I live in the USA, and despite being an excellent overall service, I do have two major frustrations with the Virtual Console in this country. First off, why don't we have a lot of C64 games?? I realize that the C64 was bigger in Europe, but it was not exactly a looser in this country! But there are only nine games, out of all of the games that were released for the C64 here.

Second, would be the Arcade Channel. I don't own a PS3, but I know that games like Vanguard and Vanguard II, and other 1980's SNK arcade classics, have been released on the Playstation Network, so WHY can't the VC Arcade get awesome arcade titles like those???

I don't know if these issues are due to laziness by Nintendo of America, but if they are, then that really ticks me off. And with the Wii U on it's way next year, I don't know how much longer the Virtual Console service will even be there for the Wii.

Developers go where their games will sell. The sad truth is, games on the VC just aren't selling well enough, and that's the source of all your frustrations.

It's not "laziness" keeping stuff off of the VC.

Whoever published the C64 games on VC pretty much did a dump-and-run for the service — one of the Last Ninja games released was actually unplayable and they never bothered to fix it, so my guess is that they didn't find it financially worth their while to spend the time and money to continue supporting the VC.

Nintendo itself could do a better job of supporting the VC Arcade (like, where's Donkey Kong?) but it's up to other publishers to get their stuff out there. I don't think Nintendo sees it as worthwhile to court publishers for emulated versions of their old stuff. Everyone knows the service is there. If someone wants to use it, they will. If not, sucks for us!

I have none ATM

As I said many times, no one is entitled to play any games they want. This includes the Virtual Console. While it's great that we can play old games, it's more of a luxury than a necessity. Heck, I considered it a nice bonus to the Wii.

lz20XX - what a silly thing to say. That's like saying only people born in the 1970's should be entiled to watch Star Wars.

Games are a big part of modern culture, they're already a part of our history and should be treated with as much respect as old film, music and books.

Exactly, and I wasn't saying that I'm entitled to play any game that I want-just that certain sections of the Virtual Console could be a lot better. Look, I don't like emulation, in terms of the ethics of it-I want to play to pay retro games, which I support with my dollars. That's part of my frustration with the Virtual Console-sure, I could download MAME, and other emulators, and a bunch of roms, but I wouldn't feel right about that. That's just me, I'm NOT trying to start a debate over emulation.

i share your frustration, and lately I find the PSN is filling my retro needs more than the Wii VC. Nintendo's lack of support for the VC will make me think twice if they push the VC on the Wii U.

My "frustration" with the VC started when I downloaded my first game, Super Mario Bros. 3. Yuck, that game just looked awful and helped me realize I would rather collect the original goods anyway. Talk about turning frustration upside down and all around, well there you have it.

@ Ryno
Who on this planet doesn't like super Mario bros 3?

Oh, dont get it twisted Link79, I enjoy the iconic Super Mario Bros. 3. My preference though is to not play with Mario rocking his Tanooki suit in the faded and washed out VC version.

Downloading retro games are part of the reason I bought both the Wii and the 3DS. I was very disappointed with the 50Hz only versions of many games offered on the Wii though. The lack of support for the VC arcade is a real wasted oppertunity (still waiting for Super Hang-On!), we can suppose the games on there didnt sell great, but a greater variety of quality games would perhaps increase sales.

Shame about the C64, seems some games that did go the US were weirdly sped up to play on NSTC TVs, I saw a video of Last Ninja on a US Wii and the music sounded bad, way too fast.

@ Ryno
Ah I got ya. Alot of the Nes games on VC do look a bit dark compared to the actual cartridges.
The Mega man games especially. I don't feel like it really makes a huge difference though.

For me I dislike how the sound sometimes cuts out on some NES and Genesis games

@ Ristar42
I was bummed out that C64 games stopped being added as well. I got the first two Last Ninja games and was eagerly awaiting the release of the third. I watched some youtube videos and it looked amazing. Now I'll never get to play it.
Stupid lazy jerks didn't even try to fix it so it would work properly. They just gave up and stopped putting out C64 games intirely.

Does anyone else have a problem with graphical glitches on the Genesis Sonic games?
On the Genesis the graphics ran perfectly but on vc sometimes ghost objects or enemies will appear after going fast

Link79 The drib drab appearance of the NES VC games is a definite Debbie Downer for me personally and I could not even imagine playing Mega Man that way. But I know most people don't mind it so that's cool.

Man, all this talk about the Commodore 64 reminds me of their awesome commercials!

That commercial was epic

@Link79 Yep, Last Ninja 3 and Commodore Gaming giving up was a shame.

The C64 trilogy for PC was given away on the cover of the UK Retro Gamer magazine a few years back, so I can play it - but playing C64 games on the TV seems more traditional!

I still have the original C64 tape versions of IK, Last Ninja 1 & 2 and Pitstop 2 (and loads of other games) from back in the day. Might pick up an actual C64 one of these days and see if they still load!

There's literally hundreds of C64 games. If Commodore Gaming had released one a week every week, it would not be half way through of just how many C64 games there are. Many would be crap though.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/c64.htm