@Melkaticox Authentic sound chip and proper output to a CRT. Wii U sadly lacks 240p output for VC games, which Wii actually had and I regret importing my VC collection to Wii U because of it. 480i on my CRT has this flicker that bothers the hell out of me.

If Wii U scaled the image up to 1080p without 16:9 stretching (Wii VC) and without blurry filters (Wii U VC) it'd be a great option, but if I own the original consoles, the original output to a CRT is still the best way to play, at least in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, though; I appreciate VC at least for its preservation of older titles. I just wish Nintendo paid attention to the technical details that would make the service more appealing to people like me. They always seem to get -something- wrong. (example: 3DS NES VC is plagued by some weird, slight horizontal stretching that blurs the image. I have absolutely no idea why it's there, but it ruins the whole thing for me because it makes my eyes hurt after a while.)

I'll pick it up because I have the retroactive discount but I have my trusty Famicom, NES, SNES, and GBA on-hand so I have more than enough superior methods of playing this game...

Where's the 3DS version, though? Japan has had it for ages. SMB3, too. I don't understand what the hold-up is.

@Geonjaha (Post #4) Come on, you should know that there's more to it than that.

They have to actually produce and distribute the game, for one, and since it's such a major release I bet there's quite a bit of work that has to go into getting enough copies to satisfy the entirety of North America AND Europe AND Australia concurrent with the planned release dates.

Second, with the sheer amount of new stuff in the game (which I can attest to as I've been playing the Japanese version for months), the localization work must've been pretty hefty even for just one language. They also had to do several other languages for the EU release, and I'm sure it would be within both NoA and NoE's interests to hold off on each of their own versions until both are done so as to prevent importers from skewing sales data. Don't forget about region-specific holiday events and items, which have to be made from scratch for every regional version!

And on top of THAT there's also the extensive testing that I'm sure this kind of game requires as well as bunches of red tape behind the scenes. There's a lot more that goes into these kinds of releases than it seems.

As for your post (#6) that just appeared while I was typing this, I can answer you: Diving only happens when you go to the tropical island, and you do have to chase down shadows to catch creatures. It's not all boring, though; you have to avoid jellyfish while you're doing this. The rewards are great, though; there are some really awesome creatures you can get from diving.

They've actually been doing this for a while now. Weird that news sites are only just picking up on it.

What I really wish for them to do is bring back older console accessories so now-hard-to-find things like S-video cables wouldn't be so annoying and expensive to track down, but I know it won't happen...

Mario's Super Picross! Curse you, Europe, I'm still waiting for that to come to the US!

Though it took Nintendo this long to finally give you the 60hz versions of games. Cool that they're finally doing it.

Dat price... That's a little high for my tastes. But I'd much prefer an official battery over third-party; one of the most failure-prone and actually DANGEROUS third-party accessory categories is always power. I never ever trust third-party batteries or charge cables. I even still use first-party for my NES!

Now if only they had made a rechargeable battery pack for the Wavebird... Wii Remote and Wavebird are the only two wireless controllers I own that don't have this.

In response to this very news post, I learned how to edit NES graphics and spent all morning and afternoon making a real Dr. Luigi. No joke.

_{Please, the Rules ask that we not discuss this sort of thing (see Unacceptable Content). If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. Thank you! — TBD}

I was talking in terms of handhelds.

It's amazing that they crammed the same amount of content into the handheld iterations, but yeah, it's not optimized for 3DS at ALL. It's playable, but...unless you NEED to have it portable, don't bother.

If you have a Vita, the Vita version has the same amount of content and looks/runs a lot nicer. It has a few issues with framerate, but not nearly as bad as the 3DS version, and it looks fifty times better.

@Burning_Spear
That's true, but I went snooping around Canadian online retailers (where the Mini has been available for a while) and what I found was pretty shocking: it looks like Nintendo has been phasing out all the other Wii SKUs. I couldn't find a single major retailer that was selling any new Wiis other than the Mini.

