I know a certain Canadian who is selling it for $30...

Nevermind, she sold it already.

So I recently acquired a free Wii points card. I now have 2500 points and am looking for some advice on what to get. Here are some of the ones I'm interested in and any of my thoughts beyond "It looks fun."
Adventures of Lolo, Faxanadu, Gradius-loved as a kid but never beat, presence on 3DS reminded me of it and would probably rather have on the Wii
Castlevania-a major franchice that I've played very little of, but there are so many games that I don't know if I want to go down that pricey road if I end up loving it
Ninja Gaiden 2-have and love the first, never played any of the others
Zoda's Revenge-played Star Tropics and liked it, but not sure if I liked it enough to want to play the sequel that has mixed reactions to it
DoReMi, Legend of the Mystical Ninja- probably the one I am definitely going to get, loved the N64 one and heard great things about this one
Ys Book 1&2, Beyond Oasis-just thought it looked interesting, Ecco-loved Tides of Time, never played the original
Shining Force, Phantasy Star-heard good things, but never played a Master System game before
WiiWare:these are ones that I played and liked the demos - And Yet it Moves, Art of Balance, Dive:Medes Island, Jett Rocket, Max & the Magic Marker, NyxQuest
Also Mega Man 10 - I like Mega Man and already have MM9, I just don't know if I'd rather have a different experience rather than another Mega Man

Any thoughts on these or recommendations for others? I have pretty much all Marios and Zeldas, World of Goo, both LostWinds. I also enjoy unique experiences (like Kirby's Epic Yarn and NightSky), so if there are any hidden gems that I might just not be aware of, please let me know. Finally, RPGs are my favorite genre, so if there are any great ones of those that I need to try (I already have Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3). Thanks for any help.

@Xyphon22

Group 1 - They're all good, though note the Gradius can be an incredibly frustrating game since if you die once, you may as well quit and start over.

Castlevania - It's worth trying the first at least. Heck, I still consider it one of the best NES games of all time. The rest of the Castlevania series is all on VC for cheap except for Bloodlines, and even then, I got it for $20. That's not bad for a well-sought-after Genesis game.

Ninja Gaiden 2 - If you loved the first Ninja Gaiden, the second is well worth playing as well. It's not quite as infamously frustrating as the first, and it has some cool powers to play with.

Startropics II - Don't bother. If you didn't love the first, the second doesn't really improve it in any way, and as you can guess, is actually worse in some ways, too.

Group 2 - DoRemi Fantasy is one of the best platformers on the VC. Mystic Ninja...well, it depends on your frustration tolerance. It's nothing like the N64 games, for one thing...otherwise, it's a good, but very hard, platformer with good ideas to say the least.

Group 3 - Get both as soon as you can. While they're short, they're great games and some of the best that the VC has on offer.

Ecco 1 - It's flat out terrible - confusing, frustrating to the Nth degree, poor design choices all around...Stick to the second one. It fixes all of those problems.

Group 4 - Phantasy Star puts Dragon Quest to shame and even gives Final Fantasy a run for its money. It's beautiful and well paced for an NES game. Just be prepared to draw some maps and take loooots of notes. Shining Force is fantastic, too. More charm packed into two games than I've ever seen in a Non-NIS SRPG.

No comment on the Wiiware stuff.

In the future, you might want to ask for VC games in the Virtual Console section, and Wiiware in the Wiiware section. This thread is for Disc games only.

Thanks for the advice. Sorry, I didn't realize this was for only disc games. I just didn't want to split up my questions, so I thought this was the best place to put it.

I can understand that. But it actually helps to split them up so you can have more exposure. People who have more experience with Wiiware tend to check that section more often than the Wii section, theoretically, and those with more VC experience probably check that section more often, too.

Yeah, I just asked about some more on the WiiWare thread. Thanks again.

@Jon_Talbain You did not just recommend Ninja Gaiden II and then slam Ecco the Dolphin for being too frustrating.

you've clearly never played Ecco.

The 2nd or 3rd area of that game is like some super hard mode stupidly designed puzzle water level nightmare.

So i've had No More Heroes 2 for quite a while now, and i've kept putting it on the back burner. I've beaten the original and it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Must of been the repetitive Jobs, Stale Level design and awful Hub World. The combat/controls, stylish presentation, Boss battles and the story were the main attraction. In NMH2, The 8-bit Jobs and No Hub World in NMH2 should be a nice improvement. Yet it seems like NMH2 has been getting mixed reactions, some even saying that it feels kind of souless compared to the original.

