VC a disappointment (POLL)?

When I first read the news about a 'virtual console' service for the Wii I was really excited. For months Nintendo gave the impression that they could easily make their entire back-catalogue available on their next-gen system.

However, little by little the Virtual Console became less interesting. It became clear that it would be unlikely that N64 Rare games would hit the Wii. And on top of that not a lot of deals were made with other 3rd party developers such that it remained unclear which games we could see and which games we couldn't.

Some thought the eventual price tag was a little steep, and the fact that we should buy a classic controller to be able to play all of the titles wasn't really consumer friendly either... For many people that wouldn't be a real problem if some of the best retrogames would be released. However, how many did we actually see these past 6 months? And the main question is: how many will we see during the Wii's lifespan?

Some say: "Well, the Wii will be out for at least 6 years, so Nintendo can't release all of the classics at once." But is this really the truth? Would you even wait multiple years for a retrogame? Wouldn't you check E-Bay in the meantime? 

I don't own a Wii at the moment (it's nowhere to be seen, but I'd rather wait for Mario Galaxy anyway ;)) but I must say I'm a little disappointed in the Virtual Console. I still hope that when I finally will have bought the Wii, the VC will offer a simply amazing catalogue of games, but for now I remain doubtful.

So what do you think? Feel free to explain yourself further by posting in this thread.

NO, It's still better than the other network stores.

the vc is just a way for nintendo to say they have online functionality for the wiiBeefcake5000

Actually, it's a way for them to make money. If they cared about how their online effort was perceived they'd ditch the friend codes people seem to hate.

[QUOTE="Beefcake5000"]the vc is just a way for nintendo to say they have online functionality for the wiiwoodsa23

Actually, it's a way for them to make money. If they cared about how their online effort was perceived they'd ditch the friend codes people seem to hate.

At has to be the first one. a) It's always been obvious that most of the N64 Rare games weren't going to get released, even though there was somewhat of a question mark over GoldenEye. b) I really don't see how one could be disappointed, aside from the price issue. We have many great classics available, and more to come (bring on Metroid). It makes perfect sense to space out the releases of the big guns.woodsa23

Okay, but what are these big guns exactly? Will Nintendo make Square-Enix change its mind and begin supporting the VC as well?

Without Rare the N64 catalogue is much less interesting, but without Square-Enix (still separated in those days) you'd miss out on some great SNES titles as well.  A lot of people would die to get Chrono Trigger, and this could be Nintendo's big chance. And what about Super Mario RPG on the SNES (made by Square), will we see that one?

if you're disappointed by the VC, you're expecting entirely too much. personally, i make about 300 dollars a week, and with bills and whatnot, i couldn't afford it if all my favorite old games came out too rapidly.

i don't see the big loss with rare, we wouldn't have their best game (goldeneye) even if they were on board, because of james bond liscensing issues.

and square will not release their snes games for 8 dollars when they can re-release them for DS or GBA for 30-40 dollars a pop. that's just bad economics.

like i said, stop looking the gift horse in the mouth.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FINAL-FANTASY-4-2-NEW-PLAYSTATION-CHRONO-TRIGGER_W0QQitemZ230131886687QQihZ013QQcategoryZ62053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There's yer CT and FF4, for 10.99.  So the people dyin for it can live another day

if you're disappointed by the VC, you're expecting entirely too much. personally, i make about 300 dollars a week, and with bills and whatnot, i couldn't afford it if all my favorite old games came out too rapidly.

i don't see the big loss with rare, we wouldn't have their best game (goldeneye) even if they were on board, because of james bond liscensing issues.

and square will not release their snes games for 8 dollars when they can re-release them for DS or GBA for 30-40 dollars a pop. that's just bad economics.

like i said, stop looking the gift horse in the mouth.

Xerlaoth

Of course, but at least that would give you a -solid- choice. And it's not like the VC games are out for only a limited amount of time (like normal 1st party titles sometimes are). 

But that's what this topic is about. A lot of people are completely satisfied, others are a little more critical. If we would all completely agree this topic would be useless ;)  .

