Wii's Virtual Console final prices and 30 games ready by 07'

[MegaDrive20XX]

Nintendo reiterated the starting price points for the games, noting that NES games start at 500 Wii Points ($5), TurboGrafx-16 games at 600 Wii Points ($6), Super NES and Sega Genesis games at 800 Wii Points ($8), and Nintendo 64 games at 1,000 Wii Points ($10). Wii Points will be available online or at retail in packs of 2,000 with a suggested price of $20.

NES
Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Ice Hockey
Pinball
Soccer
Tennis
Urban Champion
Wario's Woods
Baseball
Solomon's Key

SNES
F-Zero
SimCity

Nintendo 64
Super Mario 64

Sega Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog
Altered Beast
Golden Axe
Columns
Ecco the Dolphin
Gunstar Heroes
Space Harrier II
Toe Jam & Earl
Ristar
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

TurboGrafx-16
Bonk's Adventure
Super Star Soldier
Victory Run
Bomberman '93

-----------------------------

$6 for TG16 games like New Adventure Island in the future? Damn I'm sold..

[Neo Rasa]

Wario's Woods
F-Zero
SimCity
Ecco the Dolphin
Gunstar Heroes
Space Harrier II
Toe Jam & Earl
Ristar
Bonk's Adventure
Super Star Soldier
Bomberman '93

Only a fool would not want to own a Wii at this time.

[AlphaNerd01]

:eek 2:

I think I speak for all of us when I say "Wii're waiting..."

8-)

[business]

This isn't the full list is it? They have to atleast launch with one N64 title. Geez. Give me a Wave Race 64 Nintendo.

[LucidDefender]

Count me in for Bomberman 93' !

[Half Japanese]

Anyone else find it ironic that the only games worth ponying up the cash for aren't the ones that originated on a Nintendo console?

[AlphaNerd01]

Anyone else find it ironic that the only games worth ponying up the cash for aren't the ones that originated on a Nintendo console?


That's not such a bad thing though. Quite the contrary, I think it's awesome.

[ubersaurus]

Simcity isn't worthwile?

Dude, if I didn't already own it, I'd be there.

[C White]

lol... $8 for Altered Beast

[MrRoboto19XX]

Anyone else find it ironic that the only games worth ponying up the cash for aren't the ones that originated on a Nintendo console?

Very true, but I think its awesome that for once (even though its may be for a short time) nintendo isnt standing on their own games and nothing else.

Just give me Earthbound...

[Anthony1]

I don't know why, but for some reason, the thought of playing these games on the VC doesn't appeal to me. Probably cause I have most of these carts already and I can whip out the system and cart and play the real thing. I don't have a burning desire to spend $8 to play a rom of Altered Beast on my Wii.

I guess the prices are just way too high for my blood, when I either have the real cart, or I have the rom on my PC or my PSP or something like that. Way before we knew what the pricing structure was going to be, I was actually expecting these games to be like $1.99 or $2.99, I guess I was living in La-La Land thinking that. Maybe it's because I can buy most of these carts at GameCrazy for $1.99 or $2.99. Of course, the whole point of this is not to sell the games to a retro gamer like me, but to casual gamers that don't have a PC full of roms or a drawer full of Hu cards and Genny carts.


There is a way in which Nintendo can make me part with my money when it comes to the virtual console. The key for me is online multiplayer. Offer me something I can't get with just whipping out my old Genesis and a Altered Beast cart. Although Altered Beast isn't my ideal example, it is a 2-player simultaneous game, and I should be able to play it in 2 player mode with another gamer somewhere else. By the way, will the Wii have any kind of headset? I also should be able to talk to the other gamer while playing them. Bomberman '93 for the TG-16 is even more of a obvious choice for adding online multiplayer. Still, I haven't heard one peep in regards to Nintendo adding online multiplayer for these games.

What about F-Zero for the SNES? Just think how sweet it would be if they could add online multiplayer for that? Even though I already own several F-Zero carts, which I actually play every now and then, I might actually pony up the 8 snaps to be able to play that online, especially if they have online leader boards and something similar to the 360 achievements.

[jajaja]

lol... $8 for Altered Beast

Hehe indeed, and $5 for SMB LOL Damn, the originals are cheaper.

[jajaja]

Oh, and Sim City instead of SMW? @_@

[Chadt74]

Good post about the challenges of adding multi-player to classic games. I for one agree that online classic multiplayer would be pretty much the 'killer app' for me.

Since no other company can use the likeness I think it would be worth it for Nintendo to invest what I'm guessing could not be that much time to make some of the 2d games into currnet gen multiplayer games.

I would like to see some classics redevloped...

[gepeto]

MY only thing is. Nintendo knows the games wii want to play.

