 3 will find their way onto the VC, but at least we know they're on their way, thanks to the Office of Film and Classification.
The Aussie equivalent of the ESRB keeps a database of ratings just like the ESRB does. A bunch of games have been added, including a lot that are already out in other regions, and a few, like Mario 3, that are news. Of course, the best part of this for people who don't happen to have Australian consoles is that if a game is planned for one region, it's terribly likely it'll be out soon in others!
Other things on the list that make us happy: Strider (although we don't know if it's the Genesis version or the NES version), Galaga '90, and Probotector II-- which is Super C. The full list of new updates is after the break!
This week's Virtual Console releases sees the inclusion of two high-profile Nintendo titles, along with a TurboGrafx16 game we're not familiar with. But, when looking at the two Nintendo titles mentioned, that couldn't matter any less. We know it'll be hard to pry us away from our Wii today, as we get knee-deep in some most excellent gaming.
Today's VC releases are:
Paper Mario (Nintendo 64, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)
Due to technical difficulties, we won't be able to provide you with your usual video wrap-up. We're quite sorry, but offer up our usual coverage aside from video after the break in the hopes that it'll keep you from ripping us apart limb from limb happy. Well, happy enough to not kill us.
This probably doesn't affect any readers here (although, if you're a Japan-local Wii Fanboy, let us know!) but we discovered something interesting while drooling at the Japanese Virtual Console page.
Proving their absolute and irrational devotion to historical accuracy, the version of Castlevaniagoing up on the VC this month will not be the same cartridge version that's already been released in the US and Europe. Instead, Japan is getting the original version, which was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986. The differences include a save state feature and a name entry screen with music unheard in the US version! Which, unfortunately, we can't find. The idea that there's Castlevania music out there that we haven't heard makes us kind of uncomfortable.
This week, Japan got three games that we don't have yet in the US-- no surprise there. But we already had Splatterhouse on our Virtual Console, so we totally win in that one specific competition that isn't really a competition.
The non-Splatterhouse games include another shooter, a Paleolithic puzzle game that we'd never heard of, and a completely awesome ninja game that we'd love to see over here ASAP. And, since it did come out over here (as Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master), we are not crazy to expect it!
Making up for its delayed arrival to Australia's Virtual Console, the TurboGrafx-16 will debut in the world's smallest continent next week with eleven releases! Hudson's VC site lists that over a third of the games will be shmups -- no big surprise there -- but classics like Dungeon Explorer, Military Madness, and Bomberman '93 are also set to appear at the system's opening ceremony.
The US, having been spoiled with dozens of TG-16 releases since the Wii's launch, will receive only one PC-Engine title next Monday: Dragon Spirit, an impossibly hard, vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up in which you pilot a blue dragon. Check past the post break for Hudson's planned releases across all territories this July.
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.
We often feature bad games on Virtually Overlooked. A lot of bad games are historically notable or weird enough to enjoy. Sometimes they're just funny.
Today's bad game, Renegade, is one of the historically important ones. It's also kind of funny, if you don't have to play it for long. It's the first beat-em-up from Technos, who we'd say we'd follow to the grave if they weren't already there. And, yeah, it's got some tuff boxart.
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 haveshown 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.
This week's Japanese Virtual Console update brings something very rare to the Wii: a role-playing game. And by Capcom's Breath of Fire II is a pretty good one. Also available are a fossilized Konami classic, the sequel to one of the weirdest game concepts ever to become a mainstream hit, and a bizarre first-person space adventure of some kind-- we can't tell if Silent Debuggers is an action game or a graphical text adventure. Anyone out there play the US release on the Turbografx-16?
Also listed as a June release, but with no specified date, is Paper Mario. Since there are no more Tuesdays in June, this one looks like it's getting delayed.
Fans of the Virtual Console are finally getting F Zero X, a game we know many of you have voiced your want of throughout many posts here on Wii Fanboy. Of course, it will cost you, but for such a fan favorite, we're sure you're eager to pay.
The other games available are:
F-Zero X (N64, 1-4 players, 1000 Wii Points)
Street Fighter II Turbo Edition: Hyper Fighting (SNES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
China Warrior (TurboGrafx-16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
Be sure to stop back here later for our VC Monday Madness video wrap-up.
The Virtual Console has made shooting games widely available for the first time in years. We like shooters, despite being categorically awful at them, so we're happy about this. But has the genre been disproportionately represented on the VC? There are so many, versus very few fighting games, and no role-playing games.
Are you guys buying shooters? Are you happy with the selection? Are you all zap zap zap and pew pew pew at the bad spaceships?
Virtually Overlooked has taken over Wii Fanboy! All this week, members of the staff will be outlining their personal picks for future Virtual Console releases. Everyone can guess how my childhood was spent, since I talk about old games constantly. So, instead of relating a nostalgic anecdote for you, I'm going to use this intro space to tell you about the last week or so.
When I'm not personally advancing the cause of random old games on next-generation consoles, I'm a full-time grad student at the University of North Texas, working on a master's degree in library science. From last Thursday until yesterday, I was in the midst of my capstone-- a seven-day marathon paper-writing session meant to be the final test of my suitability as a librarian. My wife and I were also preparing to move from Texas to Washington, which happened this Saturday. Add my regular coursework and job responsibilities to that, and, as you can imagine, I've been a complete wreck. My Fanboy colleagues are probably rolling their eyes right now as I complain again about my workload, but I feel like it was a pretty significant experience, one I hope never to repeat.
I am now safely ensconced in a Washingtonian apartment, and I turned in my last essay in the early hours of Thursday morning. Getting a chance to write about a bunch of old games is like a vacation. I've been looking forward to this all week.
Since this is a VO special week, I'm taking the opportunity to talk about more mainstream games than I usually cover. So there's a better chance that you guys have played this stuff, and we can all share in some retro-euphoria.
Australia never got an official release of the NEC Turbografx-16 system, so they never got the chance to ignore classics like Bonk's Adventureand Alien Crushlike we did here in the States.
Hudson, proving that they are good people, are going to start releasing Turbografx games on the Virtual Console in Australia, starting this July. They plan to release more than 60 games this year, which is 36 more than are currently available in the US. That indicates that not only will Australia be completely caught up with us, but that we'll all get a bunch more TG16 games this year!
Does this mean that we'll get MSX games in the US? Please?
Australia getting a Virtual Console game
This week's Virtual Console releases sees the inclusion of two high-profile Nintendo titles, along with a TurboGrafx16 game we're not familiar with. But, when looking at the two Nintendo titles mentioned, that couldn't matter any less. We know it'll be hard to pry us away from our Wii today, as we get knee-deep in some most excellent gaming.
