Virtual Console updates

[bignige]

Nintendo are planning to release 4 new VC games every Monday at 9:00 A.M. Pacific Time. Four games will be added at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Dec. 4. They are:Victory Run (600 points - TG-16), Columns (800 points - Genesis), Ristar (800 points - Genesis) and Donkey Kong Jr. (500 Wii points - NES*).

News Source: 2old2play

[JamesS]

Nice that they're planning regular releases, but the virtual console games do seem a bit pricey to me. The Genesis games, in particular, are all ones that are available on the recent PS2 collection, so $8 each when you can get nearly 30 games for $20 doesn't look like particularly good value.

[MikeRox]

ain't that converted to ?8 each over here? :S for a Mega Drive game? They can GTF!

[Kotatsu Neko]

Yeah the prices are really over the top. Should be more like $4 for a SNES game at most, and $1 or $2 for NES.

That said I can see myself buying as soon as the likes of Pilotwings (SNES) and Starfox (N64) hit the VC.

[MikeRox]

yeah I'm gonna cave on certain games too. It's just quite ironic how their approach is "low cost hardware, low cost software development" then they're charging as much for a Mega Drive/SNES ROM download as Microsofts XBLA charges for the unique especially developed games.

[stainboy]

4 games every week? Won't they run out of planned ones very quickly? It sounds way too many but that's comparing it to XBLA where most is new content, i suppose people arn't gonna be interested in every single VC release. Does seem pricey too, I mean why not just get the Sonic Mega Colletion for cube?

[charlesr]

Yeah, Ristar is on that. And you could pick up that disc for ?10 and use it in your Wii and get loads of sonic games + Dr Robotnik's mean bean machine! I guess Nintendo are going off the success of their NES cars for the GBA. ?15 for a really old game = insta-profit.

[Geoff D]

Entirely depends on the games for me. Chrono Trigger & Secret Of Mana for ?4-?8 a piece? I'm in.

[AllYourBase]

For importers 2000 points will cost ?10.66 (depending on conversion rates of the day) - I don't feel too bad paying just over a fiver for a N64 game and around ?4 for a megadrive title. I'm just going to be choosey that's all.

Donkey Kong Jr - NES
Victory Run - TurboGrafx / PC Engine
Columns - Sega Megadrive / Genesis
Ristar - Sega Megadrive / Genesis

[elkatas]

The Genesis games, in particular, are all ones that are available on the recent PS2 collection, so $8 each when you can get nearly 30 games for $20 doesn't look like particularly good value.

Except that PS2's Genesis Collection doesn't work with Wii, and not everybody has PS2.

[elkatas]

ain't that converted to ?8 each over here? :S for a Mega Drive game?

I don't want to even guess where you did get that idea, but anyways, here are the official UK's prices:

NES: 4 ?
SNES: 6 ?
GEN: 6 ?
N64: 8 ?
PCE: 4.2 ?

EDIT: Fixed the prices

[sj33]

Heck, even my mother said 'You can buy Megadrive games for a fiver now though can't you?' when I was showing her the Wii and the VC stuff.

Nintendo are geniuses when it comes to money-making and this proves it, because we're all going to start paying for these games when the games we want appear. I've bought about 4 games already, truth be told.

Microsoft's approach with Live Arcade may seem smarter, not putting old games up unless their place on Live Arcade can be justified, but since all Nintendo have to do is stick the roms up as-is, they can release pretty much as many titles as they want, at the pace they want, for pretty much zero cost, and most people are more satisified with playing retro games than some of the mediocre new stuff on Live Arcade anyway.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Has anyone bought Sonic on the VC? I'm tempted but it's also coming to 360 sometime, which means achievements...

Decisions decisions...

[sj33]

I've got Sonic on the VC, it's just the original as-is, nothing added like Spin Dash or anything.

You can play it on the Wii remote by holding it sideways like a Nes pad though, and it works very well.

[JamesS]

Except that PS2's Genesis Collection doesn't work with Wii, and not everybody has PS2.

True, but you could actually buy a PS2 and the Genesis Collection for a fair bit less than the price of the same number of games on Wii.

I just think, given the price we paid for big collections of retro games on previous gen consoles, that the Virtual Console (and Live Arcade) are vastly overpriced.

That said, I've bought six VC games already. Damn them.