Great! This had me worried for almost a year. Now as long as they put GameCube games on VC...

@Alucard I live in Australia and I don't know anyone without a TV that can handle 60Hz. Most TVs on sale now are at least 100Hz or 200Hz, as has become starndard in all PAL regions. So SEGA has no excuse for downgrading virtual console games to 50Hz, particularly if the game wasn't originally available at 50Hz (like this one). Even Nintendo use 60Hz versions for any import or Hanabi games, so I don't see why SEGA should think it necessary to reduce the refresh rates and resolution like they needed to back in the '90s.

Now I finally get to complete the series, after all these years! Definitely going to buy this one, even if only to support the Wonder Boy/Monster World series and localisation of Japanese games for virtual console. While it seems to be unusual timing, it's probably what the Wii virtual console needs most now. I doubt SEGA would ever bother to make a new instalment, but if they did, it would seem almost too good to be true. (I'm still going to hope for one anyway)

To be honest, I don't care which series Retro Studios work on next. I have complete faith that their next game will be as excellent as their past record. Just imagine what they could do with the Wii U tech!

Finally! Monster World IV! 18 years after its initial release, we finally get an import. And in English, nothing less. Better be worth the wait!

@grenworthshero I felt Fi completely ruined all of the puzzles in the game. I suppose Nintendo are trying to appeal to a younger audience by making the game less frustrating, but what are puzzles without challenge or thought process? Can you imagine how fun it would be to play a game like Portal 2 if GLaDOS and Wheatley told you exactly where to put the portals to finish the test chamber? That's exactly what Fi did to Skyward Sword. It would have been okay if there was at least an option to turn off all hints from her, but there wasn't. And that's why Skyward Sword turned out to be a game about following a list of directions rather than exploration and puzzle-solving as it should have been

It's fine if a Zelda game is going to have a passive companion, but at least Nintendo should try to stop them from ruining the game. They got it right with Midna from Twilight Princess, so why does Skyward Sword feel like a step backwards for the franchise?

@Mardt

I completely agree with you. While Skyward Sword was still enjoyable to play, I felt it was more of a disappointment, not because it was a bad game (which it wasn't), but beacuase of what it was missing. After five years in development it just didn't live up to the almost impossible expectation built up by fans of Twilight Princess. Especially after all MIyamoto's promises about it being a "revolutionary" Zelda game that would completely change the series, it just didn't feel like much of an advancement for the franchise. Everything I enjoyed about Skyward Sword, I felt like I had done it a million times before in other Zelda games, and everything new about it (besides the orchestrated music) was either repeatedly annoying or unenjoyable for me.

I probably sound like a grumpy old man saying this, but to be honest I've been disappointed by the latest Zelda games because of the increasing linearity and formulaic nature of the gameplay. While Skyward Sword attempted to reconcile this with the "levels" between dungeons, it really just felt repetitive. The sidequests that I used to love in games like Majora's Mask seem to have been replaced by fetch quests and minigames. The puzzles, too, which were some of my favourite parts in previous Zelda games, were made far too easy and obvious for me, especially when Fi would continuously interrupt the game and straight out tell you the answer. I also didn't like the segregated "level" type nature of Skyward Sword, which felt bland and disconnected from the world. The lack of interesting secrets also made backtracking an annoyance for the first time in any Zelda game.

I feel that I'd have to say I enjoyed this game less than every other console Zelda since A Link to the Past. Don't get me wrong, I still had fun with it. There were some parts that I liked (namely exploring the sand sea), but my true loyalty to the Zelda franchise lies with games like Twilight Princess and Majora's Mask. I only hope that the next Zelda lives up to the revolutionary title Miyamoto promised with Skyward Sword, as well as the expectations developed by the Wii U Zelda tech demo, unlike the original artwork shown at E3 for Skyward Sword.

Great news that Nintendo is trying to keep up with the times, but personally I will always buy physical copies as long as they're available.

I've always backed Nintendo for the first party games. Not becuase of third party games or powerful graphics - I've got a PC for those.
As much as I'd like to see what Nintendo could do with a powerful console, that doesn't matter as much to me as the quality of the games themselves. Having said that, I'm sick of playing great Nintendo games like Skyward Sword becuase of the outdated graphics, and sometimes I imagine how amazing it could look if Nintendo were able to utilize the power of HD consoles.
While I would much prefer the tech behind Nintendo's next console not to be embarrassingly old or cheap like the Wii, I will buy it anyway as long as Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Smash Bros will be there. So while power isn't everything, here's hoping Nintendo listen to their customer base for once and give us long-time fans what WE want. I guarantee that keeping the fans happy will be a great asset to the company, and with it will come great profit opportunities.

