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The other lost Sonic game
We talk a lot about stuff we would like to see on the Virtual Console, but here's the stuff that would really make the service noteworthy: unreleased games. Recently, a NeoGAFfer named FortNinety posted some footage of a previously unknown Sonic game on YouTube, and it is weird. Weirder than the other known unreleased Sonic game, Sonic X-treme on the Saturn.The game, developed by the US-based Sega Technical Institute, uses the art style and characters from the Jaleel White-tastic Saturday morning cartoon. It features a Final Fight-style perspective, Metal Gear-style sneaking, and a very uncharacteristic ring-throwing attack. Does it look good? Not really. But unreleased and unfinished games are super interesting, and we'd love a chance to play even an unfinished version of this.
Ecco and Sonic get ESRB rating for XBLA
The ESRB recently rated both Sonic the Hedgehog (also rated for PS3) and Ecco the Dolphin for Xbox 360. It's not that much of a stretch to assume this gives a little bit more validation to the Sega Vintage collection screens that popped up earlier this month.We're going to guess that having the original Sonic make another pass in digital distribution land is not part of Sega's reinvention tour for their mascot. It'd be nice to see Sonic Team get some blue ambition, hopefully all these re-releases of the original Sonic (which is already available on the Wii's Virtual Console) are an attempt to get some cash together for a solid next-gen Sonic title. Is this delusional daydreaming? Possibly not if Sega is serious about bringing Sonic back to his original glory.
New games this week: Shrek the Third edition
We were jonesing to insert a Smash Mouth lyrical pun like "I saw this game, now I'm a believer" or "Hey Shrek, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play," but we couldn't decide on just one. So instead, we'll just say that if you enjoy the film Shrek the Third, you can now buy a game that's also called Shrek the Third.Xbox 360: Shrek the Third %Gallery-3110%
Wii Warm Up: Enter initials
Dude, so we were playing some Alien Crush, and we killed the bonus stage with the dragons over and over again. We totally scored like five billion points and it was so AWESOME that we had to call everyone we knew and tell them about it. Okay, we're embellishing a bit. When we say we "totally scored like five billion points," we mean that we "continue to be awful at Alien Crush despite playing and loving it for eighteen years." But without our humble admission, you'd have no reason to doubt us! And that leads into our discussion.Simply put, we want leaderboards. We aren't going to get online play in VC games any time soon (or ever,) so we'll ask for the next best thing. We want to be able to see the high scores for games that, you know, have scores. We don't need prizes or anything. We'd be motivated enough by the idea that we could put our three-letter tag (mine: JC!) at the top of a nationwide or worldwide list if we were any good, which we aren't.Are high score leaderboards worth doing? Do you see value in friendly competition like this? Or did you always flip right past the high score page in old gaming magazines? Perhaps most importantly, what are your high score initials?
Classic Sega brawling on Japanese Virtual Console
Virtual Console fans in Japan have a lot of reasons to feel nice about their Wii purchases. This week's release list isn't the best ever, but neither does it include Urban Champion. Fans of Sega classics or of Yuzo Koshiro will be happy to learn that Bare Knuckle 2 (Streets of Rage 2) will be available for download starting next week. Fans of adorably doughy sumo sprites will be happier about Tecmo's Tsuppari Oozumou. Out Live and Sengoku Mahjong, both for the PC Engine, will also be available.
See before you buy: Japan edition
We were happy when Nintendo of America finally put up some preview videos so people could at least get a look at Virtual Console games before throwing their Wii Points into a hole. Now, Nintendo of Japan has done the same! You'll be able to preview new Virtual Console games long before they come to the US. In many cases, you can just uselessly torture yourself by watching videos of games like Shin Megami Tensei and Mario's Super Picross that will never be released over here! And if there's anything we enjoy, it's uselessly torturing ourselves.[Thanks, creamsugar!]
