SNES Games Finally Arriving on the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console

Do we have to buy them again? If so that sucks

Beautiful.

This was easily possible in the 3DS. Stop trying to get me to buy ANOTHER new model Nintendo. Lol

Okay, now I am excited

something called perfect pixel mode was announced in the US Direct I am hearing which allows the games to be played in their original aspect ratio. Seems like a cool idea.

They should offer at an extreme discount if you already own. I can't buy Mario World again. I just can't.

I'm surprised they're not offering discounts for people who already own the games on Wii U.

Still, I'll pick up F Zero, since I never bought that on Wii U.

Looks like I'm just gonna grab Earthbound.

If Nintendo aren't doing cross buy now, I don't think we'll ever see them do it. Shame, but not really unexpected.

@liljmoore When I looked at the chat logs from the European Direct, it had been mentioned that there was no cross buy.

We need cross-platform purchases, otherwise there won't be any incentive to buy Earthbound again just to play it on the go.

Hey look, the same games between NA and Europe!

Better very, very, very, very very, very, very, very very, very, very, very late than never, I s'pose.

I already bought all these games on Wii U. I can't believe they aren't launching cross-buy already. Surely Nintendo Account or My Nintendo will do something about this, but then pretty crappy to make you pay right before it launches!!

I'm ok with buying again if there is some kind of promo pricing. Otherwise it's kind of a bummer and I'm unlikely to pay again.

Only game on the list that appeals to me is Super Metroid though.

One one hand I already have all of those on the Wii U. On the other I've always felt A link to the past would be perfect on my 3DS.

Bummer that is N3DS only. The normal 3DS is perfectly capable of playing them (blargSNES)

Seems like a move to justify buying a new 3ds other than Xenoblade.

Come on, we already have some games that are cross-buy between 3DS and WiiU. They should give the N3DS versions for free for those who already own the WiiU versions.

@Gobelee The extreme discount of free, even. Nintendo could have won so much goodwill if Trinen announced crossbuy for titles you already own.

@Whimsy_Bomb WTH man. Nintendo really needs to stop doing that. As much as I love these titles I'm sick and tired of having to rebuy them at full price. At the very least give us a deal like the WiiU e-shop and buy them for a $1 or2

Dammit they aren't up yet and I want them NAOW hahaha

R$32 on Brazil, while it's $8 dollars in the US e-shop. That's ridiculous. They missed a potential market.

gotta say I'm disappointed that it's New-exclusive, but they have to give some people reason to upgrade, I suppose.

I won't be buying any SNES games on the 3DS. Theres no point splitting my digital library without cross-buy available. Having them on the go is incentive enough. However its great for the people without a Wii U and aren't tied to an original 3DS.

I doubt the NX will allow us to migrate VC games for free if its a handheld/ console hybrid. Doesn't make sense to have two copies on a My Nintendo account.

Guess i will never get to play earthbound

might get tLoZ and earthbound.

Better late than never! Finally Super Mario World will be made portable once again, although its GBA iteration would be even better. Still, Donkey Kong Country? Count me in!
And yes, I'm aware that the New 3DS only thing is a bit of a male-crotch move. I'm thankful for owning a New 3DS, but still.

How much and why aren't they up yet?

Promotional pricing in Europe? Seriously? But not here? I can't wait to hear the logic for that one.

"We determined that our market is not suitable for promotional pricing."

I guarantee it will be something to that effect.

No crossbuy, no reason to double dip, since I already own a lot of them. Nintendo's greed is hurting them.

@liljmoore Agreed. Really not interested in buying SNES games for 3DS at this point. I've bought almost all of what came out on Wii U.

I hope from this, it will encourage companies to release more VC games knowing their games will be available on two platforms... Looking at you SquareEnix...

Sounds awesome! ...but do I have to buy them for the 5th time for full price?

@Peach64 That's a really dumb thing to say considering the upcoming release of Nintendo's brand-new account system.

I'll keep my a snes game where they belong.on the big tv.instead of 3ds they need to worry about the Wii u eshop.I won't but then again.not at full price since I have them already twice. Wii shop and eshop.I'm sweet

Come on N. At least give sone kind of discount!

I will probably get Super Mario World, Link to the Past, and possibly Super Metroid (though I am not decided, as I do have Zero Mission), once it has been fixed to work on the original 3DS.

VERY EXCITING! I have always dreamed of SNES on the go! Although I'm in the same boat as most here with being bummed about the no cross-buy thing. I already own several of these on Wii U which stops some buys for me. But I think I have to double-dip on Super Metroid just as a matter of principle. Lol. I think it is kind of a missed opportunity also that they didn't have the original Star Fox somewhere in the line-up to go along with Zero coming out. Hope it gets released down the line along with a few others I love! BTW...sucks to be the guy without the New model.

The first three SNES games are now available on the US eShop, for anyone waiting.

Also...PLEASE BRING Final Fantasy III to the N3DS!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh! Finally!

I've been umming and ahhing over buying SMW and LOZLTTP on the Wii U, but this is a much better way for me to experience them again. Count me in.

Tempting. I mean I own these games in multiple formats now... but on the other hand, most of these formats are not portable. On the other other hand, I don't know if I game enough outside my house to warrant getting them again for a portable... plus I am swamped with games as is. I dunno...

I'm... a little torn on this one. It's something I've always wanted, but since I already own them on WiiU and original SNES carts, and it's not too hard to plop them onto my GPD XD(essentially a 3DS, anyway), there's really no point in buying it again.

What I really want to see? We've got Game Boy and SNES now, so lets get Super Game Boy support going already!!!