That's some pretty extreme slicing! But it looks pretty good, the actual matches look mostly like the Gamecube one, which was really fun to play. Will probably pick this one up sometime this year.

I trust Miyamoto that this game will be worth the wait. If it is a launch title, then that may have just solidified my Wii U purchase.

One of the few Zelda games I have never played. Hopefully they release it (along with Ages) on 3DS virtual console sometime soon!

Personally I can't wait to see what new IP Mr. Miyamoto has in store for us. It has been over 10 years since Pikmin was created, and it seems that a new IP is exactly what Nintendo needs to solidify sales of the Wii U.

I must agree that the demo looks beautiful exactly as it is and I would be happy to play a full Zelda game with that art style. It's a great style that is aesthetically pleasing and can provide excellent detail without becoming so realistic that it detroys the wonder of a fantasy game.

@Straw_Hat_Luffy
If Retro are involved in the next Metroid then I can't wait to see what their artists can pull off with the tech on the Wii U! Considering their Wii and Gamecube games still look amazing to this day, I think the next Metroid game could look absolutely amazing!

I would say I'm looking forward to this one, but I still haven't got around to playing Super Mario 3D Land yet...

Hopefully this means we get an online accounts system to use for purchase and management of downloadable games and content, and also to replace that annoying friend code system.

Honestly, anything Nintendo could change it to would be better than Wii U, so I completely agree that a name change is appropriate.

Just Skyward Sword this year, although my brother got Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land, so I'll get around to playing them when he's done with them.

Also, I finally picked up a copy of Smash Bros. Melee today, so I'll be gaming for a while yet! Now I have to try not to waste all my money on Steam sales!

Those are some great GBA games! Too bad I missed out on the Ambassador Program, I would have really liked to play Metroid Fusion.

Hopefully they will eventually get released on the 3DS shop despite what Nintendo has already said about that.

@Darkrai The Rare N64 games should be released. Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day... I know it's probably not going to happen, but it would be nice.

Also, still waiting on Monster World IV. That game was never released outside Japan and was also never translated into English, so I'm looking forward to its release sometime in the next few months.

@misswliu81 That's exactly what I was thinking. A Metroid Prime game would be perfectly suited to the Wii U system. Not only would Retro's brilliant artistry look amazing in 1080p HD, but the controller could be utilized in many different ways.

First of all there would be dual analogue controls (so no one can complain) but more importantly, the touch screen and camera could be used as Samus' computer. It could have a real-time 3D map that rotates and zooms according to touch, or it could just act as a HUD to remove some of the clutter from the TV screen. It could also be used to select combinations of beams, missiles and bombs or view Samus' various unlocked upgrades. As you said it would also be possible to use it as the scan or X-ray visor as you hold it up to the TV screen like in the E3 demo video, uncovering secrets and missile upgrades.To go even further, the gyroscope controls could be used to guide the morph ball through its many puzzles, or possibly even to control Samus' ship like in Corruption. On top of all that, the controller could be used to display all creature, environment and mission logs and objectives so that you would never need to pause the game to look anything up, creating a seamless interactive experience.

There are so many great ideas for a Wii U Metroid Prime game that I cannot hope to list them all, but I hope that some of those could possibly be used in a final product. If so, then the Wii U will be a definite and worthwhile purchase for me, and I'm sure it would also be for many others.

A greatly underappreciated console with a load of fantastic games. Back when it launched I was the only kid at my school who had a GameCube; everyone else had a PS2 or Xbox. But if I had the option to go back and change my decision, it would still remain the same.

Great memories of Pikmin 1 and 2, Luigi's Mansion, Wind Waker and the excellent Metroid Prime games. Still can't wait for the next Metroid installment. Imagine what a future Prime game could be like on Wii U!

@BenAV
Best day ever? I think that's an understatement. November 24th can't come soon enough. When it does, I'm going to be busy for a long time...

A good review for a good game. While I didn't think this was as good as Mario Power Tennis, it certainly stands out as one of the better Mario sport titles in recent years and one of the best on the GameCube. And as for Mario Sports Mix, I'll pretend that never happened.

One cool feature this review didn't mention was its connection to the Game Boy Advance game Mario Golf: Advance Tour. If you had both games you could link them together using the GameCube–Game Boy Advance link cable and copy data and stats across from one game to the other. It was pretty awesome to see your character from the GBA game play against Mario and co. in full GameCube graphics. You could still gain experience points and level up while playing on either game, even getting to use the custom clubs from the GBA with all GC characters. If I remember correctly I think you could also unlock various mario characters to play with on the GBA game by connecting them together.

