1 November 2006
Ferry

More Wii Virtual Console games for Japan & Europe compared to America

After the announcement of 30 American Virtual Console retro games coming to the Wii download service this year, you might think that would be the same worldwide, but you’d be wrong! Europe is getting one additional SNES game title, Donkey Kong Country, from Rare & Nintendo. But both Americans and Europeans look enviously at Japan, who on top of the 30-31 known titles are getting 19 more classic games.

Instead of Genesis’ Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine Japan gets Puyo Puyo, and instead of Turbografx-16’s Bomberman ‘93 they get Bomberman ‘94, both different versions of the same game type. As for the list of addition Japanese titles…

NES/Famicom: Legend of Kage, Gradius, Go-moku Narabe (Five-in-a-Row), Xevious, Ninja Jajamaru-kun, Wario’s Woods.
SNES/Super Famicom: R-Type III, Super Castlevania IV, Contra III, Street Fighter II, Super Mario World, Zelda: Link to the Past (900 points), Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo (900 points), Super Mario Picross, and also Donkey Kong Country.
Sega Genesis/Megadrive: Shadow Dancer.
Turbografx-16/PC Engine: Necromancer, New Adventure Island, Battle Lode Runner.

To make it worse, Sega Genesis/Megadrive games are just 600 Wii Points in Japan opposed to 800 in the West. But to be fair with the rest of the Virtual Console prices, they might seem high starting at $5 for NES to $10 for N64, but if they cost less I think many people would not play them as much and be buying them more to “complete the collection”. At least this way you pick what you like best.

One thing is for sure, they need to release as many of those Japanese games worldwide, even if it means adding a warning mentioning the in-game text/language is all or in part Japanese.

1 November 2006 15:10
Jude

I just hope we’ll eventually get them… ALL

2 November 2006 09:10
blackdemon

If we don’t get R-Type eventually in Europe I’ll be crying!

2 November 2006 10:31
supadupagama

I hear you guys, I really want Zelda: Link to the Past. But I’m more interested to see if rare US & Japanese games will get released worldwide, like Super Mario RPG on SNES, and Sin and Punishment on N64.

2 November 2006 10:41
Y.V.Reetesh

How can they lmit downloads to regions? I hope all downloads are on a main server whjich any one from anywhere can download kinda like the X360 server

2 November 2006 11:56
supadupagama

I don’t know where you got that idea from Reetesh, but the big disappointment with Wii’s downloadable games a while back was that they are different per region, when EVERYONE wanted to be able to download games from Japan, America & Europe to their Wii.

The Xbox 360 server is just as region-locked as the Wii one, by the way.

2 November 2006 12:43
Y.V.Reetesh

what? really? well. I see my freinds in india downloading stuffs that are released as and when in the US! And X360 in india are PAL, some of my Friends have NTSC - J and eve they download things like NFS demos and all other XBL thigns similar to US counterparts.

Thats what mande me thing that its region lock free. and I HOPED that it would be same for wii, I didnt say that it IS same for wii

sad to hear it isnt and there is no ossibility of that happening too

22 December 2006 09:41
angry guy

i REALLLY wanted to get Super Mario Brothers and was told it was on here, one of the main reasons i got the wii and its just plain Mario Brothers

I dont even recall this game being on NES. This was the arcade game. Figures they would not have the ONE game everybody wants and remembers playing as a child.

Smart move Nintendo

1 February 2007 14:15
Fieldy

I am very frustrated that banjo kazooie 64 has not yet been announced on the wii’s virtual console considering it was definately one the best games on the 64 a blend of exceptional 3D graphics to easily contend with mario 64 a hilarious storyline, fantastic levels and excellent gameplay makes this a must for the vitual console,

PLEASE nintendo release this game VERY SOON!

6 February 2007 03:49
mat

well one of the games that i really would like to is dragon warriors 1-4. The last two were so hard to find, and if i buy them on ebay they are like 50 bucks. Also what about punch out, final fantasy, Mario 3, come on Nintendo you could do better than this short mediocre list of games you have now.

2 April 2007 12:52
Kiata

Banjo Kazooie is owned by Rare (now owned by Microsoft) so won’t be on the Wii - but maybe on XBLA. Donkey Kong 64 however could be on virtual console (plus any other Rare games featuring purely Nintendo owned characters).
As bad as they are supposed to be, I want to play the 2 Zelda games from the Philips CD-i machine just for completeness