I do have some complaints, especially considering there is no cross buy discount...so until they (maybe, hopefully) roll that out, no Super Mario World, and besides my GBA version still works just fine! I'll probably pick up Earthbound and the Donkey Kong Country games, those will be great to have on the handheld and I never got around to picking them up on the Wii U! (And F-Zero too..maybe)

This along with the new Paper Mario are hype. I only have Earthbound on my Wii U out of these games and I love Super Mario World!!! Bless Nintendo.

There's a glitch on the crossbuy Nintendo is avoiding (having multiple NNIDs on Wii U that are linked to multiple 3DSes).

Nintendo isn't forcing you to buy the N3DS version. And please stop being entitled. I guess we'll see crossbuy on the NX handheld and home consoles.

I'm not buying them again!!! That's ridiculous

At last, but why no reduced price if you already own them on wii vc and in some cases wii u vc or both. Come on nintendo how many times do we need to pay full price for these if we already have them!!!

We need cross-buy and cross-save (aka remote savestates / savestates in the cloud): i want to be able to start a game on my tv / wiiu and then move my 3ds and restart playing exactly where i left it.

I really don't give a darn if its New 3ds only. I will glady buy EarthBound again.

No cross-buy, not getting my money

I dont think people realize how much of a challange it is getting a SNES emulator to run properly on the sort of hardware the 3DS uses.

The lack of cross buy may partially be related to the discrapancies in architecture between the Wii U and 3DS especially since 3DS was not originally designed with unfied accounts in mind

Why is Mario World more expensive on 3ds?

SNES vertical resolution of 224 pixels is less than 3DS' vres of 240.
I hope they can be played with 8 pixel borders! The eShop sceenshots and trailers look terribly muddy.

It's where they should have been from the start

Also, the lack of cross-buy means no buy for me.

No cross buy and only on the New 3DS, sometimes I think Nintendo just don't know what they're doing. I was so happy to see the Virtual Console logo but then this... such a shame.

I say go get yourself a SNES and buy the games physically.

I was so excited when I read this...until I realized the article said New 3ds only. That felt like a slap in the face! I have already bought two 3ds XLs. I am not buying a New 3ds until there is more than one game for it! Way to enrage your customer base Nintendo!

sigh I have to go rewrite a whole paragraph from an upcoming retro review because of this news.

I haven't played Earthbound, I have it on the Wii U but haven't played it, now in my 3DS i will

So....

-People complain of no SNES on 3DS.
-Nintendo announces SNES on 3DS.
-People complain they aren't free or $1 upgrades, and rant and rage at Nintendo because they can't magically snap their fingers to make old 3DS models powerful enough to support them

[shakes head]

Anyways, this is awesome. And all the games coming are actually GOOD GAMES! Donkey Kong Country right out the gate!

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Super Metroid in my pocket!!!

And I can have ALttP. And FINALLY play Earthbound.

I'll buy every game on this offer, I actually own a Wii U, but to me snes games are great to play on the go!

Earthbound is on the 3DS eShop!? I have to get it right now!!!

How to turn something exciting (if long overdue) in something just terrible: why am I supposed to pay AGAIN? If I, say, buy a song on iTunes from my PC I don't have to pay again to listen to it from my phone! So pissed!

If Nintendo doesn't make any discount for those that have already purchased those untouched ROMs on Wii and Wii U it's going to feel like they are ripping us off again.

@JaxonH weren't snes games given as part of the ambassador program at the very beginning of ads life cycle? I have a new 3ds, but just saying.

On no cross buy or reduction on titles: it's just plain terrible and it really needs no defence, please.

That was GBA games.

For those of us who never owned a Wii / WiiU and upgraded to a New 3DS, this is a dream come true. Glad to see that Nintendo is finally giving us the support the 3DS community has been waiting for!

For those that have Wii/WiiU, don't forget that My Nintendo is still getting set up and it has been hinted to support cross-platforming. So, it could be that you will be able to eventually get SNES VC titles across all platforms. If not, then yes, Nintendo will have dropped a very huge ball in customer support.

I have to watch it again after that fried chicken Overload I passed out and missed half of the direct.

So, you have to buy them again...for the 3rd time...without discounts for previous owners...
You know me, i defended their VC pricing policy till the cows went moo, and i still stand behind what i said, but they definitly could have done something for tripple dippers.

Technically, they are new games. I get that. New software, specifically catared to the N3DS. The WiiU had the opportunity to simply play old VC titles in Wii mode, so they had to do something to make it more attractive to double dip.
But for long time VC supporters, this feels like a slap in the face.

At least you get the second one cheaper, but even then, thats a really big thing to swallow there.

It's not much of a deal to me since I could buy these on my Wii U, but it's good to have. If I ever get round to buying any of these, I'd probably prefer to play some of them on my New 3ds.

I have these, but I might pick up DK again. Just because.

Some of us have the N3DS and some don't, I'm smelling bitter party of 40,000,000.

When I first read this I was really annoyed....

Then I thought about it and cant think of anything worse than playing Super Mario World on a tiny screen, Pilot Wings and F-zero would be pretty fun though but then I'm not in a position to buy the 'new' 3DS.

@River3636
I'm sure most people don't, because pretty much nothing was ever made for it.

@JaxonH It's not that the old system is not powerful enough. People with homebrew can play fine SNES games on the old model via an emulator, which runs really well the games, so theres no excuse, other than trying to make having a New 3DS and excuse other than xenoblade.

Lots of good points in the comments. Not sure how I feel about things. I only have a couple of the titles so it has increased my options and I do prefer N3DS. But, with the Account coming, would have thought this a great opportunity to show us what it could do. Maybe we'll get the explanation some day fifteen years or so down the line.

