Wii U Virtual Console Updates

Interesting proposal, Nintendo.

Nintendo's recent bombardment of announcements (most of which were extremely exciting) included one that stated that certain Virtual Console titles would be discounted to just 30 cents for a limited time. 30 cents! The odd number selection is to celebrate the Famicom's 30th anniversary.

30 Years
30 Cents
30 Days

Obviously you have to pick up whatever title is discounted in that month, otherwise you'll have to spend the regular amount of however many dollars on it. And this isn't just a trial or anything like that. It's the full damn game. List is as follows:

January:     Balloon Fight (NES)
February:   F-Zero (SNES)
March:       Punch-Out!! (NES)
April:         Kirby's Adventure (NES)
May:          Super Metroid (SNES)
June:          Yoshi (NES)
July:           Donkey Kong (NES)

The games will also be fully compatible and playable on your Wii U GamePad, which is a refreshing bit of news. I am super excited to play Super Metroid on that thing. Iwata also stated that the Wii U Virtual Console will gradually fill in the rest of the titles already available on the Wii Virtual Console (starting in late Spring), and they will also have full GamePad compatibility. The ability to integrate with Miiverse and have save states will also be included. However, you will not be able to transfer/download purchases you already made to the Wii U directly, you'll have to re-purchase them. This sucks. Even with a super discount of $1 for NES games you already bought and $1.50 for SNES games you already bought, it sucks. It will probably be similar for Genesis and other consoles once they start being moved over.

Sure, people are mad because they already bought the game, why should they pay again, blah blah blah. But really, what we're paying for is more for convenience than anything else. It's not like you can't play those games anymore at all. You just can't play on the GamePad, and you have to shift into the Wii menu first. Iwata also stated they're working on updates to make that process more streamlined as well, which may mean your Wii VC titles will be right on your Wii U menu, you just won't be able to use your GamePad to play. If people are sour over that, then they can just not pay at all and still enjoy the game like they have been. The entitlement discussion gets old really fast. If people think it's worth it, then they'll do it. If not, then they won't. Hooray.

Wish I could be playing Virtual Console EarthBound though. Japan gets to. That's no fair.