That's unboxed, covered in fluff, and often glitchy or hard to get to work.

I've seen Super Mario Kart (boxed) for £25, and I picked up a boxed, perfect version of Perfect Dark for £10 and was very pleased for myself.

Personally, although they could be cheaper, the prices seem pretty damn reasonable by comparison...

Dom

What is a "fair" price? A "fair" price is something that's left up to the individual to decide. Some believe that one or two bucks less than the current price would be fair. Others argue that half the price of what they're charging is fair. While still others believe that NES games should be $1. It is my understanding that whatever price the VC consoles would be set at, you are going to find detractors saying how overpriced it is. Yes, even at $1, though $1 is indeed more generous than $5. I'm not arguing against making things cheaper, but it's kind of a moot point if there are people out there paying $5 for Donkey Kong. In fact it's much much easier to get fewer people to pay more money for a product (one $5 increment) than to get many people to pay less for a product (5 $1 increments). It's how a lot of different hobby markets work.

The VC setup is still a new business, and like any smart business, I have no doubt that Nintendo will "trim the fat" in order to make it better. If Pinball proves to be a poor seller then cutting the price or at least phasing it out for 3 much better titles seems a given.

Anyway, it looks like Japan has a lot of good games coming. I hope this means that the US will be getting those Sega and Turbo Grafx games sometime soon. The original Space Harrier is one of my favorite games of all time, and I never got to play the sequel on Genesis.

Chris McDougall

It's more like a one-time restore point, because the "save" is deleted once it is loaded, but it's basically the same thing and you can just create a new restore point when you're done playing again.

I do agree that the VC games should be cheaper. Even if they were half the price of what they are now, I would be buying more. Most of the NES games available now were fun to play at a friend's house, but $5 for Pinball or even the original Mario Bros.? No thanks. I'd be much happier if NES games were $2.50, and much, much happier if they were $1. I'd probably buy every one of them if they were only a dollar.

I agree with SupaDave, that the costs does not encourage us to buy games we have no experience with. There are a few games I'd like to try, but would feel much better about if the price were lower or maybe if they had a 5-minute trial version or something similar to that.

SimCity was fun. On the PC. 15 years ago. The SNES version was waayy slow and boring. I'd rather have Civilization or Utopia.

Speaking of Utopia, I wonder how games that used a mouse (the only two I know of were Utopia and Mario Paint) will work. Maybe the WiiMote will be used after all, since you need to plug in the Classic Controller anyway. . .

Deozaan

*looks at game collection on the shelf*

Meh! I'm not going to get jealous over Xevious and Fire Emblem (well, maybe over Fire Emblem).

izarate

I'm sure we'll see the equivalent of Classic/Platinum hits for the VC. Or, promotions if you buy Metroid Prime 3 you get Metroid for NES for $1 or something like that.

You have to keep in mind that we are the early adopters... a lot will change in the next 6 months to a year.

The main problem I see with the pricing is that it does not encourage people to try games they have no experience with. I'll pay for ToeJam and Earl and Mario 64 because I loved those games. I don't know if I want to pay for Bonk! even though I always wanted to play it.

We'll see....

SupaDave

And as for third parties not supporting VC, that is the fault of dumbass Nintendo's lazy ass. They just have to live with the fact that their games cost too much and they have to deal with giving royalties to those third parties and make less money. They just inflated the cost of the VC games so they could make more money. Nintendo killed the market, not consumers like me who want a fair price.

Gagamus

CosMind

StratfordX

StratfordX

Gagamus

kmhebert

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.

plasticfangs

cello

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.

Snap

kriegs

Lyrai

Xeronius

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.

blacksamurai87

Justin42

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.

Sithlet

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.

antivert

protozoider

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?

dvddesign

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?

plasticfangs

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

SimonR

Artanis Knarf

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.

Artadius

goomba478

antivert

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?

goomba478

antivert

Jack Loftus

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.

NNTPgrip

brywalker

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

Islandkiwi

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.

antivert

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

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.)

quen

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!

BlindsidesDork

Earthslide

deitiphobia

xerxes7

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.

Niku

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...

nemyhlovecraft

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

Kylara21

antivert

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

MinMaximizer

Kylara21

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.

antivert

funkonaut

BlindsidesDork

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

That is what, $4.30?

BlindsidesDork

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.

MaoChan

hondo

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

Lider

1 dollar VC games... nice.

MinMaximizer