Europe's Virtual Console Loses 6 Games This Month

On average those VC games are less than a 7 (at least on the ratings from this site). Not much to lose there.

I'm gonna have to get more points and get Legend of Hero Tonma. Even though I'm not in EU this is sure to effect the US too.

I expect that Spelunker for the NES is the next casualty.

At this rate, Nintendo is losing more games then adding new ones...

I hope we here in the States get more Wii VC like Europe is this month to make up for the losses.

So the VC games because... presumably Irem's license has expired? And I assume Military Madness is being removed because of something to do with Hudson. Shame.

Still, this is the risk digital distribution carries, at least we're being told.

Why? What is this all of a sudden.

Really?
Better stack up with some TG 16 games then. Thought about getting R-Type III as well, but I´ll buy a real cart instead.

This is really bad advertisement for digital downloads. We´ll see how many years Nintendo will support downloads for Wii.

NIntendos harddrives can't support more games nya nya nya. Maybe they can try and implement sd cards

Wow. Not only are we not getting new games, but they're taking away previous ones.

i`m not suprised that turbo grafix games are going, the best game that it has on the VC is street fighter 2, and it`s not exactly the best port either. and most of the other games i`ve tried are pretty weak anyway.

They're dropping like flies... What is the point of removing games? Why reason would they have for doing so?

@Hejiru
Licensing expiring would be the most likely cause.

The Wii's Virtual Console will be ruined!!

@Rensch This isn't really "All of a sudden", Irem's situation was known by quite a few people, and the R-Type games have gone out before.

As for the comment from That_Guy_from_Faxana, or anyone else worried about digital downloads, the thing to note here is that if you are worried about a game staying on the service, or future games from that same company staying on the download services for the foreseeable future, keep in mind the status of that company, and their relationship to Nintendo. Only third-party games have been taken off the service. So if you are worried about any games, just know your first-party Nintendo games will always be there. Any company that is thriving and has a good relationship with Nintendo will be nothing to worry about either.

Irem has been having financial troubles, and Hudson is pretty much a ghost, so yeah...these are the kinds of things to look out for sadly.

Good thing I picked up R-Type already. The rest I don't really care for.

Oh, and seriously, cheers to NintendoLife for posting news about the VC games when they leave. A lot of gaming sites don't post this news as much as they do, so BE GRATEFUL!

These do seem like licensing issues though, not only since these games are almost all by the same company, but just like in past situations they happen at the end of the month. For users of the service Netflix, we just got like 800 movies takes off at the end of last month, licensing issues there as well.

I still remember when there was a panic when we were down to 2 games per week here.
Now we are actually LOSING games??

dont care for the wii no more but i hope this dont happen to the 3ds at anytime

I strongly recommend everyone download Ninja Spirit.
That is all.

Ouch! That's gotta hurt. I wonder how much stuff gets lost with the translation to Wuu-U next year?

@my_point_is

Maybe you can try playing games that aren't part of big name franchises. The Turbografx has plenty of gems that are much better than that Street Fighter port if you'd give 'em a chance.

Ouch. I hope things go better overseas...you guys have it bad w/ VC...worse than us here in the states.

Thanks for advertising. America is next. Yesterday i downloaded R-Type anticiping this situation. I will download all. Please continue telling more notes like this.
P.D. Sorry for my strange english, i speak spanish.

I should pick up R-Type III

@Vincent umm...these games are getting taken off in all regions...

@dark_insanity Are you serious? Of course this will happen on the 3DS. Company politics, bankruptcy, the dissolving of contracts, all these things that sometimes happen with the release of third-party software, none of them are exclusive to the Wii. Though the number of third-party titles on the 3DS so far is really small compared to what is on the Wii, if there is a similar issue with those companies, this WILL happen. Its just business. Its not like Nintendo is some villain trying to torture you, for the most part they really have no control over a lot of the titles that get taken off.

So far though, just looking at the list of games on the 3DS list, most of them are Nintendo published, though there are some third-party titles, most of them are from companies that are Nintendo constants. Some are from companies that I've never heard from though.

This is why I am against Digital ONLY releases. When the licenses expires, you can't download them again, They're gone! If you lose your game from a hard drive crash, console crash and the game was removed because of licensing issues ... and you paid for it ... you can't get it again.

@Tsuchinoko I'm glad someone made the comparison to NetFlix. A lot of gamers don't quite understand that digital downloads are just expensive game rentals. I feel bad for the ones who stock up on hundreds of these games. Maybe this will finally help them realize they've been pissing their money away.

