Game Boy Advance Titles To Hit Wii U Virtual Console From April Onwards

Interesting to see how they handle this. GBA had loads of great games.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and
Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island...yes. All my yes, all of it. Nintendo, I love you so, freakin' much.

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Great games to begin with, but it's really baffling why they're putting them on Wii U instead of 3DS. I suppose having that on the game pad will sort of re-create the feeling, but not exactly portable!

Really hope we see the Fire Emblem games on it soon.

I'd get Minish Cap and the 2 Kirby GBA games if they were for 3DS....

Mother 3. Please?

I hope you can use the pro controller.

I'll support this when Nintendo unifies their virtual console software with both the Wii-U and the 3DS. Until then, I'm not spending a dime on any GBA games on the Wii-U. They need to address this at some point.

This makes me mad that they are bringing it to WiiU instead. Yeah it's official the WiiU is a giant 3DS and that's why nobody wants it. Stop putting handled games on a home console Nintendo. Console games stay on home consoles and handheld games stay on handhelds. I feel screwed over.

Interesting.......I still have all of those 3 games they showed off, so I'm not buying either of them.

But I thought GBA was for 3DS and DS for WiiU?

"Where's Mother 3? Worst Nintendo Direct ever Nintendo"

Why can't we just get the SNES Yoshi's Island??

I'd love to get Fusion and Superstar Saga. Also Golden Sun and its sequel, Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, and Minish Cap. Oh and please, Mother 3, Nintendo. This is a perfect opportunity to do it.

seriously it would be better too put this on the 3DS sure i consider the GBA the greatest handheld with the 3DS coming extremely close this should be on both

I have some of those from the Ambassador games, so I won't double dip. Mario & Luigi is tempting, and eventually Zero Mission.

Mother 3 or I'm not interested.

The most STUPID announcement of the entire Direct. I thought Nintendo would have dropped the (bad) idea of bringing GBA titles to Wii U by now and make them available straight to the 3DS, where they would be a lot better to play and would fit like a glove, but I guess I was wrong. You see, this is why Nintendo is blowing up everything, and I don't think the Wii U will ever resist in the market enough in time for Smash Bros, they will discontinue the Wii U before the game hit the shelves by holidays 2014. But I give up now. I really give up on Wii U. It is too frustrating. That was the last nail on the coffin of the Wii U. They should be trying to bring GameCube games to Wii U, there's a lot they could do with it, but they can't get nothing right. Iwata, please, step down. You are no longer needed. And go before you have the stupid idea of bringing DS games to the Wii U. Ops, I guess he already did that. The Wii U was doomed since he beginning, with that non sense of a pad with a plasma tv attached instead of real controller. Let me play my Cube, that was the last "videogame" Nintendo made. Now I'll just wait for the next hardware and pray they make a real videogame out of it.

I guess SNES Yoshi Island is never getting re-released by this point.

A real shame.

@PVTAngrybird well the 3ds has all kinds of console game that haven't made it to the wii u yet. i don't mind becuse i have both.

I already went off on Nintendo in the live stream for this, but this is just such a nonsensical move. WHY would you transfer portable games to the Wii U. It makes no sense. Now, console games from N64 and Gamecube, that makes sense, but Gameboy? WHAAAAAAAAA

@DestinyMan That is the sort of speed (And selection) all the VC's should be using. I would probably buy at least 80% of them on the 3DS.

Excited for Mario & Luigi, that needs to hurry up and be released. Guess its kind of sad that this is probably the highlight of the Direct for me.

It's real "cute" how they are doing the whole not supporting the 3ds VC.

Seems like in their mind the few million people who own that system somehow wouldnt buy any of these games (here's a hint Nintendo, they would, youre blowing millions in sales)

Hmmm....they really want us to buy a Wii U. by really pushing the VC games on that platform instead of the 3DS. I'm so confused.

Meh, DS on the WiiU April next year as the announcement of gba on WiiU is a year old now.

Why are Nintendo being so awkward and difficult?
Kinda lost interest in MK8 too. B2 and X, interesting....

nobody has a Wii U, why not release these games on 3DS? I want to support Nintendo but it wont let me

Too bad I have those already, with the ambassador program and cartridges. I would really like to see the first Fire emblem game, and translations of the other GBA titles, but i doubt that would happen

@AG_Awesome @MikeDanger @meltendo @EdwardCORE The Wii U has more release date gaps to fill as the games are taking longer to make and coming slower so it does kinda make sense. (In addition to the whole lack of AAA 3rd party games)
Also there are a crap load of 3DS games out there to player so its not like anyone is sitting around waiting for stuff to play.

I hope these games also come to the 3DS before to long though but until then i have plenty of games to play.

Why on Earth are the GBA games not coming to the 3DS?
Unless GBA VC games become available on 3DS on the same Nintendo Network account, turning what's currently making the entire Nintendo fandom mad into a DOUBLE selling point. Calling it now.

I'll gladly buy them all when they come to 3DS.

Interested in Metroid Fusion but for 3DS!!! Not WiiU!

The GBA is my favorite system of all time. If they found a way to make Pokemon R,S,E,FR, and LG work on the virtual console that would single-handedly make Wii U my favorite system of all time.

Waiting till they say 3DS. Sorry I played that one more and I'd rather them on the go. No titles I want yet though anyhow

I'm quite pleased with this announcement! Perhaps I'll finally get an opportunity to play Advance Wars ...

@Emblem One fundamental flaw with that reasoning GBA games have a reasonable difficulty level. 3DS games on the whole are much easier. (Plus there are many genres that have been ignored so far on the 3DS).

