Should SMB be free on the Virtual Console?

[diskoboy]

Honestly, I think it should be.

Nintendo has milked this title for all it's worth. And I know most of us here, probably still have it on some form or another, be it our original NES carts, or the SNES All-Star versions, etc....

Come on Nintendo.... You gave it away free 21 years ago, why not now?

[chicnstu]

Maybe they could start including it in the Wiis they sell.

It would be nice if you could send in the serial numbers or something on the old games you own and you could get them free on the VC.

EDIT: One reason it's not free is that Nintendo doesn't know who has bought it before. What about the people that have never bought it? Should they get it free? I don't think they should.

[drewbrim]

No way. Not from a personal standpoint, but from a business standpoint. That will easily be their most popular game on the virtual console. Think about how well the gba version is still selling at the moment.

Us, and those like us are the only ones that are still able to play it as nature intended. But every 30 something that bought it for their children will want to get SMB for themselves to play.

[TurboGenesis]

Actually I kind of think it should be free or "packed in". It would be a great way to show off the VC and could entice consumers to purchase more VC games. Just as Wii Sports shows of the capabilities of the Wii remote a sample VC game would be a great way to show off the potential of the Virtual Console.

Another option could be to include 500 points so a consumer could purchase any game they choose.

[jajaja]

I think it would be a great idea actually. Super Mario Bros is Nintendo and by giving it for free it might give people a taste to buy more VC games. Why do you think they give away those free samples at stores etc.? So people should buy more :)

[MegaDrive20XX]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/Akumajo22/MiyamotoCandy.jpg

[jajaja]

Haha LOL

[DigitalSpace]

Calm down and take a deep breath. Nintendo charging for SMB is okay. That's life.

Nobody's forcing us to buy SMB and get to 8-4 and save the princess again and then start a new quest. Take your Wii points elsewhere this Christmas. Toe Jam & Earl, Super Castlevania IV and and the TG-16 version of R-Type all want your Wii points. Won't you let them on your Wii this holiday season? Look at those sad puppy eyes on R-Type and try to tell it you don't want it.

[Daniel Thomas]

I don't mind paying money for these old games, but I do mind paying so much. These games should be priced lower - iTunes prices, methinks.

That said, we're now getting to the point where VC games are seriously cutting into the Wii library proper. You only have so many spare hours, and how you have a growing list of classics to burrow through. Ideally, this should put added pressure on developers to really wow us with the new stuff. I don't think the novelty of the controller is going to last more than six months. After that, it's time to deliver the goods.

Oh, btw, I'll be sure to write up all of the Christmas VC reviews at the blog before everyone heads out for the holidays. I just need a few more screenshots and a little more playtime. Ugh, I already wasted the afternoon on NES Baseball and Urban Champion (next week's releases).

[theshizzle3000]

I had not even thought of this idea until now, but I agree those of us who want to play the game the way it is supposed to be played will continue doing that and the people who want it for there Wii will buy it that way. I mean I do not expect Nintendo to sell the game for to high of a price knowing that it is relatively easy to find in the first place.

[Captain Wrong]

I don't mind paying money for these old games, but I do mind paying so much. These games should be priced lower - iTunes prices, methinks.

Agreed.

It's kind of funny when you can buy the PS2 Genesis Collection for $20 yet Genny games are like, what?, $8-$10 dollars each on the VC? I know that isn't Nintendo, but it is an example of just how messed up the pricing is on these things.

Sidenote, is there anyway to back these things up? What happens if your Wii gets hosed or you need more space on the memory?

[chicnstu]

[...]
Sidenote, is there anyway to back these things up? What happens if your Wii gets hosed or you need more space on the memory?

Supposedly Nintendo keeps records of who has bought what so you can't lose them. If you need more space, move the games you aren't playing to an SD card.

[Captain Wrong]

Supposedly Nintendo keeps records of who has bought what so you can't lose them. If you need more space, move the games you aren't playing to an SD card.

Good to know

<=== Wii n00b

[Beefy Hits]

Supposedly Nintendo keeps records of who has bought what so you can't lose them. If you need more space, move the games you aren't playing to an SD card.

I thought you couldn't save VC games to SD cards?
From what I understand, if you run out of space, you can just delete the games and re-download them.

[jajaja]

I thought you couldn't save VC games to SD cards?
From what I understand, if you run out of space, you can just delete the games and re-download them.

You can save them to a SD card, but you cannot play them directly from the card. You need to delete a game (if your out of space) on the internal flash memory, then move it from the SD card and over to the Wii. This process takes alittle time so it might be faster to redownload the game.