＠Gamesake Not that they're the best source of information, but Cracked.com did an entire article on digital information in the current age, and one of the main points is, even though we spend our money on the download, we do not OWN the game like we do with a retail copy. We only buy the right to access the data. Nothing is ours. Actually, I do think one of the advantages that the VC allows us is to access the game even after it is taken of the service. So people, if you think you will want the game, then pay for it, don't wait years since anything that comes up with licensing with the third-party company will take it off the service, and then you come to us complaining later.

Honestly, I have maybe less than 20 games on my Wii from the VC/Wiiware combined. There are games that I HAD to have, and I almost always got them first week they came out. I don't just superfluously buy random games though, I really have to already love it, or have wanted to play it for years but never got the chance when I was younger. I have almost never bought a Wiiware game.

I don't think its pissing money away for me personally. I just bought Chrono Trigger, and that's been my first VC game in almost 2 years. Of course, Squaresoft isn't likely to go bankrupt anytime soon, so I think that download is safe. I can see a lot of people just in the comments section alone in these VC update threads throwing their money away, or lamenting the disappearances of games they never would have played anyway.

And anyway, just to drive the point further, all of the Irem games have been on the service since 2006-2007, if you don't have them by now, there's no point in feeling bad over them. Also, Japan has a lot more Irem-produced games than other regions, which means if they are to lose them too, they lose a lot more, so don't feel bad.

As a side note, comparing the 3DS, it does seem that most of the titles that I've personally wanted to buy from the e-shop service have solely been first-party games. I really do think the generations of consoles that are part of the Wii VC were in a time were third-party releases were more abundant and successful for Nintendo. A lot of these companies are gone now.

@Gamesake um. the games will still exist on your console and also be available for re-download. How is that " just expensive game rentals"?

@Martyn He's talking about the fact that as per user agreements, you don't own the game after your purchase, just access to using it, just like a rental. Also the fact that the game is not transferable, intangible, and can be taken away at the discretion of the company that is licensing the game to you. As I said before the VC allows you to re-download, which is an advantage over something like Netflix where access is gone forever once they take it away, or something like EA Origin, Apple App Store, or a lot of the e-Book companies, where your entire library of titles can be taken away at anytime of their choosing.

LONPOS was a WiiWare game published by Nintendo, and it still got removed, so I wouldn't assume that Nintendo has only "safe" games on the service.
It seems like Hudson wants to get rid of it's Wi-Fi games. Maybe the servers are too expensive? First Diner Dash, now Military Madness Nectaris. What's next? Probably Snowboard Riot... maybe Onslaught or Water Warfare?

@SKTTR That must've been a special case. Do you have any idea why it was taken off? Since there's no licensing issue at hand, there must've been a specific reason with the game. As far as Hudson, I thought they were being dissolved slowly, so I guess it'll just happen eventually.

Also, what's this company G-Mode? A game or two of theirs was taken off. They don't have too many games on the VC outside of Japan, but in Japan they have a lot. They also have some on the 3DS VC too, which means if any are to be taken off eventually, it would seem those would go I guess. All I know is when I get my 3DS next month, I'm getting Link's Awakening right away. There's only a few games that I want on there so far.

EDIT: SKTTR I just looked up that Lonpos game. Its not exactly a Nintendo published title. It is owned by something called the LONPOS company, which owns the product it is based on.

Willl that be all the R-Types gone? I wanted to get an R-Type game, which one is the best on the VC?

@Tsuchinoko G-Mode releases the games that were made by Data East.

Download the 3 R-Type games. There no miss in it. I´m playing Super R-Type and it is very hard but challenging. Later i will be playing the other 2 but i already downloaded before i miss them.

@Madgear Thanks to Nintendolife, you still have about 3 weeks to decide.

With this games my wii will be a collector´s edition. Yeah.

Hrmm, I wounder if they have to do this to make space for the new titles or perhaps some licensing issues. either way it's weird.

This is why digital download sucks, those games never stay forever.

Please NintendoLife, do more notes like this. I´m worried if more Hudson games (Nectaris) of Turbografx games will be gone from VC and WW service.

Well, of course most games will stay on the service as long as it lasts. But the thing is, it´ll most probably not be around forever. If I may speculate, I think Nintendo will support the service 3-5 years after the last Wii is manufatured. The games I´ve downloaded will be on my harddrive and SD card for as long as they last.

I still think regular cartriges and CD:s have a more reliable lifespan. If my Wii breaks ten years from now, the games will be gone. If my N64 breaks, I can still play my games on a new machine.

Europe? What's happening out there? Europe? EURRRROOOOOPE?!