Why play this cloak and dagger are they trying to reclaim top spot? WHere is super Metriod,Punch out. Starfox goldeneye. Do something special give the good onesaway for the 1st 6 months. Thjis is the best they have to offer out of a library of a zillion games:(

Seeing nintendo's list and high price point is dissapointing . It lets me know they are still all about the money. If there was ever a time to start a serious buzz and snatch a hugh slice of the next gen pie this was it. Still tight as scrooge.

The most expensive one n64 has the least must haves.
I still can't wait though.

[nik]

woo hoo, now, give me some RPG's nintendo!

[slip81]

Adding lag-free multiplayer to those old games is virtually impossible. They weren't written in a portable language like C or C++, but were usually written in assembly or machine code; so they're all being run on a emulator. The only thing you can do would be to have the wii consoless end each other the second or more players keystrokes between each other. This is pretty laggy over the net and keeping both players synced is difficult.

If microsoft can add multiplayer to games like DOOM and UMK3 I see no reason why at least N64 era games like Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye can't be multiplayer.

Which is maybe why nintendo is waiting on those games, because they're making a way for them to be online. I'm sure Nintendo is well aware of the fact that online MK64 and Goldeney alone would most likely move more consoles that any next gen game on the system.

I don't plan on getting a Wii right away since I'm not that impressed with the launch line up. But it Nintendo released online versions of those two games in December, I'd sell my 360 to get the money for a Wii, that's how good those two games are multiplayer.

[LucidDefender]

I don't know why, but for some reason, the thought of playing these games on the VC doesn't appeal to me. Probably cause I have most of these carts already and I can whip out the system and cart and play the real thing. I don't have a burning desire to spend $8 to play a rom of Altered Beast on my Wii.

I guess the prices are just way too high for my blood, when I either have the real cart, or I have the rom on my PC or my PSP or something like that. Way before we knew what the pricing structure was going to be, I was actually expecting these games to be like $1.99 or $2.99, I guess I was living in La-La Land thinking that. Maybe it's because I can buy most of these carts at GameCrazy for $1.99 or $2.99. Of course, the whole point of this is not to sell the games to a retro gamer like me, but to casual gamers that don't have a PC full of roms or a drawer full of Hu cards and Genny carts.


There is a way in which Nintendo can make me part with my money when it comes to the virtual console. The key for me is online multiplayer. Offer me something I can't get with just whipping out my old Genesis and a Altered Beast cart. Although Altered Beast isn't my ideal example, it is a 2-player simultaneous game, and I should be able to play it in 2 player mode with another gamer somewhere else. By the way, will the Wii have any kind of headset? I also should be able to talk to the other gamer while playing them. Bomberman '93 for the TG-16 is even more of a obvious choice for adding online multiplayer. Still, I haven't heard one peep in regards to Nintendo adding online multiplayer for these games.

What about F-Zero for the SNES? Just think how sweet it would be if they could add online multiplayer for that? Even though I already own several F-Zero carts, which I actually play every now and then, I might actually pony up the 8 snaps to be able to play that online, especially if they have online leader boards and something similar to the 360 achievements.

Adding lag-free multiplayer to those old games is virtually impossible. They weren't written in a portable language like C or C++, but were usually written in assembly or machine code; so they're all being run on a emulator. The only thing you can do would be to have the wii consoless end each other the second or more players keystrokes between each other. This is pretty laggy over the net and keeping both players synced is difficult.

[Oobgarm]

MY only thing is. Nintendo knows the games wii want to play.

Why play this cloak and dagger are they trying to reclaim top spot? WHere is super Metriod,Punch out. Starfox goldeneye. Do something special give the good onesaway for the 1st 6 months. Thjis is the best they have to offer out of a library of a zillion games:(

Seeing nintendo's list and high price point is dissapointing . It lets me know they are still all about the money. If there was ever a time to start a serious buzz and snatch a hugh slice of the next gen pie this was it. Still tight as scrooge.

The most expensive one n64 has the least must haves.
I still can't wait though.

I agree with your sentiment.

I think the VC is a great idea, but charging a minimum of $5 for games that are READILY AVAILABLE and also INEXPENSIVE is nuts. Besides, most of the hardcore gamers who will get into this already (or should) have these games in their collections. Of course, Nintendo is going to get some casual gamers with this, which I am sure is their goal, but I still believe that the majority of their fanbase is made up of die-hards.

What about the folks that have the know-how to get any and all of these games for FREE online somewhere? I've had all of those games on that list on my PC for ages. I'd bet that many of you have a couple of them, at least.

In terms of the older emulated games on the Xbox Live Arcade, the inclusion of gamerpoints and online multplayer make that $5-10 seem worthwhile.

I just see this as more classic Nintendo...milking the old games for all they're worth, even after the udder is pretty much dry.

