Rejoice! The DSi Gets a Virtual Console After All

Alright! This is great news.

Yep, this is great news. I had heard about this last week, but it's nice to get some type of confirmation finally. YAY!

Great news. Now i really want a DSi. But why does it have to cost 200 bucks in canada...

Yippe!!
First game i'm downloading is NES SMB.
with my free 1,000 dsi points

@Corbie:
"I had heard about this last week"

How dare you not share such news with your favorite feathered friend.

If they release Donkey Kong '94 and the Wario Land games, I'll download all of them despite owning the cartridges. They're just so good.

@ Chicken Brutus - This source has been known to be wrong at times, so when it comes from him, I usually wait until I get confirmation before I start telling everyone. I've had it backfire on me before.

UGH! Im a Platinum member on club nintendo and I wanted to go soooooo badly just so I could find this out and confirm it for you guys. But still this is great news

Excellent news, though shouldnt this be in VC-Reviews? 0o

Yes, yes, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the whole reason I'm buying the Dsi!!

This really makes the DSi a consideration for me now, I was a bit unsure after seeing the retail price but this is incredible news! The ultimate handheld? I think so.

Unless I'm incredibly stupid, I assume this will include Game Boy Colour games as well, if that is so then I won't have to search my room for my old Game Boy Colour.

@EJD:
"I assume this will include Game Boy Colour games as well."

At this point, I'd say that's a very good bet. After all, I don't think the core technology changed much between Game Boy and Game Boy Color...if I remember correctly, the Color was backwards compatible, no?

I think we'll see Color titles as well.

Cannon Fodder here I come

Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3Mother3
...please? OK, fine.

While that alone would be reason to get the silly machine, it'd also be nice to see: All Mario / Wario Lands, Mario Kart Super Circuit, the GB sequels of Kid Icarus and Balloon Fight.

I think you can forget the Mother games. Nintendo seems to have absolutely NO desire to bring this series to the US any further. It's a shame too. And I'm still mad that they never localized the first Magical Vacation title.

And I'm with you Drake. I LOVE the Wario Land games and own them all. But I'd download them in a second. Maybe they'll colorize the first Wario Land game finally.

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HALELUJAH!!!! BEST NEWS SINCE......EVER!!!!!
Chicken, you are now one of my favorite mods/roving newshounds here!

You'll get one Gameboy game a week. Just be ready for it

@Tony: Who cares! We're still getting GB games

@WiiGuy: "Game Boy" and "Game Boy Advance" are specifically named. I'd be surprised if they made NES games available. It's not impossible, just improbable.

I believe he's talking about the Game Boy Color version of Super Mario Bros.

Having said that, don't be surprised to see some of the Wii Virtual Console systems pop up on the DSi Virtual Console service at some point.

mother 3 please?

Great news. Still not buying a DSi.

@19 and 20
the classic NES series Super mario bros.
for the GBA

I was going to buy the DSi anyway, but certainly this is the only feature I care about from the console, so GREAT NEWS!

yay, problem is it's first-party games only for the DSi Virtual Console. I was hoping for games like Crash, Kingdom Hearts, etc. But i still get Super Mario Land and others.

Ahhh forgot about those. Which is hard to believe considering I own Zelda II and Metroid.

@Chicken Brutus: Yeah I'm pretty sure the original Game Boy games could be played on a Game Boy Colour. This must be the first good bet I've made in years. I would also love to play the Zelda games, I only recall playing Link's Awakening. I was determined to get Oracle of Ages/Seasons at the time it came out but never got round to it.

This is great news, but I'm still hoping you can download Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games onto the Wii as well, not just the DSi.

And also... how will Tetris be released? If Nintendo gets the license to release that, maybe they could get a deal to release the NES version as well? And perhaps Tetris Attack on SNES... but that might be asking too much.

...and I thought that the VC handhelds would go through Wii...
Heh, I wonder if they had this in mind all along.
Heh, I suspect that the Pokemon games will not be launch titles and that Mother 3 will be one of the last games released there.
(I wonder... will they release Red/Blue AND Yellow or omit one of those? Will the PCC come back in Crystal? And what about Boktai?)
Either way, I will SO be buying a lot of Pokemon out of this.

Ok thats it, il save up for DSi. My DS phat is breaking on me and i already have 40 bucks to ebgames. Settles it.
I just don't know how il get the rest of the money. Probably sell some games.

I'm intrigued by this, but not excited quite yet. Why? Game Boy games are common and super cheap. The only reason to be excited is for easy access (no separate GBA and DS) and not having to worry about the battery dying (as has happened in every version of Pokémon Silver I buy)

@ MarkyVigoroth
Yes, old Pokemon games are a must, especially Gold and Silver because of their short battery life.

@Terranigma
Yeah my L button is breaking and there are some scratches on the screen. And I also have lost my recharger, so those are some good reasons to pick it up.
But 200 is still a little expensive... I wish it cost 170 like in the states...

This is a fantastic day. VC for the DSi has been confirmed (and, as promise, I apologize about my previous statements and have quadrupled my interest in DSiware), Hudson announces a ton of new games to come out soon, we finally get SAMEGAME, and Bit. Trip has fulfilled my prediction that I made for it 2 weeks ago. Now all we need is for Swords & Soldiers to come out...

Everyone missed the good one!
A chance for localized fire emblems!
Megaman Zero!!!
Maybe even Ren & Stimpy! I can dream!

Good for them. Still hanging onto my Lite for GBA and my R4 for the rest (ROMs are legal if you own the original cartridge, which I still have a library of old GB games).

Although I doubt Tetris will be arriving any time soon (what with Tetris DS and all), I absolutely can't wait for Super Mario Land, and all this will be a good distraction from the dross lined up for DSiWare.

