Wii wii wii all the way home.

1 dollar VC games... nice.

Some great titles, better than US launch. Btw, at least the games are a bit cheaper, but it's somewhat of a rip-off still... even in japan. :P

Btw, will we have a cool launch coverage liek the one you did for the PS3?

I wish I lived in Japan ever day T_T

Seriously they get SCV4 and we get crap like Bonk and Bomberman.

If Japan gets Dracula X for the Turbo Duo and we don't, there will be blood in the streets, blood of the innocents dripping through my claws.

1 dollar VC games..where do you see that MinMaximizer?

They are only $.14 cheaper to a dollar making NES games around $.70 cheaper.

That is what, $4.30?

Bomberman rules!

MinMaximizer employs the fuzzy math. Doh!

Cheaper just to buy a goddamn SNES in Japan, where they are plentiful, and buy carts for $1 or less a piece. Or just run the stuff on emus. Are you with me??

Oh yeah and Turbografx 16 aren't hard to find there either. :P The only games I'd consider buying on the VC is N64 games.

OMG Japan has just seen the release of Bonk's Adventure!@#!@#!@@#

Guess what guys, it's out here too. Has been for some time I think. I'm not sure, I just woke up from a 20 year shochu hangover.

Okay, if 100 yen = 86 cents, and the cheapest game is a 500 yen game, where are you getting the $1 VC game from?

Read that too quick. Sorry.

Rereading it again, I am happier with Wii Sports than the classics. It's better to have something that demos the Wii-mote.

I also forgot to say: OH MY CHRIST COLUMNS!@#@!#!@ JESUS I WISHED I STILL LIVED IN JAPAN!@#@!@!#!

Whoa, I posted that and there were suddenly eight other posts. That's what I get for using an old, outdated page.. ignore that Min, I'm not trying to harass you.

Anyway, I don't see Bubble Bobble or Tetris Attack. God I want those.

Man, we are getting royally screwed in the US.

600 points for Genesis versus 800 points over here? WTH.

Also, they're charging 1 point = 1 yen, which makes that $8.00 Genesis game in the US about $5.16 in Japan.

And there's nothing we can do about it...

I don't want Tetris Attack or Bubble Bobble until Nintendo lets us play VC games online.

I'd also like an official word on why there's such a regional disparity between the VC games, since when the lists were first unveiled my reaction was "oh, we're getting less games in the US since the Wii is released here first, and they'll be catching us up to the Japan launch over the following few weeks." Guess that was optimism shining through a little too much.

Is it possible to make a "Japanese" account on an American Wii or vice-versa? What then?

This is where Sony's failings will truly become apparent. The Wii will mop the floor with the PS3 in Japan all while the 360 destroys the PS3 in North America, Europe, Australia and dozens of other countries where the PS3 won't even be showing it's face for a year or more.

We did however receive the systems first so it's all fair.

Yeah but after a few weeks, and after Januaray we both will have it and we will still have to dish out more money on VC games! Then what? And not everyone is going to be able to get the system before christmas anyways...

Foul play and I am an avid Nintendo lover!!!
I could understand if it was a little cheaper, like ten cents here or there but for some titles it will be about $2 cheaper!!
May not be much to you but after 3 game purchases, you could still have enough for another game!

xerxes - no, I believe the accounts go with the region-coding in the machine, so your Japanese Wii is always a Japanese Wii wherever in the world you take it.

I think, although not sure, you also can't buy points with a credit card from outside the region. (But you can still get points cards from online retailers in the region.)

So in other words, my understanding is that if you want to play Japanese VC games you will have to get a Japanese Wii and (probably) buy Japanese points cards too.

(All this until somebody hacks it, of course.)

what exactly is the strategy, in nintendo of america holding back on the VC releases? i can understand that some marketing guru somewhere might think that they would be more likely to sell (for example) more VC copies of the original 8-bit metroid when metroid prime 3 is released, but there are a ton of titles on the japanese listings that don't have a modern counterpart. since the games are also cheaper in japan, you'd think by gouging us a little bit they would give up more titles, and sooner.

one of the main selling points for the wii, for me, was the virtual console... but bonk's adventure and donkey kong can only hold me over for a little while. it's such a tease, knowing that the good stuff like gunstar heroes is ready to go but i can't have it, yet. I WANT MY TOEJAM AND EARL!

plasticfangs: Those games suck, go buy them at bargain basement prices or go to, I don't know, how about one of those 8 billion sites where you can go play these via Java. The VC is cool for N64 releases but uggh.. $8 for a shitty old genesis game? Get real!

These games are ok but generally old and not so great. Didn't we re-buy most of these on the gba anyway?