But that's what this topic is about. A lot of people are completely satisfied, others are a little more critical. If we would all completely agree this topic would be useless ;) .

Couldn't agree more with you, yet, i feel like it's a way to make some money (as people said before), but with a flexible tax over users, like, for us paying 10$ at most for a game, surely is better than paying 30-50$ for those, unless they are REMAKE, and not just adapted, it gives the sensation to old time players (like me), to be living those days, where connecting a console via antenna was last technology (by snes era, A/V was new, but on my country they wasn't as available than U.S.).

But yea, i'm somewhat dissapointed, because we are lacking of some good tittles there, and about golden eye, it surely was a good tittle, but without rare we are missing perfect dark (wich i didn't like so much, but a lot of people did), or donkey kong 64, we are missing banjo kazooie, and other few wich i can't remember. The VC idea was good, it can improve a LOT more, also, can use some kind of demo download for Wii games, that should be lovely, and make us enjoy a little bit of the game, if the game is good, people will find a way to buy it faster, but if we don't like it, we won't waste our money with it.

The opera that the Wii has, it could be a little bit better improved (but then again, it's just brand new), because it gives me the impression of using my old Dreamcast to browse sites, and also, dreamcast games to VC could be good too, but it's ok if they don't, because it'll eat a lot of Wii's transflash memory, but it's good to daydream some huh? xD

Well, the points i could give to VC are about 6/10, which can be changed, depends on the catalogue, and it's sad we can't do anything about the classic controller :P, well, in shorter words, and resuming it "It's cool, but it can be better, and i don't think it's right to wait for old games, not like they made us wait for twilight princess, and how they are making us wait for phantom hourglass"

Sorry for the bad english

When I first read the news about a 'virtual console' service for the Wii I was really excited. For months Nintendo gave the impression that they could easily make their entire back-catalogue available on their next-gen system.

However, little by little the Virtual Console became less interesting. It became clear that it would be unlikely that N64 Rare games would hit the Wii. And on top of that not a lot of deals were made with other 3rd party developers such that it remained unclear which games we could see and which games we couldn't.

Some thought the eventual price tag was a little steep, and the fact that we should buy a classic controller to be able to play all of the titles wasn't really consumer friendly either... For many people that wouldn't be a real problem if some of the best retrogames would be released. However, how many did we actually see these past 6 months? And the main question is: how many will we see during the Wii's lifespan?

Some say: "Well, the Wii will be out for at least 6 years, so Nintendo can't release all of the classics at once." But is this really the truth? Would you even wait multiple years for a retrogame? Wouldn't you check E-Bay in the meantime? 

I don't own a Wii at the moment (it's nowhere to be seen, but I'd rather wait for Mario Galaxy anyway ;)) but I must say I'm a little disappointed in the Virtual Console. I still hope that when I finally will have bought the Wii, the VC will offer a simply amazing catalogue of games, but for now I remain doubtful.

 

So what do you think? Feel free to explain yourself further by posting in this thread.

dirktu

1. If you don't own one why the hell are you judging something you haven't got?

2. Gee, I sure thought they'd have every major hit title on the VC in 6 months from the hundreds of games from NES, SNES, GENESIS, N64, TG-16, with Neo Geo games coming soon too.:roll:

I'm having fun with Super Mario World, Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past, Star Fox 64, etc.

Without Rare the N64 catalogue is much less interestingdirktu

Honestly, I could live without any of those Rare N64 games. I have a very particular taste in N64 games. I'm more looking forward to the potential adding of games like Duke Nukem 64, Doom 64, and Shadows of the Empire.