VC Monday Madness: Final Fight, Ordyne and Mighty Bomb Jack
We were concerned when we did not see our usual press release sitting in our inbox this morning, concerning the week's release of Virtual Console titles. We look forward to those every Monday, so we did some checking around the internet and with our contacts at the Big N. Nothing, we could not find anything on which VC games we would be receiving. Then, 12pm rolls around and we turn on our Wii to see these three titles staring back at us: Final Fight (1player, SNES, 800 Wii points) Ordyne (1 - 2 players, TurboGrafx16, 600 Wii points) Mighty Bomb Jack (1 player, NES, 500 Wii Points) Looks like the cause for alarm was unwarranted. We now have three new titles to rock on the VC. Make sure you come back later for our video wrap-up of this week's Virtual Console games.
Wii Warm Up: Weapon of choice
At the moment we have three options for playing most Virtual Console games: the Wiimote, the Classic Controller, and the Gamecube controller. None of them are 100% accurate recreations of any original console's controller, but each has their advantages-- you're guaranteed to have a Wiimote, you're almost guaranteed to have a Gamecube controller, and the Classic Controller has the best compatibility.We speculated about some kind of Wavebird relaunch, but so far that has yet to happen, indicating that Nintendo is throwing their support behind the quasi-tethered Classic Controller. But what about you? How do you roll on the VC-- tipped Wiimote, recycled Wavebird, or specialized equipment?
See before you buy - Virtual video goodness
Making Virtual Console purchasing decisions just got that little bit easier thanks to the set of preview videos now available on the Wii's official website. These are just the thing for telling the good, the bad and the plain ol' ugly apart when choosing how to get your nostalgia fix.With the range of available titles getting ever wider, it's nice to at least get the chance to see the games in action before spending those hard-earned Wii Points. What do you think of the service? Anyone been sold on, or reconsidered, a download after seeing the video?If you're thinking of doing some virtual shopping, don't forget to check out our Monday roundups, for a critical take on the latest releases.[Via Infendo]
VC Friday: Beatdowns in space
Four new games up this week on the VC, and despite the fact that three of them are from Sega's Mega Drive, Nintendo still manages a fair amount of diversity in this week's selection. By diversity, we mean that they don't all involve outer space or badassery ... well, okay, you got us. These games actually are about space and/or fighting, because what the Virtual Console really needed was more beatdowns. In space. Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle - Mega Drive - 800 Wii points Shockman - TurboGrafx - 600 Wii points Virtua Fighter 2 - 800 Wii points Wonder Boy in Monster World - 800 Wii points
Wii Warm Up: Downloaded
What have you shelled out for on the Virtual Console? For us, it's always something of a nail-biter: do we pay? Do we skip? Decisions are hard -- especially when it comes to games we almost want, but aren't sure about. We know a lot of you find VC pricing to be a little high, so we assume it must be similarly difficult for some of our readers when trying to decided whether or not they should buy. What's made you decide to spend some of those precious Wii points?
Turtle power envy
Seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game on the ESRB's list of upcoming Virtual Console titles should bring joy to our nostalgia-ruled hearts, but we're finding it hard to not be pessimistic about this particular release. We've put more hours into Konami's beat'em up than you can shake a bo staff at, so it's not the actual game that we have problems with. No, it's just outright jealousy over the XBLA port of the arcade version. While we're stuck with 8-bit graphics and support for only two players, the 360's turtle fans have the original cut scenes, arcade graphics, and online co-op for up to four players! Inconceivable! To add insult to injury, we might have to shell out 600 Wii points for the NES game instead of the usual 500 because of licensing issues. If that'll be the case, we would actually be spending more than what 360 gamers are paying! We can at least find solace in the NES version's extended levels, extra stages, and Pizza Hut advertising. Also, TMNT II wasn't the only new ninja release spotted on the ESRB's Virtual Console catalog. Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo's 1989 platformer, will also be stabbing its way onto the Wii. Let's see the Xbox try to top us with a game like that! Oh wait...
