Topic: Would You Buy A Nintendo Arcade Collection?

Nintendo have a fairly proud arcade legacy, but they seem reticent about playing it up for some reason. If memory serves, then the last port of one of Nintendo's arcade games we received was Donkey Kong, which was part of DK64, so it's been about 14 years. Would such a collection interest you at all? If it would, what games should Nintendo put in the collection? Would you prefer to see it on Wii U or 3DS? For my part, this would probably work better on Wii U than 3DS and I would at least put all of the video arcade titles in the collection (Nintendo also released two electro-mechanical shooting gallery arcade games in the early '70s, but those would probably work better with Wiimotes than with a Gamepad). Have I stumbled onto a trove of lost classics here or are some parts of the past best left there?

I can't remember that many "arcade" games by nintendo. The last ones I remember were Cruisin' USA, and Killer Instinct--but they are not technically nintendo. In comparison, Sega had some fantastic arcade games come one after another, after another. Namco, of course. Capcom had the king of arcade games: Street Fighter. Atari had plenty, Konami, and, of course, Midway.

But nintendo? I don't know if it would be worth it...
In Tokyo--where I live these days--there are some MarioKart arcade cabinets, but I don't know if they ever made it to the west. Personally, I'd rather have a collection of Virtual Boy's entire library on the 3DS. That would be a nice gesture--closure, if you will--for that unfortunate system...

That's not quite what I meant by 'Nintendo arcade games'; I apologize for not explaining myself better. I was actually referring to their output from the '70s and '80s, which includes such classics as Punch-Out!, Mario Bros., Sheriff and, of course, the Donkey Kong games. Despite porting them quite liberally in the pre-NES era, Nintendo have stepped off the gas quite a bit in latter days—the last time they rereleased one of their arcade titles was the version of Donkey Kong released as part of DK 64, which was almost 14 years ago. It's kind of strange that Nintendo, of all companies, wouldn't want to celebrate such a storied past as its arcade history represents; besides, those Radar Scope cabinets won't last forever and this collection would also represent the first time that the arcade version of Sky Skipper received a North American release.

P.S. Don't forget Williams when it comes to the arcade pantheon. They may not have created a lot of video games, but almost every one they did make is a classic.

P.P.S. I wholeheartedly agree with your proposition re: the Virtual Boy. Let's try and get the Japan-exclusive titles, while we're at it...

That would be great. The arcade versions are of course way better than their later NES counterparts.

Are you including the Punch-Out! games in that statement? I wholeheartedly concur with your assessment where the Donkey Kong games are concerned (Popeye was probably also better in the arcade, while Mario Bros. is more or less a wash), but all three home console Punch-Out! titles are classics, IMO. Either way, though, thanks for the vote of confidence in this idea! Which title would you play most if something like this were to happen? I'd probably end up splitting about 70-80% of my time between the two Punch-Out! titles and Arm Wrestling.

Yeah, I agree on that. Kinda weird that Nintendo choose to convert the Donkey Kong NES-version, instead of the arcade one for the Virtual Console. Donkey Kong 3 is also quite an overlooked game.

The Mario Kart arcade games did get released in North America, but of course as arcades are dead your only option might be a place like Chuck-E-Cheese. But the downside about them is that because it's a kid place, they turned down the difficulty (I suspect) and you have to put in a coin for every race (I suspect another option on the machine they turned on, to compensate for their "every game one token per play" policy)

Hidden graphics found in the DK arcade ROMs suggest Nintendo contracted out the programming of the arcade version of DK, thus Nintendo not owning the code copyright, which would explain why they would create a ROM hack of the NES version.

Of course RaderScope, the Galaxian knockoff that rose and fell so fast in Japan they had to design DK as a replacement to salvage the thousands of presumed-unsellable RadarScope machines that were still on their way to America.

I think Sheriff was not a Nintendo game, but a western game they imported into Japan.

Though after the NES came out, Nintendo shifted their limited arcade presence to the NES-based VS. arcade series and PlayChoice-10 and its successor the Nintendo Super System.
I suppose if they wanted, they could be bothered to add Zapper support using the Wii remote so we can play VS. Duck Hunt, the one that lets you shoot the dog (even if that's something you're supposed to avoid doing).

Sheriff can be played on ambassador 3DSs if anyone is interested in that one

Heck YES I would buy a Nintendo arcade collection!

My family spent the night at Paradise Pier Disney Land California in May 2013. They had a Mario Kart Arcade Cabinet, that I unfortunately did not find until we were leaving. The arcade cabinet was red and had a camera so it could use your face in the corner of the screen for who placed where info. I really wish I had more time...

To be honest, not really. I mean, I liked the Nintendo arcade games I played as part of the Classic NES series and as e-Reader games... but they're not really that 'great' that I'd pay for a collection consisting entirely of them.

Same reason I never bought into the whole Game & Watch Gallery series.

As long as it was a digital title and not a full release this would work fine. Nintendo just doesn't have the amount of great arcade titles to justify a full release like many other gaming companies do. Go digital only and keep it cheap.

Maybe? Personally, I just wish they'd release a budget collection of all of those Japanese games they refuse to import! The arcade stuff at least exists in some form.

And yes Nintendo...I DO mean the Sattelaview ones too.

Sutte Hakkun! Do it!

Sutte Hakkun isn't a Satellaview game. It was one of a few games released on Nintendo Power, a legal flash-cart service (or the predecessor to eShop, if you want to look at it that way ), then later rereleased on retail cart.
(too bad Super Famicom Wars wasn't one of the NP games to get a retail release, that's the one I want but is now valuable since the carts can no longer be rewritten. And maybe Columns would be nice. But it would be tough to find as I see many large sellers don't list the contents on NP carts, so it's essentially random what you get when you buy one.)
But Wario's Woods only got a physical release on the Famicom, it was Satellaview-exclusive in Japan.

@KingMike You better update that Wikipedia article on it. Stat! Because, uh, that's just what it said and I want it. I want to play Stone Tablets too. Because of how I don't have to play as male Link, but still basically play as not-Link-Link.

Still, they called it Nintendo Power. Really?

That is amazing. That is amazing and also there's the name for this budget release collection.

I'd buy it in a heartbeat. That was something that baffled the hell out of me when they released the "Virtual Arcade" category on the Wii. Where were Nintendo's own arcade games? If nothing else Donkey Kong always seemed like a no brainer to me.

The main game was not Satellaview, but now that I think about it, there might have been some Satellaview "episodes" of the game.
Nintendo Power was separate but was the name for the flash carts (also known as Memory Casettes) that Nintendo used to sell to allow users to buy full game downloads for SFC and GB (whereas I think Satellaview was free after paying the large subscription fees, for both the service itself and the satellite TV?/radio? package), including some not otherwise released in Japan (Super Punch-Out, Dr. Mario) or anywhere else.