At long last, the suffering of Earthbound fans are finally coming to in.

The most wanted game for the Virtual Console is finally coming. I can now respect Nintendo of America for making this possible.

Time to buy a Wii-U.

@slapshot: VGchartz isn't exactly a reliable source. I heard that they even guessed on the numbers half of the time.

Glad to see this game finally came to the West. Now I need to get it...

sees lack of voice chat

skips game

Probably the occasional framerate issue is what bumped the score down. Although I'm surprised the game didn't get a 9/10.

DO WANT!

The Tezuka fanboy inside of me can't resist.

Means nothing to me since we're never going to get this outside of Japan...

Still mad that the franchise will never again return to the West...

Wow, something else I might be looking forward to. Here's to hoping that it'll be better than the 360 and PS3 version. Much better.

I really want this to be true, but it just feels like something that is too good to be true, especially since the comments made on Official Nintendo Magazine was from one of it's employers.

Which sucks. I want something to hype beside Smash 4 before I put away the controller for good.

I am honestly surprised that this game got in the Virtual Console. Konami published the US version, there were two defunct companies involved, and Ubisoft now owns it. There must have been some messy legal issues to get this game in.

Either way, if it hits here, I am buying it.

Please let Prince of Persia come out on the North America Virtual Console. I will buy it and play it. I have 800 points ready to spend.

People can say all they want that we should be glad with what we have, but really, I feel as if there is a slightest issue with a game, Nintendo gives up on it immediately. To this day, I feel extremely bitter about the lack of Earthbound on the Virtual Console and I have lost all trust in it. And no, I do not think it will ever get back on it's feet properly.

The Nintendo 64 is my all-time favorite console. It got me into gaming and I had so many fond memories of it. If not for Super Smash Bros. 4 and my PS3, I would be going retro gaming by now.

Why did people expect online play for this remake anyway? It's just that, a 3D remake that I could instead get the original off of the Virtual Console.

And for those saying that multi-player wasn't that important back in the day, that's a load of bull. Many games emphasize multi-player games, example being Duke Nukem 3D.

Has anyone noticed that Japan has to pay for 900 points while we get it for only 800 points?

Square Enix must be nice to make up for the lack of titles they brought to North America during the NES and SNES era, although what they gave us were awesome.

Gotta say, this is great. Not only do we get a Monster Land title that doesn't suck, Monster World IV will also be great.

Maybe I need to get into retro gaming again.

@Rebbeca Gunn: We're getting the DX version of Link's Awakening. I wouldn't rule it out yet.

Really wish I could join Nintendo E3 2011, but alas, I don't have money.

Oh well, will still be watching. Really looking forward to hearing the new console.

Why are people criticizing Sony's and Microsoft's decision to actually have a decent-sized hardware? With the Wii, the internal storage is so small that Nintendo had to make a SD Card solution for this, as not many non-retail Wii games can be fit. Sony and Microsoft never had to run into this problem, all they had to do was update the hard drive limit when they wish and it really does help in the long run.

Nintendo needs to give us an actual hard drive, there is no excuse this time around.

If this rumor is true, there's goes Nintendo's attempt for better third-party support. It'll also make me question whenever or not I'll buy the next console.

Two dollars a night? When I last rented games at Blockbuster, they were about eight dollars for five days. Two dollars X five days = 10 dollars.

No thanks. Will do Blockbuster until Red Box is cheaper.

Why can't EA Sports just canned the Wii version already? We know it's going to suck and they're wasting money on it with more shovelware.

Honestly, this shouldn't even be news in here, let other websites cover it.

This is going to be very difficult to do, even if it betters SNES quality overall. Nintendo needs to pull out all the stops they can to appeal to both sides and do whatever they can to bring back the core gamers while preserving the casual gamers.

A difficult task to do, but it must be done to ensure that the next console will be successful.

@Gamesake: Nothing innovative about the SNES? it did have Mode 7, which gave the perception that you were playing in 3D and a few games could actually do that with the Super FX Chip.

Glad to see that Mega Man X finally come to the Virtual Console. I was not expecting such a quick release.

@Mod: Please remove this game from the Upcoming List. It has no business being up there, plus the PEGI rating was removed a long time ago.

If Nintendo wants the core gamers they lost back, they're going to have to appeal to them as much if not more so then the casual gamers. Nintendo cannot feed off them forever. With that made, here are my long list of suggestions:

Price:

The console should not cost anymore then $400 max, otherwise, people will not buy. $300 or less is preferable, thought.

Hardware:
The Wii has an advantage in motion controls and reliability, but there are other areas where they need to improve.