For a latecomer who wants a shiny new Wii, that's probably really irritating. At this point it looks like the only other option is a used Wii (which is cheaper than Mini anyway). If they're rolling the Mini out in the UK, this might be your last chance to pick up a more capable Wii.

Here in the US, you can still get a non-GCN-playing Wii with internet and component support AND Wii Sports Resort for only $130. Why this still isn't an option for the upper half of North America eludes me. It's a much better deal for both 'casuals' AND 'hardcores'.

@Chunky_Droid Why on earth would it delete the old copy? It's not a transfer, it's a re-purchase. You're buying a new copy. If it deleted the old copy, having a re-buy charge would be absolutely absurd. They didn't say that you were paying to UPGRADE, they said we are RE-BUYING the games at a discount.

@123akis Oh God, I wish. It would be absolutely amazing to finally have an Xbox Live/PSN-esque account system that ties all my purchases together across all Nintendo consoles and lets me authenticate new consoles and redownload if my old ones explode.

But that's very very very unlikely. Unless they actually have all their services running through the same servers, then online gameplay wouldn't be listed as going down if they were implementing accounts.

I wasn't real confident about Nintendo releasing SMB2j in the west, so I already have it on my Japanese 3DS.

...and as a Famicom Mini on GBA, and on Wii VC, and on SNES, and on SMAS Anniversary...

I guess one more couldn't hurt!

Oh yeah, I'm curious to see what console model they used on the home screen for the western version of the app. If it's an NES, that's lame. I hope it's a Famicom with FDS attached like the Japanese one.

I still use their old "Revolution Entertainment System" vertical skin on my Wii. I really wish they had just done that again for the Wii U; I have mine standing vertically.

And I also agree that the "Retro" logo ruins it. "Revolution Entertainment System" was kinda classy and fitting; "Retro" is just dorky. I wish they had options to customize the skin.

@Bluezealand Yeah, I kinda feel the same way. Wii software is probably going to run in a mode similar to how Wii runs GCN games in that it will act as if it was a Wii itself and disable all Wii U functions while in this mode. As such, it will probably output unscaled 480p display, too, so there's really zero point in transferring over to Wii U unless you want to get the Wii physically out of your setup or you want to turn those unspent Wii Shop points into eShop credit.

It's really all a matter of convenience. Do you want to boot your Wii software from the Wii U without having to spend a couple minutes switching consoles? If you don't mind swapping over to original Wii, then there's probably literally no difference in gameplay experience between the two.

If they DO include Wii Shop purchases in the Nintendo Network account, then that right there will be more than enough reason to transfer for me.

I'll take white, please.

Wow, I was totally unaware that there was an ongoing competitive scene for this game. That's awesome.

I was thinking about getting back into SNES gaming lately, too, so this just fuels my desire. I still have my original console and everything.

Considering a replay of one of the old games but with the game muted and this playing instead.

Just wish I didn't have to manually select the song every time I moved to a new area...

Thank God for the JP eShop accepting US credit cards. I'll be sure to give this a look.

@Samholy I think it's probably rated in comparison to other eShop offerings rather than in comparison to all other games playable on the system. Take it more as a "Looking for some good eShop games? This is one of the best!"

...I think, anyway.

Is there a guide somewhere that details how to register for Club Nintendo Japan if you don't live in Japan or speak Japanese? I have several imported titles and consoles, so I could easily afford this game.

I loved the DSi XL a lot; I find myself playing handheld games at home often, so the XL's larger screen was great. It still fit in my pocket as well, so it didn't really hinder its function as a portable, especially with its larger battery.

I would definitely prefer a "3DS XL", which would hopefully afford the space for a second circle pad and larger battery. But most importantly, it would have a larger screen; I feel that a lot of the high quality graphics the 3DS is putting out are wasted on that tiny, tiny screen.

