Ever since Nintendo launched the Virtual Console service (10 years ago! Agh!) and Sony followed suit with PlayStation Classics, I’ve been trying to come up with a good, effective format for tracking and reviewing them. There was the 1UP Retro Roundup, and standalone VC reviews on USgamer, but finally I just said, “the heck with it” and created comprehensive listings for both Wii U and 3DS broken down by emulated platform and grouped with essential/worthwhile/avoid ratings. It took me a decade to arrive at this format, so the fact that the articles required a few weeks of on-and-off effort doesn’t seem so bad. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll be updating these each week as new (“new”) games debut, and Bob’s PSN games list will receive a similar treatment.
There is just one last matter to attend to before I can declare mission complete: Putting together a list of essential VC releases exclusive to Wii. There were something like 900 games released for Wii VC in total, and it’s an obsolete platform in danger of being phased out at any point; covering the whole thing in its entirety would be a huge waste of time. But there are still many excellent releases that remain exclusive to Wii, and I highly recommend everyone grab them while they can.
I’m actually going back to re-purchase some of the Wii releases I picked up during the system’s lifetime. I made the terrible mistake of moving my account to Wii U before realizing the potential value of having hundreds of games that would natively output in 240p on a single system. Stupid, stupid me.
This makes me incredibly happy, I tell you what! I never had a Wii, picked up a Wii U only a few months ago, and got a Wii controller last month so I could actually play games via the Wii U’s Wii VC and Wii Mode. However, it is very hard to actually find a decent list of recommendations of games on Wii’s Virtual Console that goes further than the usual suspects, so for every game that looks interesting, it becomes a search for information on the internet highway.
So far, I’ve only picked up Rondo of Blood and Monster World IV, but I’ve been looking at things like Neutopia. Did you know it is apparently very hard to get Wii Points when you don’t have a credit card and live in PAL regions? I could find only a single site that sells PAL cards, and they only had 3000 points and under cards. So frustrating.
On a side note, you’ve mentioned your dislike for playing games on Wii VC on HD tellies because the 240p looks abominable on them. Does playing on the Wii U gamepad make a difference in that regard? It’s completely possible to use only that when going into Wii mode, so I was wondering what your opinion on that was.
Anyway, looking forward to the Wii VC list. And if you don’t feel beat after setting up the Triforce of Nintendo Virtual Console recommendations, there’s WiiWare and DSiWare as well.
I kid, I kid.
…Mostly.
Please let us know which games you bought again. It’s reasonable to assume they are the games I should make the effort to buy again as well…
The Wii had a great pile of Virtual Console games, and even just in the systems that are actually represented on Wii U’s VC there’s still lots of stuff there that hasn’t made the move. Heck, I’m still bitter that Square-Enix has been rereleasing games on the Japanese Wii U VC for almost three years now but all we’ve seen is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which doesn’t even have photo sharing support. I want SNES FFVI on the GamePad…
I should probably do a Wii VC shopping spree at some point before the shop shuts down. Seeing that the points cards were discontinued a couple of years back (so you can only get points via credit or debit card) and the Wii Shop’s content isn’t integrated into the eShop like DSiWare was on 3DS, its days have got to be numbered…especially with the NX on the horizon.
I am glad I didn’t transfer my Wii VC games over to Wii U. I have about 50 titles, and have actually been on a spending spree recently because I too fear that they will discontinue the service soon (and without warning).