[QUOTE="dirktu"]Without Rare the N64 catalogue is much less interestingTuvac

Honestly, I could live without any of those Rare N64 games. I have a very particular taste in N64 games. I'm more looking forward to the potential adding of games like Duke Nukem 64, Doom 64, and Shadows of the Empire.

shodows of the empire!

i forgot all about that game! i hope it comes out soon. 

give it time.

and the onyl problem i have is that it will take time to get them all AND that they are slightly overpriced

im disappointed. i dont know if i was the only one paying attention or not but up until about a month before the wii launched, the news on the street was that all of nintendos back catalog would be available to play.  how many games are available on the vc now?  30? 30 out of 3,000.  it kinda sucks. yeah theres a lot of crap out there nobody cares about but theres a lot of amazing stuff that we'll never be able to download.  i knew long before all the details were announced that the vc was too good to be true, and it was.  so really i wasn't let down a whole bunch but i would've felt better if i was wrong.  i know im not the only one. i can look back through my contributions, find an old ass forum, dig up all the wishlists that gamers had. games they wanted to download on day one that will probably never come out.  strange that there weren't more complaints or at least a few thousand people screaming false advertisment.  yes yes, details are always subject to change before a console launches.  the bottom line is that this turned out pretty bad compared to what everyone was wanting and everybody is too damn lazy send nintendo petitions or angry mail.  people need to realize that to get what they want they have to ask for it a little harder. 

im disappointed. 

zelda - 8 bucks
controller to play it - 20 bucks

i can go to the local exchange store by my house and pick up a copy of zelda for 2 dollars and the snes to play it on for 20.

somebody get angry with me here.  lets start something.

somebody get angry with me here. lets start something.

ewmgreendawg

I don't think anyone disagrees ;)

It would be great if Rare joined but regardless I don't see how anybody can be disappointed. I've had the opportunity to play games I haven't played in years like Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Super Mario World, and A Link to the Past. I hear that many are complaining about the prices but I don't think the prices are unfair at all. $10 for a N64 game on the VC while you go in a store and it costs $20 to get a N64 game used. Its also convenient as you don't have to leave the house to purchase points of games.Meador597

That just isnt true:

http://video-games.search.ebay.co.uk/n64_Action-Adventure_W0QQfsopZ32QQsacatZ3582

If that is true then you are getting ripped off! 

im disappointed. i dont know if i was the only one paying attention or not but up until about a month before the wii launched, the news on the street was that all of nintendos back catalog would be available to play. how many games are available on the vc now? 30? 30 out of 3,000. it kinda sucks. yeah theres a lot of crap out there nobody cares about but theres a lot of amazing stuff that we'll never be able to download. i knew long before all the details were announced that the vc was too good to be true, and it was. so really i wasn't let down a whole bunch but i would've felt better if i was wrong. i know im not the only one. i can look back through my contributions, find an old ass forum, dig up all the wishlists that gamers had. games they wanted to download on day one that will probably never come out. strange that there weren't more complaints or at least a few thousand people screaming false advertisment. yes yes, details are always subject to change before a console launches. the bottom line is that this turned out pretty bad compared to what everyone was wanting and everybody is too damn lazy send nintendo petitions or angry mail. people need to realize that to get what they want they have to ask for it a little harder.

im disappointed.

zelda - 8 bucks
controller to play it - 20 bucks

i can go to the local exchange store by my house and pick up a copy of zelda for 2 dollars and the snes to play it on for 20.

somebody get angry with me here. lets start something.

ewmgreendawg

Yeah, you're the first one posting here (besides my first post) that remembers Nintendo's 'promises'. And of course some 3rd party problems could be expected, but it still can be at least a little disappointing to some.

To those that mentioned 'Shadows of the Empire': yeah that game would be awesome too ;)

In general I'd just want to applaud everyone that was and is able to post in a normal fashion here. It's just a poll, and I think it's quite well balanced, therefore I think remarks like 'If you don't own one why the hell are you judging something you haven't got?' (that one was by darth-pyschosis) are quite annoying. Any normal rational being can see that this is NOT a Wii bashing thread, so if you're so eager to defend your Wii take your shield and just go to system wars and enjoy yourself :|

[QUOTE="woodsa23"]At has to be the first one. a) It's always been obvious that most of the N64 Rare games weren't going to get released, even though there was somewhat of a question mark over GoldenEye. b) I really don't see how one could be disappointed, aside from the price issue. We have many great classics available, and more to come (bring on Metroid). It makes perfect sense to space out the releases of the big guns.dirktu

Okay, but what are these big guns exactly? Will Nintendo make Square-Enix change its mind and begin supporting the VC as well?

