Nintendo of Europe Confirms Upcoming Game Boy Advance Wii U Virtual Console Releases

Sweet, this could be good.

Man, I wish that NoA didn't suck so much butt at VC.

Got them all except advance wars through the ambassador programme, nothing to see hear, move along.

I'm so torn over these. I really want digital downloads as I don't trust the batteries on old carts, but would really love to be playing these on a portable. I just wish Nintendo would do it like Sony, you buy once and can have it on your console and handheld, and even transfer the saves wirelessly from one ton the other.

I'd buy all those apart from Wario Ware!

So many games.... Does anyone think Nintendo is replying to the Nintendo Movement? I mean, phase 1 of the movement was VIRTUAL CONSOLE!

YES!!! Golden sun is coming. Not in April, but it's shown in the advert at least.
£6.29 seems a bit steep though.

Im so confused why the GBA Yoshi Island is what we are getting and not the SNES one.

I'm surprised at the price.

... as in that it is actually quite sensible!

First good thing Nintendo have done this year.

Awesome selection. Still have to see the technical implementation and controller support, though.

Golden Sun was such an awesome game.

I wonder if these are coming to NA?

I'll definitely be picking up the games I don't already own on 3DS - namely Golden Sun (I didn't know Nintendo were planning to release it in this first wave), Advance Wars and Mario & Luigi - Superstar Saga.

There are a lot of games in this first wave though - I hope Nintendo can keep up the momentum.

i'd be thrilled if australia got these at, say, $9.99. yeah more like $15

Not buying. Even if I didn't have all of the original cartridges, i wouldn't cash out that much. Payed less for ZombieU.... not to mention what happens on Steam.

@DESS-M-8

17th of April it says

@ThomasBW84 You guys are so lucky. What does Nintendo have against their American Office? ; n;

Was hoping for them to be a bit less - will wait to see if they have any sales on - what concerns me is what sort of prices are the ds games going to be priced at if GBA ones are this..

Well that settles that. For all the people who have told me you cant play 3DS games on a tv b/c the picture wouldn't work, I think Gameboy games on a tv means it can work. And the 3D arguement was settled when the 2DS came out. 3DU.

And even though Im looking forward to a few of these - I owned a Gameboy Advance and was playing Golden Sun when I lostmy - I still think these should be on 3DS instead and Wii U should get Gamecube VC.

I guess Nintendo knew the April game drought was coming. This may not sell any Wii U but it is a nice month of games. Now if NOA would give us some dates and prices...

............and still no Tvii in Europe. These games are not for me, but for those that do, am sure you will enjoy them.

These need to be cross buy and available on 3DS as well....period! This is just a weak tactic from Nintendo to keep interest in the failing WiiU. How about fix your account system then we can talk about buying digital anything from you Nintendo! I am really getting annoyed with Nintendo's plans for their systems now. I love Nintendo but I am not sure how much longer I can do this, if the account system and the VC isn't better by fall then I won't be supporting anything Nintendo any more. Heck, I only have two game purchases to make the rest of the year (Mario Kart & Smash Bros.) anyhow. Just sad, and meanwhile Sony pumps out 15 titles a week for PS4/PS3/Vita and many are cross buy. Nintendo has such a rich catalog too! They just don't care about their fans or what we want. I don't think they even want to be successful! They keep doing the opposite of what they should be doing.

Although we've known they were coming, Odd these dates weren't announced in a Ninty Direct (?) for March. It implies we won't see one for March.

GOLDEN SUN!!! Never was able to completely finish the first one (although I was sooo close), and now I'm getting a second chance! This is awesome.

@ledreppe Golden Sun and Mario & Luigi weren't in the Ambassador program either.

So glad all these great games are coming in the first month, but I must admit I didn't think Game Boy Advance titles would be more expensive than SNES ones. Weren't games that were ported from SNES to the Advance (Donkey Kong Country, Yoshi's Island, etc) supposed to be slightly inferior?

That's awesome. I hope it gets "original resolution" mode with GBA overlay like GB and GBC games on 3DS.

