Nintendo Download: 23rd January (Europe)

Wow. Very boring week.

I wouldn't call it boring. Just a bit Unepic.

Nothing impressive... just when will we get Shantae?!

@Grubdog : Yes and not even Unepic on 3DS...

Nothing going on here , move along.......

In a sales crisis and they still don't release anything!!!! Come on Nintendo you could make up your software shortfall if you released some vc games!

January is becoming a very sub par month interms of e shop releases.

Unepic and Knytt Underground are awesome cheap games that give the big AAA titles a run for their rather inflated price tags and boring gameplay

MMMMMMOOOOOOOORRRRRREEEEEEE VC games!!!!!!!!!!

Is it just me or are we getting less and less new stuff every week...?

Really? Just ONE VC game? And of course it's one i already have. (SNES All Stars pack, baby!) It's gonna take YEARS for them to catch up with the Wii's shop, their own LAST GEN console! Is it that hard to just port everything over? Ridiculous.

I was hoping for NES Castlevania, which the US seem to be getting. But ONLY if it's the NTSC versions, no more PAL titles! You cant claim they're taking so long because they are "optimizing" the PAL versions, when they could easily just put up the US versions of every game. PROBLEM SOLVED

UnEpic week indeed...

There seems to be this endless stream of 2D games being pumped into the Wii U system , and please no more Mega man , try to think out of the Box Nintendo , bring us some 64 games & Game Cube games ..

Nintendo have all their devs busy on bigger stuff than adding lots of VC games a week. Having lots of low price digital titles won't help the console at the moment - what they need is a lot of must buy physical games that people can see in store alongside the console.

Good to see a fair bit of interest in UnEpic!

@MAB Here here!

damn no money for airace speed

I say I will get Unepic and Rage of the Gladiator.

Ughhhh! Where is the code of princess discount, its been like a year and ita still £24.99, £12-15 would be a great biting point for me.

Still will get rage of gladiator as I heard good things!

I just bought Super Mario Bros. a few days ago & was wondering when The Lost Levels would turn up on Wii U VC & here it is Just right now beat SMB on the second quest, so I'm at least a little prepared for the insanity which SMB:TLL looks like. Good luck to me.

Also I've been greatly looking forward to Unepic for a while. It looks quite epic to me haha. Might buy a 3DS discounted game if I feel like it.

Why no pokemon bank still. I mean c'mon.

They really need to be doing more with the e-shop releases. Start bringing gamecube games and N64 games to the e-shop. Come on nintendo, this is just a boring e-shop release.

Bring on Shantae!

@FineLerv All these users do is whine about games they can already play on the Wii or wait for games that will never come instead of supporting fresh stuff that they might actually enjoy more...

Very silly people indeed

Sadly I'm starting to think the WiiU will be the last home console I buy from Nintendo. They are so slow and stubborn with the VC! What the hell's up with them! VC is the same on 3ds but that just has better games overall at the end of the day.

I had forgotten about Fractured Soul. (I almost bought Super C which I don't really think is that good but I need something to play in that sort of genre until Gunlord).

(Already got Commando : Steel Disaster / Contra 4 / Metal Slug 7 / Alien Chaos 3D).

Probably get Boulder Dash XL as well. (Never played Boulder Dash before but I used to play Repton when I was really young).

Maybe Rage of the Gladiator.

Really? Just ONE VC game?

Its better than the weeks where we don't get any VC game. Even if its one step towards progress, its still progress.

@readyletsgo me too, I've bought every nintendo console for 25 years but no more. It's been nowhere near good enough from nintendo, I will buy mario kart and zelda (probably in 2015) and then I'm done.

Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom for me

Im very shocked how bad the releases are, they are slow from other companies.

The main problem is the VC releases though, Nintendo need to pump content to this device as much as they can! People above saying it won't help are actually being ridiculous as that is content for the Wii U! It may not be new software to sell units, but it adds to the library and the service!

