The Wii is worth having for the virtual console alone...
 

Case in point:

Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble

The Wii pays for itself in memories.

Actually, you pay for the memories.

Only benefit I could see to the VC is online play. Otherwise I have enough emulators (including my XBox1 and PSP) that it's pointless.

However, when No Mercy comes out with an online feature...I will officially consider VC worth it.

I could buy a used, working SNES and 50 games and still have enough left over for a refurbed NES and a game or ten for the price of a Wii and the games. Or, instead of the NES I could import a Japanese SNES and get 10 Super Famicom games as the games were originally intended to be played.

So no, it isn't.

Plus, once you get rid of your Wii those games are gone anyway. And you'll blindly pay for them again in a generation or two.

Truthfully it's a brilliant marketing strategy. They only need to work a little amount of time on it to get it to work on the emulator and they can resell games digitally multiple times over a period of 6-8 years to the same idioits.

I've a distinct feeling Xero believes that 9-11 was an inside job from that conspiracy rant full of half-truths.

What "half truths"? Admittedly I did exaggerate on the pricing, but look at these rereleases:

Super Mario 1 - NES, SNES, Gameboy Color, GBA, VC

Super Mario 3 - NES, SNES, GBA, VC

Legend of Zelda: OOT - N64, GameCube, VC

Donkey Kong Country - SNES, GBA, VC

Super Mario 64 - N64, DS, VC

Dr. Mario - God knows what it's on.

They have a history of doing this, what makes you think they're going to change now?

Xero, you can play as luigi in mario 64 for ds. Its different.

LOL come on... It's the same game with a few new bells and whistles. If it were completely reworked then you'd have a point. That's like saying all the Street Fighter 2 games are different. They're slightly different from one another but essentially they're the same game.

I still stand by my original stance that it's bad that Nintendo is STILL relying on old games to sell a new system. If they don't start bringing out more good, original games at a faster rate they're going to crash a burn. Really, they've had the problem since the Gamecube as far as the games go, but the Wii just allows them to fall back on the VC for sales.

Comedy, Xero.

Yeah, they're the best selling system despite an attach rate about half that of the 360 and about equal to the third place PS3. They're SO gonna crash and burn!

Not to mention you lose your games once you get rid of your Wii! Which is completely different from what happens when you get rid of any other system....

With the more hardcore gamers, yeah, they are. They have a good casual base at the expense of losing their (former) core audience. If they want them and only them, fine. At this point they're fucked from hardcores - whether that's a positive or negative for them is yet to be seen. At this point the Wii is a fad for casual 'gamers'. If the fad breaks and the core audience wants more Halo-like games Nintendo is fucked.

The difference being, people buy and rebuy the games. If you wanted them that much you never should have sold them. Think of it this way: You own all of your favorite movies in DVD format. Are you going to go out and rebuy every single one of them in Blu-Ray (for example)? There's no point to it aside from a slightly sharper image. With the VC, you don't always get even that.

LOL. You mean that their fanbase is...Gasp...EXACTLY WHO THEY WERE AIMING FOR?

OMG, no wonder you think they're going to tank. I mean, why am I even debating this? They're selling a record-breaking console to exactly the market they were aiming for. That usually spells doom.

People always cry fad. Which is why the Gameboy sold so well, and that DS "fad" is breaking as we speak. No, not really, it's actually still leading trends. Funny that. Even Guitar Hero for the Wii sold incredibly fucking well, to boot. No, your argument is nonsense.

As far as your VC/DVD comparison, it's a pretty shitty one. Especially since the market has shown time and again that the buying public will go back and buy their entertainment on the new medium. Actually, there are a ton of different reasons why the analogy falls apart, but I think that's as good as any to point out. Seriously. Also, not only will people buy it on a new medium, but they'll buy multiple versions on the SAME medium. I mean, really. Who do you think they marketed the second version ofthe Lord of the Rings movies to? People who wanted the movies already bought them, including the hardcore fans. Then they came out with a third version. And a FOURTH. Stop me when you actually get the point here. Should people do this? Probably not, but your analogy ignores the fact that people do the same thing...And moreso. People aren't even paying for a slight graphical improvement in most cases. They're paying for little extras that cost almost nothing to make.

Beyond that, VC offers a unified format, meaning you don't need to have ten different devices hooked up to the TV. It means you don't have to worry about batteries dying, and you can even back up your saves if you REALLY want. It is, in short, like an upgrade from vinyl to CD, or tape to CD, in that it lasts in ways the previous versions couldn't. Even if it's not graphically improved, it offers a lot to people.