Hopefully Super Mario RPG gets released! I've always wanted to play it as well as Paper Mario 64 on the go.

I never got a chance to play Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, Earthbound or The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past on SNES as I never owned it.
I don't own a Wii or WiiU either, and never played the above games on any emulator.

My favourite Zelda game is TLoZ: A Link Between Worlds, and now, on the 10th for UK, I get to play ALttP (on my TLoZ Majora's Mask New 3DS XL console)! So happy!!! 😍

If it's anything like previous VC's, after these games are released they'll trickle out one release about every other month.

@Kejomo Though with the Wii U SNES VC currently at 50-ish, they're gonna have titles for awhile. Heck, maybe they'll revive the NES section with games the Wii U VC has the 3DS one doesnt or even throw in a few GB games they missed (Pokemon Pinball and DKC GBC come to mind.) or indeed the 3rd parties get more involved in this 3DS VC rebirth.

Wow Nintendo's doing their best to disappoint, $12 for something that's cheaper on Wii U with the previous on Wii VC, this is absolutely disgusting.

i would have acutally bought one or two of those snes games but since this is only for the NEW 3ds...
well i guess nintendo just doesnt want my money. fine.

@PigmaskFan Ty, Yoshi's Island threw me off!

And NO support for the original 3DS FOR NO REASON.

I firmly believe they're going to save crossbuy for the NX as one of it's selling points (Buy an NX! You can transfer all your old stuff onto it!) either for free or the more likely fee like Wii to Wii U rebuys.

But still, I think a discount for those that picked up SNES games on Wii U should be applied what with the Nintendo Network ID linking them together especially for those of us that supported both the Wii U AND the New 3DS and brought the Wii U VC games in the first place. The fact they're even more pricier on the 3DS is a further slap in the face.

But who knows, maybe this will be something MyNintendo will have to get people to sign up to it (We did get a very brief bunch of details for what was supposed to launch this month.)

Shame on you, Nintendo! SNES games could easily be emulated on the 'old' 3DS. I fully understand they need to sell consoles & make money but this is just low.

@DarthNocturnal
We all know the system won't be in place til next generation. Yes, PS has cross buy on many games, but you know what they don't have? Transfers to the next gen consoles. All those hundreds of dollars I spent on PSone and PSP games, did not transfer to PS4.

Yet all my Wii games did transfer to Wii U. So it's tit for tat.

I'm not disagreeing that it would be nice, but we know good and well the system is not in place yet, and until they can develop one VC game that runs on 2 platforms with minimal extra modification, we shouldn't expect the price to reflect so as if that was the case.

I'm having to rebut the games I want too- it's not just you. And I'm not saying they shouldn't implement cross buy- they should. But it's the end of a generation. Now is not the time its going to happen. Let's count our blessings here and be happy.

@PigmaskFan Well I do and I am happy for it. The bitterness already starting. There is a market for this. If you own a WIIU and bought most of them already on the Wii like I did. You are saying to yourself heck no and bleep that. I know I'm going to be triple dipping on a few, but what about the other people that own a N3DS and payed for that system for better specs and Xenoblade. They at least threw me a bone or a kibble. This might be an incentive to actually buy one. They are good.

@Mk_II
"SNES games could easily be emulated on the 'old' 3DS."

Funny, I actually have tried to emulate SNES on 3DS and they run like crap- unplayable even. Go buy a flash cart and slap a SNES emulator on it and see for yourself. It takes a DStwo with built in processor to add enough grunt to emulate SNES or GBA properly

Well its abt Frickin time! Too bad no gba but this will do. Thank you nintendo!

This is kind of ridiculous. Only available on New Nintendo 3DS (which I have, so it's not even that I can't get them), AND the price is outrageous. I was fully prepared to go buy Super Mario World right now, pop onto the eShop and what do I see? Friggin' 9.99 (11.29 with exchange rate here). For a game I already have on my Wii and Wii U, meaning I have already spent that much to get it on two other systems. This is actually ridiculous. They REALLY need to adjust their marketing strategy when dealing with virtual console games.

I have always wanted to have A Link to the Past on a handheld, so I may not be able to resist that one. But I can't justify buying any more of these. I'm seriously getting sick of Nintendo's crap when it comes to virtual console.

@JaxonH Oh really?

You might have tried the alpha versions, because you can see here it plays DKC fine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZeRRF88TuM

My only problem with it is that it doesn't run games that have mode 7 IIRC last time I checked.

@DarthNocturnal Oh yeah I forgot to say that was CAD, and yes it's 11.49 without GST which comes to around 12 pretty much. Snes Wii U is about 8 right? 2 or so with the discount of the previous one on Wii.

Rather than 1 release a week we get 3 releases every 3 weeks. Dont go releasing them all at once now.

I am absolutely ecstatic at this news! I practically cried tears of joy when I heard it. SNES games on 3DS is a dream come true! And EarthBound being one of them... Wow. Seriously happy today!! I've wanted a portable EarthBound for 21 years and I finally got my wish!!!

This is where I regret downloading a bunch of games and never getting round to playing them on Wii U. Namely the DKC games plus Earthbound. I'd rather play them on 3DS...but I'll have to pay again to do so? Uhh...

@Gridatttack
What do you mean homebrew players can play SNES fine? I AM one of those people. Flash cart is same thing. And no they don't run fine. The only way I've ever got SNES and GBA to run fine is with the DStwo which has added processing power in the flash cart. And even then some games have issues.

I'm thinking I'll at least grab Donkey Kong Country 2. I'd love to have that one on the go.

@Gridatttack

Sorry if I came off rude, I re-read and realized that didn't sound so polite.