Rumor: Impossible Mission remake going to Wii Shop?
Oh, good, another one of those vague, confusing rumors we love so well! Infendo is reporting that the latest issue of Nintendo Power reveals a downloadable Wii Shop version of the Commodore 64 classic Impossible Mission. Infendo seemed to think that the Wii Shop version would be the same as the DS remake. However, the resulting NeoGAF thread made the situation seem a lot less clear.Apparently, publisher System 3 also plans to release a retail disc of Impossible Mission. It would be kind of weird to release the same game on disc and the Wii Shop, right? But it would also be weird to release the exact same game for Wii and DS. After all, the DS is not the PSP. So, with no real information to go on, let's do some speculatin'! Here are all the possibilities we can think of: The same game is coming out for both the Wii and DS. Unlikely. The DS game will be downloadable on the Wii, and will release concurrently with a separate Wii version. The DS and Wii remakes will be separate and accompanied by a Virtual Console release of the C64 original. This seems more plausible. LIES!
Wii Blaster isn't Nintendo product
At the beginning of the month we were quite excited to see on Gamestop's website what we thought would be Nintendo's 21st century answer to the Zapper -- the Wii Blaster. Well, apparently GameSpot spent the last month hitting the refresh button on that page and discovered that the Wii Blaster is actually another third-party peripheral in the same vein as Joytech's Sharp Shooter. So, back to wanting, wishing, hoping and praying for our first-party Nintendo Zapper to come.It looks like when Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley are finally unleashed on the Virtual Console we'll have to use a third-party gun to play them. That just sounds thoroughly unappealing. If Nintendo is coming out with a gun, it still hasn't popped up on our radar and there are plenty of Zapper and Super Scope titles it could be used on, which we expect to see on the VC sometime in the future.[Via Gamespot]
Rumor: Starfox 64 update restores historically accurate slowdown?
No word if this is a real issue or a NeoGAF freakout, but if the perfect beauty of one of your Virtual Console games is in danger, it's our solemn duty to report on it. What is known is that Nintendo has issued an updated version of StarFox 64. What isn't known is what it does.NeoGAFfer Nuclear Muffin (judging by the name, a level-headed character) reported that after downloading the update this morning, he found the game slowing down in the same way the original Nintendo 64 version. Again, no idea if this is true, or if it's a delusion created by someone trying to find an effect of this update, but it's terrifying if true.Normally, we're all about accurate presentation of emulated games, but we have no problem with Nintendo fixing the resolution and speed of N64 games, because they totally need it. We really hope they haven't decided to unfix it.
Hacked Super Mario Bros. is better than LittleBigPlanet
Feeling that Super Mario Bros. lacked in user-generated content, the folks over at SelectButton decided to start randomly inserting text into the Mario ROM (yarrr) and see what happens. Apparently the game is stable enough to run decently with junk added to it, and the results are ... playable and strangely beautiful. Random invisible blocks, palette changes, bizarre sprites, Mario's freaking head is on upside-down, etc. It's pretty significant that some minor shot-in-the-dark hacking can end up generating new Mario levels that instantly make a near-perfect game infinitely more fun. They should be doing this at I am 8-Bit. If only we could do this kind of user-generated level design on the Virtual Console,we'd have a compelling answer to Sony's LittleBigPlanet. Go ahead and argue with us on that point. We <3 Hacked Mario.Wii Fanboy does not endorse the use of copyrighted ROM images. Just go gawk at the screenshots for a while; that should be enough entertainment.