@EdwardCORE
Woah. Let me guess, you don't own a Wii U, but you have a 3ds without gba games. The 3ds is already a successful handheld, but the Wii U is failing. GBA games will boost a few sales, while adding to 3ds wouldn't have as much affected. Also, just because they come to Wii U doesn't mean 3ds won't get them. So, I think you're overreacting

Third party GBA games, please. Then get Sega, Natsume, Capcom, and Konami on that.

Not really interested in the Super Mario Advance games when the Super Mario Advance games are simple ports of games already on the VC.

@justlink Doing it on the 3DS would get them real money. I am more likely to buy a GBA than those games on the Wii U.

Huh. Odd that they never released the SNES version of Yoshi's Island on the Wii, but now the GBA port is coming to the Wii U. Emulation problems, perhaps?

damn mario and luigi superstar saga was my first gameboy game and metroid fusion awesome im getting these amazing games when they come out and now i need gamecube games for the virtual console.

@justlink:
I really fear they won't come to 3DS. I hope Natsume's earlier announcement reported on this very site will turn out to be right.

Happy to be an ambassador I'm sure the GBA games will eventually make their way to the 3ds. I'm just glad WiiU is getting this support, I really hope Advance Wars arrives in April! Keep it up Nintendo

Awesome! There's tonnes of great games on the GBA (a handheld I skipped when I was a kid) & I will be downloading lots of them, for the right price of course. I'm especially looking forward to M&L: Superstar Saga, it's the only M&L game I haven't played & I've absolutely loved all the other M&L games, especially M&L Dream Team Bros.! It's sooooo fun & really beautiful graphically & the music is awesome & the story is intense but funny! Such an amazing game, how I've left it so long to play it I've got no idea. Now to get back into it, yahoo!!

This was my favourite announcement of the day.

Looking forward to Metroid and Superstar.

ok, umm, i'm more likey to download this stuff to wii u, bigger screen and better resolution. How people are complaining is sad. This idea resembles the ability to play gba games on gamecube. So shut-up. Also, Iwata doesn't freaking decide everything that happens. He only approves ideas. So maybe these are supposed to hold us over. Do you think it's easy to just port games! I mean you can't just say " Put this game on eshop", no, you have make the controller and system compatible or the game won't even download, much less open. The people complaining obviously don't understand nintendo's tactics. If it's lasted this long, they must know what they're doing! It's called keeping edge, cause fan demand, neither confirm or deny, cause hype, then pop it out of nowhere and boom, millions of sales. And also, noone ones a wii u? I AM DOING THIS FROM MY FREAKING WII U, SO YEAH!

I'm so glad they're finally coming to Virtual Console, the announcement was made over a year ago...

woo hoo! now release them all on 3ds. and for taking so long i also would like some n64 games too please. the end

@justlink

I DO have the Wii U and almost every single original (non multiplat) games released for it, even doubles (I bought Super Mario Bros U, Super Luigi U, Wind Waker and Ducktales in digital and physical forms). I have pre-orders on every original game that is scheduled for the system this year. But no, I'm not overreacting. The Wii U is failing to show consumers that it is a worthy console, and not a gimmick, which unfortunately is what it is. The Gamepad is the deal barker for every person I speak that doesn't have the Wii U, even my son won't touch that and he has his own 3DS, so he's used to touch and dual screens, but not even Mario 3D World and Pikmin could make him want to play on the Gamepad. The Wii U was supposed to take on classic games to bring back what Nintendo has, some of the best games in the whole world. Where is Metroid Prime 4 and a full 2D (or 2.5D) Metroid? A Metroid Prime 4 alone would bring a lot of people to buy and play the system. Besides, where are the games we already have on the Wii VC? Not to mention the chance Nintendo is blowing by not bringing any GameCube games in HD (wind Waker was a great start, but where are the others? No need for fancy remaking, anyone who ever played a GameCube or Wii game on the Dolphin Emulator knows the games has enough bling to be ported by themselves on the Wii U). All that in store and Nintendo thinks that what best suits the Wii U is GBA? I've been waiting for GBA VC on the 3DS since Ambassador, and they never came. Nintendo is doing great with the 3DS, but bringing GBA and DS to the Wii U won't save it from it's certain death.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, can't wait. I desire to see Super Robot Wars series localized, but it will never happen. Rather wanting an adapted device, so I can play my imported games thus Wii-U or alike matters! 8D

@EdwardCORE
And i wasn't waiting either? Ever since i played ocarina of time 3d, i loved zelda and wanted minish cap vc, but it never came, but now i can have it on a larger screen. Also, the second screen is not a gimmick, far from it, but it will take time before it's respected. People said 3ds 3d was a gimmick because many games badly supported it. It will take afew games that support gamepad in a good way, such as wind waker hd did. And gamecube game remakes are a good idea, but nintendo wants to concentrate on new games, not remakes, and its hard to make new games with all the projects now? If you think you could do it better, make your own company

They should keep doing early-adopter sales like they did for the NES VC titles, and sell them for 30 cents or something for the first day of release even and then I might triple dip on the GBA titles

Why are they not on the 3DS? It makes no sense.

Yeah, I'm just gonna be a big ole' jerk and say: Screw all of you guys' wants, I'm getting what I want and that's good enough for me.

_{That oughta stop all the people who were pestering me about liking the idea. u_u}

By the way, to those who are all confused as to why the GBA games aren't also coming to the 3DS at this moment in time, here's a short and quick answer: The 3DS is doing great! Right now, Nintendo wants people on their Wii Us or [for those who don't already own one] buying one so they've got to put more games on the system.

Anyway, I'm loving this.