Now, here's a talking point: will GBA games ever be released (due to the cart omission this time), and how much will all these games cost? I'd like to think 200 points for GB; 500 for GBC and 800 for GBA, but who knows? Nintendo might even choose to give us TG, NES, SNES, Mega Drive and other home consoles, yet! Or, even better - Game & Watch titles! Oh, I'm so happy.

Oh - and think about how good the games will look on the super brightness setting! I'm SO DAMN EXCITED NOW!!!

@Chicken Brutus - On a hardware level, the GBC and GB differed in several significant ways. Damned if I can remember the details, but I do know that the color vs. grayscale thing wasn't as automatic as it seemed. Making a dual system cartridge (i.e. the black plastic ones) was no easy task.

That being said, Nintendo tends to lump GB and GBC together when they speak about the GameBoy platform. So my guess is that GBC is included when they say GB and GBA.

DaVeMaN99-san, did you try doing CPR on the L-Button? I read about that in a Boktai forums (I do to remember which one) and did that myself once. The technique worked.

@MarkyVigoroth
Yeah i usually do have to blow into it, probably because theres dust in it. But it still is a pain in the ass, people i have to blow in it often when im playing a game.
Basically i was going to update to DS lite, but now i guess im going to pre order DSi. (ebgames person told me they are all probably going to sell out). Heres for being broke!

@Terranigma
Yeah its a pain to get shoulder buttons to work. You just have to blow them for 10 seconds and they should work.
And im only one in my family with DS, but my dad and sister usually play it.

Lol I was concidering it before, but this has totally sold me. Now I can play the gameboy games I never got a chance to play before. The oracle zelda games, as well as Link's awakening. SWEET!!!

I was just discussing this possibility at work today. I warned against telling customers as though it were fact because it had only been rumors. I picked up the phone and told them the news as soon as I read this!

Even if it only starts with first-party games, I wouldn't be surprised to see others get on board a little later on. Maybe SEGA will try to get Game Gear downloads available? I believe I theorized on this on a different news listing on this site just the other day. Makes sense, right?

@DaVeMaN99: Sadly, last I saw, the exchange rate being US and Canadian dollars favored US. It usually does, after all, which is why MOST things seem to cost more up north. Sorry, but I guess you gotta pay what you gotta pay.

Edit: I just looked back at the article on Kombo. If you read the comments below it, pricing for the Gameboy games is revealed at 500 points for original Gameboy and 800 for GBA. It's logical to assume that GBC games are also 500, with the whole lumping thing Nintendo does. I think it's especially awesome that they'll actually RUN FROM SD! Good to know they built the DSi correctly instead of repeating the Wii's mistake, eh?

DSi just become worth something, although I'm pretty set with my GB/C and GBA collection, and I doubt it would get Dragon Warrior I&II or Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 for a long time.

Terranigma-san, that pretty much explained the death of my DS Nitro and Lite (except that to top screen is still attached).

@Digiki: Maybe it would get Dragon Warrior 1 & 2, though. They did skip re-remaking 1-3 to do 4-6 on DS, which kind of surprised me. Maybe they'd rather put the first three on DSiWare? Okay, probably not, but the lack of new releases prior to 4-6 on DS still seems odd to me. I have no idea what they're actually planning to do with that.

I also wondered, like brooks83 (#29), if this could mean that GB/GBC and GBA games will also be available on the Wii's Virtual Console. After all, the good old Game Boy Player does not work with the Wii console. And I think it should not be too difficult to integrate the Gameboy Player's emulation software into Virtual Console games on the Wii. It already exists and does not have to be developed.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LONG HAVE I AWAITED THIS! THE DAY THAT YOU WOULD COME!

I will believe it (and be more excited about it) when an official confirmation comes along... but there are a ton of old Gameboy games I'd love to have - the Castlevanias, the Zeldas, Kid Icarus OMAM, Metroid II, Final Fantasy Legends, Dragon Warrior/Quest, etc.

What's this about waiting for an official confirmation? This information was given by Nintendo reps at an official Nintendo event. That's not good enough for you?

@Terranigma: I think you're just being stingy. Nothing wrong with $5 for a classic Gameboy game. I'd much rather they NOT price GB and GBC games differently, anyway. A set price for such similar systems will cut down confusion from the masses.

Im with ReZon a bit too. Ill get waaaay more excited once nintendo announces it or I see it in the shop channel

Whoa!? I guess I will have to get a DSI after all. This is awesome news!
Now I may get back all those great gameboy games I lost all those years ago.

I feel everyone is too exited, if the wii vc is any indication the only thing to come from this is heartbreak. Before anyone chews me out I mean this lightheartedly.

Wouldn't this be better suited for a VC-Reviews article?
Bleh, I'm not adding a DSi to my wishlist until Game and Watch games are confirmed. I'd rather buy cartridges of Metroid II, Kirby's Dream Land and Super Mario Land if they're not.

I have a more in depth post (more like essay) over on Nintendo Life, if anyone's interested, though I doubt it. It's mostly rabble anyway.

@Stuffgamer1: It may have been, but the only confirmation we have is that guy's word for it.

@Terranigma: You're probably right about the confirmation, I guess. I'd like to know why I never even HEARD about this event until today, even though I'm a Platinum Club Nintendo Member. Shouldn't they have sent me an e-mail about it or something? Where WAS this event, anyway?

@Poggydude: Yeah, you're probably right. On the other hand, knowing we're getting a handheld VC for DSi at all is still better than none. And a lot of us around here like to be optimistic, even in the face of questionable odds.

@ King Elemento: That wasn't a very long essay. And I fear you hold hopes that are very unreasonable. MAYBE they'll do wireless connectivity, but I'd forget about online right now. Game & Watch could be done, but I don't think Nintendo thinks there's a big enough market for it. Collections would probably work better for those, like the classic Gameboy and GBA collections (which might well come to the new DSi VC, if that's any consolation).
As Pokemon Stadium isn't even ON VC yet, it's POSSIBLE they'd do the connectivity thing you desire, but again, it's a lot to ask. It almost looks like you want to set the bar so high that you'll never get a DSi.