It has less memorable boss characters. Probably.

And....that's it. There is literally nothing else.

It has less memorable boss characters. Certainly.

But... that's not all. NMH2 got rid of K-Entertainment. So now you're forced to play mini games if you want to buy any new gear. With K-Entertainment I used to take on a side mission and have $100,000 in sixty seconds. In NMH2 you'll be lucky to score half that after twenty minutes of mini game monotony. The gym is worse too. Hope you like retro game knock offs.

This time around there's no story. (Just one more reason NMH2 shouldn't exist.) They even acknowledge it in game at the start, which I thought was funny. NMH2 holds onto the humor that kept the first game light and enjoyable--for about ten seconds. The characters almost immediately deteriorate into whiney moody creeps. Do yourself a favor and skip the cut scenes. The game ultimately ends up being more enjoyable without them.

The levels are longer like the 'fans' wanted, but they're duller than before too. Aside from the prison level, every stage is just long stretches of enemies and more enemies and then some more enemies. They put up more of a fight now too. The original NMH's emphasis was the boss fight. NMH2 instead tries hard to feel like every other brawler you've already played.

It's by far not as good as the original, but it's not all bad. It has great visuals, an exercise side quest for your overweight cat, and you can turn into a tiger now.

You've gotta be kidding me.

NMH2 >>>>>>>>> NMH

Pros:

Better jobs
Less grinding (jobs not necessity)
More variety (Shinobu/Henry)
Simpler map (EVERYBODY bitched about the freaking overworld)
Better Story when it wasn't a problem in the first place (Travis trying to get laid vs Travis trying to avenge his best friend as well as (later) getting laid)
Overall, more polish and style then the original

It may seem repetitive after playing the first, but the second was definitely the superior game considering all the flaws it fixed. Now I need to try Killer7 to see what all the raving is about.

I like how you ignore the horribad overworld or imply NMH has a worthwhile story (it was clearly just tons of parodies and its weird FLCL-style look into gaming). Or that the first game had good levels (they had to rely on laughably bad gimmick levels after a while).

I still need to play my copy of NMH2 as well. My main problems with the first game were the "horribad" overworld as kkslider put it, and having to play missions and sidejobs multiple times to scrounge enough money to continue in the game.

From my understanding, both of those things were fixed in the sequel. I can't possibly see how the original could be better.

I'm really tempted to buy one of the Just Dance games,which is the best?

Buy a DDR game. Or do some actual dancing.

Seriously though, Just Dance is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to music games, pick virtually any other title and it's bound to be better, even games like Band Hero are better.

Which NMH has better mini games(jobs) is irreleavant. I don't want to play any mini games in No More Heroes or No More Heroes 2. Without K-E, the mini games are your only option to make extra money and that's a BIG negative. You can play the main campaign without money but you'll need to pay to max your stats at the gym and buy better weapons. Which is necessary if you want to tackle the harder difficulties. Sooner or later you'll have to play the mini games in NMH2 and you'll have to play them quite a lot.

spoilers

Better Story (Travis trying to get laid vs Travis trying to avenge his best friend as well as (later) getting laid)

The first game was about Travis becoming #1. It's obvious from where he lives, what side jobs he takes, and what's on his answering machine that he's never been #1 at anything before. Along the way he meets Sylvia, uncovers the secret behind the UAA, avenges his master, and pieces together the holes in his past. Sure it's all meant to be ridiculous, but it's great fun.

In NMH2, his best friend (a minor character from the video store) is killed by men who work for the #1 ranked assassin (in an organization that never existed). This causes Travis to throw a fit. Am I supposed to care about any of this? The rest of the game is just Travis and Sylvia moaning about nothing. There's also some preachy nonsense thrown in there about assassins being people too. NMH2 starts to feel like it's taking itself way too seriously after awhile. It's all ends on a limp climax too--definitely missing a lot of what made the first game work so well.

no more spoilers

What is there to say? The hub world was a very minor part of No More Heroes.

Or that the first game (had to rely on laughably bad gimmick levels after a while).

At least you were laughing. The laughs are few and far between in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.

Both games were over-the-top, but NMH2 did it better by also adding quite a bit of deconstruction. And NMH had a joke of an ending, which was more likely to piss off gamers then make them laugh.

It's not a minor part of a game when you have to spend a lot of time in there to get to the meat of the game.

But they do exist. Frankly, I liked the mixture of serious and humorous tone.

"very minor part", "half of the game". Same thing.