^exactly wat i said

@justlink

Every time someone has nothing to say, here comes the "if you can do better, do yourself" crap. Man, I pay for my games, and I'm a fan of Nintendo. If I'm not pleased with them I send them my messaging by not buying. But it bothers me Nintendo is doing such stupid things when they could be doing great things. But if I remember, I didn't ask for your opinion, so don't even bother giving me one if your coming with the do yourself crap again. Anyway, Nintendo is effing destroying the Wii U, it is a tanked and failed system, and it will be ditched by Christmas, it is a misconceived product and terribly marketed compared to anything else Nintendo does. The games they have released so far are nothing more than rehash of Wii or 3DS games in HD, so that's very original software, mind you. People are getting tired of Nintendo being so childish on their decisions, and that is reflecting on the sales. People want games that are meant for players, a balance, not only bedtime adventures with Peach in a cat costume. And since we are assuming and judging, you may be some guy which owns only Nintendo systems and trumps every one who have a different opinion than yours. Really, don't bother.

They said about Gamecube games when Wii-U was being talked about a lot!

@Mickey True, but I don't really see GBA games on WiiU helping its sales.

It might take a bit longer, but releasing N64 and GC games on WiiU would most likely catch more people than GBA games. The GBA had a kinda confusing market, with good and bad games from all directions. And among them are many titles who wouldn't be worth it due to being too obscure (Riviera, Guilty Gear Advance, Bomberman Tournament, ...) to appeal to any market.
In addition, keep in mind that the GBA came after the gaming revolution (which came with PSX and N64). Many of these games don't have the age benefit of previous console generations. There were very few cult classics, and even fewer of them would interest enough people to warrant a VC release. Metroid Fusion/Zero Mission won't fail on this, but many other games (Golden Sun, MegaMan BN, F-Zero, ...) will, for different reasons, though.

All in all, I really can't call this a smart move. We'll see how it turns out, but I highly doubt this will work in favor of the WiiU.

@DestinyMan There is no way Europe and NA is going to get that many GBA games as quickly as Japan.

The biggest disappointment with this is that the release of GBA Yoshi Island means the SNES version will probably never come to VC.

I'll be downloading Mario & Liuigi though

Gah, I want them on the 3DS. Disappointing.

Remember that if these go on 3DS they're still probably gonna look blurry and muddy, meanwhile in HD the pixels will look bright and clean. It's weird to have them on WiiU, yes, but it seems Nintendo cant handle the resolution on 3DS so I'm fine with it.

Maybe 3DS just can't handle GBA games. Emulation is not really something lightweight. Even megadrive emulation was a challenge, as described by M2 folks.

@Kaze_Memaryu I don't completely disagree with you, you do make some very good points, but, like you said, we'll just have to see how it turns out.

Though, the way I see it, there could be some console gamers (or handheld gamers that also own a Wii U) that may have missed out on some GBA games and might wanna play catch-up on the system's library without having to pay ludicrous prices for the carts online.

Then again, there probably aren't enough people in that situation to technically make this a "good move" for Nintendo... Blargh, whatever. I'm still happy about this.

@EdwardCORE
You're right, I am acting childish, because i am a child. You're right, i only own nintendo consoles. You're wrong, i would defend any console/company being dissed for quality/ decisions. Also, i enjoy the conversation we're having as you have said things i haven't thought of. But I'll say one thing, Nintendo is the most supportive game company out there. They respond to customer emails with actual humans, not robots. They also helped me get my wind waker download to work christmas day when i lost the code due to errors. This is why they can't discontinue the wii u this year. If they do, they'll lose trust, but they could offer discounts to wii u trade-ins by like 50% so wii u owners (like you and i) wouldn't lose to much money. But, project fusion has a tiney touchscreen controller anyway, and is planned for 2017-18. Also, I plan to start my own company for games, but not make consoles. But i hope to start out at nintendo, with the overall dream of making a zelda game. I have a story planned too. Its called ghost of the tower, takes place centuries after spirit tracks, and follows the synonymons of ghost (phantom, spirit, ghost) and ultilizes time travel. So please stay tuned. Thank you for the good conversation. You're a great sport

Nice to know they are bring GBA game to the virtual console, but how come we aren't getting them on the 3DS?

@Mickey Ah, I guess that wasn't clear on my end.
Of course I'm also happy to see this; the potential to finally play some GBA games is a great thing for me, no objection. I'm just wondering why Nintendo chose the WiiU for it.
If any interesting games come out, I'll most likely end up buying some, anyway!

@djcaetano the 3DS ambassador promotion would like to have a word with you.

@sketchturner

I have been wanting Yoshi Island on the VC since ever. I really don't know why Nintendo ignores that there is an audience for these games. The Wii had very organized VCs, plus arcade and Wiiware originals, and when the Wii U came out, I was just waiting that they would improve upon that, simply adding more classics and missing games, and adding new VCs, like GameCube and Dreamcast. When Nintendo showed interest in partnering with Sega, I just thought how good that idea was, imagine Sega and Nintendo teaming up again, Sega arcade games on the Wii U, a new F-Zero, and maybe (long, long shot) Shen Mue 1&2 HD with Shen Mue 3 as a Wii U exclusive. I really don't know what Nintendo can't see around the Wii U that they just can't make it take off. It is a shame, because I bought the Wii U on launch and waited great things. I still do, but just not for the Wii U anymore.

Funny how people keep whining even though there are some really nice things coming our way and perhaps some of you should also remember that Nintendo doesn't HAVE to do this, but they do it anyway because they seem to think that putting GBA games on the GamePad will be more beneficial than on the 3DS. And as for GameCube games on Wii U: remakes like Zelda with new controls will probably happen more often, but GameCube VC is not something I see happening because of the gap between the consoles being too small and most importantly: the total lack of analog shoulder buttons on the Wii U's controller, ESPECIALLY the lack of the extra clickable buttons underneath the GameCube's shoulder buttons.

Yes, they do have to do this. They have to compete and right now, they're not doing a very good job of this.