The VC is a main selling point for you? Ouch. They can't give away PC Engines anymore. Hudson made *one* good game. Super Bomberman 2.

Yes, I'm ready for everyone to jump on me, but please. These games are fine, but completely not worth the money they're charging here. $1, $2 maybe.

$8 for DONKEY KONG COUNTRY?? Oh my god, it's got 3D RENDERED GRAPHICS PEOPLE! You know you passed up this game for $2 in the bargain bin. You so know you did.

R-Type and Adventure Island? Why not here?

Oh well, they'll get here soon enough...

I would like to think that there will be a revision to the pricing in VC after a while. I think N64 games will sell well, and NES. But they will slow and Nintendo will realize that the pricing structure is flawed.

Hello people, don't blame nintendo for covering their ass against our stupid, litigious society.

Notice how every one of these games for the US are now rated by the ESRB. That's why its taking so long. Of course, anything after 1993 there should be no excuse.

the pricing structure will only be revealed as "flawed" if Nintendo does not make any money on it. Like with any business, if they continue to turn a profit, then no amount of vocal minority belly aching (that's us) will change their minds.

*Belly*.. *aches*.. *so*..*much*... :D

I still say it's our faults. We proved to Nintendo (time and again) that not only are we willing to be buy games over and over again (I'm looking at you $34.99 GBA remakes of SNES games and ports) but also the hardware that runs them (Gameboy/Gameboy Pocket/Color/Gameboy Advance/SP/Micro,DS/DS Lite)... not that I'm complaining, I've happily fed Nintendo's bank accounts over the years buying every one of the above-mentioned systems (with the exception of the Micro, but I did buy the Virtual Boy so that makes up for it).

If people are willing to pay the fees (and they are, trust me) then nobody can convince Nintendo to otherwise lower the price of their points currently. Would I like cheaper VC games, of course, but I don't see it happening. I may very well import a Japanese Wii though, something tells me this thing will sell like hotcakes in Japan and there are sure to be a lot of exclusive Wii titles that never make it over here. Anyone else with me on that?

I'm totally with you on that, goomba478. I'm buying a Japanese Wii as well.

For the record I'll probably wait until Japan has different color Wii's that way I can justify buying another one a little more to my wife. After all, if I have two of the same colors then it looks absolutely silly to have them side by side. But, if I have one black and one white...I suppose that makes it a little easier to justify and argue (a "little" bit). I can have one sensor bar on top of the TV and one underneath..that should do the trick.

@anitvert

Your *opinion* is duly noted. These games however are quite in fact worth it for a great many people.

It's not a huge deal for me because sure I could play any of these on an emulator... but there's just something different from playing on your computer than playing on your couch in front of the TV. My wife loves Super Mario Bros.. but refuses to play it on a computer/emulator as it just doesn't feel the same she says. It's the same reason why some people prefer to 'rough it' when they camp, hate watching baseball on TV but LOVE going to actual games, or swear up and down that a home cooked meal even after slaving hours in the kitchen is far better than eating a four star dinner out.

Convienence and Cost (or lack thereof) can't always replace Nostalgia and Authenticity.

$5 for NES Pinball here? For $0.99 I would have bought that in an instant, $5... no plans whatsoever.

Link to the Past?!

Why, Nintendo, why? I've still got another week before the Wii strikes here. Sad panda.

antivert:

yeah, a legal way to get classic games all togehter without a rat's nest of a mess in my living room *was* a major selling point for me. it's not worth my time to drive around scouring flea markets or paying jacked up ebay prices for that elusive copy of snatcher on sega CD... i could just download roms and use shoddy emulation, but the idea of actually playing retro games intact all on one console in my living room still entices me. java is NOT the same thing at all.

i'm not a big fan of the pricing for all of it, either. i'd much rather have an itunes kind of structure, especially if we could try before we buy. as it stands, nintendo is making me lean towards piracy.

gunstar heroes sucks? and toejam and earl sucks too? blasphemy! my taste in games isn't the same as yours... so what?

xerxes: "Is it possible to make a "Japanese" account on an American Wii or vice-versa? What then?"

No, it's going to be region locked. What I don't know at this point is if the region locking is done through firmware, IP filtering/blocking, or both. I hope it's just firmware. I'm going to pester a whole bunch of importers until I find out for sure, because I sure as hell want a Japanese Wii, if only for the exclusive Wii and VC titles that won't come out over here... Mother?