[agbulls]

Nintendo will let you re-download a game no problem if you have already paid for it once and deleted it? Thats gotta be easier than storing it on a card and moving it back and forth.

[JJNova]

I thought you couldn't save VC games to SD cards?
From what I understand, if you run out of space, you can just delete the games and re-download them.

That's the case. The Wii keeps tracks of what you download and the games can be redownloaded free of charge

[Xizer]

Who cares? Super Mario Bros. is already free everywhere else...it can easily be emulated on almost every system on the planet.

[itobandito]

I think it should be free on xmas day and thats it. Microsoft has done stuff like that before on the marketplace. Free download up until X amount of time.

[YoshiM]

I don't mind paying money for these old games, but I do mind paying so much. These games should be priced lower - iTunes prices, methinks.

Um, why? I don't think you can really compare VC With iTunes. With iTunes you are getting music that is of lesser quality than what you get on a CD. With VC you are getting what so far is a fully functional full quality game. For a buck on iTunes you get a song that's an average of 3 to 4 minutes. Depending on the game you can get 3 to 4 hours or more hours for your money.

Glancing at some prices on eBay including (uninflated) shipping some of these titles are pretty cheap on VC (Toe Jam & Earl) to about on par (Castlevania IV). Yeah you don't get a cartridge or a physical instruction manual but the audience this is targeted for doesn't care about that. They just wanna play the games they had fun with in their youth.

[Retsudo]

I dont think any of the games you download on the VC should be free, but I just cant understand why people download games they already have. Seems stupid too me. Unless you were living in a cave or never played any of the games.

[chicnstu]

but I just cant understand why people download games they already have.

To be able to play it on the Wii instead.

[youruglyclone]

Maybe they could start including it in the Wiis they sell.

It would be nice if you could send in the serial numbers or something on the old games you own and you could get them free on the VC.

EDIT: One reason it's not free is that Nintendo doesn't know who has bought it before. What about the people that have never bought it? Should they get it free? I don't think they should.

that would be a very cool idea, gives people a reason to use my nintendo....cause certainly there's no club nintendo to bolster the registration of games.

[kainemaxwell]

Hell, SMB should be free and should have come with the VC.

[KingCobra]

LMAO!!!

Good one there MegaDrive20XX

No, but really now, a nice Mario All-Stars would be sick as a "Pack-In", just like the old days, I'd be a smart move IMO.

[FantasiaWHT]

It really pisses me off (these prices). If the games were $1 or $2 each, I would've probably bought almost all of them. Nintendo would have lots and lots of my money through it. I highly doubt there will be any games I would pay $6 or $8 for. So Nintendo gets none of my money.

Maybe if we see some TG-CD or Saturn games I would, but I've been told that we'll never see CD-based games.

And don't even get me started on the cheap tactic of buying points with money so retailers can scam unsuspecting customers into buying $20 with $25 or $30.

[jajaja]

Maybe if we see some TG-CD or Saturn games I would, but I've been told that we'll never see CD-based games.

Unless there is some way to extend the space it wont happend. The internal memory is 512mb, but its hardly any space free. I.e Donkey Kong in VC takes 19 blocks afaik. Total free block on a Wii is just under 3000 which means you can fit about 150 DK VC games files on it. DK ROM is about 25kb large. 25kb * 150 = 37.5mb. Even if the ROM was 1kb large it would only be 150mb free.

[TurboGenesis]

And don't even get me started on the cheap tactic of buying points with money so retailers can scam unsuspecting customers into buying $20 with $25 or $30.

Game Stop charges $19.99 for Wii Points (2000) and Xbox marketplace points (1600) out the door no tax.

So for nineteen dollars and ninety nine cents you can get 2000 Wii points, at one cent a point you get one point FREE :-D

[Niku-Sama]

i dont think SMB should be free, i think it should be 100 Points....if even that because they sold so many when it was NES game and you can find them for muck less than $1 now

[FantasiaWHT]

i dont think SMB should be free, i think it should be 100 Points....if even that because they sold so many when it was NES game and you can find them for muck less than $1 now

I always wondered about that... I've always been told that it's dirt cheap, and stores that want $3 or $5 are ripping you off, but I've never ever seen anywhere I could get it for $1 total.

And TurboGenesis, yeah you get the extra point there ;) I wonder why they sell them retail at all, really... they make less money than they would online, between the retailer's profit (if there is any, there might not be, I'm not sure) and the production of the packaging for the card.