Damn you Nintendo!
After SNES now GBA games exclusive for the WiiU... Why does it feel like Nintendo would not do that if the WiiU would not sell so bad?

GBA games’ native resolution is 240x160. That looks awful on an HD-TV… . Why not on the 3DS? With its 800x240 it is the perfect choice. If you say now “you can still play this on the Gamepad” I can answer that 854x480 on an LCD is still a pretty high resolution and if you prefer the Gamepad why not playing it on the handheld 3DS in the first place? Nintendo is so desperate that they are even willing to let the 3DS Virtual Console down to prevent any kind of competition for the WiiU.

Now I am looking forward to the first GB and GBC exclusives for the WiiU. They got a native resolution of 160x144, so not much different from the GBA…

Please Nintendo stop this crap and bring those damn GameCube games to the WiiU that everybody is waiting for.

Superstar Saga was the one moment that made me cry out "Yes!"
I'll probably get it and complete it again for the....10th time? I've lost track.

Maybe fusion.

@Heng-Yu Why the heck would GBA games look bad on Wii U if SNES and other VC games looked just fine on the Wii? Most people that own a Wii probably also have that hooked up to an HD TV so the graphics will hardly be any different. And most soft modders that I know have entire collections of retro consoles on their Wii and it looks just fine to me. There's even options for screen blurring to make the image more like the original consoles.

@Heng-Yu think of what the resolution for the NES games and the SNES games were back when they made them. Do they look horrible on your screen now? no. SNES games were like 256x224 resolution so I doubt the resolution for GBA games will be a problem at all. I am actually glad there is more coming to the Wii U for the VC as it is bare and this drip release is just getting annoying. It'll be nice to have something the 3DS doesn't get (at least for now)

@MikeDanger

you stated the reason, people haven't bought it so you gotta find ways to attract people. You are complaining about this so you are obviously interested which might push you to buy one which is what Nintendo needs. Nintendo isn't JUST the 3DS you know and just because it goes on Wii U, does not mean the 3DS will get it. If that was the case, trying to sell the Wii U would be pointless because you could buy the cheaper smaller version called a 3DS then

@DestinyMan

Thank you for the list.

I am a realist and there is no phucking way we're getting all those games at the same time as Japan. In NA's case, not the same time as UK/EU either. So all I ask for is that we get Minish Cap and Nightmare in Dreamland.

@TheRealThanos & @ikki5 First I do not agree that they look that great but that is a matter of taste. Secondly the SNES/NES has as you already mentioned a higher resolution, of course compared to today's console it is not much of difference but it actually is visible if you stretch it to bigger screens. There were enough people who even disliked the blurred look of GB games on a 3DS when played in full screen. Though the difference is not as big as it will be in the case of the WiiU. Let's just wait and see if you will like it all that much when you see it later. But I know that some people do not mind if the pictures is blurry due to a too-high-screen resolution.

I am still convinced Nintendo would not make them exclusives to the WiiU if the system would not sell that bad.

@justlink

Hope you get there someday, sincerely. Spirit Tracks are one of my favorite Zelda games along with Phantom Hourglass. I think it is amazingly simple, the controls on that game define what touch screen controls should be like (and I wonder if any mobile game designer has ever played that game, since that is the way games should be played on a touchscreen and so many mobile games have such awkward controls).

I didn't mean to imply you are a child, not even insult you. What I meant is that opinions are just opinions, and unfortunately we can change very little of what Nintendo is doing by simply pointing fingers. I got over the Wii U, the system was truly a missed opportunity for Nintendo, and now it won't gain anymore market, even with games like Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros. Bringing GBA and DS won't help either. Nintendo seem to lose focus very quickly, and the lost of money they are suffering with the Wii U seems to be flowing negatively over the company, I don't know. I really miss Nintendo from the Super NES and GameCube days. They can come back with a bang, and they should, but they are really not looking for what gamers and consumers want from the system now. Nintendo should be aware that they have to cast every classic on their machines, and get some sequels and new games too. They are not doing either, and that's what's hurting them. Every console should have Metroid (Prime and 2D), F-Zero, Zelda, Pilotwings, Wave Race, Zelda (in both Ocarina and Link to the Past/between Worlds form), and all the others, but still missing a proper sequel to Mario 64 and Sunshine, both Mario games that defined the systems they were on. Having Sega under their wing would be amazing if they could team up to bring great Sega classics and exclusives. Imagine if Shen Mue 3 was a Wii U exclusive?

I think, and that's only my opinion, that Nintendo is not thinking right when it comes to the Wii U. It is still trying to push it as a big 3DS, when it's not. The Gamepad may be a great idea for some, but form the great majority of players, it is a wall between them and the system, and Nintendo knows it. Pretty much like MS knows that Kinect sucks.

I hope they don't take too long to release the Fusion. Nintendo has to enter the market of new gen systems quickly, and with a bigger and better machine than PS4 and Xbox One. And simply care about their games and start innovating from there, starting making new and great games. Because Nintendo is losing ground, and the more they wait, the more difficult will become for them to convince players they still have what it takes to go against titans like Tomb Raider, The last of us, Halo, Uncharted, Batman and some more. Have you played Alan Wake? That's Luigi's Mansion. Have you played Tomb Raider? That's Zelda. Uncharted? That's Mario. Batman is Metroid and Castlevania. Last of us is the best RE we have never played by Capcom. Do you get me? Not that Nintendo have to grow up this much and turn every character into an adult, but they should consider evolve their games. Can you play Halo and not think for one second that it's not Prime? Nintendo has to look for themselves to inspiration, but also look around and look forward. Some of the most traditional Japanese companies have lost their touch because they are still looking back. Kojima recently acknowledged that he was way more impressed with GTA 5 and the upcoming The Division that he was with his own game, stating that he wished MGS5 could be that good. If that's happening, that is something to be worried about.