[Kejoriv]

What are these virtual games going to be saved on?

[jajaja]

What are these virtual games going to be saved on?

Internal flash memory. Possibly a option to save them on SD cards too.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Internal flash or SD cards I assume. The TG stuff I like for a start, the rest is pretty meh for now. If N supports this as aggressively as they claim they will there should be no problems, given time.

Take yourself out of your retro gamer shoes for a moment. You see SMB in the Wii Shop Channel. You want it. You don't want to buy an NES off of the EvilBay (you have a Wii and it's 2006 damn it!) and wait for it to ship. You don't want to lurk around a gameshop, thrift or pawn for a SMB cart that may or may not work. So, you pay the five bucks and break bricks to your hearts content. Most of these VC games are not for us guys. Once VC is proven profitable the harder core stuff will come. They are playing it safe, I agree, but you must remember the last time a company came all out was Sega... and we all know how that went down. Dreamcast was awesome, and still failed sadly. I'm willing to wait so that Wii don't go the same route.

[Kejoriv]

Found this on ign.com about Wii storage:

Q: 512 megabytes doesn't seem like much. Do Wii owners have any other storage options?

A: Yes. Wii owners can expand the system's storage capacity by plugging in a separately sold SD memory card. SD memory cards currently enable up to 8 gigabytes of storage - about 15 times the storage capacity of Wii's internal flash RAM and almost half that of an Xbox 360's 20 gigabyte hard drive. 8 gigabyte SD cards currently retail for about $270 and will see dramatic price reductions during Wii's life cycle.

Nintendo has also hinted that Wii owners may be able to connect a USB-powered external hard drive to Wii, although it has never officially announced compatibility. Supposing this does turn out to be true, an exciting number of storage options become available. Currently, a 100 gigabyte external USB hard drive retails for fewer than $100 on the market - and like SD cards - the cost will continue to decrease.

[DEBRO]

Hi there,

MY only thing is. Nintendo knows the games wii want to play.

Why play this cloak and dagger are they trying to reclaim top spot? WHere is super Metriod,Punch out. Starfox goldeneye. Do something special give the good onesaway for the 1st 6 months. Thjis is the best they have to offer out of a library of a zillion games:(
I guess I see it as a business move. They can gradually release them and claim them as "new" titles. If they released everything at once then they wouldn't have anything to offer down the road. It might give them a chance to weigh out how popular the VC will be before they pull out the big guns. Also, maybe they have other things in mind for the other titles...maybe some type of bundle.


Seeing nintendo's list and high price point is dissapointing . It lets me know they are still all about the money.
I won't say they're all about the money but they are in the business of "making" money. They don't make any money on the retro carts that we can buy for less. They've already made and captured that revenue. They're trying to recapture new revenue off them now.

Another point about the prices, they have to pay royalties to the respective companies (well...not for their N64 games :)). But again, they're trying to recapture revenue.

Sure most of us here can start up our old consoles with our old games or even run our favorite emulators but some or most people don't do this. If they did then Jakks, Williams, Namco and others wouldn't have made as many retro compilations as they did. There must be a nice sum of revenue being generated by these retro games to even get Nintendo to take notice.

For instance, look at the Atari Flashback2. Those ROMs have been available for years but Atari released the FB2 and did quite well with it. So there are still people out there willing to pay for these retro titles again and they apparently don't have their old consoles anymore.

[swlovinist]

These virtual prices are too high if they are just roms. If online multiplayer is added, then prices seen fair. As for why they are not coming out with different titles, Nintendo is going to release 10 new titles every month. I am sure that Super Mario World and Mario Kart 64 are right around the corner.
One thing that puzzles me is the prices on the Genesis. If we have the Genesis collection coming out with 30 of the best genesis games(PS2 and PSP), why in hell are they selling one game at $8? O_O I do have to say that the TG 16 game prices are way worth it, and I look forward to seeing what else is coming out for it!

[MrRoboto19XX]

Looking back at the list, Im about 80% sure I see the pattern, which would explain why these are the "launch titles" so to speak.

All of the afforementioned vc titles can easily be played with simply the wii mote and nunchuck. Most of these games use the most basic of control schemes, mainly being two buttons and the analog stick and or control pad.

Chances are Nintendo is holding off on the titles with the more complex control schemes until theres a larger install base of the classic vc controller. If you look at all of the titles were pining for (SMW, RPGS, Etc) theyre all going to be much easier to play with a trafitional style controler. In a sense, by waiting until the classic style vc controller has a larger user base Nintendo is doing us all a favor.

Thats just my bit, may not even be close to right.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

That's a good point about the controls, at least for SNES and N64 games. There's no reason they couldn't be offering lots of more interesting NES, TuboGrafx and even Genesis titles, though.