Virtual Console sales down in the period pre-Ninja Spirit
We talked about the Nintendo of Japan press conference yesterday, and the 45 Wii games Nintendo is teasing us with. During that same press conference, Satoru Iwata revealed that 3.3 million Virtual Console games have been downloaded since the launch of the system.3.3 million sounds like a lot, right? It sure does to us. But Game|Life's Chris Kohler did the math based on their January statement of 1.5 million and realized that the sales were actually slowing down since January. Whoops.Our own take on the situation: we're afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better. The new audience that Nintendo's attracting has no attachment to retrogaming, by definition. And Nintendo isn't doing any kind of promotion or advertising to create such an attachment.. Meanwhile, the hardcore crowd that enjoys VC games faces a selection that is still too limited.Our alternate take on the situation: Ninja Spirit will make everything better. It'll make us feel better, anyway.
Ninja Spirit headed to VC, we take full credit
Have we mentioned recently how much we love Hudson? Not only did they make tons and tons of incredible games for the Turbografx-16 (and lots of other systems!), but they're better than anyone else about actually releasing their games on the Virtual Console. And now we have news that some of the best Turbografx-16 games are coming to the US in May! Also some stuff for Nintendo consoles in Japan, but we'll get to that. It finally happened. A game we profiled in Virtually Overlooked has been officially announced for the Virtual Console. Even though IREM's Ninja Spirit was one of the best and most popular TG16 games, we're going to go ahead and declare this as a victory. As if that weren't exciting enough, Hudson announced plans to release a personal favorite, Blazing Lazers, as well as Ordyne (excellent, adorable shmup) and World Sports Competition (we haven't played it, but we'll assume it's great because we're in a good mood). Nintendo of Japan also has some fantastic stuff planned, including Super Mario Bros. 2 and F-Zero X, either of which would no doubt be the headline if anyone else were writing this. That's Super Mario Bros. 2, the Japanese version, released here as Lost Levels. The really, really hard one, as opposed to the silly one about throwing vegetables.
Punch-Out!! leaves HDTVs down for the count
Many who've downloaded the Virtual Console's Punch-Out!! release are reporting that the boxing game isn't playing well with their HDTVs. Timing is paramount if you want to dodge punches and have your own jabs connect, but the HDTV response lag that sometimes occurs has a habit of knocking Little Mac's bloodied face onto the canvas, leaving him too dazed to even focus his eyes on the mouthguard dropped inches away.Gamers with SDTV's haven't been experiencing any lag between their controllers and the onscreen fight, and explanations for the decreased response time lean towards blaming the televisions, so Nintendo doesn't seem to be at fault this time. Have you noticed any HDTV lag with Punch-Out!! or your other Virtual Console purchases?(We know that Mike Tyson isn't in the VC release of Punch-Out!, but we saw the above comic at The Librarianist, and couldn't stop ourselves from using it!)
Game Center CX is TV for retro game nerds
Fuji TV's Game Center CX has everything: exclusive developer interviews, looks at early versions of some of our favorite games, and, every episode, one man giving his very best to play a classic game to completion. The first season of the show focused more on the interviews and features; from season 2 on, the focus of the show became the gaming-- suffering along with host Shinya Arino as he tries to play old games from start to finish. The games range from the classic (Metroid, Prince of Persia, Actraiser) to the classic-to-us (Kato-chan & Ken-chan) to the painful (Takeshi no Chousenjou, which seems to have been designed as a cynical joke against gamers). Of course, the show is edited to fit into its format, so you aren't stuck watching all twelve hours or however long it takes.Crunk Games's Ray Barnholt is our hero for compiling this exhaustive episode guide. He has profiled the personalities and written detailed descriptions of each episode, including who is interviewed, what is discussed, and, most importantly, a play-by-play of the game sessions. Reading his descriptions is almost as good as watching the actual show. Speaking of the actual show, he's provided links to Japanese fanpages, at least one of which has Youtube links.We're generally glad that the Virtual Console is raising awareness of old games in general. Now we're glad that the VC enables whole new generations to do what Arino is doing, and experience game history first hand, one complete game at a time.Would you watch this kind of thing if it were on American TV? How about a similar show in English on the web? We wouldn't mind some personal narrative or gameplay videos on the Wii, to add value to the VC experience.