Without Rare the N64 catalogue is much less interesting, but without Square-Enix (still separated in those days) you'd miss out on some great SNES titles as well.  A lot of people would die to get Chrono Trigger, and this could be Nintendo's big chance. And what about Super Mario RPG on the SNES (made by Square), will we see that one?

I don't buy that it's the service-provider's responsibility if a company chooses not to use the service they're offering. If Square can make a bigger profit by re-releasing in compilations, or overhauling games for new systems (like Final Fantasy III) then they're not going to be persuaded. One could complain to Square-Enix, but how is it the fault of the service? Given that, I don't see how one could call the VC a 'disappointment'. What were these 'promises' (from a later post) that Nintendo made? If they said categorically that every game would be available from launch then I suppose disappointment would be warrented. I'm not sure that they did (though I'm willing to be proved wrong). If you approach things with realistic expectations, then there's no chance of disappointent. Which is why VC wishlists with Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie at the top made me grumble like an old man and shake my head, and why 'I bought a Wii but now...' threads rile me up.    

nope. I'm not dissapointed at all. They have Sonic, Mario and Bonk. The three best platformers of all time imo.

As long as they keep new games coming I'll be happy.

I mean bonk is friggin awesome. I never in my life thought I'd be able to play that on a console again. Takes me back. All of the tb 16 games for that matter.

I just wish they'd get mario 2 and 3 up. And if they did Ys... I can't even explain how cool that would be.

[QUOTE="dirktu"]

[QUOTE="woodsa23"]At has to be the first one. a) It's always been obvious that most of the N64 Rare games weren't going to get released, even though there was somewhat of a question mark over GoldenEye. b) I really don't see how one could be disappointed, aside from the price issue. We have many great classics available, and more to come (bring on Metroid). It makes perfect sense to space out the releases of the big guns.woodsa23

Okay, but what are these big guns exactly? Will Nintendo make Square-Enix change its mind and begin supporting the VC as well?

Without Rare the N64 catalogue is much less interesting, but without Square-Enix (still separated in those days) you'd miss out on some great SNES titles as well. A lot of people would die to get Chrono Trigger, and this could be Nintendo's big chance. And what about Super Mario RPG on the SNES (made by Square), will we see that one?

I don't buy that it's the service-provider's responsibility if a company chooses not to use the service they're offering. If Square can make a bigger profit by re-releasing in compilations, or overhauling games for new systems (like Final Fantasy III) then they're not going to be persuaded. One could complain to Square-Enix, but how is it the fault of the service? Given that, I don't see how one could call the VC a 'disappointment'. What were these 'promises' (from a later post) that Nintendo made? If they said categorically that every game would be available from launch then I suppose disappointment would be warrented. I'm not sure that they did (though I'm willing to be proved wrong). If you approach things with realistic expectations, then there's no chance of disappointent. Which is why VC wishlists with Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie at the top made me grumble like an old man and shake my head, and why 'I bought a Wii but now...' threads rile me up.

Well Nintendo isn't 100% responsible, I don't know how they could be? But it IS their job to promote their VC system. That doesn't mean that the VC system in itself is faulty or anything.. Getting licensed games like Goldeneye (or even other Rare games) on the VC isn't entirely impossible, it would just mean that Nintendo would have to pull a little extra effort in it (often $$$).

Regarding those promises, Nintendo promised retro and new exclusive titles for the VC. I still haven't seen an exclusive one. Chief executives made multiple remarks on how the entire back catalogue could come available, and even less than two months before its launch the following companies were stated to support the VC:

• D4E
• Atlus
• Bandai Namco Games
• Banpresto
• Capcom
• Chun Soft
• Enterbrain
• HAL Laboratory Inc.
• Hudson
• Irem
• Jaleco
• Kemco
• Koei
• Konami
• Masaya
• Net Farm
• PAON
• Rocket company
• Sega
• Taito
• Takara Tomy
• Tecmo
• Sunsoft
• Square Enix

So they did promise us S-E support! With respect to my source; I'm sure IGN or Wikipedia has some stuff about this in their news archives.