Alternatively, Nintendo could finally give people who aren't in the press the ability to play DS/3DS games on a TV, but that's probably getting a little too optimistic...

@GameCube Woah woah woah there; this is Nintendo we're talking about, remember. They can't even be bothered to put multiplayer into GB VC.

Noon for me. I have no idea what my obligations will be for that day as of this time, but I'll be sure to cancel/postpone as many of them as possible. I have a bro who plans on watching it with me; he loves Nintendo so much that these E3 conferences often make him emotional, so this should be fun.

Oh man, Nintendo is actually listening, for once! I remember there used to be a big petition on 4chan before the 3DS launch to bring the purple one seen at E3 to retail. It took them over a year, but at least they're doing it. Very tempted to trade mine in for one, if only to live up to my own word from that email I once sent NoA saying I'd buy one...

@Shugo You know, now that I think about it, I think I'll pick this up anyway simply on principle of supporting NoA's decision to bring it over. I think I actually asked them for it in a Club Nintendo survey once and promised them "all my money" if they did it, so I should probably own up to my word.

The cover could be Final Fantasy-style blank white and it would still be a better overall package than the US version. I adore the dubbed soundtrack and all the hard work NoA put into it, personally, but having a Japanese option would've quelled the one, single complaint I heard from anybody I ever talked to about this game.

Enjoy your pekepekepekedesuka, Eurobros!

@James Dear God, that's actually amazing news to me. I got so sick of accidentally hitting the shoulder buttons while I was on the menu.

Still doesn't make up for the lack of folder icon customization, though. Come on, Nintendo, couldn't you have at least given us COLORS? Or maybe allow more letters to appear as you make the icons bigger? It's kind of annoying having three side-by-side folders labeled "G" just because I separate my VC games into GB, GBC, and GBA. I was thinking about making them G, C, and A, but I already had a "C" folder for 3D Classics...because if I made that folder a "3", it would conflict with "3DS Games"! Aaaaaugh!

Man... I gave up on this last year as well and ended up buying the GCN version instead (because my original copy was stolen a number of years ago). Not sure if I'll buy this or not...

Ah DAMMIT. I didn't realize that sending a Mii from Mii Plaza to Mii Maker DELETED that Mii from the Plaza - I'd never done it before. So as soon as I received Reggie, I figured I'd COPY him over to the Maker before using him for puzzles/adventuring...and then he was gone.

And apparently he was level 5 if used in Find Mii? FFFFFFFF-

Now if only the North American Club Nintendo would pick this up (or any 3DS-fitting case, for that matter). None of the existing cases sold in stores really do it for me - I just want a thin, soft case like the ones Club Nintendo has had in the past.

Woah, I didn't realize we were so close to the release of this.

Glad we're getting a demo; I'm on the fence at the moment. Unless the 3DS version has something significantly unique, I'll probably just stay with the PS3/Vita "HD" version...especially since I'm really not a fan of the circle pad pro.

My main hope is that they fixed the resolution for the games. I have no clue why, but the NES games have all so far been upscaled to a SLIGHTLY larger resolution than 1:1, which makes everything slightly blurry. The 3D classics, like Kirby's Adventure, are in perfect 1:1, and it looks beautifully sharp as a tack.

He raises a vine...
Runs past it...
Goes down a pipe...
...and then ends up at the top of the vine!? WHAT.

I always have to wonder how people figure glitches like that out. Like 'Minus World'...who the heck thought to stand there and jump backwards into that block one day? And how did everyone else find out?

Once again Nintendo's refusal to implement a proper update system screws over a game's online play.

I appreciate that no updates forces Nintendo to make sure that games are as high-quality as possible before release, but there will always be bugs like this that slip through no matter what and in the end it hurts.online games like this one. Newcomers are hurt because they don't know about the exploit when they first start playing, everyone keeps picking the map to exploit over the newcomers, and then you yourself have to exploit too if you don't want to come in dead last every time. It's irritating.