[whoisKeel]

Um, why? I don't think you can really compare VC With iTunes. With iTunes you are getting music that is of lesser quality than what you get on a CD. With VC you are getting what so far is a fully functional full quality game. For a buck on iTunes you get a song that's an average of 3 to 4 minutes. Depending on the game you can get 3 to 4 hours or more hours for your money.

Glancing at some prices on eBay including (uninflated) shipping some of these titles are pretty cheap on VC (Toe Jam & Earl) to about on par (Castlevania IV). Yeah you don't get a cartridge or a physical instruction manual but the audience this is targeted for doesn't care about that. They just wanna play the games they had fun with in their youth.

And depending on the song you can get even more play time than 3-4 hours, that argument could go either way “depending”. That said, emulation is always inferior to some people just as mp3 compression is inferior to others, while the majority can’t tell the difference. I think that this online video game market is definitely trying to emulate the success of iTunes. Certainly nobody is arguing that CIV or Toe Jam & Earl isn’t “worth” the money spent, but the question is how many games will you buy at these prices. How many songs are worth $4 to you? Quite a few perhaps…but how many songs are worth $1 to you? A lot more. The same principle could be argued for games. Remember, not everybody is as avid a gamer as these forums. It certainly could be argued that the average user would rather buy 10 games at $1 than 2 games at $4.

[Super Mario Fan]

I always wondered about that... I've always been told that it's dirt cheap, and stores that want $3 or $5 are ripping you off, but I've never ever seen anywhere I could get it for $1 total.

When Gamestop sold NES games, you could get SMB for $.29.

[Captain Wrong]

And depending on the song you can get even more play time than 3-4 hours, that argument could go either way “depending”. That said, emulation is always inferior to some people just as mp3 compression is inferior to others, while the majority can’t tell the difference. I think that this online video game market is definitely trying to emulate the success of iTunes. Certainly nobody is arguing that CIV or Toe Jam & Earl isn’t “worth” the money spent, but the question is how many games will you buy at these prices. How many songs are worth $4 to you? Quite a few perhaps…but how many songs are worth $1 to you? A lot more. The same principle could be argued for games. Remember, not everybody is as avid a gamer as these forums. It certainly could be argued that the average user would rather buy 10 games at $1 than 2 games at $4.

*golf clap*

That's pretty much my thought as well. I think there is a direct corolation between the iTunes music store and the VC.

[8-bitNesMan]

When Gamestop sold NES games, you could get SMB for $.29.

What I consider one of my best grabs ever was when I nabbed a mint CIB Super Mario Bros. for .50 because the clerk took a look at it and said "It's just Mario Bros." SOLD!

[YoshiM]

And depending on the song you can get even more play time than 3-4 hours, that argument could go either way “depending”. That said, emulation is always inferior to some people just as mp3 compression is inferior to others, while the majority can’t tell the difference. I think that this online video game market is definitely trying to emulate the success of iTunes. Certainly nobody is arguing that CIV or Toe Jam & Earl isn’t “worth” the money spent, but the question is how many games will you buy at these prices. How many songs are worth $4 to you? Quite a few perhaps…but how many songs are worth $1 to you? A lot more. The same principle could be argued for games. Remember, not everybody is as avid a gamer as these forums. It certainly could be argued that the average user would rather buy 10 games at $1 than 2 games at $4.

Well, let's drag Wii games into the equation. A Wii game is $50 and to many people that's plenty of dough to spend on a game. With the VC they can get 10 NES games, about 7-8 TG-16/Genesis games, 6 SNES games and 5 N64 games. That's a LOT of entertainment available. If a person wants to relive their gaming past or take a chance on stuff they never played before, it's essentially chump change. Comic books are $3, game magazines are about $5 to $7 each (or $10 with a demo disc) and a recent DVD can be snagged around $10. These are things people typically drop money on without really thinking about it. So if a person downloads say NES Tennis and is done with it after a couple of hours the pain to the pocket book is nothin' compared to buying Far Cry for the Wii and not liking it.

Don't get me wrong, if NES games were a buck a download I'd be filling up memory cards. But let's be real: most of these games are great and still have value. People bought Super Mario Bros. for $20 for their Game Boy Advances or $30 a pop for Super Mario World Advance titles.

[Celestial Avenger]

Default Should SMB be free on the Virtual Console?

Absolutely.

[Sylentwulf]

Pesronally, I think they should just give out 1-2 free games every month. I mean christ, after 5 years of owning the Wii, you'd still only have aroun d 60 games free, which wouldn't hurt their profits that much after a 5 year run of the system.

[Half Japanese]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/Akumajo22/MiyamotoCandy.jpg

I salute you sir. I laughed harder at that than I probably should have.