Wonder if we'll ever see Neo Geo Pocket on the service. They seem to have given up on Neo Geo on VC... I'd love to get Sonic Pocket Adventure.

This can't get any better. Im gonna need LOTS of nintendo points...

@Stuffgamer1 - the events were held in NY, VA, OH, and FL, and only Platinum Members near these places were sent the invitations.

@Terranigma: I've been checking. Nothing yet.

@ReZon: Figures. I never heard a word, stuck here in Maryland.

Now, my purchase of a DSi is under "maybe." I actually might get one. I mean, do I really NEED Slide Adventure? Maybe I'll get a DSi when the price goes down...

I figured that they might do something like this. I probably won't be buying a DSi at launch, but this is good news to hear.

There are a lot of games I'd like to see, but I also hope that they put up the Gold/Silver and/or Crystal versions of Pokémon because those games are especially prone to having their save capabilities fizzle out (as mine did). Plus, the guys who missed out on the Johto generation will have something to do. Not sure how trading's going to work, though.

I've already got mine pre-ordered at GAME. They give you 75 quid off if you trade in you Lite the week before launch. At least that's what the sales assistant said. Yikes is that this week?

I will definitely consider buying a dsi NOW!!!
I needs mah mario and donkey kong

AWESOME. PLEASE release Game and Watch Gallery! I'd be SO happy!

This is awesome news!

@Wiiloveit--Since Tetris DS is out of print, there is a chance they could put it on the DSi VC. Hopefully they put up the color version instead of the black and white.

it says on nintendo life that it'll hold 8 gb cards. Does anyone know if this is true?

For Tetris, I rather expect they'll just release another new version for DSiWare or something, like how they released Tetris Party on WiiWare instead of putting a version on VC.
Even better, if memory constraints would allow, they could just re-release Tetris DS ON DSiWare! Why the heck did they discontinue the game that fast in the first place?

@62. Stuffgamer1:
The essay comment was a bit of exaggeration anyway. Wireless, I'd guess, is similar to the Link Cable. Obviously online is a bit over the top, for now, but it would be a really nice touch if they did.
I don't want anything to do with the current G&W collections, to be perfectly honest. 3 games on one card, when they could fit 6 on a GBA cart, and 4 on a GBC cart (WITH bonus material) is an insult to themselves, to be honest. Especially considering they're both Club Nintendo exclusives. I seem to remember reading somewhere that, technologically, every G&W game could fit on a DS card, with room to spare.

I think you missed my point with the Pokemon Stadium comment (the fault is on my end, I don't think I made it clear enough), as I meant the Gen 1 Pokemon games and Pokemon Stadium would probably get a simultaneous release. I'm sure they could replace the RBY/Stadium connectivity code with the DPPt/PBR code, but the engines are most likely completely different, and it's beyond me anyway, so there we go.

@ Jangonov

If it can hold 8gb cards, won't it also be able to hold 16 and 32gb cards?

@77
one guy said that the highest he tested was a 8gb SDHC, and it worked

@King Elemento: I meant they could put the Gameboy collections for download, not that stupid Club Nintendo crap. 800 coins for three lousy games? No thanks! Are there two on the European Club or something? We've only got one, which has Oil Panic, Donkey Kong, and one other (forget what).

Of course every G&W could fit on one DS card. Those games are TINY! But what I really like about the collections on Gameboy (especially 4 on GBA) are the modern versions. Fun stuff.

It'd be cool if they did that with Pokemon, but I don't know if they'd bother. Hard to say. Guess we can just wait and see.

@toddr
not necessarily. The wii can hold 2 gb that doesnt mean the firmware can handle more than that
So if the firmware can only handle up to 8 then that doesnt mean it can do more (on the current firmware that is, they could update it.)
@wiiguy
who was this one guy?

This...is...so...AWESOME!

Curse you Nintendo. Now I have to buy one.

Well maybe when I saved some money. The fact I have got most of the cool GBA/GBC games and the use of a Flash Card to play them on a GBA/DS is a better option.

It will be interesting to see what games they do release.

Why people want MOTHER 3 over F-ZERO Climax IS MADNESS!

The fact that they can be run off the SD Card is a huge hint if you ask me. It also explains why the storage solution hasn't come yet when it was supposed to be here by now... in theory. Biggest thing we know about the solution that's been confirmed is that you can download straight to your SD Card from the Wii Shop. Come on, Nintendo. Don't let us down.

Do you know how many people would be completely ecstatic if the solution really WAS a solution (not some temporary stupidness). Imagine, too, how many would take back things they previously said about certain things.

Things are looking up!

For those that are dying for the DSi like myself, simply begin to compile a list of GB games you'd love to get once the DSi comes, as CB suggested at the outset. It may help hold you over till it releases.

@ Jangonov

True, but most things that can handle 8gb cards can also use 16 and 32gb cards since they're all sdhc.

or, they can release other consoles games, like gamegear games or wonderswan?

@79. Stuffgamer1:
Nah, neither of them are in Europe, yet. Though there are 2 of them in Japan, the second game having two games, and a merger of the two as the third game.
I wasn't aware that G&W Gallery 4 (Advance) had the modern games, I thought it was just a pile of the classic ones. Well, now that is even further up my wishlist!
Still, a lot of the Gameboy ports of the G&W games try to fit a two screen game onto one screen, all the more reason to have them separate, if you ask me. Though they could adapt the games to two screens, rather than squashing both into one. After all, Nintendo will probably put more effort into the handheld VC over the console one, as the link cable will require turning into wi-fi, they'd probably add other stuff at the same time.

Hello everyone, just joined a few minutes ago using the Internet Channel. Love the community and the site.