Again, good luck with your game designer career. If ever see a Legend of Zelda: Ghost of the Tower, I'll be very pleased to play it.

I may one of the few who appreciate this news, these titles will be released for the first time on a console and they werent on Wii's virtual console they are on WiiU, so yea this is great news all around.

i own these games on GBA and i sometimes play them on the Gameboy Player for gamecube, which i still don't see any reason to buy them, but i'm gonna buy them anyway to support WiiU

Well its about time! But why haven't they explain on why SMB3 is still not available in NA yet?? Seriously,what the heck...

was so mad cause i thought it said that the games were coming to 3DS VC. Not because I didn't want them to come to 3DS VC, but because I'm pretty sure they said that Metroid Fusion was going to be an ambassador only program.

<--- Ambassador

@Heng-Yu I didn't say great, I said VC games looked just fine on the Wii and so there is no reason why they won't look fine on the Wii U. They're old games, the graphics can only be cleaned up/optimized so much. And like I also said: "most soft modders that I know have entire collections of retro consoles on their Wii and it looks just fine to me. There's even options for screen blurring to make the image more like the original consoles."
And besides the options in emulators for scaling, so you can set the resolution of your choice, the original GBA VC games coming to Wii U will probably have some sort of bezel or frame surrounding the picture, somewhat like the GBA player on GameCube and that worked just fine too, and there was NOTHING wrong with the resolution on that console. The only difference was there being no HD TV's back then, or at least not in main stream markets...

@TheRealThanos "The only difference was there being no HD TV's back then" Which is actually a pretty big difference.

We will see. The 3DS would still have been a better choice which Nintendo would also offer if they would not run out of ideas on how to to make the WiiU more attractive to gamers that already gave up all hope on Nintendo and Iwata's poor leadership.

I know im not the first to say this but these games would make more sense for the 3DS...bring Gamecube and N64 games to the Wii U virtual console not GBA. And let it be known that I love GBA games, GBA is one of my favorite consoles of all time, it just doesnt fight on Wii U....

I'm good for GBA on my 3DS with my ambassador games.

I am glad I'm not the only one who's thought about the possibility of Mother 3 being released internationally. If people were to ask Nintendo via Miiverse again for Mother 3, does anyone think that might help or hinder the chances?

@Heng-Yu Like I said (twice now): I have already seen GBA games on HD TV's because of people in my circle of friends having practically the entire collection running on softmodded Wii's and the way these games are shown on Wii U will more than likely be exactly the same. (and besides that I also have a GameCube with a GBA player hooked up to a 42" HD plasma screen) But official VC or soft mod, retro games on newer consoles will always be emulation, so it is never going to be perfect. So with all due respect: maybe you are a bit too demanding in wanting to have the perfect experience. And most people (not saying you) that say they "know" or see the difference are talking out of their backsides anyway, unless they have a TV with an old console playing the exact same game right next to their Wii U set up for comparison. The human memory is far from being that good...

Those look like a few awesome titles, I can't wait to see what other GBA games are brought to the Virtual Console

@EdwardCORE Wow what a temper tantrum

@TheRealThanos Ok, maybe I should it write it this way: In my humble opinion those old games look awful on an HD-TV. I do see a difference so do other people. There are people who are happy with the look and that is perfectly fine, but there are also people who do not want to play them on those screens at all. Let's take the latter group. Those people would have a chance to play those games in a way that is pleasing to their eyes, if the game would be brought to the 3DS as the screens native resolution is not that different from the games resolution.
And I think that the idea that the GBA games could have been overall nicer on the 3DS is not such a crazy one, as I am not the only one who expresses his disappointment about the move to make them exclusives to the WiiU like they did with the SNES before.
I am perfectly fine that you are ok with the look of the games on HD-TV. But understand that there are also people (and I doubt it is a small number) who do not like the look and do think it would look better on a smaller screen.

Tell me one thing please. Do you think is is possible that Nintendo's decision to make GBA and SNES games WiiU exclusives might be related to the poor sales numbers of the WiiU even though they would (at least "also") be a nice addition to the 3DSVC? Or is that very unlikely for you? It is not that the 3DSVC is overwhelmed with great VC-games like the Wii was.

Im sorry, but why would anyone be so upset that Mother 3 isnt on the release schedule that they would not buy the games that are coming out. It would be a long shot at best to think that they would translate a very text heavy game that is nearly a decade old just for the vc.

Yes you could mention the fan translation, and i know it was offered to Nintendo, but its not a good translation in my opinion, and Nintendo would use their own people to translate it.
In my opinion, its a little silly to demand and expect this game to come out, and get upset when it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, its one of my favorite games, and one of the first i bought when i come to japan years ago.
If the fan translation is out there, just go play that. At least you can experience it that way.

Well I'm happy about this. Too badI have 2 of the three already on my 3DS I enjoy playing my game boy advance games on my gamecube so this would be awesome. I wonder if Konami or squares getting involved in this too.

I'm extremely happy for GBA games on Wii U! Can't wait for Minish Cap and hopefully the 3 Castlevania GBA games.

And again, 3DS owners get the shaft.

Well, I won't be buying any GBA VC games for a loooooooong time. It's not because I'm refusing to on account of them not being on 3DS (although I'm in the "I'd rather they be on the 3DS" crowd), but merely because I will be unable to buy a Wii U for many months. Between the lack of a price cut in Australia, dental bills and my scuba course and gear, it's going to be a long wait.