I suspect they have slowed down to sort out the Accounts situation and get it working for all the people who purchase on the eShop

Are you sure Lost Levels is the US-Version? Was there even an US-Version? Isn't it rather the Japanese Original?

Unepic sounds quite interesting, but the 3DS discounts are quite shovelware as usual. I wonder will we ever get Atlus discounts in Europe? That would be a nice surprise.

Also, I'd love some news about Cave Story or Ikachan European releases. Nicalis is such a disappointment regarding Europe, always.

EDIT: Well actually with those prices Boulder Dash and Fractured Soul do sound a bit interesting.

I'll likley get Rage of gladiator or air race for 3ds and Unepic for wii u.

Lol at people whining...

.....
VC is pathetic.

Nintendo needs to release all their VC back catalogue on Wii U and charge a monthly fee a la xbox live membership. Hell, throw a heap of GC and Wii titles on there too. Nintendo could wipe the floor with PS4 and Xbox if they provided something like this. Who in their right mind would buy a competing console when you could access so many games for a flat monthly fee?!?

Think I'll grab Unepic and maybe pick up boulderdash, loved the original on c64

@Ferret End up with the same problem Sony is going to have. Why pay for games when you can get them free at some future date.

@Boxmonkey Yeah, MK8 and Zelda are all I am looking forward to now, SSB, I have no interest in at all. I am sure a few games will come along over its lifetime but as of now (14 months after launch) the Wii U, in my eyes and in my own opinion, is a massive disappointment over all. Even 3D World didn't grab me, just more of the same (my opinion guys), and I LOVED 3D Land.

The VC is a totally wasted opportunity, just dump 5 or 10 VC games on the Wii U one week and then 5 or 10 on the 3DS the other week. It can not POSSIBLY take this long to port even the Wii's VC games over. One a week, total joke, and feel they are taking the p!ss out of their fans who seem to be the only ones who care now anyway, casuals are gone, moved onto PS3's 360's, Tablets and phones(which I dont really believe myself, games are rubbish on them).

I mean, this weekend i gave up the cigarettes, had a lot of time on my hands, need a complete distraction and though 'nice one, have loads of time to pour into the Wii U and get through a couple games'. When the weekend came, I just looked at my Wii U and felt, 'nah, I dont want to play you', instead I turned on my PS3 and played the hell outta The Last of Us, Dead Space 2, Half Life 2.

What do Ninty staff be thinking in them Nintendo Towers of Japan, Europe and America?

On a side note for me, was the article from last week re the online eshop and how they dont look at their competition, as in PSN or XBL or Steam, not one staff member use them (I find that very hard to believe). I mean, aren't Nintendo in the Computer Video Game industry? WTH!?!

Very frustrated here as of late.

I'm mostly playing indie games, so I'm fine with the games offered every month. There's enough to play, enough fun stuff to play until the next update.

Last month I got Knytt, RUSH, and NES Remix.
The month before that I got Tennis, Bowling, EDGE, Toki Tori, Coaster Crazy.
This month I got the games on sale I was missing (Duck Tales, Mystara, Star Wars Pinball, the other Zen Pinball 2 tables)
Next month I'll be getting CastleStorm, Wii Sports Club Golf, and of course Unepic.

I like the variety, the quality and the prices of most indie games on Wii U. There are some exceptions of course, but even not so great games like Spot the Differences Party and Funky Barn Download have been updated to a certain quality standard.

VC isn't of much interest to me. I already have all the VC games I want (around 100) on Wii U / Wii mode.

@Grubdog Wah-hay!

@MAB Yeah what a bunch of whingers! By the way nice GIF, is it Simon Pegg?

@Bensei Darn you beat me to it haha! It was only released in Japan so yes it's the only version there can be!

@readyletsgo VC games are not selling well outside a few releases hence lack of investment and titles per week. If it was a cash cow we would see a lot more.

That however does bring into question some of the odd choices of VC games we have seen.