I wish I could show you in person so you could see.

I know they're making progress, and some games will run better than others, but it's a crap shoot a lot of times. Like, even with all the tinkering options, sometimes text won't display properly, or no sound, or it runs slow, etc.

Point being it would have to be flawless, every game, every time, no issues, to make an argument that the old hardware has what it takes.

***EDIT***
I have an R4i card and a DStwo. Just in case you were wondering.

Not on old 3DS/2DS? Who cares anyways, I have a Wii U AND I'd buy a SNES if I really wanted to play those games.

@pandarino
Ya as mentioned above that was GBA games. I was an ambassador. They play good enough, but there were a lot of bugs, issues and no extras included.

And of course you know Nintendo optimized them to run as best as possible, I'm sure. Don't think people would have been happy with those standards.

@DarthNocturnal
That's fair enough. Although I do suspect they're going to implement some kind of account system for NX, a and all our games will simply be re downloaded (unless it has no BC, then perhaps a discount program when re-developed for NX maybe?).

In any case, the way I see it is before today no one had access to SNES on 3DS. Now we do, and that's a good thing. Basically, I've accepted no cross buy already because that's just how it's been. Next generation they will not get a pass from me. But for now... yes.

@JaxonH Well, I've heard that specific cart is not good because it uses a hackish way of having 'extra powers'. Specifically, you are using DS homebrew on the 3DS, and the DS was never capable of emulating the SNES properly, and by using that cart, you are on DS mode which doesn't have access to all the meat the 3DS has to offer.

The homebrew emulator blargSNES is specifically made to access the 3DS more powerful resources in userland, so it runs some games at 90% or more and you don't need those carts, you just need to simply access the homebrew launcher, s yeah, those carts are for DS homebrew.

Oh, and no problem there, I know what you mean, its frustrating using the DS homebrew that will never achieve what it promises.

Not available on original 3DS? I call that ****. No way an original 3DS can't handle it.

KingMike, I agree, totally!

Also, Ambassador GBA games are NOT Virtual Console, they run on the GBA branch of DS mode.

why hasn't the US gotten Mario and the legend of the seven stars?

@Antray1984 I wouldn't consider that much of a feat. The SNES was a 240p system, and the 3DS' top screen is also 240p.
Marketing.

I know we Nintendo fans (and Virtual Console fans in particular) are notorious for complaining, but the lack of cross-buy really is getting ridiculous - and perhaps even more importantly, the lack of save data transfer. When the Wii U was revealed to have the ability to communicate with the 3DS, I just assumed this type of thing was the intention. A game like F-Zero or Super Mario Kart might not really need data transfer, but larger SNES games like Earthbound, Link to the Past and Super Metroid would be really frustrating without it. How many average gamers really want to play through those games twice over within a single generation? Something as simple as copying a restore point from one system to the other has got to be possible.

If Nintendo offered discounts and data transfer (or even just ONE of those), I would buy a whole bunch of NES and SNES games right now. But as it stands, I can't really see myself buying any of these except Super Mario Kart. Honestly, I would have gotten way more excited if they announced a new batch of Gameboy, Gameboy Color or Game Gear games.

@DarthNocturnal
Ya that MyNintendo program has to be the backbone of an online account system. They're getting their ducks in a row for NX, it would seem

Sadly no cross-buy but I only want Earthbound anyway.

Might finally get Earthbound, and I hope I don't end up buying a Link to the Past again. (Nintendo stop giving me a chance to buy this game again.)

@mjc0961 The thing is, people can already run most SNES games fine on the old model via homebrew, so the excuse of not handing them is not valid since said emulators who run the games at playable speeds without having full control of the hardware indicates otherwise.

Also, you are wrong about the GBA games being emulated. The GBA games use another firmware, like a DS mode, except its GBA mode, so it's not running the 3DS OS when you are playing them (same with DS mode)

And of course these are the only games Nintendo will ever release for this service because they don't add anything to the VC. Just look at N64 and DS; there are so many awesome titles to add (a la GoldenEye, Rhythm Heaven, and oh yeah, everything available in Europe!) Virtual Console pales in comparison to PSN and Steam because nothing cool ever gets added to it. Nintendo-makes great games-doesn't give em to us. Just one more terrible decision they make! Although the direct was great. Except for Metroid Prime Federation Force. And "Paper Mario". Those will suck. (Probably only slightly though). And for cross-buy.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You do realize Nintendo doesn't want to lose money by making people pay for the same game over and over? There should be cross-buy (obviously, but Nintendo didn't do it for NES titles so they are not doing it for these). Also, I'm only going to get Super Mario World; all the others I either have or don't care about. I'm done now.

@Einherjar

I noticed this too, it seems odd not to give some sort of discount to previous buyers. As someone who has bought th same games on VC numerous times, I sadly cannot offer any justification for doing so again. Even buying them on the Wii U is questionable since I own the physical carts, at this point I'd be throwing money at Nintendo and making it rain for no good reason!

Still this is great news for people who don't own a Wii or Wii U, or just want to play Super Metroid on the go.

Wow. Neat news, I suppose, but I either own or don't care for the titles listed. I'm with everyone else: What about cross-buy?

As an owner of a older 3DS XL I have to quote some famous wrestler's when I say to Nintendo, "Suck It!!!!!!!!"

They should optimize them to work on the older 3DS XL, but they won't

I will NOT be fully excited till they finally fix the cross buy problem! I have all of these already on the Wii u. I mean really How many times do they expect us to buy and rebuy these classics?? Worse yet they're forcing your hand to consider buying the NEW 3DS-that's a rip! SNES games should be across all models!! But for those who have been waiting it's about time and enjoy!!

