The Nintendo Wii's list of classic titles available via its Virtual Console download service will number at least 26 games, and will some of the best-loved retro games ever, if Play-Nintendo is to be believed.
The publication reckons its information came from: "A trustworthy source", and the list does appear to be pretty credible - including the likes of Castlevania, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, F-Zero, Metroid, various versions of Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.
Meanwhile, other Wii news continues to emerge at a steady rate, ahead of Nintendo's big announcement this Thursday. IBM has confirmed that it has started shipping the Broadway processor chip that will power the Wii, although neither it nor Nintendo will reveal its technical specifications yet.
And C&VG.com has learned that the Wii's operating system will be updatable via the online service - as is the modern practice with consoles that can be hooked up to the Web, such as the Xbox 360. Which should help combat hacking and facilitate patches for buggy games, as well as let Nintendo add to the Wii's abilities as it moves through its life-cycle.
The full list of those Virtual Console launch games is as follows:
Bonk's Adventure Castlevania Duck Hunt Excitebike F-Zero Kid Icarus Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Mario Kart 64 Metroid Mortal Kombat New Adventure Island Ninja Gaiden OutRun Pac-Man Prince of Persia Punch-Out R-Type Rayman 2 Sonic the Hedgehog Star Fox Super Mario 64 Super Mario Bros Super Mario Kart Super Mario World Tecmo Bowl
oh good god i lost huge chunks of my teens to those 2! if they throw in blast corps, kirby's dream land 3 and super metroid then there will be a good chance ill never leave the house again
Plenty of classic games in there admittedly but there's a notable lack of Rare's games and without the Donkey Kong Country games, Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, GoldenEye, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong 64 that list will forever remain great and not exceptional in my eyes. Does anyone know if Nintendo have permission to "release" them for the Wii?
Wow, blasts from the pasts. Nintendo will be onto a winner here, why just re-hash the classics when you can play them how they played originally. All of us old skool gamers (Vic 20 onwards) should look forward to the Wii, even if it comes as a second console!
Brilliant line up, although was hoping Street fighter II and Streets of Rage would be on there. Sure they'll be there in time though. Wonder how much they'll charge, hopefully like 99p for most and then maybe Ł2.50 for N64 games?
i think its highly umlikely that Virtual Console will get any of teh Rare games on it, as they have been absorbed into the world of Microsoft, but hey i could happen i mean look at the fact that thye are still making DS games.
im failing to see how nintendo can lose to sony this time around, and hopefully they may take over x-box for having the balls to try something new with the ds and 'revo' as i refuse to call it tht crap, if they brought out a proper new sequel to zelda a link to the past, in the same graphics, i'd probably die happy
i think its highly umlikely that Virtual Console will get any of teh Rare games on it, as they have been absorbed into the world of Microsoft, but hey i could happen i mean look at the fact that thye are still making DS games.
It'll never happen. Rare's only working on the DS because it's a handheld format, one that Microsoft is not competing with (at the moment). The Wii is completely different. As it's a home console, it is in direct competition to the XBox 360 and as Microsoft now own Rare, you can forget about seeing Perfect Dark, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Banjo and all the other Rare owned games.
However....
Rare did make games on behalf of Nintendo and because Nintendo has ownership over these characters, there's every chance you might see Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong Racing, etc on their online service.
Still, if the rumour is true (and until it is confirmed by Nintendo, I'm treating it as such), it would without a doubt be far superior than XBox Live's Arcade service. Microsoft might want to take note......
Still, if the rumour is true (and until it is confirmed by Nintendo, I'm treating it as such), it would without a doubt be far superior than XBox Live's Arcade service. Microsoft might want to take note......
Microsoft don't need to worry too much, they just need to stop releasing pants 80's games that didn't stand the test of time (which pressumably only see release for the sake of building relationships with Namco Bandai and Midway etc). The new and the indy games actually look like they might be good fun.
Man PC Kid (Bonk) takes me back! The line up is looking great and this is just the start of it.
As for the Rare games, I think that the ones featuring Nintendo IP will make an apperance.
I just hope Nintendo don't screw this up by charing a stupid amount for each game.
Perhaps Nintendo will bundle one or two of these games with the console? i.e. as soon as you connect to Connect24 (or whatever its called - memory failing me) it allows you to pick 2 of those listed games for free. It would be a good way to show how this feature works to people.
Sega have said that these will be the launch titles for them:
Ecco the Dolphin Altered Beast Toe Jam & Earl Golden Axe Columns Sonic the Hedgehog Ristar
Toe Jam & Earl and Golden axe are great additions to the original list. Happy about Ecco too, alwyas overlooked but had fantasic games. What i want to know is 'Will Dreamcast games ever get on there? And if so When i am going to be kung fu-ing my way through Shenmue with full Wiimote support
Plenty of classic games in there admittedly but there's a notable lack of Rare's games and without the Donkey Kong Country games, Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, GoldenEye, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong 64 that list will forever remain great and not exceptional in my eyes. Does anyone know if Nintendo have permission to "release" them for the Wii?
Ninendo published most of those games for Rare so there's a good chance of seeing them, the Donkey Kong ones are almost a certainty ince Nintendo owns the character.
The only games there that are a doubt really I think are Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie and (sadly) Jet Force Gemini as I think Rare published those themselves. I just really hope that Blast Corps does make it, my copy broke and I really miss it.
It already has more quality titles than XBLA. And that's coming from a 360 fanboy.
Stupid 80's retro rubbish <grumble>
I have to say I agree with the above. I love my 360 and I think the arcade is great. But looking on the wii's virtual console, I can see games that I would give my right arm (well not mine somebody elses )to play again. I might have to consider the wii360 combination after all.
Those people who have really been enjoying the delights of the likes of Smash tv , Street fighter 2 are going to have their eyes really opened when they have a play of some of the games which we've all played from that era.
They're going to start playing them & within a few minutes they'll be hooked, just like we were.
............................................
I don't know how or if some of the games from the pc engine will get a release over here in the west, the ones that wouldn't get past the sensors then may not get past them this time either.
360 Live is great but there are still too few games to pick from.
And here we have the Wii and Nintendo is providing a good selection of games and more than how many are on live the the moment.
Some might say that its due to MS's quality checks, procedures etc. But seeing how SF2 turned out...was it worth it to do all that?
Someone mentioned about Shenny (Shenmue) possibly coming out. I would reckon no or not just yet. That game was on 4 GD-roms! I think thats too big of a download. Since Sony is going to be providing PSone game downloads for PSP I guess something like this may happen later. We can but hope!
I just hope Gunhead, Drunken Master, Ninja Warriors, Ninja Spirit, WonderBoy and some other come out! Im just glad I didnt sell me Turbo Express I can still play these now!
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I can still play these now!