Let me start off with WAHOO! I've put a reserve on the DSi but was thinking of withdrawing it until I read this. Like many of you I've owned the Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color and have enjoyed a TON of classic games. I remember the Game Boy and Donkey Kong '94 being my first purchases with my own money when I was a junior in high school, travelling in a blizzard to grab a copy of Kirby's Dream Land 2 in 1995, swearing at the difficulty in Donkey Kong Land's blimp levels and playing Link's Awakening over and over again (the eighth boss was too easy - beating a living fire ball with the Fire Rod?).

This is great news for an old guy like me (I'm hitting thirty-one). I doubt that the GB VC would be available at launch, but I may just purchase the DSi anyway. Thank you Nintendo and thanks to WiiWare World for informing the gaming community.

*And may God bless the poster who confirmed that the DSi can support up to 8 GBs - I just bought an 8 GB SDHC without knowing the DSi's limits. Again, thanks.

James

If I remember correctly this was announced back when DSiWare was being announced for Japan. The launch games list had Wario Ware Inc. for GBA on it, well, parts of it anyway.

I must've been the lucky one with my Poke'mon Gold cartridge. It's been nearly 10 years and I still have saving capabilities! The only time I lost my save was when I was resetting the clock and I accidentally put in the erase file code instead... HUGE bummer.

@Wolfcoyote - welcome to the site. I honestly wouldn't expect this to be available at launch (assuming it's true of course!), but I hope you'll still pick up a DSi. But at least we'll have the DSiWare on or shortly after launch!

(Also, I've read elsewhere as well that the DSi can support 8gb SD cards.)

It seems weird such a bomb would be dropped in such a random place so i'm holding on not true/host (employed by Nintendo, given minimal info) was put on the spot so spouted out the deary old rumour.

Personally...I'll stick with lameboy so no losses if its false.

This is not difficult to understand or believe given the removal of the Game Boy Advance slot on the system not to mention the download service the DSi will make use of. Most people already assumed this was pretty much a given and it certainly doesn't surprise me in the least. I was just curious as to when they'd finally let everyone in on it given the DSi launch is now less than two weeks away.

@Corbie - I am definitely one of those who assumes this to be a coming feature. Though I expect(ed) it to be released Japan's way first for some reason.

I would love for this to be true, but it's awfully close to April 1, and this is the time of year you have to keep your guard up. I hope that no one is having a big laugh right now at the expense of many.

Hmm, I just thought of something else... this is a great chance for them to give us the game that would later inspire StarFox, "X"! That's assuming that they're going to do import games too... which they should.

I was lucky enough to find an unopened, mint-condition copy on eBay for $40. (Which is a steal, considering how rare it is... AND it still has all the instruction manuals, paper maps, and tip sheets!) But now it's great that now it'll possibly be on the DSi for much less!

Well it's also worth remembering that it was Perrin Kaplan herself that claimed the Wii console would be region free, and then it turned out to not be true.

Wow, this is great news [stardust gets arrested for celebrating with illegal fireworks outside the student center - well, not really, but an event this big does deserve a fireworks celebration]

@92. ReZon: Well, we all know that the DSI is not an april fools joke. Besides, releasing handheld games on a handheld is just the logical thing for Nintendo to do...

But we also know how "logical" Nintendo's been lately, eh?

If you want further proof that the writer for Kombo didn't make this up, check here:
http://www.pressthebuttons.com/2009/03/handson-with-nintendo-dsi-downloadable-game-boy-games-coming-soon.html
Further searching would almost definitely reveal more similar articles from different people who attended the events, which at least proves that they did get the info there and didn't make it up. This guy even mentions getting to leaf through the DSi manual, which is interesting. Shouldn't take too long for us to find out for ourselves, anyway. We'll definitely get the "rumor" status of this info wiped out come DSi launch, if not sooner.

Basically i had a problem and commented on news which i had problem with but i guess admins didnt see. So here it is.
Um i do not really know what happened, but it really freaked me out.
I clicked on the manners game news from news section or what ever, and then something went wrong, and there was a clicking noise that kept on happening and i couldnt exit or anything. So i did control alt delete, but then the site some how went to redtube.com and i was freaking out and i deleted it. :l
So i do not really know what went wrong, and i do not know how it went to that site.

There, really crazy stuff.

Are you saying this happened a second time? It may be a virus if it's happened more than once.

I think he's saying it didn't get addressed by a mod the first time he posted about it. I saw his first post about it, but didn't have anything to say on the matter. Still don't, really. Wish I could help, but I can't.

@ DaVeMaN99 - I'll say this for you and for everyone else on here: We're working on some big changes to the site and for the next couple of weeks you guys will have to be patient with small, odd occurrences that might happen from time to time. There's a lot of things to work through so occasionally you might experience something out of the ordinary. If it continues to happen, please use the Contact Us form and let us know.

Yeah, that could be what he means. Either way, it seems to only be him experiencing this, so it must be something wrong with his computer.

PS Yay! 100th post!

Edit: Whoops. Corbie beat me to it.

Well Iwata is set to speak on Wednesday at the GDC - since he'll be talking about the DSi, and if this is what Nintendo has been telling their reps to tell people at the events, then (hopefully) he ought to say something about it then.

What a coincidence. That was also my 100th comment. Oh well, I did get the first post. BTW Corbie, where'd your post go?

@ReZon: Yeah, he probably will say something about it. Just gotta wait until then, I guess. That's not too long a wait, really. Especially if I stop searching for more info on this, get off the danged computer, and go PLAY A GAME! Yeah, that's a good idea... logs off immediately after posting comment

Wow, I just might eventually get a DSi now...

@100. Corbie: Speaking of clicking links to other sites, I was searching for music, and just clicked on the Amazon MP3 banner to order some new tunes, so y'all should be getting a small commission from them

Stardust, proud supporter of VC-Reviews/Wiiware World...

I dunno it is a little close to April 1st. I hate this time of year because you cannot trust anything. Remember IGN's Zelda movie preview? (though I am glad that that wasn't made.) But Im going to believe it....for now.

wow! that so great! I doubt that the GB tetris will come <.<

Hmmm...that might have just convinced me to buy a DSi now.