@Heng-Yu I can respect someone's opinion as long as it isn't too much out there, but even if GBA would be on 3DS then still all I see is people whining and as an older (and probably way less spoiled) gamer that has LITERALLY experienced almost the whole of gaming history (since 1975) that just gets to me. It's nothing personal. But I can understand that not everyone wants to do their retro gaming on the big screen, because no matter which way you look at it, blown up graphics can never look better than the original, whether or not you're fine with it.(like me) I probably got eased into it somewhat because of the Gameboy Player, which is why I'm not that critical towards it...
Still having trouble with people knowing or seeing though: science proves that wrong, sorry. For the honestly quite inadequate human eye to notice a distinct difference WITHOUT comparative materials at hand, the image should either be really distorted or so out of proportion that you can't help BUT notice. However, if it is more or less the same, then most people factually won't be able to tell the difference, REGARDLESS of what they themselves think. After all, how can they compare if the original isn't displayed right next to it? And not to forget that most people haven't played these games in years, provided they have a NES, SNES or GBA, so the original image is hardly fresh in the memory. And holding up a GBA next to a TV screen is a bad comparison too, by the way. And most VC will probably be played on the GamePad anyway, not on the big screen. For most modern gamers or anyone under 20 these 8 or 16 bit games will probably look ugly regardless of them being slightly out of proportion or not...
I do agree with your last point, although as we all know, the 3DS isn't the one that is in trouble, so even though it would be nice for more games to be on 3DS in my opinion as well, it isn't nearly as necessary as on Wii U, so from that point of view I understand why they are doing it.

Nintendo still keeping the VCs separate across 3 consoles. Hope that Nintendo OS or whatever they're developing comes soon.

Finally GBA Games! Metroid Fusion 1st, Next Advance Wars 1 & 2 and FE Sacred stones! bring it! Bring it! BRING IT!!!!

OK... I thought they´d be better for 3DS. I'd still buy Advance Wars whenever it arrvies.

@ricklongo dear god if only... Nintendo I have the money all you need to do is take it, ok?

I don't quite get it. I thought the Game Boy Advance Virtual Console was supposed to be on 3DS. I'd be fine if it were on both, but JUST the Wii U seems really odd.

FINALLY! GBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT WHY ON WII U??????!!!????!!???

@Artwark To entice people to buy a Wii U. Its part of their strategy to make the console more appealing. The 3DS is holding its own without GBA titles.

It was nice to see them admit it took FOREVER for these to arrive, but where's my N64 games? They were announced a year ago too, and nothing has been said since...

I'll definitely be picking up Mario and Luigi, I've recently been addicted to Dream Team, racking up 40 hours and still not finished!

I may be wrong, but I could have sworn they said Wii u=DS and 3ds=GBA??

How can you guys complain? Seriously? They're putting gab games on a console for us to play and since its not on the console you really want it on you get all mad. I think it is genius and a great way to get people interested in the WiiU console and its Eshoo. One day they'll have unified shops and I'm sure you'll get to play old gab games on your 3DS.

Should have been on the 3DS, but it's better then nothing!

@navonod18 They never said that.

I will be disappointed in every Nintendo Direct until GBA are on the 3DS Virtual Console.
Even at this point it has become a dumping ground for NES games as Game Boy and Game Boy Color seem to have been pushed aside.

@audiobrainiac That would be the lamest thing ever....... GBA is and should be portable and emulating that on the Wii U is more of a joke.

Kinda like the PS Vita TV thing i guess :/

Great news! Nintendo seems has the right people picking the titles too.

Shame 3DS owners ruined what could have been a good upbeat thread. Yes we are getting GBA on the VC, yes you should be jealous and no Nintendo is not making a bad decision.

@TheRealThanos #73 They could always release a controller that will make GC games playable as a whole, as they did with the CC(P) for the Wii to play N64.

I'm with others and am not too enthusiastic about GBA games coming to Wii U and will probably wait, for the most part, for there to be a unified system between the two systems before I purchase much.

I am not sure how I think of @DestinyMan 's list though because I really hope Golden Sun, of all the titles listed there, is on the NA eshop ASAP, haha. They better not take long to release The Lost Age afterward either!!

There's a lot of very good gba games about so this is good news, but why can't nintendo work harder on bringing n64 or game cube to the VC? It seems all we'll ever get is 2d games on VC.

You know..."some" of you need to remember to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Yes I would love to play GBA games on my 3DS, but on the bright side I also own a Wii U so I'm set. I have more than enough games to play when balancing out my Wii U and 3DS library.

I'll be picking up Fusion and Superstar Saga when those come out myself. I don't plan on picking up too many, but I WILL still buy GBA games I missed out on and want to experience.

@Noboty dude you guys get everything and i know this becuse i have a 3ds. how many wii u releases did you count during the direct? how many 3ds releases? didn't 3ds get those great sega 3d classics? just buy a wii u already. i did. one 3ds soon to be xl and one windwaker wii u.

@faint Not every 3DS owner wants a Wii U. I know I surely don't. While I do see your POV, you have to admit releasing ~10-year old handheld games on a contemporary home console, regardless of the system's financial condition, is somewhat perplexing. Other than Nintendo diehard fans who likely owned a GBA, I really can't imagine GBA VC games reinvigorating the Wii U's life force (or contributing considerably toward such).

This is just hilarious. There's absolutely no one who will buy a Wii U to play GBA and/or DS games on it. This won't do them any good unless they bring them tjo the 3DS as well.

As long as more people pick up the awesome metroid fusion, this is the right thing to do.

FINNALY! now i can get the only two Metroid games i never played Metroid: zero mission & Metroid: Fusion! i hope they will bring zelda: Minish Cap, F-zero: Maximum velocity, all Fire emblem, Advance wars & MOTHER 3! soon that would make me forgive Nintendo for taking too damn long with GBA VC.