I mean, I like the fantasy world where you can keep everything you want in working order forever, but life doesn't work that way. there are all sorts of issues, not the least of which is economy. I'm not even going to bother mentioning other features, because improved graphics are usually too silly to bother with, and very rarely do the bonus carts have anything worth a shit (Though I did buy SM64DS for like 20 bucks, and I don't regret it).

Final point before I go to bed.

The video game market is actually waning. Halo set records, but most games really aren't selling like they used to. The 360 has a phenomenal attach rate for this gen, but it's on par with the XBox from last gen, which wasn't even the leader. People are buying fewer games. Part of it's probably simply the economy, but it really does look like "Hardcore" gaming is waning.

There will always be HALOs, and the top titles will probably all sell well enough to merit them, but that doesn't mean the market's supporting the systems very well. This actually kind of benefits Nintendo, because they've usually only got a handful of titles that sell really well per console: A Zelda or two, Smash Brothers, the main Mario titles. They're actually not going to be very hurt by the trend.

This is a generation of record highs, but also lackluster lows, and a lot of them. And the glut of unimaginative clones of FPSes and such probably serve to do nothing but hurt the market. They will apply to a narrow base, but for the most part, they alienate the rest of the userbase, as they already have. Video games, if marketed this way, become more of a specialty market. Nintendo, on the other hand, is appealing to a base that's less likely to shrink, because even novelties appeal to a wider audience than most specialty hobbies.

I was actually half-joking when I created this thread, you know, to prompt discussion about great virtual console games, but fair enough. I take KK's side in the argument. He knows his shit.

My Super Nintendo's controllers broke, and since then it's gone away, and cartridges are aging, and they're not as reliable as they used to. I'd need to buy a new Super Nintendo, which means tracking one down, tracking down the games, and all that effort. The Wii allows you to get a completely software based memory. Personally, I think it is fucking great.

Yeah, Nintendo should be making more classic games, but by all accounts, the Metroid and Zelda games are still great, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl will definitely end up in my residence. Plus, Super Mario Galaxy is classic Mario thus far.

The problem isn't really Nintendo's, though.

Developers were looking to avoid hitting the system. So they made excuses about how it would never sell. Then it sold, and most of them still aren't onboard. Now it's a "fad," or it's technologically inferior (Which, oddly enough, didn't stop them from backing the PS2, but whatever).

Nintendo's doing what they've always done; made a few fun games that will appeal to a lot of people. So far, the only must haves I can name that aren't Nintendo titles are Zakk and Wiki and Elebits. I don't own either, but I consider them must haves in the same way I consider Smash Brothers, a game I won't buy, to be.

Developers are hoping that they won't have to adapt. They don't want to develop for the PS3 because it's complicated. They don't want to develop for the Wii because it's different. The 360 is the optimum platform for them to continue to develop for, because it's similar to last gen, while offering what they most want: More power without any catches. It's like obligation-free sex: Far more appealing than the chick who strings you along for two years with no guarantee you'll EVER get in her pants.

Of course, Nintendo will have some great third party titles. It's just that without more developers jumping on, it won't matter much. They probably still won'ttank, though. I mean, Super Mario is an awesome game, and really captures an imaginative environment. Sure, it's not completely innovative, but nor does it feel cheap and gimmicky. Give me five more games like that, and I'll feel it was worth my while.

And hey, VC games? Bonus. Probably will own ten of them tops, but it saves me from owning 8 different machines for ten different games, some of which will have had their battery backups die, others which will require something I don't quite have, and all of which require wires and real estate. Even if they are more expensive, there's an element of economy in that.

Also, I just want to pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that I'm agreeing with Alienoid and arguing with Xero.

When exactly DID I end up in Oz?

;)

If done right, we could get some official localization of some Japanese only games that should've been released here on the VC.

Noid, get Sin & Punishment. Takes a little getting used to, but it's a nice shooter, and I'm not regretting the 1200 points I spent for it at ALL. Although it would be nice to see a Wii update for S&P.

Also, assuming the Starmen.net story about Earthbound being considered holds up, EVERYONE BETTER BE DOWNLOADING IT!! It'll be key for Nintendo to localize EB64 over here (and I'm dreaming of Nintendo actually considering FINALLY localizing EB Zero).

Also, I heard somewhere about them trying to start emulating GB games on the Wii, too. Wonder if that is true.

I wouldn't bet on it, as it was never finished...

Who says you can play it online?

No Mercy isn't coming out to the VC anyway. VC is the ports of old games. No Mercy, still a rumor no less, is Wii Ware, and a different animal according to the rumors. Will it have online? We don't know.