That settles it. I'm getting a DSi.

@jangonov
That reminds me of when this site said that the Virtual Boy was coming to the VC last year. It seems logical that they could put this on the DSi VC... oh crap did I just spoil your April Fools joke for this year? Heh heh!

If anyone else wants to comment on Mother 3's potential for this new VC service, please pretend that you think it might happen so that you don't shatter my hopeless dreams. Thanks.

Allow me to fuel your optimism...
http://earthboundcentral.com/2009/01/possibility-for-mother-3-for-ds/
I've started playing Mother 3 a few weeks ago and I haven't found any sound samples from songs in it yet... so Nintendo can't use that excuse THIS time!

This actualy good news, Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Games?!
YAY
I hope that gets more suport and that we also can buy Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket and others portable devices' games ^^

PS: Why this news isn't also in VC-Reviews?

More from the Kombo Homepage:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Nintendo called Kombo up today and requested that it be known that some of the above information is not officially announced for North America and as a result, may not be completely accurate.

Specifically, they told us that you will not be able to play GB and GBA games directly from your SD memory card. Also, downloadable GB and GBA games have not officially been announced for North America (only Japan, so far).

Nintendo is holding their GDC 2009 key note speech tomorrow. Expect to be informed of the complete capabilities of DSi tomorrow. As always, Kombo will keep you updated.

Why this news isn't also in VC-Reviews?

Because its not Virtual Console news and that they may as well keep all DSi related news in one place? All the DSi news will be shifted to its own place when its released.

That does it! Instant buy on release date!

DEAR GOD..... 118 posts already!

This is what I've been waiting for since I heard of the DSi. I'm hoping they replace the link cable with Wifi, so you can still do multiplayer F1 Race and Pokemon .

Also this could open up Mario Golf's unlockable characters with an update for Mario Golf on N64. Also gives Nintnedo a reason to release the Pokemon Stadium games now

I'm just gonna go in the corner and explode over this news

EDIT: That last bit sounded a bit wrong

I was hoping for console games on the DSi VC, But GB and GBA sounds pretty good too.

Yet again, This IS an unofficial confirmation.

GB and GBA games for DSi make the most sense rather than console games.

Game Boy on DSi? Yay. However...
Nintendo better do something special with the Super Game Boy enhanced games! I'm perpetually perplexed that NONE of the colored Game Boy systems released since SGB actually took advantage of their special color pallettes or borders. Not even Game Boy Player, which you'd think would have been a no-brainer.

@80. jangonov
http://www.vooks.net/modules.php?module=article&id=13873
"How many gigs can the DSi SD Card Slot take?

The DSi can read up to at least a 8gig SDHC card. Possibly more but we haven’t tested."

I wonder if Mario Golf GBC will be one of the first DSiVC titles and if it will have a connectivity to the Wii one...

Well how do you think it would do so? The N64 had a Controller Pak which allowed GB games to be inserted into a controller. Obviously this is not the same thing as having a DSi with an emulated GBC Mario Golf. Hopefully Nintendo will come up with a way.

This is good news. It will be the BEST NEWS EVER!! if we get Mother 3 and some Fire Emblems.

Since it's really just a emulater, can't Nintendo just put in Mato's M3 patch and call it a day?

See the update on the article. Nintendo reports that you will not be able to play downloaded games from an SD card. Also they say that a VC in North America isn't official. A VC seems obvious, though, so I'd count on that at some point, if not at launch, but Nintendo seems to still be too paranoid to let you play VC games from an SD card. In any case, it will almost certainly all be locked to a specific DSi anyway, which is a deal killer for me - physical cartridges you can share with your family and friends, but DSiWare? What are you going to do? Pass your DSi's back and forth so you can play the right game on the right DSi? Ridiculous. Apple lets you install downloaded programs on multiple iPod Touches/iPhones. Nintendo should do the same.

@ Smaman 114
I remember when that little news blurb came out. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean much because only NoA can make the final decision to allow it to be localized. And as for sound samples, well, fight any of the Mr. Batties (I think they have a different name in M3, but I forget), and you'll immediately notice the Batman theme in the first couple seconds. Of course, the rest of the song is completely original, so it would be an easy change. But I think there are some old M1/M2 songs that get recycled in a few places which may be copyright-sensitive... not sure.

However, I think NoA's main concern with M3 won't be copyrights. The Magypsies and later on the breathing tanks (you'll know what I mean when you get there) are probably what they are mostly worried by, and even if you could censor them out, Itoi and NoJ wouldn't allow it.

There's at least nothing illegal about it though, not by a long shot, so I am hoping against hope that this does get release! It's probably more likely than M1 or 2, actually.

@Popyman 126
I highly doubt Nintendo would use a fan hack. For a fan translation, copyrights and family-friendliness aren't important; if they're going to be sued, it's going to be for making the hack in the first place, not for the contents of the translation. NoA would have to worry about those things in their translation; plus, there are a few places where the patch isn't quite right: music skipping, or text just not looking perfect, and I think a few bugs.

We can only hope that if this is indeed a problem they are willing to translate it themselves. It is a Lot of text and full of puns and allusions, so it's by no means a minor project.

"It is a Lot of text and full of puns and allusions, so it's by no means a minor project."

Which is why they could just use Mato's translation and save time and money. He is a REAL translator(he works at Funimation), and has already said he would give it to them for free.

@ Bass X0
It would require a little hacking of the games on Nintendo's end, but you could use the DS to Wii connectivity like you see on Poke'mon Battle Revolution since that's essentially the same thing. It would probably go a little something like this:

Hold a button or two down when starting up the N64 game on VC. This would bring up a dialog screen kind of similar to the one where you can connect 5 controllers to the TG16. Back on your DSi you'd probably hold down a number of buttons as well to activate a transmission mode of some sort. The Wii would pick up the DSi, and it would show up on the dialog screen. From there you probably could assign which pak goes to which controller and it would upload the game's data and apply is accordingly.

