Retro Gaming Australia

In January’s Nintendo Direct video conference earlier in the week, Nintendo detailed their plans for the Wii U version of the Virtual Console service.

The Virtual Console service will launch on Wii U after the Spring (our Autumn) update. Initially only games for the NES and SNES will be released, but plans were announced for the Game Boy Advance to join the line up in the future. Titles are being re-coded for the Wii U VC, with new features like save states being added.

However, the downside of that is that you’re going to have to buy the games again. Nintendo did announce a program whereby you’ll be able to get a discount on the Wii U version of a VC title if you’d bought it on the Wii – which is a better outcome than most expected. For the US, it ends up that you’ll be able to convert to the Wii U versions for $1 for NES games and $1.50 for SNES games. No word on local pricing.

In addition to being able to play on the Wii U GamePad, Wii U VC titles will support the Classic Controller and Pro Controller. Apparently VC titles will be among the first two support two Wii U GamePads.

To whet your appetite, Nintendo are releasing a game a month at a heavily discounted price. Balloon Fight is the first game up, and it’s just 30 cents. That’s cheaper than a McDonald’s cone! F-Zero will follow in February, Punch-Out!! in March, Kirby’s Adventure in April, Super Metroid in May, Mario & Yoshi in June and Donkey Kong in August.

Banjo-Kazooie is one of Rare’s finest platforming efforts, sadly oft overlooked nowadays because of its collection based progress mechanics. The UK ad pays homage to the promotional campaign for the 1978 Superman film.

Donkey Kong for the Game Boy, known to most as Donkey Kong ’94, is one of the finest games on Nintendo’s old handheld. It starts out as an adaptation of the original 1981 arcade game – but when you defeat DK at the end of the arcade game’s original final level, the sneaky ape gets up and steal’s Pauline again, and Mario has to chase him through another 40 odd levels of platforming fun.

In celebration of the upcoming release of Pikmin 3, San-ei will be re-releasing their range of Pikmin 2 plushies again.

Unfortunately the Olimar and Louie plushies are not part of the reissue.

NCSX appears to be the only English site listing them at the moment, with a February release target. The Pikmin will set you back $US16.90 and the Bulborb will cost $US49.90.

We’ve seen some high profile withdrawls of games from the Wii’s Virtual Console about, but this one is perhaps the most surprising. Reports are coming in from the US that Nintendo has pulled Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie’s Double Trouble from the Virtual Console service. Nintendo has not provided a reason for the change. Word is that the games will be pulled from PAL region stores on the 25th of November – so if you want them, download them now.

Some folks are speculating that Nintendo might be upgrading the games to support the WiiU Game Pad, or be planning some kind of Donkey Kong collection disc, but these stories seem unlikely at this point – Donkey Kong‘s 30th anniversary was last year. There are no rights issues with Rare, as Nintendo always owned the rights to the games and characters Rare created for the franchise.

What can I say about Super Mario Bros. 3 that hasn’t been said before? It’s pretty much the best game on the NES. Kuribo’s shoe for life.

Star Fox (or Starwing for us PAL types) was the poster child for Argonaut’s Super FX chip, which boosted the 3D graphics capabilities of the SNES significantly. Argonaut developed Star Fox in conjunction with Nintendo – the British studio worked on the tech, while the Japanese company handled much of the game design and planning. A special competition version of the game is one of the most sought after SNES carts.

Super Metroid is arguably one of the finest games of the 16-bit era, if not all time. It’s a massive, beautiful game with an excellent structure and superb gameplay. What sticks with me after playing it, however, is the fact it could tell a good story without getting in your face about it.

It’s not widely known, but Nintendo updated Donkey Kong Land III from the black & white (or pea soup green, depending on your system) Game Boy to the Game Boy Color when they brought the game to Japan. While the Japanese had to wait an extra two years to play the game, they got to do so with a superior version.

And now you can too, thanks to the hard work of Blaziken257, who has prepared an English translation patch for the Japanese version of the game, known as Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong and Dixie Kong.

You can get the translation patch here

Source: Romhacking via RetroCollect

Nintendo of America will be rewarding those who purchase Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Style Savy: Trendsetters, Crosswords Plus, Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone!, and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask through the 3DS eShop with a free copy of Donkey Kong: Original Edition.

Donkey Kong: Original Edition is an updated re-release of the NES version of the game which was only available pre-installed on the European release of the limited edition Mario 25th edition Red Wii. It includes the cement factory level, restoring the game to its full state.