I can fully understand that people are overjoyed with the VC, but at the same time I also fully understand those who are not ;) .

What company has ever kept all of its promises?  Thats what I thought.

Your complaining about not having Golden Eye and Perfect Dark?  That isn't much reason to say it is a disappointment.  I find it childish to automatically go against something just because it doesn't have a few companies on board.  You want a great rare game?  Then download DKC.  Why do you expect them to release every game all at one time, I think anyone can see that it is best that they don't.  You make think what they are doing is awful but if ou were the one running everything then we would most likely not have Nintendo to play because you would run it into the ground doing what you think would be good.  They can't help that they can not release every game ever made.

Yes the price on the games are a bit much, or atleast the older system games are.  And ys you have to buy the controller.  So what is another $20 to play all of those games?  Would you rather go out and have to buy an NES, SNES, N64, etc. and the games and the controllers? I still own all of my Nintendo consols and all of them work perfectly still but I know many people have sold theirs off as well some people haven't taken as much care with their systems so that now they hardly work.  So you have to find working systems, working controllers, the games you want and them actually working, and you have to pay shipping unless you got lucky and found them near where you live...in which case you have to pay for gas to get there.  It is hard to find a place that sells these older things except for a fe pawn shops I have came across.  So you have to leave your trust in ebay members?

Okay so you can't wakt your games to your friends house, why not just take the Wii with you?  it is very small and you wouln't need to take the cables since the other person must have a Wii also.   Yes I wish some of my favorite games were out but i bet if I wait awhile then they might come out.  You can say you want some great game but do you actually think you can just get it in one day?  VC is much faster and i say cheaper in the long run for older games.  Mayeb not N64 but I have had problems finding old games I want anywhere else on the internet.

 As for ROMs...yes they are free and great and have neat features so that you never have to worry about a save point again. I just find that I like having a controller to use, of course I could easily hook an xbox xontroller into a usb port or to buy a controller for my computer and just configure the keys to it.  So no excuse there I guess.

ROMs are illegal. Stop listenting to pirates. ROMs are not perfect emulation. The wii vc has an interupt save function so even if you turn off the system the save is still there. It's like you just paused the game. Also those ROMs often come infested with trojan horses plus it's not cheap or easy to upgrade a game. Wonder why xbox live took months to get on Joust with online leaderboards? Because they had to reprogram the game and that took time and money. If xbox live didn't do things like that they would have had the games within a week of getting the license instead it takes them a year to six months. It's also not very profitable for Microsoft or the third parties involved.

Calling all cars had numerous issues plus those who bought the game thought they had been ripped off at the price of five dollars.

Exclusive games for the wii vc are coming. They are in the pipeline. Already many game sites have reported on what they have seen under embargo of course. They will come in the latter half of this year. Already one title has been confirmed as coming instead of coming out in a wii disc version.

Since a gc gamepad works on all supported vc games which is all of the consoles at present why would you **** about that? You would have to get a gc gamepad and gc memory card to play gamecube games and a lot of people already have them.

Also the wiimote itself can function on SEGA Genesis, NES, TG-16 games. So no you don't really need to buy another controller if you want to play four out of the seven supported consoles.

Square-Enix is already involved with the vc. Actraiser is a square-enix game. As for Chrono Trigger **** at square for their comments as to why no sequel to Chrono Trigger as ever been made. As far as Square-Enix is concerned no one likes Chrono Trigger and they would have been better off if the game had never been developed.

More third parties have signed onto the vc since it was announced. In fact SNK has pledged massive vc support and confirmed that NEO-Geo games would be on it.

no i think its good, however the 1 problem is that the least amount of points you can buy in one time is 1000 points, i have 400 and all i want is 100 more to get another game!andrewkozis

yeah theres another problem.