Well, that's just how I think it would work. Knowing NIntendo though, we may not even get something like that.

So now we can't even run them off the SD card. LAME!!!
There go all hopes of a true storage solution for Wii, too. If we can't run games off of the SD card on their new system with new firmware, there's no WAY Nintendo will patch the Wii's firmware to do so. Crapola.

@Popy
Yes, but like I was saying, I think NoA would have different ideas of how it needs to be translated. The fan translation would need some cleaning up at the very least because some things might seem offensive or un-family-friendly to NoA, or perhaps have copyright issues. Also, the fan translation has a few buggy areas, the most notable being certain parts of the game always have the music skip horribly with a bit of game slowdown. While it's forgivable in a fan translation, NoA would want to do it themselves rather than using a hack to get it up to their own quality standards.

But maybe they can use the fan hack / translation as a starting point and somehow fix what the fan team couldn't figure out... That would be absolutely great. I'm just not sure if they can do that or if they'd even want to.

when are we getting a dsi site, we seem to be getting more dsi news than wiiware news on wiiware world ;]

should be between a week and ten days. they said the DSi will get its own site when it gets released outside of Japan. and europe gets it first on the 5th.

Hey, I just realized, that those news aren't listed at vc-reviews...

@Bass X0: There are two options:
1.) Make a wireless connectivity from DSi to Wii. MG GBC could have its own menue to transfer Characters, However, this would mean, that you'll have to this all the time at MG64.

and the easier option 2.) DSi uses SD cards, Wii uses SD cards. Logical conclusion: Insert a SD Card with a MG GBC save into a Wii and it will automatically load the characters to MG64 when inserted. This way however, has to be made fool proof, for people who have the desire to remove the SD Card while playing (but the same was with teh Transfer Pak).

So meny classics to get!

The Mario Land/Wario Land games, Kirby, Handheld Zelda titles!

HELL YEAH

@jangonov & others - As far as I've been able to ascertain, the Wii is 100% hardware capable of reading SDHC cards. There have been more than enough reports of people using them, even to full capacity with custom IOSes. (i.e. homebrew stuff)

The problem appears to be a software issue. The Wii doesn't understand file systems formatted to greater than 2GB and/or may not know how to run the controller hardware to make the card operate in SDHC mode. Thus SDHC cards occasionally work if formatted to 2GB or less.

As to why Nintendo doesn't want to solve this problem, I have a few different theories. The first is that Nintendo didn't specify SDHC compatibility to the manufacturers. In result, the manufacturer would have chosen their parts based on price rather than on compatibility with SDHC. It may have happened that SDHC parts are so common at this point that all Wiis are equipped, but there's nothing that guarantees it.

My second theory is that 2GB is a LOT of space for the Wii. I have yet to meet anyone who has managed to fill it. Given that you can't run games off the SD Card anyway, Nintendo has no incentive to do the footwork necessary to solve this problem.

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

@SmaMan sez... this is a great chance for them to give us the game that would later inspire StarFox, "X"!

You need to read the VC Reviews help page. It says right there:

When is 'X' coming out for the Virtual Console?
This is the question we get asked more often than any other. To put it bluntly, if it's not included in the Coming Soon list, we have no idea.

(Sorry, couldn't resist. )

As nice as it is to have any bit of previously unavailable Nintendo history made available, X looks really bad. The HUD crowds the screen, and the graphics look basic even for GB. Hopefully it plays better than it looks. I do love the original Star Fox.

I wish Nintendo would colorize a few of their older GB titles like Super Mario Land 2 and Wario Land.

I want Robopon and Metawalker for GBC!

@thewiirocks
.......... well I guess it's good to see that enough people want X to warrant it it's own FAQ.
@Adam
It does play a lot better than it looks. The framerate is really good given the system. (and not to mention for the year) You gotta remember that this game did what few GB games did, 3D graphics. And as a result, Famitsu named it one of the Top 5 greatest GB Games of all time. It doesn't even need that much translation. A majority of the text is during the mission briefings that contain many pictures and animation so you can easily tell what you have to do. Someone even made a StrategyWiki page for it if you get stuck.

Look it up on YouTube. There's one of someone playing through a good half of the game if you want to see how it plays. Just be sure to search X ekkusu or you'll get tons of useless results.

@thewiirocks
Congratulations! You have met your first person to fill a 2 gb card, Me. And that isnt with AAC audio or photos.

So what did you fill it with?

My guess would be games. It's probably possible to do, if you download pretty much EVERY game available right now, especially focusing on WiiWare and N64.

Then he must own a lot of games considering each one is under 40 mb.

2000mb divided by 40mb = 50 games

Most games are $10 so $10 x 50 games = $500

I find it quite hard to believe that he's spent $500 on downloadable wii games.

Heh, actually Ive spent around $400........ It is filled with VC wiiware and songs for Rockband 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour. Each song is about 190 blocks. Im SERIOUSLY one of those people who want a memory solution. How do you think I became a platnium member of club nintendo in 2 weeks? currently I have 970 points:p

oh and, I just counted. With Wiiware and Virtual Console I own 48 games. So yeah your math is pretty accurate
edit: 150th! not that it matters lol

i just went to the nintendo shop and checked for you. Ive spent exactly $390. BUT remember that guitar hero gives you free songs and rockband 2 gives you 20 free songs. at 180-200 blocks a piece that is a HUGE hunk of memory. So to answer your question, yes, it is a lot of memory. And no, it isn't enough for me. lol

@jangonov - Congrats on being the first person I've ever met to fill a 2GB card on the Wii!

Of course, it doesn't change Nintendo's rationale much. You're an outlier in Nintendo's market. The exception that proves the rule. I imagine the way Nintendo sees it, you've spent so much money on WiiWare (haven't we all?) that spending $10-$15 on another SD Card isn't going to be an unreasonable burden.

