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Five TG-16 games coming to VC next month
Not to be outdone by Capcom's Virtual Console plans revealed earlier this week, Hudson has announced five TurboGrafx-16 games coming to the the North American shopping channel this April: Battle Lode Runner, Bonk's Revenge, Bravoman, Dragon's Curse, and Shockman.Bonk's Revenge builds upon the original adventure's headbutting formula, adding more complex levels and tightened graphics. Battle Lode Runner gets a similar visual upgrade from its Commodore 64 trappings, and it even features multiplayer action.Dragon's Curse, or Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap in Japan, should be available to purchase by next Monday. Players will be able to take on the forms and powers of five different creatures in this side-scrolling RPG, questing to regain their original human body. Bravoman and Shockman sound like Mega Man spin-offs, and you wouldn't be too far off with that assumption! They're both action-platformers overloaded with robots and larger-than-life bosses.All five of the Virtual Console games will be priced at 600 Wii points.
Wii Warm Up: More consoles
We love the Virtual Console. In the (completely mythical) drought periods between flagship Wii titles, the Virtual Console gives us a steady diet of excellent, cheap games. More than that, it serves as a history lesson for all the new gamers flooding into the hobby, and those too young to remember the 8-bit era. Also it gives you all a second chance to buy some Turbografx-16 games. Obviously, we want more. We love the available consoles, but they aren't enough. We salivated over the Saturn rumors, and we'd like to see that. In fact, we have a great deal of affection for all Sega consoles. We'd like to see some Master System games show up on the VC soon. What consoles would you like to see added to the lineup? Any answer is the right answer, as long as it's not the ActionMax!
Excitebike, Splatterhouse, Beyond Oasis join Virtual Console line-up
Another Virtual Console Monday rears its ugly, beginning-of-the-week head, but the tiny sparkle of joy that is the Virtual Console offers some respite. Heading up the list of games this week is the NES classic Excitebike (500 Wii Points), the spiritual predecessor to Excite Truck. No motion-sensitive controls here, just daredevil racing and stunts in glorious 8-bit color. You can even design your own tracks!As promised, both Splatterhouse and Beyond Oasis are also available to download. Splatterhouse (600 Wii Points) is a side-scrolling brawler originally for the TurboGrafx16. This was the first game to ever receive a parental advisory disclaimer, though by today's standards it seems relatively meek. After the carnage is complete, the Sega Genesis action/adventure game Beyond Oasis (800 Wii Points) should cool your adrenal glands with a dose of lush 16-bit graphics.Vectorman is still on-target for a VC release this month, so expect it to head up next week's list.
In Defense of the Virtual Console's pricing
We've surveyed your irritation with the Virtual Console's rates and even had you calculate the exact amount of Wii points you've been swindled out of so far, but VGamp's Chris Sinclair argues that the game downloads aren't expensive at all. Chris listed eleven reasons to support his claim, even admitting that he would be willing to pay more for the retro titles. While he might come across as an inflexible apologist, some of his points make sense.According to Chris, you're getting a deal whenever you make a purchase on the Shopping Channel. For example, let's say that you put out the cash for Soldier Blade, a title that sometimes sells for $50+ on eBay. You're scoring a discount on a relatively rare game that's guaranteed to work decades from now, and you don't even have to pay for the TurboGrafx-16 console or the controllers to play it with. As an added bonus, many of these emulated games look better than they ever did before.Alright, so we're still not entirely convinced that Altered Beast is worth the 800 Wii points Sega is asking for, but we can see where Chris is going with this. What do you think? Does the pricing seem justified after considering his points, or do you still feel like you're being fleeced?
Hudson celebrates the 20th anniversary of the PC Engine
2007 is the twentieth anniversary of the PC Engine (the Japanese Turbografx-16) and Hudson, who co-created the console with NEC, is honoring the little console and its little HuCards in two ways this year: By releasing lots of awesome games on the Virtual Console, and By featuring a multipart PC Engine retrospective on their home page We're so happy to see the Wii bringing the PC Engine back into the limelight. It brought us a lot of games that deserve a second look, and deserve to be played by a new audience. Please, tip your hat to NEC and Hudson's masterpiece. Go check out the first part of the article, and then check out some Turbo games on the VC if you haven't already!
Virtually Overlooked: Ninja Spirit
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.This is the second time we've ended up following a theme from week to week in these features-- in this case, we wanted to talk about Ninja Spirit for the Turbografx-16, and didn't remember until we started researching that, like last week's Photograph Boy, Ninja Spirit was developed by IREM.The best way to describe Ninja Spirit for people familiar with Virtual Console games is "The Legend of Kage, but good." And we say that as fans of Kage.