@Yasume I agree, one thing you're very unlikely to hear is "WiiU has such great virtual console games, gotta get me some of that!"

VC-games are a bonus, not a main reason to buy a console, the WiiU needs exclusive new games, not exclusive old ones...

@MysticX
Exactly, as much as I love the GBA nobody is going to buy a $300 console for nearly two decade old games. They might be a big perk to some people, but most people still buy a console for its games first with everything else in mind.

Not that this is a bad thing of course, but it won't save the Wii U much less do much to keep it afloat. Playing handheld games on a TV isn't anything new so it really isn't all that weird, and they might as well build up the services while they're biding their time.

I would have preferred it on the 3DS, but as long as I can get Minish Cap again, I'll be happy.

GBA belongs on 3ds! Not that I would mind the WiiU having them mind you. Just Hand helds belong ON a handheld... It make perfect sense to me. OH WELL I'm a Catholic and the Pope has never called me for advice on how to run the church either....hmmmmm, wounder why?

Why not show off the unified account system and offer those games on both consoles? I don't get it.

Also, I'm totally lost why they haven't shown off N64 games or polished N64 games (just outsource it to any random company that has made one good looking game) by now. Why why why?

It's nice to have a new platform, but I already have all GBA I care for on the 3DS (which makes it even more random that nobody today can buy them).

I can't say I'm that interested in first-party GBA titles - in fact I've never been a big fan of Nintendo's handheld games which is why I haven't bought one of them since the Gameboy Micro (I had a Japanese DSi LL, but that was a gimme). Now if Pinball of the Dead is announced, that will make me sit up and take notice!

I have to say it's pretty silly. True they want the Wii U to do better but truthfully the 3ds is a much better fit resolution wise. GBA games will add a few sales but why not keep the ds games on the Wii U and GBA games on 3ds? Since i share a Wii U and games are still console locked (sigh), when she moves all my downloads would move with her so i can't keep any downloads since it's her console (but that's my situation). Anyway, it just seems daft since the layout of the 3ds is a perfect fit. Many of us are baffled and hopefully, with a lot of noise, they'll include us too.

Awesome. Though I'm stoked to play Superstar Saga (for my first time) and Metroid Fusion, I can't help but wonder when we'll be getting N64 games as promised...

Disappointed they chose to release DS -and- GBA games on the Wii U instead of the 3DS...I can see why they're doing that (to try and bolster extremely poor Wii U sales I guess), but it still just doesn't feel like the right thing to do. The 3DS would've been the natural fit, and then Nintendo could've done N64/GC games on the Wii U instead.

Then I suppose GBA titles coming to the 3DS is out the door by now...
Shame, but at least we get the games.

Nintendo, what a ridiculous idea. No one is going to buy a Wii U for paid GBA game emulation, and as a large majority of the comments here show - people would much rather have them on the 3DS, where they belong. I, like many others here wont be buying any GBA games on my Wii U. When they bring them to 3DS give me a call.

It's bad enough that they charge such large amounts for the VC without even being able to share games across the two platforms (you know - a feature that might actually make people more interested in the Wii U?), but not putting the handheld games on the handheld VC is just ridiculous. But Hey!, at least we're getting all those NES games right? Right?

@Ronoh I agree, this should have been what they announced. They need to fix their account system ASAP!

No I don't want old games on my super WiiU!
Give us new original games instead of the hundredth sequel of something.

@nik1470 We're upset because this isn't how you should make things work. GBA works great on 3DS. And since DS can play GBA games, why does it have to be reversed?

I am excited for GBA VC but not as much as most. I still have my GBA and all of my games, plus a ton of GBA games on 3DS.

YES! I was PRAYING for Superstar Saga to hit the VC! That's a day-1 download for sure!

And even though I have Yoshi's Island on my 3DS, I may just get it on Wii U to play it on a 42 inch TV screen.

Now, if SEGA could get on board, I could get Sonic Advance 1-3 and Sonic Battle. Battle was good, but I missed out on the Advance games.

Might give these a try, got the ten free ones that came as Ambassador and really enjoy them. Hopefully after this they would consider giving the 3DS some of these GBA titles too considering people (me included) won't shut up about it.

Always glad to see more titles on the VIrtual Console service, but I will wait until I see the pricing on them to celebrate.

@Maelstrom biggest regret in gaming ever: selling my fire emblem 7 cart where i had s-ranked hector hard mode and got 100% support conversations. i want to kick myself just thinking about it. all the more reason to buy it again.

@Chriiis they did not release the CCP solely for N64 games. It was just an aditional controller for Wii games that needed (like practically all VC games) or were desired to be played without Wiimote/nunchuk, and as for a new controller specifically for GameCube: probably not going to happen. They cannot estimate how many people would want to play VC GameCube, so it is a risk, because it would only be for the Nintendo die-hards but would hardly attract new buyers, if any. I would rather see a patch or an update in combination with some kind of adapter that would allow people to use the original GameCube controllers on Wii U.
Agreed on the desire for a unified system though, and I wouldn't mind seeing Golden Sun either. But for me, Advance Wars is also on the list.

Why not on 3DS?

@Deadstanley (#138) Thank you. I already tried to make this point (see #75 and following). But according to TheRealThanos you are just imagining that it looks worse (see #100 that is my favorite).

I definitely feel like these are going to be super expensive. If they're already charging £8 for SNES games, we can expect these to be £15-20 apiece.

@TheRealThanos Well I didn't mean specifically for the N64 titles but rather it made them playable. The ability to use original GC controllers is a decent idea(isn't there an adaptor somewhere somebody got to work?).

Yeah, I'd rather wait to see how things play out before going crazy with GBA purchases because I would rather them on the 3DS. GS is one of my favorite series so I'll probably make an exception in that case. XD

Maybe we can get Drill Dozer as well...hm...