@thewiirocks
You know, you make a good point........{in a childish voice} But I dont WANNA buy and switch two cards!!!!!!

Though I disagree with you on one point. With me spending $390 on downloads ALONE (not to mention actual disks) I think I would be the core of their market. Again though, I get what you are saying I may be the core gamer but I am still a minority as most people are not crazy/obsessive enough to buy that much.

Everyone knows that core gamers have more money than sense!

Kidding aside, I hear what you're saying. However, you are still the exception. I've spent a similar amount on Wii Points as yourself, but my 2GB SD Card has over 7100 blocks available. The reason is that very few games bump up against the upper limits on size.

By owning both GHIV and RB2, you've created a perfect storm to run up your storage costs. All those downloadable songs you've purchased add up. It's as if you bought some of the largest WiiWare games a few dozen times over. Except that at only 200 points a track, you didn't need to spend nearly as much money to do it.

While it may be slightly painful, the solution is still the same. Have a card for RB2, a card for GHIV, and a card for Wii Shop downloads. That will keep everything neat and tidy, and you'll be unlikely to run out of storage anytime soon. Which isn't to say that Nintendo shouldn't fix the problem, but they're probably looking at this pragmatic approach and wondering why customers don't see it the same way.

well I just bought a 1 gig card not too long ago ( I got it for $10...does anybody remember when they we 10X that? lol) so the new card will be used for my songs on rb 2/gh iv.

still my original point stands. The dsi should have the capacity for 8gb, and according to these fine folks on wiiware-world, it will. (thinks for a moment) aw great! now I have ANOTHER card to buy.

think nintendo has stock in memory cards now? lol

I can't wait for all the old WarioLand games; WarioLand 3 was my single favorite gameboy game ever made!!!

@158. masterof8elements: 157 is better, because it is prime

I've already spent over 25000 Points in the Wii Shop Channel in just over two years (mainly VC games), so if this is any indication on how much I'll be spending if and when Virtual Handheld launches, Nintendo'd better watch out!

By the way, I'm now Master of 18 Elements.

Oh, and...YAY! 158th! Sorry, just had to add that part

I'd like to see colorization, but doubt it'll happen. Don't particularly care about Super GameBoy support though.

@BassX0: As far as Mario Golf goes, if they can add content to Pokemon Snap, they can change the connectivity to the DSi rather than the controller. For some reasons unknown to me they haven't figured out how to make a controller pak channel though, which as far as I'm concerned would be all it would take to save ghosts in Mario Kart 64

Is this official? Why wasn't it available on the Japanese DSi since its launch?
I'd wait for an official statement from Nintendo.

Tough crowd.

@ PALgamer:
"Is this official?"

See the first sentence of this article for the answer to that question.

"Why wasn't it available on the Japanese DSi since its launch?"

Considering the lateness of this news and no word of specific titles, I'd say it won't be available on anybody else's launch, either. But it won't take much work to introduce them to the systems later. There was no WiiWare service at launch either, but one simple patch later and we were able to access it through the Wii Shop Channel. It won't require any significant changes on the user's end...just another button to press.

We're still keeping our ears open for an official statement from Nintendo, but this is news that's being reported by many different sources who were there. I don't think we're being lied to; I think it's just a matter of Nintendo getting all their ducks in a row before (and maybe a list of launch titles) together before they announce it officially.

I know it isn't official, but people's comments take it like it was. DSiVC will make it to the west, since it is supposedly planned for Japan. Don't see a reason not to bring it here, if so. I just find it odd this got out before the release, trying to sell DSi's on features that wont be there out of the box. The first Wii's weren't sold on the promise of WiiWare.
Anyways, today it might be official.

@ Adam: I'm not talking about the WHOLE hack, just the script. So they don't need to translate anything, just put it into the game.

I know it's not as simple as that, but it gets rid of the translating step.

Ah, yea, that would make more sense.
I still think they'd make a lot of changes to the script, but that wouldn't take nearly as long as working from scratch.

No announcement from Iwata today on this.

I am MORE than happy to eat my words from post #132 today. Though I now find it very unlikely that Gameboy games REALLY won't be able to run from SD...I wish Nintendo could keep things straight. That'd be nice.

Still...MY FREAKING SD CARD PLAYS GAMES ON MY WII NOW!

F. Bob's Game.

@Terranigma: I'M familiar with Geoff Keighley, though I wish I could say I wasn't. On top of whatever else he does, he also works on Gamestop TV (that super-annoying DVD that runs in all company policy-abiding stores in America). I guess you wouldn't know that, unless there's some Gamestop near you I don't know about (I'm still unclear as to whether they have a presence in Europe or not, but I don't THINK they do).

Anyway, like everybody else on Gamestop TV, the guy's an idiot. He asks stupid questions and cuts off answers in his interviews, usually to say them himself once he can tell where they're going. I have NO respect for the guy WHATSOEVER, and refuse to trust anything HE leaked without another source.

And THAT right there proves why he's such a moron. Putting that news above a new Zelda title...

And that "news" isn't even news! I've been getting questions about strong Call of Duty rumors at work for a couple weeks, while NOBODY had heard word one about Spirit Tracks until today.

I didn't think much about it either way, really. Just waited for an announcement. Good thing about this is that it shouldn't get massive delays because it appears to reuse so much data from Phantom Hourglass. If you don't know what I mean, check out the trailer. It's on the Nintendo Channel, and probably the web somewhere, too. Looks SWEET!

@Terranigma:
"I'd thought (along with others from what i've gathered) that the new Zelda game was heading for Wii."

I've read at least one interview that suggested there IS a Zelda game in development for the Wii, tailored much more to the console than Twilight Princess was. (We all know the story behind that one.) Obviously I have no idea how far along it was, but I'm pretty confident we'll get a Wii installment at some point too.