This BLEW MY MIND!!!!

For those of you complaining, why? Its just convenience and they have to make the new 3ds worth having so why complain? You Wii U guys have GBA games so come on now, quit complaining.

Because the majority, including myself, only have original 3DS.

Definitely getting Earthbound. I already bought it on Wii U, but I don't mind paying $20 for Earthbound. Maybe Super Metroid too; that's one of the ones I only paid 30 cents for on the Wii U, so lack of cross-buy isn't a big deal there.

@VanillaLake psst....they are trying to rip us off again! They've got some pair! Maybe MAYBE I could past the no cross buy thing if it wasn't limited to the N3DS!! It's just ridiculous!! It's a big fat slap in the face!!

I'm very disappointed that it's just for New 3ds. (T_T )

Seriously? What's the point of creating a new account system if we can't get crossbuy or at least discounts.

If they were releasing GBA games on the 3DS, I'd seriously consider upgrading, especially now that you can get the smaller size in the US. I haven't bought any of those on WiiU - if I have to pay full price, I'd rather get home system games on WiiU and portable games on the 3DS.

Why in the world is this New 3DS only... My DS Lite emulated a lot of SNES games pretty well with homebrew?

Luckily I don't care to play SNES games on my 3DS... but this seems like a software douple/triple dip, along side a hardware upgrade cash grab... before NX comes out people get to buy old games over again?

I'll wait...

I never get bored of watching people complain.

Must you force options upon us, Nintendo?

I was going to buy a New 3DS just for SNES VC until I saw that the games are full price for everyone including those who downloaded them to Wii and Wii U. In that case I'm not buying New 3DS or downloading any SNES titles, not for full price.

@liljmoore Same here dude! I LITERALLY just bought Earthbound last week. As I bought it I thought to myself about how nice it'd be to play Earthbound on the go. Now it gets announced for the new 3ds and I have to buy it again at full price if I want it on my handheld despite already buying the game! I'm fed up with nintendo's lack of a REAL account system to share games. Literally no other game company has this archaic structure

YESSSSSSSSS finally! I've been waiting for them to get a little more amibitous with the V-console, great to see them moving forward. Personally I'm looking forward to some of the rarer DS and wii titles being put up for download on their respective systems. I would love to be able to buy Pokemon: Battle Revolution or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on my wii U without paying some collector, same for getting some NSMB1 on my 3DS.

Well, I have the New 3DS so that's great. Well it would be if I didn't already own most of these games on Wii U and the Wii also. I won't be buying them on 3DS.

I was excited, but I have almost all these on WiiU and I refuse to buy these twice, or more like three times by this point since I bought a lot of these originally for SNES.

I have to buy Earthbound again to play on the go? And to think people say Nintendo doesn't seem to want to take our money.
Donkey Kong Country on the go is nice though

But seriously, their new account system better have some kind of unified digital library, otherwise it's going to be another ten thousand steps backward =

took them long enough

maybe now we can get turbo grafx 16 games on 3DS VC, like that japanese have (according to miiverse communitys)

Wow, North America got screwed with the SNES VC. In both Europe and JP, it's buy 1, get 1 half off during launch week for SNES VC games while no such deal exists in the states.

Likely the most infuriating part of this announcement was when Bill said SNES VC would use New 3DS exclusive features like "pixel-perfect mode"; I cringed.

In what way does that make any sense?

But the most annoying bit was choosing SNES over GBA. Especially since GBA was already working and even had a superior scaling filter.

Again, GBA is NOT Virtual Console, it is DS mode.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
just a little excited

Anyone mentioning blargSNES or "these can already work on the 3DS", please go and get a clue.

I had an argument about this earlier today, and found out that blargSNES doesn't even run Super Mario Kart or DKC2.

So no, the 3DS doesn't play all SNES games. Please just stop acting irrationally and claiming there's some sort of SNES conspiracy.

@SanderEvers "Well, if there would be cross-buy you wouldn't have bought them again either. So Nintendo wouldn't have gotten your money either way."

Erm.. Right, yes!
In any case, portable SNES is a delicious proposition, but I cannot justify buying the same games again for a full VC price. This comes too late for me.

A similar discount promotion that they had with Wii to Wii U would have been the way to go, if they won't serve the games free for loyal fans. That way they would get some money from people whom they already got money from.

No loyalty promotion, no buy?

Yeah, the DS and GBA are still getting titles on the Wii U VC, not forgotten at all

Well I was excited about this but I do not have the New 3ds. I will buy one if they put Secret Of Mana SNES in the Eshop. Until then, eh, no sale.

Yeah, the DS and GBA are still getting titles on the Wii U VC, not forgotten at all

Hmmm... I haven't bought any of these games anywhere else, and I've been desperately waiting for any excuse other than Xenoblade to buy a New 3DS... but... still, I think I'll wait to see how many more show up. Or if there's a price drop or free game offer or something.

@SanderEvers Of course it might be "the best they can do" but at the same time they should get on with the times.

Firstly, PS3 to PS Vita has had cross-buy for ages. I guess PS4 to Vita has cross-buy too.

But what's more, people have been conditioned to having their patronage being carried on regardless of devices.

It would be madness if I had to buy all of my Steam games again when I buy a new PC, or all of my apps again when I get a new phone.

Nintendo should start caring for keeping their customers engaged with loyalty programs and a friggin' account system.
It's not "a free game" when I already bought it several times!

It's in a company's best interests to keep the customer relationship long and strong instead of making instant profit on every transaction with the customer.

I don't play devices, I play games.