£6.29 Is a bit much should be £5.49 at most seems Nintendo are trying to squeeze us I'll be looking at the US prices carefully as I think UK/EU are being shafted again.

My body is ready.

Reasonably priced.

This move seems really strange to me... I'm not getting those games until owning them on the virtual console brings no advantage. I can still play them on my Game Boy Player for the Gamecube... also with all gamecube games. Even the price point is wrong as you can get physical copies of these games for less.
Anyway, those games run on with an emulation program, why can't Nintendo create an emulator that actually improves the games? I like to play some N64 and Gamecube games with an emulator on my PC instead of the physical copies on the consoles i still own (because I collect them...) because the graphics are much better. Why don't they optimize the games for the new hardware, for example? Now Nintendo is trying to keep the fanbase busy providing old games for a way to high price! This is a profit-only move because it's absolutely costless loading those games on the VC, or how long do you think it takes to emulate a game? This makes me really angry!

Not bad! I had expected higher prices and less releases and I'm happy to see to contrary happening. That doesn't mean that 8 euro are "cheap", but as Nintendo is charging the same price for SNES titles, I'm surprised. Perhaps Nintendo has realised that what was a reasonable price at the time when the Wii was released in 2006 is not so reasonable anymore, and makes use of the introduction of the GBA VC to adjust the pricing slightly, at least as far as new platforms are concerned. This makes me hope that DS games too will perhaps not exceed 12 euro.

As to the titles, I always thought that the library of the GBA was among the weakest of any Nintendo systems. I know many think differently, but I just wasn't interested in any of the Mario re-makes, etc., and preferred to spend my money for more exciting GameCube titles.
However, this also means that I missed a lot of GBA games which are good indeed, and most of them I still haven't caught up, because their used modules are fairly expensive. Thus, Metroid Fusion may be a candidate for a purchase sooner or later, and Mario & Luigi too. Advance Wars is one of the greatest games on the GBA - perhaps THE greatest - and I don't own it myself, but I played it for hours and hours. Thus I may rather wait for its sequel.
Golden Sun always bored me, each Kirby is more or less the same, although good, and I own Wario Ware (next to Advance Wars for me the best the GBA had to offer). As regards F-Zero, I may also wait for the sequel GP Legend, which I never played.
And then there is Yoshi's Island. I was waiting for it on the SNES VC and I'm still not sure which version to prefer. But as the GBA port will be released now, Nintendo has really no reason to hold back the SNES original much longer (which, for whatever reason, never made it on the Wii VC). I will choose once both are out.

Waiting for Zelda - Minish Cap, Kuru Kuru Kururin, Fire Emblem, G&W Gallery 4, Pokemon Fire Red / Leaf Green, and, hopefully, as it never came to Europe, Warioware Twisted!

Not a bad lineup! Metroid: Fusion, Golden Sun and Advance Wars are all games I would buy.

Advance Wars and Mario & Luigi for me. I'm an ambassador, so I already have most of these.

@MussakkuLaden I'd love G&W Gallery 4! I had that game for years, but I lost it. Game & Watch games are king when it comes to pick up and play.

I still don't get why Nintendo is putting Gameboy advance on Wii U VC? Why couldn't they do gamecube, that seems more legit. Should of put it on 3DS and the prices are expensive....£6.29 for a game. I bet if I go to ebay or a old school gaming website I bet I can find it at $4.99 or $2.99.

Advance Wars and Golden Sun will be purchases I will make when they make it over to NA. I'm greedy though so give me more Nintendo!

Having got most of these titles as part of the ambassador program I cant help but feel disinterested, I also do not want to play GBa games on my big TV.

When are the N64 and Gamecube libraries going to make their presence known on my Wii U?

Really like the trailer here. The prices are reasonable enough, I was expecting double figures. The line-up is also a great start, Advance Wars and maybe Mario & Luigi would be games I'd buy first thing! As an Ambassador, I have majority of the other games. GBA's VC quality must continue into May.

@DrJoson - Not all of the ports, no. I consider Yoshi's Island GBA the superior version.

The pricing is definitely way too high this time - well it always is on VC releases, but this time it's worse.