@djcaetano GBA games don't have to be emulated on the 3DS. The Ambassador games run in their native code because the GBA and 3DS have the same architecture (3DS being far more powerful of course).

For those of you wondering why GBA games are coming to Wii U and not 3DS, they need to sell the Wii U. More compelling software = more hardware sales.

I doubt GBA games will ever come to the 3DS VC. Why? The Ambassador Program. Nintendo is afraid of pissing off the Ambassadors.

Well I have a WIi U and am super excited about Metroid Fusion coming.

@IceClimbers Well, the fact these games were released doesn´t mean they were emulated, of course; but I do not believe 3DS is able to run GBA games "out-of-the-box". The hardware would be more expensive to keep these hardware features; in other words, this would reduce Nintendo profits so they could run games they are "refusing" to sell (it is possible? yes, but it would be very dumb at the same time).
I don´t know your knowledge on programming and hardware, but as a low level programmer myself I can assure you that making a game playable into Virtual Console is not all that easy. This is one of the reasons why they do not release a bunch of games all at once (of course, there is also legal/licensing reasons).
Those ambassador games were probably result of some testing on how much effort it would take to "port" a GBA game to 3DS and probably they considered it not worth it (and thus, none was released thereafter).

Also, I keep reading they should make "cross buy" for Virtual Console titles (between 3DS / Wii / Wii U) but this just doesn´t make sense from a programming point of view. Of course the "base ROM" is the same on all systems, but the emulator used is specific to the machine and usually has a lot of tweaks to run that specific game on that specific hardware.
It would be nice, of course, but it is not as easy as we would like.

On the other hand, Wii U is a lot more powerful than most previous Nintendo products and so it can run more easily games from every handheld. This way, they can release a lot more GBA games to Wii U, since the emulator requires a lot less tweaking to improve performance. Even if this doesn´t make much sense in a marketing point of view, it does make sense when all technical limitations are considered.

@Joygame51 Papal Infallibility.

@TheRealThanos Not out of the realms of possibility there will be a Club Nintendo reward GC controller at some point. (The SNES one was the only thing on there I ever really wanted). Should have just bought the points from ebay to get it straight away. (Would have cost next to nothing).

@lacaras4 "For those of you wondering why GBA games are coming to Wii U and not 3DS, they need to sell the Wii U. More compelling software = more hardware sales."

^ Except that GameBoy Advance games from 10+ years ago are not compelling software to anyone who doesn't already have a Wii-U (and arguably those who do as well).

In any event, putting aside the absurdity of GBA games being made available on the Wii-U instead of, or in addition to, the 3DS or why there can't just be one emulation system that runs on both AND future systems — another point that's getting missed here is how frequently GBA games will actually get released.

Look at the content currently available in the Wii-U Virtual Console. How long did it take to even get what we have for NES, SNES, and other games? How many great games are still missing, some of which weren't even released on the Wii's Virtual Console? What evidence is there to show that the GBA games will be released much more frequently than in the past when this program starts to roll out? It just feels like this is going to be another frustrating sore spot amongst core Nintendo fans who are ready and willing to spend money in the Nintendo ecosystem but can't for either a lack of good content or a lack of a flexible system that makes us feel good about spending the money that we do have a chance to spend.

Surprising but pretty cool. Looking forward to play GBA cames on my game pad.

@djcaetano As a programmer myself, I don't buy the story that Nintendo can't program one emulation system that is slightly modified to run on both the 3DS and the Wii-U. This situation is not so much a hardware issue as it is a software issue. And you can make a software program do almost anything you want if hardware-related components (Video, RAM, etc.) are not an issue, which they are not in this case.

This is simply about looking at what both systems can do and writing a core program that mimics older consoles that only differs in how it translates button mapping, video resolutions, and storage functions. There should be no reason to touch the original code on any virtual console game. The system should be designed to essentially plug and play any game code stored on the system. (The eShop should allow you to re-download any game you purchased on either the 3DS or the Wii-U to get the code on the system.) That's all they need to do. The problem is, Nintendo needs programmers who think system-level and not software-level because we end up in situations like what we have now where each game is being modified one-by-one per platform. At this rate, when the next Nintendo systems comes out, we'll be back to 0 VC games available that we have to purchase all over again with no save file access.

Oh, Game Boy Advance, you were my favorite.

@rohno I´ll be not arguing further because it will be pointless. If you really believe it is just a matter of "remapping buttons" and that 3DS hardware is really so powerfull... I am not the one who will try to change your mind.
I´ve written just to give my 2 cents.

@Artwark I agree, but they're holding all the cards. And ya gotta know when to hold 'em.

I grew up on the Game Boy Advance. I'm so happy :')

I'd rather have the SNES version of Yoshi's Island over GBA any day!

Oh man i've been waiting forever for the GBA to be released on the 3DS. I figured it was a sure thing seeing as Wii U already gets SNES titles. So does this mean they will never add GBA titles to the 3DS? If so that is really sad.

I wander how much they will sell them for, I guessing most will be 10 Euro each

I'm thinking the same as SNES games.

Nice to see Wii U getting these.

3DS is doing fine without GBA so that's most likely the reason Wii U gets GBA first. Wii U needs more stuff in the eShop and the GBA games will work well with the gamepad.

Minish Cap

I like the idea of GBA games for VC, but the only one I'm disappointed is Yoshi Island. I've already have that game in GBA, but personally want SNES version.

@Moshugan I agree. I've been waiting for that version, but I think Nintendo made a big mistake confirming for GBA version. I can imagine if young player asked, "Great, we have Super Mario Advance 3......but what about other 3"? We have Super Mario Bros. 2, 3, and World for goodness sake!!