I was interested in purchasing some SNES classics on 3DS, but Nintendo Switzerland is seriously asking me to pay € 14.00 for Earthbound and € 12.00 for Super Mario World.

Ever since the Swiss branch opened, eShop prices doubled in this country, so I haven't bought anything fom their online store in 3 years.

Nice try with the region locking, Nintendo, but no cookie from me.

Shocking there's no cross-buy but not surprising considering it's Nintendo.

I must have bought Super Mario World about 5 times in my life. Think I need to draw the line now...

@JaxonH @Gridatttack Just for your curiosity. GBA games works not so good on 3DS (Homebrew Launcher) but great on N3DS. While amulation is posible on the older system it seems that indeed N3DS has the power to run them smootlhy. Didn't tested SNES but I guess they would work similarly.

Anyway, to contribute to the discussion: I can finally play those SNES games I have never been able to as I didn't have the system. I'm going for EarthBound and Zelda. Yet, they are pretty pricey (10$) and I still don't understand why WiiU got GBA while N3DS SNES...?
I read above in comments that there was something called "perfect pixel" mode announced in the American Direct. Does anyone knows if this can be expected in Europe? I would assume so, but ya know, its Nintendo - you will never know what they will do.

@Onion Like i said, i can actually understand why this stuff cant be handed out for free. Heck, i even think its ok for the WiiU VC games to cost a little if you own the WiiVC ones.

But not reaching out to long term customers is a little sad.
That said, im still going to try to support the VC in any way, shape or form i can. Im all for preserving Nintendos classic library that way, especially if you look at how "promising" their recent titles are...

@KTT I just checked the eShop. The screenshots show that the default size is a bit smaller than the screen, not talking about the sides because of the 4:3 ratio but the top and bottom of the screen If that's the default size, the 1:1 mode will be smaller. The screenshots don't show a sharp display at all.

The prices are ridiculously high and there are no discounts for current owners of the games on Wii U/Wii. Super Mario World is one of my favourite games ever but honestly it doesn't look nearly as good as on Wii or Wii U and also I'm getting tired of Nintendo's policies and how they love ripping off their most loyal fans. By the way, I have noticed that some people defending this pricing for all customers are using emulators to play free these games. Oh boy.

@rushiosan : R32 is US$8.41. What's the problem? They're charging almost the same amount as the U.S. In fact, it might even be cheaper as some states charge tax after the purchase, which would be more than US$8.

I will likely get LttP but that is it. I'm fine with my wiiu versions.

Personally I just want them to flesh out the VC on wiiu. Pick a system and fill it with games, then branch back out. However I have no idea how the licensing works for all of these games. I feel like VC was a great idea that the dev team came up with but nobody spoke to accounting or legal before they implemented.

being an old school 3ds owner Im dissapointed these snes games are not applicable to me. Nintendo are missing out on an established market by making them new 3ds exclusive. a wasted oppourtunity to make more money!

@joey302 Yes, you are right!

@BensonUii That doesnt mean anything really. All it says is, that they should instead be working on a proper fix.
And besides, it would have been a great way to promote MyNintendo, even if it would have meant that the SNES games would have been delayed a couple of weeks.

Another alternative would have been a licensing link app on both WiiU and 3DS. Boot it up, link your systems and the app transfers all purchased licenses on the WiiU over to the 3DS, enabling price cuts on the 3DS eShop.

Nice for those who only have a New 3DS.
But I will not buy anything here, unless they give a discount when you already have the same games on Wii U. (Similar as Wii -> Wii U).

@VanillaLake Yeah, noticed that in the eShop as well, and that's why I'm curious about. I would prefer the original, crisp, ratio. The American Direct doesn't show the upper and lower borders, while European does. Not sure what to think about it.

@KTT I would say that if you have a Wii or Wii U stick to any of those versions of the game, but that's just me. Actually, I got the Wii and the Wii U version, I only paid €1.49 for the Wii U upgrade. The Wii version is the PAL (in Europe) while the Wii U version is the NTSC one. I was gladly surprised to see both versions being good, some PAL versions of old games are poor, but Super Mario World PAL version plays great. I 100% both versions, I think any of them are a great option for any gamer, but I noticed slowdown (NTSC version) when I got the star, ran and jumped but nothing really important, actually it was only on one level.

@BensonUii And they are stingy to do that with the NES games, too. Wii U and 3DS are already tied via NNID account, Nintendo knows who bought those games on any of their current consoles.

I know Nintendo never promised anything about this, but people have the right to say what they think of Nintendo's business decisions when those affect their wallets, specially when you see things like Rare Replay, Uncharted Trilogy, Halo collection and cross-buy options on Microsoft (Xbox 360-Xbox One) and Sony (PS4-Vita) that are much nicer than paying for a NES/SNES game multiple times.

@BensonUii They could have started today with the SNES games! About what you said about the codes, they just need to update the eShop, it's not that complicated.

@BensonUii First of all, no one expected anything. All people said is, that not catering towards customers who bought these games for the 3rd time now is a bad business decision.
For many people out there, its either buy them reduces or not at all.
So Nintendo is at a definitive loss here as not many people will be willing to pay for a third time.

As for the difficulty of implementing it. It really is a non issue. So whats preventing them to do it ? Easy, non centralised account systems. Thats basically the gist of it.
There is no one-stop account for Nintendo devices.
Just look at the 3DS alone: Mii-Userprofile, internal system ID, ClubNintendo account, NNID and now MyNintendo.
Thats a fishermens knot if i ever saw one.

To remedy this, MyNintendo would need to be that centralised account, binding all of this together, not to mention the 3DS OS overhaul, lifting the System ID restriction and relinking your licenses to your MyNintendo account.