I'm not sure about the pricing of Game Boy games for DSi VC. I was almost certain that, based on price, GB would be 200, GBC 500 and GBA 800. Of course, 500 Points for classics like Super Mario Land 2, Pokemon Chrome and Kirby's Block Ball, among others, is not a bad deal at all.

Bring on DSi VC, Nintendo!

As long as I can get Metroid II, Fusion, Zero Mission, and Tetris I'll be as happy as a clam.

I especially agree with Metroid II. That game is overdue for a return to public eye. I had been hoping for it to get the Zero Mission treatment, but it eventually became obvious THAT would never happen. The game on DSi VC would be quite acceptable.

I wonder if Squenix might be willing to jump onboard with this at some point and release the Final Fantasy Legend series. That would be pretty cool, I think. A good, cheap way for me to give those games another chance.

See my icon? I found it in the Australian Quick-Start Guide for DSi. You'd think it was just the D-Pad and buttons, but if you look closely, it only has two; namely A and B. And what were the primary gameplay buttons for Game Boy? A and B. I think this is further evidence of the Game Boy-themed DSi VC; not only that, it may be just around the corner...

EDIT: It seems my icon changed after I switched to a different one. All the icons are drawn by me-I'm going for a colouring-in book feel for them. The current one is a Noko Bombette from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (unless you're reading this after I changed my icon, meaning it is something else now!)

@NintendoPurist: I saw your icon while it was still the DSi thing, but I don't think too many others did since you changed it so fast. Couldn't you post a link or something? My Google searching hasn't come up with anything...

@Stuffgamer1: Sure thing! Here's the web URL for the Quick-Start Guide:

http://gamesites.nintendo.com.au/support/NintendoDSi_Quick-Start_Guide_AUS.pdf

It's right at the top (the brown icon)!

YESZ! Finally a chance to buy a DS! Have been waiting for ages to buy one! And gameboy games! SWEET!!

WHAT? The NZ release date is April 2; you are getting the game 1 day early?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

The Virtual Handheld exists! I gotta get a DSi now!!

I bet Japan will get it first. That way, it'll be an eye-opener into how the service might work for the rest of the world. Either way, bring on DSi VH!

BTW, chances are Super Mario Land will be a launch title in every region. Anybody have comments?

If Pokémon is released, I hope they contain connectivity with other games. I don't see them releasing any Pokémon games unless they can connect with one another.

I think it's possible that they could add the option, though. Mario Golf on the Virtual Console has some empty slots for characters from the Game Boy game. I don't think Nintendo would be as cheap as to leave them there unless they had plans for it.

That said, if Transfer Pak emulation is available, I don't see why Game Link emulation isn't. :]

Oh, and if Nintendo colourized the old Game Boy games, they'd all get second buys from me. ^_

@Terranigma
I have to agree with you there. Pokemon Chrome has to be one (Two? Three? Four?) of the biggest releases for Nintendo in the late 90s...and then GS came along...

@XD375
I do think they'd have options for adding colour to Game Boy games. Both the Color and Advance had it; pressing different button combinations to choose from one of twelve colourisations. I think with the extra X and Y buttons that Nintendo could add another eight colourisations at the very least, making 20 all up; add the L and R buttons and it could be at least 28 (unlikely); add a colour-creation app from the DSi Shop and it'd be infinite combinations!

@NintendoPurist: First, thanks for that link. Based on the fact that it's the only picture that's not repeated further down in the guide, it does seem that it may well refer to DSi VC, or at least SOMETHING that hasn't been fully announced yet.

As for the comment about colorizing from XD375, I'm pretty sure he meant more like what Capcom was doing with the Mega Man Anniversary Collection before it was canceled. Other examples include Wario Land 2 and Link's Awakening DX, of course.

That said, your suggestion sounds far more likely, unfortunately. I have no reason to doubt that they'll have at LEAST all the options from the GBA. Not convinced they'd bother to make more, really.

Unless it's TRUE colorization, I'd rather just stick to good old black and white mode. Ah, left+B, my faithful friend. Get rid of that red/green puke for me!

im going to get metriod prime for game boy advanced on dsi virtual handheld when this comes out

"As for the comment about colorizing from XD375, I'm pretty sure he meant more like what Capcom was doing with the Mega Man Anniversary Collection before it was canceled. Other examples include Wario Land 2 and Link's Awakening DX, of course."

Yes, that is exactly what I had meant. I even had the Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Link's Awakening in mind. ^^

Oh, and Reggie says they haven't talked about a DSi Virtual Console yet. :

Ah yes...Virtual CONSOLE, not Virtual HANDHELD! I think he's just trying to throw us off the trail by saying that. People have been mentioning that they'd like to see a mirror of the Wii Virtual Console on DSi, so he's sneakily implying they won't do VC by making us believe that he's talking about the Game Boy series VH!

Now I can download MARIO & LUIGI: SUPERSTAR SAGA!!!!( The best game ever.)

i don't have any favorite games other than pokemon ruby but then i have to buy it all over again ( and beat it ). it would also be cool if you could migrate them to pearl,diamond,platinum, and the new heart gold,soul silver games

I'm worried about this now...

My first post on this website: Ok. Its Oct 16. Where is the virtual console? Remember Nintendo specifically told Kombo that the sd card capibility was a total hoax & that this was only confirmed for japan, not usa. And its still not in japan! I got a bad feeling about this. <

This will never happen.

It still hasn't happened yet! Come on Nintendo I've been waiting for 8 months already!

@XD375 - I wouldn't be so sure to listen to him
he said that the dsi wouldn't be launched till fall 2009 because the
ds still had strong sales yet look what happened
it got released in april

Tetris! YAY!

So is this ever going to happen? :/

Well, things take time. I just hope Mr. Iwata doesn't can this for the next DS.

considering it's been officially announced for the 3DS, Toleboy, that's probably a safe bet.