What takes so long to get a game on virtual console?

@Emblem I hear ya(could be something to do with the crazy prices they are asking for each VC game?), but in my eyes, they would sell more if they had the back cat of each system up there waiting to be found. So many games I want and they are just not there, games 20 years and older, does it not annoy you that ninty seem to be just stuck 5 to 10 years behind every other tech company out there?

They have the money, just hire the staff to get the VC filling up faster. they have $5Billion in cash and $5Billion in bonds etc, they are not cash straped at all. Why arent they using the money I have given them (albeit a drop in the ocean but still, its a lot I have paid) over the years to get things done?

I totally want a Last of Us type game from Ninty but its never going to happen but I think they could really do it and surpass TLoU in a story and gameplay. Take some risky risks please.

@readyletsgo Wouldn't be hard to surpass TLoU in terms of gameplay because it barely has any. (More than 3/4 of the time I was playing it I was wishing I wasn't).

"Lol at people whining..."

@Emblem welcome to Nintendo "fans"

@readyletsgo Nintendo has the cash because they don't make too many bad bets.... Going through the costs of testing the emulator and applying for the ESRB rating apparently isn't out weighing the expected return on the games.

I would buy the snot out of every classic today if it was available, but at the moment there isn't very many of us right now that would.., it seems like they are waiting for a larger userbase before releasing them. (And no, VC games won't sell a $300 console)

@ squashy the lost levels was released in the US with the All Stars bundle.....so yes it could be the US version of the game

No unified account system = no purchases from me...

@unrandomsam yeah I am totally aware people are not too fond of the gameplay in TLoU, but to me I really enjoyed it, reminded me a lot of RE4, infact, I just re-bought RE4 for the Wii at the weekend to play again due to playing TLoU lol. €6, cant go wrong.

@element187 I never said the VC would sell the Wii U. But they would make a few quid out of it and would keep some people occupied through a lot of droughts that they seem to have over the past year (and this coming year too)

Sorry for all the moaning, I am just feeling a little, 'blah', with how the Wii U is being treated by Ninty. I know Iwata can do a hell of a lot better and the 100's of people who actually do the work behind the man.

@element187 The right VC Games might if there was a good number of them that are prohibitively expensive to obtain legally. Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire / Rendering Ranger R2 / Magical Chase / Panzer Dragoon Saga. A legit copy of all of those costs more than $300 each. Earthbound is one of those but it is the only one of its type.

And, another SMB game that America won't get. [/still waiting on SMB 3]

@readyletsgo I agree with a few of your points there but not all, I agree 3d world was not the game I was hoping for, good, but incomplete imo.
Your right on the vc aswell, it's the biggest fail for the Wii u so far to me, n64 was a cult console, they need to get milking that nostalgia from another generation of gamers that never played NES games. No excuse not to by now!!
On the other hand....there are allot of good games out now, enough that you could be retiring that ps3 more, maybe it's the nicotine cravings reducing patience but I have more games than time after a year and I only buy Nintendo! Deus ex has blown me away lately, great game I'd recommend it to any fan of mature, intelligent games and the Wii u version is undoubtedly the definitive one =)
I'll agree one more time though ssb....no intrest at all, and other than mk8 and Zelda u what is coming??? I worry most about that one as I don't play rpgs and I'm bored of 2d platform games now!!

All these sales are hurting my wallet...

...Now I know how steam users feel

I don't care that Nintendo think it's a good idea to drip feed us VC games, it means that I am more likely to buy a decent indie for almost the same price as 2 terrible NES games.

What I find disconcerting is that Nintendo seem to want the VC to completely fail. The prices don't bother me because I will generally only buy VC games that will get me my money's worth but if I was to try to sell the VC as a feature to anyone on the fence about Wii U, they'd laugh in my face.