The real issue here is the huge logistical hole Nintendo dug for themselves by not shooting for such an account system in the first place.

Nintendos logical loophole here is, that they try to make money off of people who already gave it to them.
Only their most avid fans will be willing to pay a third time, and i reckon thats hardly enough to cover the costs, not to mention that the N3DS isnt nearly as widespread as the regular one.

The offer is simply not attractive in any way, shape or form for customers who are already on board and not nearly enough for those still comming.

So again, the issue isnt that people expected or felt entitled to a cross buy opportunity, but that this offering without one is a bad business decision and could have been avoided if they waited the few weeks until MyNintendo was ready.

@BensonUii But you are aware that those SNES VC games are N3DS exclusives right ? A system, that already doesnt have good arguments to exist.
There are around +/- 4.13mil units shipped. Even less than WiiUs.
So its far more likely that N3DS owners already own these games either on Wii or WiiU than not.

@VanillaLake Unfortunately, I don't own Wii nor WiiU. I have various Nintendo handhelds at home but none of the stationaries, exluding N64. Thanks for the info though!

@BensonUii Uhm, no, we were not, we were talking about the SNES games here. I never said anything about global cross buy solutions.
Guess why i mentioned waiting with said SNES games until MyNintendo was finished ?

This could have been THE reason for many peple to upgrade to a N3DS, since the SNES is still a fan favorite.
But since it doesnt come with benefits for the way larger audience of former systems, the whole offering falls flat on its behind. Thats why i said it isnt attractive to veterans, nor is it enough to attract new customers.

Its not about a the global cross buy situation here, it never was.
Its about this offering, that has such a little reach and still manages to alienate thos customers too. Thats the crux here, nothing else.

@KTT You are welcome!
@Einherjar Very well explained!

I cant be excited for this, nearly all of these games were on the GBA over 10 years ago. They weren't perfect ports but they were good enough for me.
I doubt that even with "perfect pixel mode" that these will offer a good enough experience for purists.

Too little too late.

I have already purchased Super mario world on the Wii U, I'd like to play it on my 3DS but there's no way I'm not going to buy it again..

I'm glad they're doing this. Helps justify upgrading to the new 3DS. However Since there is no cross buy I'm just limiting myself to a couple of them, specifically Mario World and a Link to The Past for now.

(Looks at the comments)

Ugh. I'm going to buy everything just to spite all of you.

I may finally pick up Earthbound. It's one of the only games on the list that I don't have. Plus, I've always wanted to play it.

When I saw this, I couldn't help but think why not give these to the people who purchased the N3DS? Or at the very least at a discount. Or for free if you already purchased these on another Nintendo System?????????? But I'm saying nothing new that someone else hasn't already posted.

Again it is annoying that there is no cross buy, but I want the games, so I am not gonna do the whole, cutting off my nose to spite my face routine. I will buy them again for £7.19 and enjoy 10 hours of mario world on the go.

As for the old 3ds. I am not saying that it can't run the games, but emulation or 'virtual consoles' are more complex then people imagine, the system is basically having to run a snes and a 3ds at the same time. So it puts a lot more strain on a system then simply running a snes game off an sd card. I am really looking fwd to having this amazing game library on the go

was hoping they had found a way to manipulate the screen to produce a higher resolution. As from what I know the 3ds screen replicates each pixel twice then splits them to create the 3d effect. Was hoping they had found a way to make the most of that 800 across screen. Resoultion is the only issue I have with the 3ds as a console. @shinesprite

I already have four of the games in one form or another, so I'm only considering buying Earthbound and the Donkey Kong Country games.

-> only on New 3DS
-> no Crossbuy

nope, not getting these for just New 3DS, I'll continue to get them on Wii U, thanks

@BensonUii You misunderstand a lot of things my friend...
First: Stop talking about "Cross Buy" already. You are the only one bringing that up constantly.
I was talking about price cuts for tripple dippers initially and expanded on it due to this VCs extremely low reach otherwise.
I am NOT talking about a general cross buy system here.

Second: I never said i wouldnt. In fact, i already have. I said that a lot of people arent willing to pay a third time, based on people i talked to, forum / comment reactions etc.

Third: SNES VC games wont work on a 3DS, only on a N3DS, and that is around 4mil customers, not 12mil.

If i have to repeat that again, i wont reply

Great news, glad to see this finally happen. Since I don't own a Wii U, this works well for me. I'm probably going to grab Earthbound and few others. Hope they release some more SNES games on N3DS VC.

@JaxonH Even a DSTWO doesn't run Mario Kart good, it's unplayable

F-Zero was a day one purchase for me.

Sadly the controls are near impossible to perform on the 3DS. My hand starts to really hurt after just a couple of races contorting to hit all the buttons and shoulder buttons required to play this game.

Buyers beware

To have Mario Kart in portable form on my N3DS is fantastic. It never ran properly on any DS/3DS flash card of even a hacked PSP. I'll happily pay for these SNES ports. SNES emulation was always buggy on portables.

Just a hand full and you have to buy them if you already own them on the Wii U. Typical.

Bad form Nintendo.

Impress me by cross buy and opening the SNES library a bit more.

And that offer is only for the UK eshop?

@KTT I know. GBA doesn't work well on the old model, hence why nintendo needed to create a separate mode to run the ambassador games.

The emulator blargSNES is pretty good and runs many games at 90% or more speed.

And it has the 'pixel perfect' mode because it only displays the natural resolution; it doesn't scales the video output.

