Retro Gaming Australia

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. R-Type. Bloody Wolf.

Only one of these games is considered a classic, but they all have something in common – they’re no longer available on the Wii Virtual Console, or are scheduled to be delisted.

Nintendo has been doing very little in the way of updates for the Virtual Console service on the Wii in the last 18 months (though five games will be working their way towards the EU Virtual Console service this month), and now the service is arguably going backwards. The three games mentioned in the opening line are but a sample of the list of titles that will be a part of Virtual Console history.

Wasn’t digital distribution meant to put an end to discontinuation of stock?

Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble and Shinobi could well be the first Game Gear games headed to the 3DS Virtual Console, as both games have recently been rated by the ESRB for release in North America. Both games were exclusively designed for the Game Gear upon first release. Triple Trouble was later released in a variety of Sonic collections, but Shinobi stayed exclusive to the system.

Nintendo announced at last year’s Game Developer’s Conference that Game Gear and Turbografx/PC Engine titles would be headed to the 3DS Virtual Console, but little was said of these plans in the months since.

No release date or pricing information is available at this time, so watch this space.

Before we went dark for a couple of weeks (long story short: I got a new job, needed to adapt), we’d been harking on about the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program. Well, it starts tomorrow, and being the timely chaps they are, Nintendo has revealed the full list of games that will be made available through the program.

They are:

• Super Mario Bros.
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Balloon Fight
• Ice Climber
• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
• Metroid
• NES Open Tournament Golf
• Wrecking Crew
• Yoshi

Let the cheering/bitching commence.

Last week it was announced that NES games would be coming to the 3DS Virtual Console, first to Nintendo Ambassadors (i.e. anyone who buys a DS before August 12 and logs onto the eStore), and then later in the year for everyone else.

According to IGN, a Nintendo of America spokesperson confirmed that these NES games will be coming with some upgrades, most notably multiplayer capabilities. “When the NES games become available to the general public later this year, they will include additional features such as multiplayer simultaneous play. Ambassadors will then be able to download those updated version at no cost,” the spokesperson said.

Let the Ice Climber fights begin again.

Source: IGN

It seems that there are a few caveats to go with the recently announced NES and GBA Virtual Console news.

Nintendo Australia has announced that the 3DS system will drop from $AU349 to $AU249 on August 12, with similar price drops occuring across the world. As a bonus for early adopters (anybody who buys a 3DS before September 1), Nintendo will be giving you 10 free NES and 10 free GBA games, some of which we elaborated on in our earlier story.

It’s not as cut and dry as these games simply appearing on the Virtual Console store and you downloading them. On September 1, Nintendo will be pushing out “early bird” versions of the 10 NES games. They won’t have any of the usual VC trimmings, and it is understood that the NES emulation is at a beta stage. These titles will be added to the Virtual Console store at a later date, and joined by other classic NES games.

It gets weirder with the GBA situation though. No date has been announced for when these will be available to download, and it is understood that Nintendo is not planning on adding the GBA to the Virtual Console – instead, these 10 GBA games will remain exclusive to the 3DS early adopters and will not be for sale later down the track.

Nintendo held a press conference today to announce their Q1 FY2012 results, and took the opportunity to address the lagging sales of its new 3DS handheld. The price of the Nintendo 3DS is being slashed by 40% from 25,000 yen ($AU291) to 15,000 yen ($AU174) effective August 11, 2011. Similar price drops will occur across the rest of the world.

The news that’s of more importance to retro gaming fans, however is that the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy Advance will be joining the 3DS Virtual Console line up. As a consolation to people who bought the 3DS at its full price, Nintendo will be giving out a whole horde of free Virtual Console games.

Free games on the NES include Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda, while the free game line up from the GBA consists of Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs Donkey Kong. This line up only applies to Japan for the moment, so we’ll have to wait and see what Nintendo has in store for us.