Also, it should be pointed out that everyone keeps saying "$5 for SMB," but Super Mario Bros. is most curiously absent from the current list.

The NES list is especially horrible. Except for Zelda those are all mapper 0 games. Some of them are decent, of course, but the NES has far better sports titles than Tennis and Baseball. Hell, the Intellivision has far better sports titles than those. And Urban Champion? Give me a break.


...word is bondage...

[alec]

Like has been said, I agree that these titles would benefit greatly from online multiplayer and would make them more worth the asking price. Also, after seeing a video of Metal Slug being played on the Wii, I think it would be a nice feature to add some new control schemes into the VC titles, a new way to play these games may give them a bit of new flare and rekindle people's interest in playing them again.

I can't help but wonder if adding SD card compatability is a good idea. PSP had SD card compatability and piracy on that system is totally crazy. I can already see it now, people loading VC games from their cards that they downloaded from their PC's for free, along with programs that may even boot ISO's of gamecube and even Wii games off of the card. An SD card slot may be a good addition for gamers, but is it a good business move for N?

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

If all people are able to do with the SD slot or external USB drive is load unencrypted ROMS in the virtual console, it probably wouldn't matter that much to Nintendo at all. Keep in mind, that it'll always be a tiny minority of people doing stuff like that and plenty of people would probably still be buying games legitimately for the virtual console. The ability to load whatever classic ROMs we want might even sell a few additional systems to people like us, which would be good for Nintendo.

It's when people figure out how to play original Wii games through the SD slot that Nintendo has to worry about.


...word is bondage...

[Anthony1]

I think they made a mistake with their pricing model. Instead of having a flat fee for specific systems, they should have priced the games individually, like Microsoft is doing. Microsoft basically decides whether a game can sell at $10, and then if they think it can, they price it at 800 Microsoft points. If they don't think they can sell it for $10, then they price it at 400 microsoft points. The whole point of the Microsoft point thing, is that it gets people to think they are spending Monopoly money or something, they don't equate it as real money. But with the Wii system, the points are priced the same as dollars so it makes it more obvious.


Also, you have certain NES classics that they might have been able to sell for $10, but now they are forced to sell them all at $5. By the same token, there are lots of SNES games that aren't going to sell at $8, but could sell at $5. I just think by forcing all games for certain systems into certain price points, they are f*#king themselves with that.

[gepeto]

You know it is funny. When you hungry it shows. I remember when sega released the genesis it new it had to come strong. about 3 to six months after its release sega offered a bonus to buyers buy a genesis get one free game of your choice and an extra controller. I couldn't believe it Luckily the store manager that sold me my launch gave me a receipt to send in and I picked up a class a title and a controller. people bought like crazy.

Sony was the same way the flaunted lower royalties fees and was steady pumping out underground disc and had an underground club. My point give something to the loyal base for being loyal.

To my knowledge nintendo has never offered any type of deal to the consumer unless it was too unload unsold items.

I believe the strength of the handheld market keeps them from being humble.

[gepeto]

You know it is funny. When you hungry it shows. I remember when sega released the genesis it new it had to come strong. about 3 to six months after its release sega offered a bonus to buyers buy a genesis get one free game of your choice and an extra controller. I couldn't believe it Luckily the store manager that sold me my launch gave me a receipt to send in and I picked up a class a title and a controller. people bought like crazy.

Sony was the same way the flaunted lower royalties fees and was steady pumping out underground disc and had an underground club. My point give something to the loyal base for being loyal.

To my knowledge nintendo has never offered any type of deal to the consumer unless it was too unload unsold items.

I believe the strength of the handheld market keeps them from being humble.

[gepeto]

You know it is funny. When you hungry it shows. I remember when sega released the genesis it knew it had to come strong. about 3 to six months after its release sega offered a bonus to buyers buy a genesis get one free game of your choice and an extra controller. I couldn't believe it Luckily the store manager that sold me my launch gene gave me a receipt to send in and I picked up a class a title and a controller. people bought the systems like crazy.

Sony was the same way the flaunted lower royalties fees and was steady pumping out underground disc and had an underground club. My point give something to the loyal base for being loyal.

To my knowledge nintendo has never offered any type of deal to the consumer unless it was too unload unsold items.

I believe the strength of the handheld market keeps them from being humble no matter how bad their console is doing.

Does anyone remember the sega deal?

[Half Japanese]

Nintendo has offered a few freebies to "loyals," but they were almost always incredibly lame or required a purchase. The only absolute freebie I can think of was the Metroid Prime 2 demo. Whoop. A fucking demo. Yay. Or the 3 free issues of Nintendo Power, but almost anyone trying to make money could write and give to you 3 free issues of a magazine telling you how great they are.