So far, for VC releases you have been able to predict the price from the Japanese release. 100 Yen became 1€ /$ for Europe and the US repectively, and with that relationship the GBA games should have been 6.5€. I know it is not much of a difference, but it's better than €6.99.

Nooo, why Golden Sun, but not Golden Sun: The Lost Age? You can't have one without the other! They're practically one game split in half, a la Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

I can't wait to be able to splurge on a couple, starting with Advance Wars.

Cheaper to buy the original games & play them on the Gamecube Gameboy player. Seems silly to release them on the Wii U & not 3DS. Could have released Gamecube games on the Wii U but nope we get GBA.
Nintendo always seem to do the opposite to what makes sense or what the fans want.
They don't even have a system in place to keep the games safe onto a account if you loose your Wii U or something happens all VC games gone. Just seems so backwards Nintendo sort it out not only is the Wii U behind the PS4 & Xbox One massively sales wise. It also now has no 3rd party support ugh.

My local Retro store sells GBA games underneath that, even though you'd see GBA games going for £10 on eBay if it was 1st party or one of the best on the system.

Great. This will be my chance to try out Golden Sun

Too bad is not for 3DS though

@ledreppe exactly what i was thinking. Iv played the original advance wars that my friend had on GBA years ago. Might pick it up. But all the others i have on 3DS. They need to put out alot of VC games on all formats every week.
I'm still waiting for N64 games!!!!

@Christoff I put £30 on my eShop account ages ago, before one of the Nintendo Directs, expecting them to announce N64 games, then they would be available after the Direct.
Sadly they still refuse to announce them.

@Moose_4
i can play pokemon stadium on my phone thanks to an emulator, so why cant I on my wii u. Where is Pokemon snap with gyro support.

Probably full of historic licensing issues but where is Turok, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Smash Bros,Diddy Kong Racing........

In terms of the gamecube, how about releasing double dash in the run up to MK8 and Melee in the run up to SSB WII U.

Nintendo are like a younger sibling, you love them but they piss you off so much!

Seriously golden sun released on my birthday
Put it on 3DS and I'll buy it please nintendo

I'm not too happy about this to be quite honest. I expected we'd get GBA VC on the 3DS before the Wii U --much sooner, at least. It only seems fitting, and I really want to play Yoshi's Island, as well as others, like Wario Land 4, on my 3DS :/
I can safely say that I'm practically always satisfied with Nintendo's efforts and choices, and most of the time I can understand them and see where they're coming from with their, sometimes questionable, decisions, but this particular move doesn't tickle my fancy though.

Will these be IN ADDITION to console games being released for the VC? So what, instead of NES and SNES titles they are now wasting time and money on releasing Game Boy games? DS games i can understand, maybe, but Game Boy games on the Wii U sounds pointless. Where are the N64 and Gamecube titles???

I wont be buying any of these. I want WiiU games, not GBA games

@Lance168 That is correct, but i dont think anyone had Game Boy games in mind.

@Christoff i would love to play Goldeneye, most of Rare games. Turok was classic too.

Iv now finally got round to completing Diddy Kong Racing on DS. But would pay to have the original on Wii U.

I know, they have an amazing game library that they seem to not want to make playable on VC.

I understand License problems with games like Goldeneye. But surely if the game was out, then the profit was 33% Nintendo, 33% Rare, then 33% activision or whoever has the James Bond license now.
Thats better than 0% of nothing.

@Moose_4

I gave up waiting on Gamecube games, so I'm just buying the original games now.

Now we just need N64 and Gamecube games

@ledreppe
i don't blame you. Iv got loads of Gamecube games still to complete. Shame the Wii U wasn't compatible. Iv still got to have the Wii set up in the other room.

I will probably only need to get Advance Wars. Would have bought more if they were priced a bit cheaper than SNES games!

@Marakuto I'm intrigued whats the store called I might look it up.

Son of a Gun!

That's some real good stuff right there. Hope the NA releases are even half that good!

I have only two words about this: GOOOOOOOLDEN SUN!!

I just wish there was alot more games already on he Eshop like the huge library on the Wii virtual console.