I just hope they fixed the resolution problems. The Ambassador versions of all the NES games are slightly stretched out of their original resolutions for some unknown reason, which causes the image to be very slightly but very annoyingly blurry. After playing the perfectly sharp and crisp 3D Classics Kirby's Adventure, I can't go back to the blurry Ambassador games...

The StreetPass map is probably my favorite addition next to Find Mii II. In all the feverish convention StreetPass-ing I've been doing, I never realized that I've StreetPassed people from over half of the US states. Crazy.

(I've also StreetPassed someone from the UK! Wow!)

I dunno about anyone else, but the upgraded Mii Plaza is my favorite new addition. I completed both Puzzle Swap and Find Mii, so I immediately jumped into Find Mii II and am loving it. Those Play Coins suddenly got a LOT more valuable.

Honey Queen? Of all the characters they could've picked, she's probably the least suited for kart racing...

I really want Professor E. Gadd to be in Mario Kart. They were planning him for Mario Kart DS (given evidence in the beta files) but ultimately scrapped him. I think he'd be a great addition.

Cool, I need to get a Japanese 3DS anyway. I've always liked white consoles; I wish we had more of them in the west... (Looking at you, Sony!)

This would be better as a poster, honestly. In fact, that might be exactly what I do with them - tile them all together and frame it. That or I could get a nice display case and put each respective card next to the real consoles... Actually, that sounds like a idea.

I'm kind of disappointed, though - Japan's set has 15 cards total. Theirs features extra cards for dual-screen Game & Watch, Game Boy Play It Loud, and Game Boy Light. Considering theirs cost even fewer coins, this is kind of disappointing...

Kind of disappointing that they picked this version over the Game Boy Color Pac-Man.

But then again, the Game Boy Color Pac-Man was only really good for its unique multiplayer mode, and since Nintendo refuses to enable multiplayer for Virtual Console, it still wouldn't compare to a release of the arcade original.

As an early adopter of the 3DS, this package makes me very happy. All of those GBA games are very, very good games (even if I already own all of them...). Very unusual choices given Nintendo's past of notoriously avoiding a lot of their A+ titles for remake/port/digital distribution.

Watch one of the other five games be an English Mother 3. The community would go ballistic.

I'm very glad they put this on VC. One of the greater games of my childhood. My old cart has problems keeping save files, so now maybe I can finally keep my scores and gallery!

I'm definitely still disappointed that they haven't implemented Super Game Boy mode. This game definitely looked good with it; it has different borders for every game that mimic the original G&W hardware colors, not to mention the backgrounds became full-color.

And no doubt when they get around to Game & Watch Gallery 2 & 3, they won't enable the gallery link feature that completes the gallery when you link the newer games to the older ones. I appreciate finally having a GB VC, but a large part of the Game Boy experience was all the neat features the various hardware had to offer. Nintendo is totally dropping the ball on that...

Hell yes, another GB game I never got around to getting yet loved as I played it in less...legal forms... I still wish Nintendo would let us play them in Super Game Boy mode, though; games like Donkey Kong looked great that way. We have homebrew emulators that can do Super Game Boy mode on original DS hardware, so there's really no reason why we shouldn't get it on 3DS.

Aww yeah, when the cartridge pile sound kicked in I just had a wave of memories wash over me.

Tossing a Game Boy cartridge into a pile is such a great sound.

Aww, it's just a slot game? What a disappointment. I was about to get excited and go "A-HA! See? You CAN play NSMBW without motion controls!" and go on another rant about how NSMBW would've been just fine with a Classic Controller/GCN control option...

Oh God yes, it's been so long. Definite buy; this should've been on VC ages ago!

I noticed it has a home button with the same icon as the Wii's home button. Usable with Wii? Possible USB dongle? Might not be such a bad purchase if it doubles as a real computer keyboard as well.