Topic: What Nintendo needs to do to save the Virtual Console

Did Nintendo actually confirm that?
I expected it was somehow the Japanese version's fault.

"Slap in the face" seems a bit much and I sure don't consider either of the games you've named as "good games" people have been waiting for, but then that's the nice thing about the Virtual Console is that it has something for everyone!

With all the lack of titles, how is VC gonna survive much longer?

Wow, has anyone ever googled "save nintendo" ? It has to be the most click bait title out there and there's no end to articles titled as such with more popping up somewhere every week

Save Nintendo....click click click

Listen to what the people want. Like, hey , we want, oh say.. gamecube virtual console?

Or fixing NES and SNES to start with. (GBA is fine but they should all be as good as that - GB/GBC are fine on 3DS - NES seems have similar problems to Wii U).

I'm wondering how much work it took to get a Wii VC library this staggering. I know that the vast majority of these VC games were only using some basic emulation with no extra bells and whistles (outside of Suspend State and electronic manual) and are relying on specific Wii's IOSes. For those who are uninitiated, IOSes are basically operating systems that provide the services used by Wii code to access most of the system devices. If one Virtual Console game manages to successfully on one IOS, the latter can be used for other titles using the same technology. Like how the SA-1 SNES title Super Mario RPG arrived on late 2008, and then Kirby Super Star in year 2010. The Wii was given a ridiculously paltry system memory of 512MB, and nearly half of it were taken by the IOSes. That explains why the Wii VC games didn't took as much space as they would on 3DS and Wii U. For example, the North American version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is 41 blocks (roughly translating to 5,2 MB, in which each block is 128KB) on Wii, while the Wii U version took more space than that due of the extra features not implemented on Wii VC and used the embedded emulator instead of relying on IOSes.

What I said above is most likely one of the biggest reasons that made easier for most companies to make such retro titles available at much faster pace than 3DS and Wii U currently does, especially before WiiWare arrived in 2008. It's quite challenging to bring the classic titles to Wii, and even more so on 3DS and Wii U due of the extra technical hoops to go through this time around. The third-party companies were less eager to bring their old games to the most recent Nintendo systems. Upon closer inspection, only 9 companies so far in North America put at least one of their games on Wii U eShop. Fortunately, the forward-thinking Wii U architecture might allow these Virtual Console games released on that platform to be easily transferable to the future systems, thus not having to re-release the same games all over again and perhaps even more games that weren't released on Wii's Virtual Console service.

I think Nintendo needs to promote Virtual Console more efficiently and often than they actually do. Why not releasing the classic games while there's not a single upcoming major retail/indie game releasing in a few weeks or so? Why is the company is still no telling exactly which titles will be released on which date? Could they be more convincing on promoting these games? Right now, Nintendo's release schedule is still mostly a guessing game, yet it improved a lot since the days Wii Shop Channel was first launched.

I realize this thread was started half a year ago, but I think the Wii U VC is mostly on the right track now. Roll out of good games is a little slow, but it's fast enough to sustain the generation. By 2018, I'm sure it will be very robust, much like the Wii VC is now.

While filling out a recent Club Nintendo survey though, I suddenly realized that there are no Square Enix games on either the Wii U or 3DS VC. Why?

Square-Enix has released many of their games but in Japan only.
I don't know why. You'd have to ask them (and ask Namco why the kept their Wii VC arcade games Japan-only ).

I believe it uses the Super FX chip, which Nintendo has found difficult to emulate. That's why you haven't seen Star Fox on the VC. If Yoshi's Island doesn't have the Super FX chip, then it's a different chip, but the same reason.

Saved...from what exactly? It's not going anywhere

Well it's not as good as the Wii's VC and definitely needs work.

Then the thread should be named "What Nintendo needs to do to improve the Virtual Console". It can be improved, all right, but it doesn't face any existential threat.

I didn't name the thread.

Nintendo needs to fix it for a start so DS/NES/SNES are as good as GBA in terms of how they work (And not having to use those terrible filters).

And make certain there are no regressions. (Super Mario Bros was completely fine on the NTSC Wii but not on anything else - The Lost Levels was fine on the PAL: Wii (Other than the colours)). Super Mario Bros Deluxe is closer to anything else in terms of just how the buttons respond.

(The other comparison I have is the Super Famicom version of Super Mario All Stars).

Or you can just buy retro games. I've learned that it's much more satisfying going down that route.

Sometimes it can be more fun since you're actively looking for something

I've been doing that for the GBA recently some of the games are really cheap I got Wario Land 4 for £3 (including postage) a couple weeks back.

Nope, Genesis just was a faster console so it could do more specific effects.
I'm pretty sure the ONLY Genesis game with an enhancement chip was Virtua Racing.
(well, Sonic & Knuckles had the lock-on thing going but that is probably a custom memory-mapper and not an extra CPU or anything complex like that)