Odd. They're all games by Irem.

Good to know, i will have to act fast and download Ninja Spirit before it is gone forever. Good that i downloaded R-Type

@Scarhino89
You can't ruin something that was already bad.

It's just these 6 VC games and 1 WW game that will be removed on 31 March. But what about the 3 VC games that will be removed 14th March? Bloody Wolf, Drop Off, and SIlent Debuggers?
That's 10 removed games in 1 month!

I haven't spent much time with it yet, but what I played of Ninja Spirit seemed very good.

In case any other TurboGrafx games are to suffer the same fate, I urge you all (shmup fans or not) to buy Lords of Thunder before it's too late. I'm not a big fan of shoot 'em ups or eighties metal, and it's unlikely I'll ever beat it even on normal, and yet I love it and think it's one THE very best third party games on the VC. But don't just take my word for it, read the review!

Darn, I better hurry up and get Ninja Spirit and Super R-Type before they disappear!

Anyone else notice that all of these are by Hutson? It makes sense that they're being removed now, due to them shutting down and everything.
Doesn't matter too much to me, anyway, seeing that I already have all of these on the original Turbografx downstairs (Nectarus is a remake of Military Madness).

Licences....my sworn enemy screws us over again!!

I downloaded all 3 R-Type games, and Hero Tonma and Vigilante. The other Irem games i got them a lot time ago (except Spelunker, i looks a bad game for me).

I´m playing the first R-Type, it is a lot better than Super R-Type, the difficult is more acceptable and enjoyable, later i will try R-Type III (i had it now but i preffer to take time with each game).

Ninja Spirit is an awesome game, it is an 9/10 to me, i downloaded it when it appeared many years ago.

Vigilante is ok, not too great but is fun. I like a lot the turbo buttons in this game. It need a bit of strategy to survive. It is a 6/10 for me (same than NL).

Legend of Hero Tonma is excellent, i don´t know why NL gave it a 5, it deserves a 8/10. It is colorful and sticky music. And the enemies appears everywhere!

I will try MM:Nectaris, i like a lot the "advance wars" look alike games. I had years ago in VC the original Military Madness version but i felt it a little simple compared with advance wars but enjoyable. I don´t know if the turbografx version will survive while the wiiware remake version is out of the shop.

If Spelunker is out of Japanese VC i think we will lose it too in our VC but i´m not interested in that game, but people must be warned, i think it will be out soon.

Does NL can talk with Hudson people for more info? I´m worried we maybe could lose turbografx support and the Hudson games from the VC. I want to buy all Adventure Island games, i own the first one and the new adventure but i need to buy the snes version and the wiiware version if they are planning to quit their games too. I don´t see any reason to quit Military Madness from Wiiware.

Should I still say something about this? Okay, one more time: This is awful!!!

Watchout: there's another list in the Wii Shop, which are due on March 14th!

The Games that were removed in America in Japan already:

• Bloody Wolf (TG-16)
• Drop Off (TG-16)
• Silent Debuggers (TG-16)

Source: http://www.nintendofans.de/news/9732/UPDATE_10_Downloads_verschwinden_im_Maerz.html

About the losses: All the Games are published by Irem, except for R-Type (TG-16) but I guess they are involved. The other 3 are TG-16 games, but they are from G-Mode, not Hudson.

The only Title that worries me is Military Madness. It's from Hudson, and I really see no point in removing WiiWare-Games...

@Stardust
Given that we only lost a handful of games in the switch from the DSi to 3DS, I wouldn't be too worried. The only real concern, I think would be 3rd party licenses, and even the bigger ones, like Sega and Capcom will probably be fine.

This is just one of the reasons US copyright law needs to not last forever (I know that's not the technical term, but whenever Steamboat Willy is about to go public domain, you know Disney's going to lobby and get another 50 to 100 years tacked on). It would be great to have some sort of legal status for abandonware (not that these games are abandonware yet, but it looks like they soon will be).

reggie is right after all, the VC isnt dead, more games disappear
glad turbografx isnt my kind of console (game wise)

i still have my points, and i have almost all games i like
the only game i like to have is paper mario, but not sure if i should get it with my current points in case another and better (for me) game shows up

but paper mario is nintendo licensed, so i doubt that'll be removed

1 good point here: once you downloaded it, you wont lose it... just dont let your wii get broken

lets hope nintendo wont need to remove its own games too o_O

@zane

Ahhh you do realize you can expand your wii's harddrives with an SD card right?....it can at least take 4 gig cards (keep in mind the VC games do not need that much space)

And the 3DS does too ....dot dot dot