BUT make no mistake this is a very good step in the right direction! All these extra features are very nice

Other then the usual complaints I have like I wish we had online leaderboards, achievements and party chat along with these games which would make them so much better. This is still really good news.

When is America gonna get a taste tho? :/

Advance Wars, Wario and Golden Sun for me. Hopefully other publishers will give this some love too - I'd love to see Pinball of the Dead in the Wii U Virtual Console.

@Lance168 I doubt it considering this required some planning and the movement only started recently

Very nice, can't wait. And I don't get all the complainers. I think the pricing is about right (also it's cheaper now because of the premium discount that is still running), yes they are old but they have value. I see worse games sold way higher. And of course it would be nice to have cross buy and all but we'll see what Nintendo will do, noone can foresee if it will arrive later and you may get credit or whatever. And I like it being on the WiiU as there are games that some people here in my home would love to watch me playing. Some people seem to must complain for the sake of it.

Nintendo NA what are you doing?

The VC prices in general are appalling. I only buy VC games when they're 50% off or something. Metroid Fusion could be great on gamepad.

Golden Sun?!?!?! I'm sold...

@Warruz ...because its gba vc? Whats so confusing?

Oh man, Golden Sun is on there! But £6.29 is still not an impulse buy price, so I'll have to be very selective.

Wont be buying until cross buy and save happens Nintendo.

God, just do it already! and €7! You have to be joking, €3/4 is more like it!

Well this is more like it! At least 2 or 3 new vc games that have never seen the light outside of gba(unless you werea 3ds ambassador) per week starting next week. Please please PLEASE Keep the momentum going nintendo. Then in a few moth id love another vc console,like maybe n64,dreamcast or (hope among hope) gamecube to be announced

@ledreppe Same as me. I got rid of my Wii(packed up and put away) and bought a pearl Gamecube with silver wavebird. So I have the Wii U and Gamecube side by side, along with PS2/3 and 3DS and Vita and GBMicro .

So many Gamecube and Wii games to keep me busy, just started Pandora's Tower last night, really enjoying it! So I think I'm good for GBA games, except for Superstar Saga, but €7 is way too high in my eyes.

@Marshi Your missing the point, we have SNES VC already. So why is it when we get GBA VC we are getting one that could of been out already. One would think we would get Topsy Turvy instead thats exclusive to GBA.

I hope minish cap is around the corner, its on that list of Zelda's I have missed.

Golden Sun!! Oh and I'm getting Metroid as well despite having it already, I want to mess around with save states. Thank you Nintendo! My Wii U was starting to collect a little dust...Luckily we don't have to wait that long anymore. Woot!

Never played Metroid Fusion. I really hope this comes next week for the US as well. I'll be picking that and advanced wars up first thing. Putting money in my account this weekend. COME ON NA!

Love the games choice and will probably fall for Metroid fusion and Advance Wars.

But Seriously over £6 for a GBA game, issue I have here is that is a lot of money for a game most people have already bought and enjoyed and they are literally just emulating.

Not sure if I want to make a point and not bother buying till the price lowers, best thing Nintendo is do is ask for a tenner a month and give this stuff for free as part of the service as long as you have the subscription, only problem there would be like one release a week maybe.

Monthly Service for access to all VC titles is the best option for Nintendo though and should be a serious thought to start calculating actual fan base and to move forward on the next console.

Oh, now it's even only 6.99 and not 7.99€? That's certainly tempting and far below the 2nd-hand prices of most of these titles. It makes NES and SNES games look even more overpriced, though. Sure, it would have looked strange if they had been cheaper on WiiU than on the still existing Wii VC, but when even newly developed eShop titles are regularly available for less than 8.00, I don't feel willing to spend that much for the majority of SNES titles. A game like Earthbound surely is an exception, but that shows exactly while price diversity would be an advantage. I'd love to give a game like Urban Champion a try – but rather for 1 or 2 instead of 5 euro. On the other hand, 5 euro for SMB3 seem rather fair.