@ULTRA-64 I'm with you on Deus Ex, it's my most played single player game of 2013. It was so ridiculously cheap and pretty much the best Wii U game I have played. Not sure what you mean about SM3DW being incomplete. I thought it felt cheap and produced quickly (compared to the majority of reviewers' opinions) but there was definitely enough content, possibly even more than I expected. I wouldn't be surprised if their own temptation to release lots of DLC held back some of the design because some items and ideas were horribly underused.

One VC game a week is not good enough , they really haven't a clue anymore , I've always bought Nintendo they have always provided a good service and good games to boot , the real problem with the Wii U & VC as a whole is they released the system a year to early with no real big hitting titles fans are familiar with , for instance Mkwii sold I think in the region of 35Million copies ww , it has a huge fan base , and yet the game MK8 only went into production Dev the same year the console was released , when in theory that big hitter of a title should have been a launch title along with Mario 3D world , Nintendo would have swept the board , and probably would have sold millions of more consoles , another thing when is Mk8 out ? still nothing, why so secretive it just defies logic to keep an army of fans in the dark all the time , and as for the VC well that is just a joke , money for old rope

@Pokefanmum82 Yeah All Stars was released everywhere but The Lost Levels on it is a 16 bit remaster (as are all the games on All Stars). This Virtual Console release is the original NES version so that's why it can only be the Japanese version. Sorry that was a bit long winded, I'm rubbish at keeping things short!

@Nintenjoe64 The best indies are not on Nintendo. The best stuff never seems to be. Nearly always it is 6 months late and the just ok stuff not the great stuff and at a higher price. (RRP not taking account sales and stuff).

@ULTRA-64 I do have Deus Ex. When I finish my 3 run through TLoU(which wont take long) I may give it a go.

Also, I got my Super Slim PS3 During the summer 2013 cause I could see what was happening with the Wii U. Glad I got it to keep me occupied.

PS4, maybe in 5 years

Wii U Virtual Console

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels ...This is the US version of the game.

How can that be when the US version does not exist?

@Squashy The original was on the Famicom Disk System. It is what it would have been like if it was a NES cartridge.

@unrandomsam I know, I would usually get them through steam but my laptop blew up. I don't mind paying a few quid extra for a version with gamepad play and if I do lose my digital purchases with Nintendo through a broken or stolen console, there's a chance they'll give me vouchers instead of the same games so I can try even more new ones.

Yes, release all VC games so that there are none for future weeks. Then everyone can discuss the complete lack of VC games each week

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand neither the Pokémon Bank nor Flipnote Studio 3D are anywhere in sight. I could use some announcement...

Want UnEpic, but haven't bought Knytt Underground yet thanks to the E-Shop Xmas sales and NES Remix, so I'm going to have to wait another week or so now until I've got the cash for either of them.

Doesn't help that I'm trying to save for Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze on top of a few other games that I want all seem to be coming out at once at the end of February like Senran Kagura Burst on 3DS, Castlevania LoS 2, Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles and er....Rambo: The Videogame on PS3 (it looks so cheesy and ridiculously OTT violent that I HAVE to play it, lol).

Then there's Prof Layton vs Phoenix Wright to look forward to at the end of March

Unepic, Lost Levels and NG3 for me

@ToxieDogg I actually watched 2008 rambo just last week for the first time and I was supprised at level and realism of gore in it, that .50 cal...
Ill probabley pick it up when its abit cheaper aslong as its bug free.

Oh look, The Lost Levels! There's another Mario game that ain't gonna see the light of day on the Wii U Virtual Console in North America...

@electrolite77 Believe it or not, not every owns a vita or ios device .

Unepic, Alien Chaos 3D, Rage of the Gladiator, and Fractured Soul have my attention for quite some time now. Unepic only recently joined, but that might be a day one...

I have seen some of them games on sale at so many different prices. I will be picking up Boulder Dash XL for a couple of quid. AirAce Speed is my recommendation at the full asking price, yet alone with a discount.

I'll pick up Rage of the Gladiator and Fractured Soul for sure, maybe AiRace too at that price.