• An actual hard drive. This has kept developers away from the Wii. The hard drive MUST encourage developers to buy one, not steer away from it. Nintendo should start out with at least 100 GB and upgrade throughout it's generation.
• NO ****ING REGION LOCK: Seriously Nintendo, there is no reason to region lock your games. All it does is infuriate your customers and drive people away from it. It even encourage piracy.
• Be more powerful then the Xbox 360 and PS3. Not that hard to do while still keeping it cheap.
• Be reliable: One thing I like about Nintendo consoles is that they are always reliable. Keep that tradition with the next console.
• Let it be capable of multi-platform titles without gimping it down: Like I said before, I will not put up with inferior versions of a game. I expect Nintendo to at least make sure that even after the Xbox 720 and PS4 gets released that they can do multi-platform games.
• Able to output HD up to 1080p. I would most certainly be in favor of this, although it's not nearly as huge as a concern as other issues.
• 3D: I know it won't be their main support, but at least include an option for those who are rich and can easily afford 3D TV, especially glassless ones (I won't be able to afford one in the future, but I'm just suggesting it for those who can afford one).
• Wii backward compatibility: This is a given for Nintendo, please don't go the way of the PS3 and remove it like Sony did with their PS2 support.

Offline/Multimedia features:

• Let us design our own backgrounds. Loved this with the PS3. I always like looking at my McLaren F1 '94 from Gran Turismo 5.
• mp3 support: Not many people care about AAC files nor know how to get them to play on consoles, so I would like for this to see a return.
• 3DS compatibility: Enjoyed this a lot with the DS and the reason why I got Dragonball: Origins (Which I like).
• DVD/Blu-Ray support. I have quite a few movies at my house that I like to watch, sadly with me not wanting to go to the living room and see it, doing so on the Wii was impossible. Make it so with the next console.

Games:
The most important part of a console, no question about it.

• Less shovelware please. This has been a huge nuisance to the Wii and that alone gives the Wii a bad name.
• Better third-party support: The Wii has received decent third-party support, but I would like to see Nintendo to reclaim the great third-party support they once had with the NES and SNES.
• More advertising: Many games disappointed due to a lack of advertising. Nintendo needs to get third-party to support core games more and they need to support their core games more as well.

Virtual Console:
The Virtual Console for the Wii was pretty disappointing to say the least. There were so much potential in it and yet Nintendo didn't do the best that they could to ensure that it met up to people's expectations. So we need a complete reboot of it as I highly doubt it'll be in a healthy state right now for the rest of it's life.

• They need to keep their promise. If they say they're going to bring a game to the Virtual Console, they need to do so. They are good with this for the most part, but it bothers me to no end why they put forth no effort toward ensuring that Earthbound licensing issues don't prevent it's VC release permanently. One game is not going to close them down permanently.
• More moderate speed of VC releases. I want the service to actually be supported, not mostly be left for dead after a few years. By the end of the service life next gen, we should be getting at least one game a week. And yes, this can be done.
• The following consoles should be supported: MSX (I'm fine if it only appears in Europe/Japan, although it technically did appear in the US), further arcade support (Meaning games up to Gamecube specs), Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo Gamecube.
• Online multi-player for Virtual Console titles. Honestly, Sega is doing this, let other companies do the same as well.

Online Functionality:
I'm not expecting it to be up to PSN's and Xbox Live's excellent standards and I do think that the Wii's online is decent, but it still needs major improvements if we ever hope to have good online multi-platform games on a regular basis.

• Keep essential online features free, while extra should be paid for.: If they make us pay for online on a repetitive basis, I will not ever use the online function. I am not going to put up with paying for online. They should implant it like Sony did with PSN.
• Either removed Friend Codes (Preferable) or at least reduce it to one home ten-twelve digit friend codes. I'd be willing to deal with that.
• Improve quality of downloadable titles. Very few people support the current state of WiiWare and even I think it needs improvement. For example, get rid of the ridiculous 40MB limit.
• Most good online games should not be a lagfest: Most online games on the Wii are ruined due to this. Nintendo absolutely needs to deal with lags on the system.
• More space for DLC: This should be obvious.
• An official Nintendo headset: Not a huge gripe, but I would just prefer if they did this to satisfy core gamers.
• The online shop: I like the appearance of it, although I believe it should look a bit better. Speed needs to improve by like a lot. Having more games appear on a screen would be great as well. Also, let us use PSN-like currency and 3DS as well.
• Lobby for games. I like matchmaking and all, but lobbies would be great as well. Really like how it's implanted in Gran Turismo 5.
• Let us text and voice chat. This has been a great feature on the PS3, it makes sense for Nintendo to do the same thing.
• Demos: Honestly, this worked out pretty well for WiiWare, don't remove stuff that will help people make ends meet.
• Be able to see what your friends are doing: I like how they're doing this with the 3DS, let us see that for the next console as well.
• Cross game chat: Why hasn't this been given more suggestions? It isn't the most requested PS3 online feature for no reason.

I think Nintendo's next console will be much stronger then the Xbox 360 and stronger then the PS3. It can't be that much more expensive to buy the next Nintendo console if it's at least 1.5 more powerful then the PS3.

@The_Fox: Nintendo said it themselves that the Wii is over twice the power of the Gamecube. Just to correct you.

It's not overpriced anymore, thank god, but I wouldn't mind about $50 drop.

Also agree that if rumor is true, then it more likely means their announcing a new console could happen.