@EarthboundBenjy Get newer games to play the first one, then later on they'd be ready plot wise for the sequel

pricing's okay I guess. Though Japan's getting 12 GBA games in April alone, so I hope the rest show up in the last week of April

While it's always good to see more games and consoles being added to the Virtual console i'm not that excited about handheld ones. I can understand why it's being done and their will be a demand for it being that the Wii U has a handheld controller but it is'nt a handheld machine. With the Wii U being a more powerful machine u would expect more of a progression with the VC, u would expect access now to game libraries and consoles that the orginal Wii could'nt emulate.

@ledreppe did we get golden sun in the ambassador programme?

Glad Mario and Luigi is coming next week, as that's the only one I want to buy since I have most of them on 3DS. Hopefully N64 gets reintroduced soon, with plenty of releases!

Will any non Nintendo consoles be added to the VC?, it does'nt look like it at the moment.

@Warruz My guess is that Yoshi's Island on the SNES used the Super FX chip, which would be a load more emulation programming work for very few games.

Whereas the GBA version of Yoshi's Island probably runs on the 'standard' GBA emulation they've developed for the Wii U. So no extra programming work required.

@Game-Over I think Japan's Wii U VC has PC Engine titles.

Will all the complainers just go over to a corner for a while and stay there while the rest of us do our happy dance? Thanks!

What I would love, and throw stupid amounts of money at, is if Nintendo could make essentially a mini Game Pad in the shape of a Game Boy Advance for these games. That would be awesome!

The music of the trailer il awesome!

Looking forward to the sonic games mostly

The VC has NES and SNES and while i don't have any issue with Game Boy Advance games being added i would much rather have seen a N64 or Gamecube entry. Where has the Megadrive and Neo Geo gone? if there not there it likely means that the Dreamcast wont be coming anytime soon either, even the VC arcade is pretty much being ignored.

It's great that they're bringing GBA games to the Wii U VC of course, but where the heck are all the other consoles that the Wii Shop Channel VC offered? Hackers have already managed to emulate pretty much all NES, SNES, N64 games and whatnot, and even PS1 games I believe. I know that last one won't be officially emulated, but what about N64? Heck, bring the Virtual Boy in there too.

antonvaltaz...A pleasent surprise if this is true because it is starting to look like the new VC is pretty much Nintendo only this time round and while thats not a terrible thing being that Nintendo have developed so many good consoles and games, it would be disappointing at the same time to realise that a lot of other consoles won't make it to the VC. That's what was great about the old VC the sheer variety of quality consoles and games.

If I were in charge of Nintendo I would hire big teams of devs solely for the purpose of re-releasing major parts of Nintendo's back catalogue for Wii U AND 3DS. That would include GBA, DS, GC, N64, SNES, GB and NES.

Then (with the possible exception of GC on 3DS) they would all be cross-buy a la Sony. I would aim to release lots every week until the entire back catalogue is available, rather than the couple at random we actually get.

Why this isn't a major priority for Nintendo is beyond me.

Wow, only £6.29 is a steal! Out of all those games, I want every one that I didn't get as an ambassador! Advance Wars of course being the most wanted

@Lance168 Considering how horrible and disorganized that "movement" was, no.

I would buy some these game if it was on the 3DS. Playing it on the Wii U doesn't quite sell it for me. Games that are portable, should stay portable.

Advance Wars, Golden Sun, and Kirby! They just sold them too me.

These should also come to the 3DS Virtual Console.

I'm picking up Mario and Luigi and Advance Wars. Didn't try these ones out first, but I'm getting them this time!

@luke88

No we didn't, I should've checked before posting. M&L Super Star Saga also wasn't included, but I tried it on an emulator and didn't finish it.

This is pretty cool! GBA was the only Ninty console I've ever skipped.
The combination of Indie and VC titles have just made April and May look much stronger.
At £6 I'll be buying Golden Sun and Fusion since I've wanted a chance to play those for ages. I'm unlikely to pick up others at the current incentive.

Are the GBA versions of F Zero and Yoshi just Snes ports?

Anyone else thinking that Advance Wars should be half price, as Japan is getting the 1+2 compilation for the same price as one game.