I think there's a lot of good stuff on there: the Zelda games, the Super Mario Bros games, Contra III, Castlevania, Legend Of The Mystical Ninja, Donkey Kong Country. As much as I get disappointed by some of the weeks they have (namely the ones where they focus on TG16 or obscure Genesis releases), I think the selection is pretty good overall. I've only really got two problems with it.

1) Pricing. Everything is overpriced on it, and the pricing is also unbalanced. Is Ocarina Of Time worth the same price as Superman 64 (if that hits VC, which is doubtful)? No. Releases ought to be priced individually, based entirely on quality, supply/demand. And there's no way an NES game should cost $5 or Super NES game should cost $8.That's outrageous, but would be more acceptable if Nintendo agreed to allow us to carry these releases over onto future products or at least store them on external media and not on their servers.

2) No demos. Do they expect me to make blind purchases with their overpriced goods for a TG-16 game I haven't played? Or maybe an obscure Genesis title I missed? Fail. I'm only buying the ones I know that I'll like, and the ones that I'll play enough to warrant the high pricing. 

im disappointed. i dont know if i was the only one paying attention or not but up until about a month before the wii launched, the news on the street was that all of nintendos back catalog would be available to play.  how many games are available on the vc now?  30? 30 out of 3,000.  it kinda sucks. yeah theres a lot of crap out there nobody cares about but theres a lot of amazing stuff that we'll never be able to download.  i knew long before all the details were announced that the vc was too good to be true, and it was.  so really i wasn't let down a whole bunch but i would've felt better if i was wrong.  i know im not the only one. i can look back through my contributions, find an old ass forum, dig up all the wishlists that gamers had. games they wanted to download on day one that will probably never come out.  strange that there weren't more complaints or at least a few thousand people screaming false advertisment.  yes yes, details are always subject to change before a console launches.  the bottom line is that this turned out pretty bad compared to what everyone was wanting and everybody is too damn lazy send nintendo petitions or angry mail.  people need to realize that to get what they want they have to ask for it a little harder. 

im disappointed. 

zelda - 8 bucks
controller to play it - 20 bucks

i can go to the local exchange store by my house and pick up a copy of zelda for 2 dollars and the snes to play it on for 20.

somebody get angry with me here.  lets start something.

ewmgreendawg

I am still waiting for all the fun Star Wars games to come out.linkrul3s

Its somewhat disappointing. I just want Paper Mario and Super Metroid to come out!Lightchaos

[QUOTE="ewmgreendawg"]

im disappointed. i dont know if i was the only one paying attention or not but up until about a month before the wii launched, the news on the street was that all of nintendos back catalog would be available to play. how many games are available on the vc now? 30? 30 out of 3,000. it kinda sucks. yeah theres a lot of crap out there nobody cares about but theres a lot of amazing stuff that we'll never be able to download. i knew long before all the details were announced that the vc was too good to be true, and it was. so really i wasn't let down a whole bunch but i would've felt better if i was wrong. i know im not the only one. i can look back through my contributions, find an old ass forum, dig up all the wishlists that gamers had. games they wanted to download on day one that will probably never come out. strange that there weren't more complaints or at least a few thousand people screaming false advertisment. yes yes, details are always subject to change before a console launches. the bottom line is that this turned out pretty bad compared to what everyone was wanting and everybody is too damn lazy send nintendo petitions or angry mail. people need to realize that to get what they want they have to ask for it a little harder.

im disappointed.

zelda - 8 bucks
controller to play it - 20 bucks

i can go to the local exchange store by my house and pick up a copy of zelda for 2 dollars and the snes to play it on for 20.

somebody get angry with me here. lets start something.

1357900

If you can really go to a store near you and get one, then go for it. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that a lot of these games and systems are not really readily available where I live. It's pretty much a big deal if I see a perfectly functioning NES or SNES anywhere. That being said, the games are rare, and therefore pretty expensive. N64 games go for around 10-15 bucks most of the time, and some NES games that are rare go for around the same. So when people say things are overpriced, yeah they are, but they are overpriced everywhere anyways.

If you don't want to buy a VC controller then just buy a GC controller so then you can play GCN too.