For the authentic Virtual Console experience: old Sears catalogs
Now for a reminder of what gaming looked like when the Virtual Console was a collection of actual consoles: these scans of old Sears Roebuck catalogs almost have us printing them out, circling the TurboDuo, and sending the page to our parents just in case they still need any Christmas shopping ideas for Christmas 1992.These catalogs looked cheesy to us back then too, but there's really a magic about them that is lost in game retail materials these days. Maybe it's just because the early 16-bit "system wars" were one of the most amazing periods in gaming history. Which side did you take in Genesis vs. Turbografx-16?[Via NeoGAF]
Hudson talks Dungeon Explorer VC delay
Hudson's Dungeon Explorer missed its target launch date yesterday, leaving Urban Champion (NES) and Baseball (NES) to represent Wii Virtual Console's New Years releases. The muff doesn't sit well with TurboGrafx-16 fans who have already suffered through two Hudson VC blunders: a broken Military Madness and a pricey R-Type.Speaking on Dungeon Explorer's tardiness, Hudson's John Master Lee cited "funky things" (bugs) appearing during last-minute tests. Lee wisely avoided suggesting a new release date, saying only that an update on the game's condition would be "coming soon."
Christmas sees first VC price increase
Wii owners waking up this Christmas morning expecting to download some classic space 'shmup goodness might be a little surprised at what they have to pay to get it. R-Type, released today on the Wii's virtual console, is the first TurboGrafx-16 game to be available for 800 VC points instead of the normal 600.This didn't come as a total surprise: Nintendo casually mentioned last month that virtual console games merely "start at" the now-standard point levels (NES: 500, TG16: 600, SNES/Genesis:800, N64:1000). They also mentioned the R-Type price specifically in a press release last week, but our eyes glazed over and we misreported it at 600 points. Silly us... we thought the price used in six other TurboGrafx-16 games so far would carry over to the seventh.While R-Type is a bit more popular than a similar game like Super Star Soldier, we can't help but wonder why Nintendo chose this game to break out the first price hike. While a 200 point increase isn't too outrageous, we can only hope this does not represent the start of a trend in ever-increasing virtual console prices.
Aliens and explorers enter Virtual Console lineup
Taking a break from watching obscure Japanese commercials, the fine fellows at Bits Bytes Pixels & Sprites recently poked their noses into the various nooks and crannies of Hudson Entertainment's website. Along with a vague smell of bacon, they discovered the product pages for two, as yet unannounced Virtual Console games. Though there's no mention of a release date, Alien Crush and Dungeon Explorer are both set to appear on the Wii's TurboGrafx-16 emulator. Memory refresh: Alien Crush sees you playing pinball on the faces of some rather menacing aliens, whereas Dungeon Explorer adequately equips you with tools clearly intended for hacking and slashing. Presumably, you also get to explore dungeons in the company of a "knome." If either of these floats your cup of nostalgia, be sure to check back with us on Monday -- there's a decent chance they'll become available then.
Super Star Soldier limps onto Wii Virtual Console
It's time for fun with Virtual Console math. OK, so a few weeks ago Nintendo promised 30 games would be available for the classic gaming download service by the end of the year. Fourteen of those games premiered on the service at launch (or just after), leaving 16 more to be released in the remainder of 2006. With Nintendo set to premiere new VC content on Mondays and only five more Mondays in 2006 (including today) we could reasonably expect three or four virtual console games each week, right?Apparently not. With less than two hours remaining in Monday on the East coast, the Wii Shop Channel is only showing one new game today: TurboGrafx-16 vertical shooter Super Star Soldier.We suppose its Nintendo's prerogative to slow-play its 2006 Virtual Console hand like this, but we're a little frustrated that we still have to wait for promised classics like ToeJam and Earl and Ecco the Dolphin. It shouldn't take much work on Nintendo's part to upload these decades-old ROMs to their servers -- perhaps the slow release is a way to offer a respite to Nintendo download servers that reportedly slowed to a crawl shortly after launch.Anyway, the game is up and available for 600 points, so go and buy if you're into the whole classic shmup thin.[Update: Fixed some math errors in paragraph 1]
Rumor: Nintendo holding back more controllers
According to Dagbladet, Nintendo was hiding controllers from us all along! In addition to the zapper, Virtual Console gamepad, and different colored Wiimotes, Nintendo was showing replica Genesis, N64, SNES, TG16, and NES controllers that were compatible with the Wii behind closed doors during E3. This is a rumor at the moment, but honestly sounds like a good idea, that is if they have some sort of adapter available for the original controllers for these systems and don't make it mandatory for the consumer to purchase a new retro controller to be used for each system.What say you fine readers?[Via Gamers Reports]