It was a shame that the DS didn't take full advantage of the connection between it and the Wii; there were so many possibilities that were never utilized. Hopefully the 3DS will be able to communicate with the Wii U and we'll be able to see more use of this connection between Nintendo's various gaming systems.

Damn! I just bought a plain black 3DS with Ocaina of Time 3D about a month ago, and now this? It's so beautiful! Why didn't I wait!?

I have fond memories of Pikmin when I bought it as my first GameCube game back in 2002, and while in my opinion Pikmin 2 surpasses its predecessor, the original is still a fantastic game, and one of my favourites on GameCube.

I never reached the 30 day limit (which wasn't as restrictive as most people thought), but after reading this, it sounds like it's almost worth doing just to read the logs and see the ending.

I can only hope that after all these years since Pikmin 2 (7 years today in Australia) that Pikmin 3 will live up to my expectations, preferably as a launch title on Wii U. For now I can only imagine the beautifully detailed and unique world of Pikmin in glorious HD!

I really want to play Eternal Darkness, it looks like an interesting and unique game. I guess I'll have to track down a copy for my GameCube.

It's kind of sad, but to be honest I actually spent more time playing GameCube games on my Wii than Wii ones.

Metroid Prime 3 (and Trilogy) had excellent Wii controls, but the Prime games aren't really FPSs. The controls worked so well because of the free-aiming lock-on and the slower pace compared to action games like CoD, where the slight infra-red lag is a problem.

While in my opinion, nothing beats a mouse and keyboard for first person, the slower exploration of the Prime games allowed the controls to work flawlessly on Wii, bringing the player closer to the game.

It's kind of funny how they upload 1080p HD videos of a 480p game, but whatever. I bought a component cable for my Wii, so I guess I can't talk.

It is just me or does it look really awkward when Link runs around holding his sword out directly in front of him? (0:43) I guess that's just the Wii MotionPlus because it's being held straight forward, but it does look weirdly animated.

Good review! Here's hoping for some more free game remakes and re-releases in the future!

Also, as a general rule, a game's score should not be influenced by its price. So you guys should stop arguing that the score should be higher or lower just because this game is free.

Sounds kind of unlikely from the interview, but it could happen. I will be getting Skyrim on PC regardless, but it's good to see 3rd party developers support for Wii U.

@SMEXIZELDAMAN Have you ever even played an Elder Scrolls game, or are you just another troll? I like both series and am looking forward to the coming releases, so you don't have to choose one over another.

This actually looks really good! Not that I need another wii remote, but I hope this comes to Australia.

I've been eying the Limited Edition on the EB Games website for some time now, but it doesn't say anything about that particular version, it's just priced at $20 higher.

A tough choice, but I would have to say that Super Metroid is the best game on the best system ever.

@Corbs I completely agree. You took the words right out of my mouth!

A clearly underrated yet exceptional game, overshadowed by its excellent counterparts.

While I still prefer Metroid Prime 1 and 3 to Echoes, it is by no means a bad game. Such a shame so many people missed out on playing it.

A briliantly polished and perfected game that is absolutely worthy of a 10. One of my favourite games of all time and the best game on GameCube.

Happy 25th anniversary and a toast to a properous future!

First MGS and now Kid Icarus? I hope there won't be any more delays for 3DS this year.

Definitely would like to see it remade, but now not sure which console I'd prefer. 3DS is good and easy because Ocarina of Time has already been done on it and you can pick up and play whenever you want, but I think I would actually rather see it in HD on Wii U, but that seems unlikely now.

Oh well, either way I'm happy. By the looks of things on this webpage, there is certainly enough "output of emotion and clamor from fans" for a remake to be considered noteworthy.

I was expecting Ganon would show up anyway, and that this guy would just end up being another Zant, but at least they're trying something different now.

Good to see Nintendo hasn't forgotten about Metroid. I was beginning to think they had after a lack of any announcements at E3, but I'm still hoping they do something else as well.

I hope this is true because there are so many good Gamecube games I missed out on (still haven't played Wind Waker), but if the console only has 8 GB then it seems unlikely.
I also want to know what happens to out current Wii Virtual Console games and if they can tranfer.

It would be nice if Nintendo did something for Metroid like it has for Mario's and Zelda's anniversaries, but it sound like Nintendo's completely overlooked it.

Valve has already stated their interest in the Wii U, so Steamworks could possibly happen!

For me, it's all about the games. Give us some excellent Nintendo franchises we haven't seen in a while and I'll be there.

Going to download these right now. Can't wait to see what MGS looks like in 3D!

FF3's been out in Europe and Australia for a while now, but I haven't got round to getting it yet because I'm still playing Chrono Trigger.
I really need to catch up on my games!