I'm interested in Fractured Soul, that's about it. Come on Nintendo, give us something we want to buy... D:

The Virtual Console should be the least of Nintendo's concerns right now. It's not going to help sell consoles. I'd love for the service to be much better, as we know it can be, but Nintendo has more important matters right now.

Oh, and when is Shantae Risky's Revenge ever going to go on sale? It needs one badly.

Well said @ThomasBW84. At £2.50, you'd be mad not to pick up the new Boulderdash, which I considered buying when it was a budget £20 retail release. Lump on people! That and Unepic will keep me happy for a while.

@unrandomsam Yeah I know, I was going to write Famicom Disk System, but I was becoming a bit concerned that I sounded like a smart arse lol. When you say this is what it would have been like on a NES cart, what exactly are you meaning by that? Surely the VC version is identical to playing it on the FDS, with the exception of not having to wait for the disk to load of course, is that what you were getting at?

vc games may not be the solution, but I think there are enough interest just like me to feel that we have a kompletare library of pure nostalgic for ones instead of starting all over again efter Wii... they should be happy that we pay for quality vc games instead of turning to pathetic romz ... And android consols....

I have a backlog right now which will require some promo's to get me spending prior to MK8.

@Squashy I think they have done the same thing they did for e.g The Legend of Zelda when they moved it to cartridge to be released on the NES. I would expect it behave differently from other NES VC if that wasn't the case.

I'll get Boulderdash as it's on sale, but overall it's another disappointing week.

Miiverse is loving UnEpic so far. Way less dry than it looked to me before it dropped.

@readyletsgo I only buy Nintendo consoles yet love zombie games so as you can imagine ive had a pretty rough ride lately with releases! I can live with most losses but tlou has got me REALLY tempted to pick up a ps3, I as much as anyone hear your call for an adult Nintendo game of that mold . Tell me gently, is it as good as I hear?

how come europe gets to know what there new downloads are on monday, but america has to wait until thursday, even though both countrys downloads are released on thursday?

@ULTRA-64 I'll put it this way, I'm glad I bought a new console so I could play this game 😋

Now THAT'S, a system seller.

I picked up Un-Epic last week and I really love it. Definitely addictive.
It's the first game to kill my Gamepad battery repeatedly because I'm playing it so much.

@unrandomsam That's a good point, in fact you've inspired me to go and refresh my memory of all the differences between Zelda on disk and cartridge. Thanks hehe!

@readyletsgo I agree....WiiU VC iscuking hard....it seemed on Wii many games from Nintendo and 3rd parties were released every month. That and nothing past SNES yet....the damed WIIU is essentially an HD Wii and can run Wii and GC code natively. Having the damned GC greats on my gamepad would be a great way to pass the time between major releases.....Nintendo should have a team selecting and preparing these games and stop half assing it. Everyone talks about their warchest I wish they would open it and satisfy their fans.

Guys, for those whining about Shantae, it's a third-party title that hasn't even been released in the PAL region. You guys have Ninja Gaiden 3, which has never hit the PAL region stores. America never got any exclusives... Well, we could always hope for Fire Emblem and Devil World to come some day...

North America definitely gets the best deal.

(Little bit of patience and they can get most of the VC either much cheaper or free with Club Nintendo. The EU Club Nintendo you have to try and get something not 100% worthless of which there is very little.)

Even more importantly everything is 60hz.

(Very different to Europe where the Christmas release of Super Mario Bros 3 was the first time ever there was the proper 60hz version released in the region. Even the WIi version of All Stars is the 50hz version).

And at least on e.g the Wii VC the Colours are at least somewhat correct. Even the 60hz stuff on the EU Wii looks like what happens if you plug in a SNES using an N64 or Gamecube RGB. (The PAL SNES one has some resistors on it to fix the colours).

@Kawaii_Neko its not that. its how come europes weekly download is revealed on monday, but americas is revealed on the same day it the downloads are released on the eshop?