The list of games I want is not short. I know some of these will NEVER happen, but here are a few I would love to have on the go:
Hagane
TMNT IV
TMNT Tournament Fighter
Clay Fighters
Castlevania: Dracula X
Actraiser
Earthworm Jim
Demon's Crest
Knights of the Round
Magic Sword
Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
Shadowrun
Gradius III
Spiderman Venom: Maximum Carnage
Saturday Night Slam Masters
Batman Returns
R-Type III
Nosferatu
Super Star Wars/Empire/Return of the Jedi
The Adventures of Batman & Robin
Stunt Race FX
Hyperzone

No discount for owning them on WiiU VC is enough to make me ignore these entirely then. I refuse to re-buy the exact same emulated game for multiple systems. That and only new 3DS is a shame too, esp since they never released the black, smaller new 3DS stateside...I'd have rather some Virtual Boy VC titles please?!

Still would rather have GBA games, but neh...

@liljmoore

I am very excited but you do have a point; I already bought these on my Wii and WiiU

It seems Nintendo hasn't learned..

So much whining, so much pain!!!

These are some of my favorite games. I don't much care about playing on the TV anymore, so it's great to have these on the go.

So they cost a little more than nothing? Oh well. I like Nintendo, I want them to stick around, and floating them $25 every three weeks isn't going to kill me. Considering how I've been playing "unofficial" versions of these on emulators, it's the least I can do, even though I've bought them before.

These are very good versions and help to justify my New 3DS!

This is VERY dissapointing to me. There are a lot of SNES titles out there I never played, but I really want to try, and this could've been the perfect opportunity for me to try them, but noooo, they're New 3DS only. Why? The regular 3DS can easily run SNES games, I know that much. I'm sorry Nintendo, but I simply can't afford a New 3DS, especially not if you still want me to buy the NX.

@Antray1984 Close. Think of the top screen as two interleaved 240x400 screens (with each pixel half as wide as on the 2DS) which simply show the same image when in 2D.

..So basically, they'll be forcing the system into 2D mode, adding some letter-boxing, and call it pixel-perfect mode.

What going on I brought them to day mario for 7 and earthbound for 5 but now there offering mario to me for 2.59 but I brought it earlier for 7 I call bs have just emailed them to complain maybe they just started cross buy and I just missed it?

Wait. Super Metroid? On 3DS?

IS THIS EVEN HAPPENING?!

Just irritating that Europe gets it next week, while we wait several more...

Take it from a person who heavily contributes to blargSNES's development.

The o3DS is incapable of emulating SNES games at 60fps with the accuracy needed to put a price tag on. Straight-up emulation of the SNES CPU is not the problem. That's actually one of the easier part to emulate. It's emulating the PPU, synchronization of the numerous parts like the main CPU with the SPC700 core, etc. The 3DS has zero access to any 2D hardware. Only DS mode has that sort of stuff, and that's limited to hardware similar to the GBA's 2D hardware, which while similar, lacks capabilities unique to the SNES.

So what about the 3D Megadrive Classics? The only thing in the Megadrive that actually surpassed the SNES is the CPU, which I'll note again, is one of the easier parts to emulate. Even then, the M2 team had trouble with that emulation during development.

What about DBZ Super Butoden 2? That's a port of the SNES game as discovered by hackers. It is not emulation.

This just makes me want them to release the standard size N3DS in NA even more! (In black.) C'mon NoA!!!!!!!!!!

@Gridatttack Well, then it seems only GBA games works bad on the old model, SNES games running okay. As I said, I never tested SNES games, so I'm not sure how they work. I assumed they could be emulated similarly to GBA as the hardware was similar. It's fun to see what Homebrew can do, heh.

The pixel perfect mode, you mean the Virtual Console, not emulators on Homebrew, right? I'm going to buy EarthBound soon and I then will see if it works.

@KTT Not really, from what I understand about this 'pixel perfect' mode is that it simply displays the games at the native output the SNES video does, which is smaller than a 3DS screen, so the emulator simply displays it as-it instead of scaling it.

My only complain is that the emulator is sort of stopped development and cant play special chip games or super mario kart, but that's besides the point.

BlargSNES is a homebrew emulador for Nintendo 3ds and guess what... It runs on old 3ds perfectly! I think that Nintendo needs to hire these developers. Lately Nintendo is having a lot of "hardware limitations"

@NIN10DOXD Or, you know, maybe not?

@Gridatttack To keep you informed. The manual states: "reduces the game screen to oits original Super Nintendo resolution. The screen width differs from the original game, but this provides the sharpest display".

The game by default is a little bit stretched with nasty blur visible. With Original Resolution (this is how the manual refers to it), the display is more rectangular and the pixels indeed appear to be sharp.

Fun for people who want to play those on the go (and have a New 3DS), but to me its basically Nintendo releasing old vc games AGAIN, instead of some stuff we still miss (like a English version of Mother 3 and the entire Starfy collection)!! And restricting to New 3DS: Nonsense!!

And all I need to do is buy a new system. Thanks for nothing Nintendo!

I'm happy that SNES games are now available for my New 3DS, but they are a bit on the expensive side. SEGA has remade some of their 16-bit classics in 3D and they sell for £4.49. That's half the price of an unchanged version of Earthbound.

Didn't SNES games cost about £5.50 when they came out on the Wii Virtual Console?

@burninmylight They should've totally thought of that.

this sucks NA may get 3 games at a time but NA has to wait longer to get all 9 NA sucks.

I'd get most of the games in europe if we had the deals they were getting...

NA is getting 1 extra game but still...

2/3 of the games I wanted is on EU list... and with the 50% off promo I'd easily get both games. Heck I'd throw in the DK games... and maybe even MK

Are anymore snes games being released after this batch