Well, it was the only way the games were released in Japan originally to be fair, but Nintendo should acknowledge that and do some kind of Western promotion then I think..

Why can't GBA games be on the Nintendo 3DS' eShop too

@Achoo
Yoshi's Island on GBA added extra levels not included in the original SNES release. This is most probably not the reason why the SNES version is not being made available, but it does at least allow people to play the version with more content on Wii U.

I think theirs a focus here on releasing games that are to be played on the Wii U controller screen, i don't know if this is a good thing. Does this mean that the controller screen is going to limit what they can do in terms of releasing games. I notice even when playing VC games on a tv ur not getting full screen this was not a problem with the original Wii. My VC games on the original Wii are actually displayed better on the big screen.

they'll all be priced £6.29 WTF
Serious get real Nintendo are they adding features to the games.

Wait till I just bend over for you. The game industry wonders why people have illegal roms

i'm tempted to buy them all except warioware, but 7€ for GBA VC game, is really not worth it, i could get alot better ps1 games on the psn store for 5€. Maybe i'll just buy the Metroid game ( since Metroid is my fav. big N franchise ) & F-zero to pay my respect for that classic, others better be 2€ or 3€ to even consider getting them.

After eight hours to think about it I still believe £6.29 is to much for Nintendo to charge should be £5.49.

Golden Sun FTW! I traded this and my GBA in to GAME to buy my GBA SP back in the day. Big mistake. Golden Sun easily in my top 20 games of all time.

7 Euro is not a bad price, considering the price of Snes titles wich are 8 Euro!

Looks like a good start for me: Advance wars, the original Warioware, Kirby amazing mirror!!

Looking at the list I'll probably get all of them. Ever since I sold my GBA I've been dying to give Metroid Fusion another play through, though would have liked them of my 3ds instead... to help them feel like the old times.

Where did they get that Music from?!?!?!? SOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

@Achoo "SNES games are cheaper?!" The only reason SNES games are cheaper in the UK (they are more expensive everywhere else), is because Nintendo must have made some mistake while converting currencies. In mainland Europe SNES games cost 8€ (1€ more than GBA games), which is about £6,70. Be glad you have to pay comparatively less for SNES games than most others.

The pricing is very good. I was expecting a €10 price but I would rather they have the system (like sony has) where you buy it on one system you can then play it on another.

Now if they say that if you bought a GBA game on the Wii U you can download it on the 3ds at no extra cost when they get released for the system and visa versa.

I like the idea, and wasn't DS also going VC? I might get some, but as said by many before me, cross-buy is more or less a must for me in this case (GBA). I played -and still own- most of these games, and I prefer playing them on the razor-sharp GB Micro screen, and my Gamecube(s) allow me to play them on TV. Still, cross-buy would be incredibly tempting, since I love my ambassador program games on the go, and Wii U is my prefered home console. Opposite of GBM, the Gamepad could be the biggest (semi-portable) GBA ever.

@Peach64 there are some advantages to batteries as well as disadvantages, but I believe very few GBA games actually used batteries for their saves. Most of my carts that have save features do not have batteries. The GBA Pokemon games that have batteries use them for a game clock, I think, and not saves.

I wish they'd add some sort of colour/contrast control. Some GBA games had extremely washed out palettes to try and offset the dark screen, so they'll look kinda crappy on a TV. (See Super Mario Advance 2.)

Also why would they release the GBA version of Yoshi's Island over the Super Nintendo one?

I will still keep waiting for GBA games to be announced for 3DS. I don't play portable games on a 60'' television. Call me when N64 games come to Wii U VC.

Getting real tired of these stupid decisions.

Awesome!

@kereke12
No you wont. Many are priced 10 dollars o rmore. Fusion seems to pop up once in a while at around 15!!

Also, lots and lots of knock offs from Hong Kong..

Fair prices!!

@DESS-M-8
The price is disgusting for what are essentially games of a SNES standard.

@CaviarMeths Replace noa with just N, and VC with everything.

WHERES MEH FLIPNOTE 3D, AND WHY IS GBA/DS NOT COMING TO 3DS!!!!!!!!