Four New Virtual Console Titles Tomorrow
...For the simple one-time price of a black market Chinese kidney! Come Monday morning at 9am PST (just the hour we’ve all got blocked off for some serious retro gaming) Nintendo will release four new Virtual Console games onto the Wii: Genesis games Columns and Ristar for 800 points each; the dessicated corpse of the NES’ Donkey Kong Jr. for 500 points; and Victory Run from the good old TurboGrafx 16 for 600 points.
Ok, great. Old games I get to play on a new system without having to lug the old consoles out of Tiny’s Patented Gaming Vault. I’m pleased with that, conceptually. I don’t have a problem with microtransactions per se, as long as they’re restricted to games: games I wouldn’t otherwise be able to play on the system in question. Paying for extra content for games I went out and bought my damn self is something I balk at – depending, of course, on what kind of extra content we’re talking about. Knights of the Nine for Oblivion, for instance, was not a problem. But I digress…
$8 for freaking Ristar, however? $5 for, OMG, Donkey Kong Jr??? Am I right to think that’s a bit of a grift, or am I a just a stingy stupid-head? I could be both – that always remains an option.
Four games coming to Virtual Console this Monday, NES games still slightly cheaper than insulin. [bitsbytespixelssprites.com]
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 3 December 2006
· Comments (10)
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Hm. The prices seemed reasonable to me, and unlike some other companies, at least this is content that wasn’t already supposed to be in a game I purchased. If you don’t purchase it, it has absolutely no bearing on your enjoyment of over-the counter titles.
I spend 5 bucks on breakfast more often than not. Seems a fair price for an NES game that’s mine forever.
$8 for Ristar seems like a lot, especially since…it’s not that great. I’d rather spend $20 on the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 (which is pretty wonderful, btw).
Ugh. I’ve been checking the store all week for updates, and this is it? The pricing could be better, but I’m tired of being dinked around with these so-so games.
So I bought Sim City. Woo. Memory lane, right? I already lived through the Nintendo era, and I know what to avoid. These paltry offerings are rentals. Where’s Metroid? Castlevania? Earthbound, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Mario Paint, Breath of Fire, etc.? Even lesser known greats like Legacy of the Wizard, Battle of Olympus, Clash at Demonhead, Gargoyle’s Quest, anything!
They know exactly what type of game will actually sell, and right now I think they’re relying a little too much on the novelty of the virtual console idea to sell their not-so-profitable titles when they otherwise couldn’t.
It’s too much. I don’t see the point in having a fixed price for every game on a given system. I’d pay five bucks for the original Zelda. But DK Jr.? Meh.
I can see why they wouldn’t put the Final Fantasy games on the virtual console because they just finished releasing all of them for GBA and DS. But they should totally have the original Chrono Trigger. And where the hell are the Ninja Turtle games??? Ninja Turtles 2 & 3 were games that I played constantly when I was little. Even Turtles in Time was awesome!
Did the NES verson of DKjr. have all four levels? It’s been a while since I played it, so I’d actually think about grabbing it if it’s at least a reasonable facsimile of the original….
Of course, I could just play it on my laptop in MAME, free and illegally. But then I wouldn’t be playing a videogame, I’d be playing my laptop. And I’m just not that much of a tool right now.
Finally someone else thinks this is a bit of a rip!
On the other hand, I suppose they can charge whatever they like. We’re free not to buy into it, right?
Honestly, I’m not entirely certain I understand the economics that Nintendo are going for here. To me it looks like a couple of hundred, maybe a few thousand hardcore who’d pay $5 for DK Jr., or, you know, a million or two paying 50 cents for a go at it.
Once the console is there and blinking at you, no one’s going to think twice about dropping a couple of quarters into the machine. But $5 is still $5.
Reggie is not arrogant, just a businessman, he sticks with his tactics: If there is a drop in good titles in one month, he will bolster them with some great games for VC. So don’t expect the goods as long as there are reasonably good Wii titles. On pricing: profiting twice off the same game is a ripoff, but seeing as we are now charged 5$ for games that were previously released as some kind of collectors item for a premium, I think we’re heading in the right direction. Think of DK and Zelda 1 for the GBA – 20$ each???
The Tek Guy is right, VC games are probably going to be bonuses. I would wager that Nintendo is making more money on Wii games, and is saving VC titles for times when they are needed. Nintendo would have to be crazy to want to put Zelda up against a VC release with Chrono, Final Fantasy, or any memorable classic. Look for those games to come out once there are Wii’s sitting on store shelves. They don’t want people going to the store to buy a Wii and thinking “oh, I’ll just get a VC game, I don’t need Zelda.”
First week that goes by with no new RPG, I bet they go to the vault and release Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana or something else similer. It also wouldn’t supprise me if Square saves the releases of their big classics for the week that a competitor is releasing a game on the Wii.
It’s not all Ipods and fluff in Nintendos secret underground lair…