That would have been a perfect launch. There are 12 games I would have downloaded on the first day. I hate NOA. It really doesn't matter that we had the Wii launch first. Japan still does it better. NOA sucks at everything, especially giving fans what they want.
If ANYONE finds a way to get VC games from Japan make them put it on Kotaku. I want to know. I'm sure there will be tons of games released in Japan and not here, like usual, that many of us will want. Like Mother 2 and the Final Fantasy SNES series.

Well my main point plasticfangs is that I wish I could enjoy those games today. Gunstar heroes is just kind of lame. I suspect nostalgia is playing a role in you choosing these games to play as a means of entertainment.

I had a *great* time playing Shinobi and Afterburner on my Sega Master System when I first owned it. Does that mean these games don't suck? Nope, they seriously, honestly suck.

I think my main point should be, though, that these games are the opposite of what we were looking for in the Wii. As a small distraction they're fine, but didn't we all salivate over the Wii so that we could avoid 'more of the same'?

I have nothing against the VC itself but think that it's extremely silly to think that anyone will pay $8 for these things. Unless you do. Then you're silly.

"the pricing structure will only be revealed as 'flawed' if Nintendo does not make any money on it. Like with any business, if they continue to turn a profit, then no amount of vocal minority belly aching (that's us) will change their minds."

That's not true at all. It can easily be flawed if they could have made even more money on it. If a $5 NES game only entices 1 person to buy it, but a $1 version would get 6 people to buy it, I can easily see a flaw in the method.

That's what kind of surprises me -- the whole Wii strategy seems to revolve around pulling new people into the market along with captivating the current market. It seems like they'd understand the appeal of marketing cheaper VC games to more people rather than more expensive games to fewer.

That said, there will still be a few titles I'll pick up, but they'll mainly be old blockbusters.

I wonder if Nintendo would even considering offering a Japanese VC for those of us in the US who would be willing to make some agreement that we won't complain when the games/manuals/etc are in Japanese. I understand why they can't just shove games in the US VC that are totally in some other language (imagine the screaming and complaints they'd be dealing with from people too dumb to read what they're downloading), but they'd make a ton of money offering a "Japan exclusives - JAPANESE LANGUAGE ONLY" channel, that you'd have to buy separately and accept an agreement (maybe write part of the agreement in Japanese [that didn't mean anything] just to get people's attention) for those of us who don't care.

Well... about region coding...

Look at the 360, and how you can make a foreign account to access foreign demos and games. My roommate made a European account and can access demos not provided here in the U.S...

I think it might just be possible.

As long as they bring PuyoPuyo2 or above, i am down.

The reason for the staggard release of the VC games, I think, is so they have something to feed us between the huge releases of the Wii games. Didn't the gamecube have months of zero game releases?

this just makes me jealous. no two ways around it. We're stuck with some pretty crappy titles on the VC in the states, while they get Contra/Castlevania/New Adventure Island. Very sadmaking!

@goomba478

I'll more than likely pick up an imported Japanese Wii at some point as well. Hopefully they'll release a spice colored Wii so it will match my spice GameCube w/ GameBoy Player.

I have a feeling the Japanese Wii will have some very good online games that will never see the light of day in the States. Just look at Jump Ultimate Stars for DS.

That SNES line-up is KILLER. Man, that is _all_ the "retro" gaming I need.

antivert, i understand what you are saying about nostalgia... for example, i find that when i try to watch old episodes of gi joe, i am disgusted that i was ever so easily fascinated by such a mediocre cartoon. the same could be said for games, but i do mean it when i say i honestly do want to play toejam and earl again. do i wanna pay 8 bucks for it? heck no... and i certainly would have more regret on an 8 dollar purchase versus a 1 or 2 dollar one if nostalgia did get the best of me. i think nintendo is hoping that the '80s revival is going to carry over to gaming as well.

you make a good point about distraction, and as lyrai pointed out above, i do believe this is nintendo's plan, to keep us sated with VC titles inbetween *actual* NEW wii releases. this still doesn't explain why japan gets more distraction than us though, and cheaper as well.

another hope i had for the virtual console would be original titles, from indy developers, or even some form of minigames or arcade style content making use of the wii's unique control scheme... but i don't think anything along those lines has been reported as being in the works.

I just want SMB1. Come on Nintendo!!!!

VC games cost too much. Nintendo-> idiots.

Virtual Console Games are always going to cost too much when you've been stealing the same games for the past ten years.

Also, a lot of those games are not not NOT first-party, they're third-party. Konami, capcom, Hudson-soft Japan is more than happy to port those to VC. Konami, Capcom, et.al USA? They've read you wankers bitching about virtual console prices for the last 4 months on every relevant website and figure there's no market. Way to go!

Great holy heck!
Feels like Nintendo just crammed a Wii-mote up the rear of the United States...