@EmpireIndustries: Try not to worry about it that much. Super Street Fighter IV 3D, while not the definitive version as was advertised, came really close to it's console counter-partners. I can see the same happening if Namco can put forth the same amount of effort into the 3DS port of the game, especially since Xbox Live games should be able to be ported perfectly much easier.

I played this a few times and enjoyed it. Here's to hoping the game comes out in North America.

Two and a half years since it released in Europe and it still hasn't come to North America.

It also hasn't gained any further controversy either, which should support a North America release, especially since I imagine that North America is a less religious place then Europe (At least the generally Christian countries). So those saying that it hasn't released due to religious reasons are just arguing someone as it if was an issue, when it isn't at all.

And another thing, The Devil from this game did appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I don't see a lot of complaining about it either from religious fundamentalists.

This can only be a good thing for us. I want to be ensured that good games keep coming on and not just suffer a several year drought like the DS did.

Having technically been a member for two and a half years, I can tell that I do not regret one second of joining this site. It does almost everything about a site right and makes it addicting enough toward where I come back again and again. I can say that I have learned some things from this site as well.

@Bass X0: I was there as well, although under a different account which got banned.

There has been rumors of Super Meat Boy coming to the 3DSWare service, especially since they don't want to release bad games. If this is true, then that explains why we have evidence supporting a 3DSWare release of said game.

Surely he must be out of line with his thinking. Retail games almost always (If they are good) comes with more contents then digital downloads and until digital downloads can match or surpass that of console games, there's no need to prefer digital over retail.

We'll have to wait until May to see whenever or not they are truly delivering. Remember, not everything is available right now.

Hopefully, this gets fixed very soon. Not being able to play my game or it happening randomly would absolutely suck.

@Hardy83: I thought that DSiWare had a lot of quantity in the comparatively short amount of time it's been made available.

Also, Reggie Fils-Aime is the president of Nintendo of America, which means he is pretty significant figure to Nintendo's audience. You're also implying that Iwata is the only person we should listen to. Not saying that we should listen to what a janitor say, but that doesn't mean Shigeru Miyamoto, Aonuma, or Konno should be ignored or don't have valid information to share.

Worst update we've ever seen. There is absolutely no justified reason for this, not even the 3DS release makes up for this.

@Bass X0: Are there any concrete evidence that the Super FX games will not be on the Wii's VC? The only lead we have is the length it's taken for them to come.

I hope that you're wrong on this. Terrangima's post gives me hope that they may not be squashed completely.

@Nintendo Life: Could you update it to say that the games may not be cancelled after all with Terrangima's link?

Demo will probably work and Nintendo really should not be backing out of a good idea.

Nintendo? This is why I am not immediately buying a Nintendo 3DS, even if I could afford it now.

At least I can wait until the holiday's when it'll be finished, but this is going to be used as a prime argument in why people continue to hate on Nintendo's online efforts. The Wii and DSi had online features ready from the start, why shouldn't the 3DS?

@James Newton: People are going to complain about the service regardless. I hope it'll be great as well (I actually like the interface of the Wii Shop Channel), just hoping they get rid of the wait when selecting items.

Glad to see that the Wii is still making record numbers. The console really does deserve it's success over the year.

@JafWumbo: The statement was said by Reggie Fils-Aime, who is the president of NOA, but not Nintendo as a whole. Now if it was said by Satoru Iwata, that would be a different story. I would take that story with a grain of salt; so don't be surprise if we see a new console in E3 2011.

So there are good games for the system aside from the Sonic games? This should be interesting.

@BassX0: Yes, but it doesn't hurt to request them.

The Blue Shell, the one item I absolutely dread. I'm not advocating the removal of it, but it does need to be modified to the N64 days, where everyone behind you would get hit, not just the person in first place.

I do agree with his statement in general, but while I'm not a huge fan of iPhone, not everyone has time to take time to play a hour of Super Mario Galaxy or among other game. Some want to be able to play on the go and iPhone games are the best option for a quick five minutes play.

I think the size limit is biting Nintendo in the *** now. The situation should be fixed by next gen, thought, considering Nintendo's expanded online offering in the Nintendo 3DS.

@Hardy83: There's always The Grinder and Conduit 2, so we have a shot at having a decent third-party title not entirely backed up by Nintendo.

@jbrodack: I think people will still entirely miss out on this game if their PC can't handle it. My PC probably won't be able to handle this game when it comes out, which makes me glad to have a PS3.

(Also getting sick and tired of people saying PS3/360 are next-gen systems, they've been out for half a decade like the Wii plus the Nintendo 3DS just released a few days ago)

Nintendo should be worried about what they have to offer in 2011. There's only five Wii games so far from this year that interest me (Taking into account games released in North America), which is really poor considering that 2007, 2009, and 2010 were great years with (yes I'm serious) 2008 being decent as well.

I am, however, going to start replaying my Wii games again. I feel that I haven't spent enough times on games that I do enjoy and I don't want to forget the reason why I love Nintendo's product so much.