VS. Super Mario Bros. Arcade Archives Release Set for Festive Arrival on Switch

When's Marvel vs. Super Mario Bros.

@Exy If Capcom will be handling it, they'll announce it and cancel it

Meh...

I'm well up for some 'even better than' arcade perfect Double Dragon. Nothing is surer than that.

This looks great my son loves the original super Mario Bros and I will definitely be getting Double dragon

Can I just transfer my VC games over from WiiU please? I’ll pay full price again if I have to. I have zero nostalgia for these arcade games and no desire to buy them. I’ll throw fist fulls of money at Nintendo to download my favorite NES/SNES/N64 games again though. I just always assumed Nintendo would allow me to transfer my VC collection to their current hardware. I wouldn’t have bought so many if I knew they’d be locked to the WiiU forever.

Is...is that Double Dragon on the 28th Dec? OH....MY...GAWD! FINALLY!!!

Nah. It's just a fusion of Super Mario Bros and Lost Levels. Which are great games but easily available on all three Virtual Consoles.

"Double Dragon", alright!

@justin233 that’s a good question I have loads on my wiiu also does anyone know the release date for zero gunner 2

I wonder how many people are going to buy this game only to be disappointed it's not the game they grew up with.

Nope, I’ll pass. I’m fine with having Super Mario Bros on Wii VC. I’ll stick with the Neo Geo games, and I’ll take Double Dragon.

You bet, though the Nintendo titles specifically assembled into some sort of comp with spiffy menus and extras would have been an easier sell. No Donkey Kong, though. Bummer.

The only one I'm waiting for from this series is the arcade version of Punch Out... it is a bit weaker in gameplay than Tyson's, but will be a novelty on a console

The Switch is getting everything right... except for the Virtual Console, as Vs. Super Mario Bros. is getting released before the NES original.
The Switch has the potential of a Virtual Console for every previous Nintendo console... and they throw it away to make room for the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, which despite being cool retro consoles they also have a fatal flaw, requiring a TV when we've just seen NES and SNES games running on 3DS screens.
Several steps forward, just as many steps back.

i've already have the original version on 3ds, Animal Crossing (NGC). (via AR Code). so i think im good on this game.

Tougher eh? Cracks knuckles Lemme at 'em.

I had no idea there were different difficulty settings and level designs. May we worth picking up just for them, since many of us know the original game back to front.

Can you play it single player or is it only a two player game?

@OorWullie I read that as "Double Dribble"

Now that was a classic NES game

Why are they drip-feeding us these arcade titles? Release them all at once, COME ON! >:[

Can’t say this enough- LOVE YOU HAMSTER!! Keep em coming!!

Anyone know what happened to Magician Lord on the US shop? It disappeared! 😐

Would love some Double Dragon (and Street Fighter II and TMNT).

Please let Double Dragon be true. My first-love arcade machine.

I’m all over DD and SMB vs. Too much whining in this thread over these releases.

@AlexSora89 Despite their flaws, they also give Nintendo a license to print money. We won’t see Virtual Console until Nintendo is finished with the two Classics.

@GC-161 I remember seeing those Double Dribble dunks when I was a kid, and thinking it looked so realistic

@Yorumi The main difference is that some of the levels were replaced with levels from Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. The arcade version also allowed the operator to change things like the time limit and the number of coins needed to earn a 1-up (generally done in order to maximize profit). I think there's also a high-scores screen.

Also, the NES controller has a proper D-pad.

Definitely getting the Super Mario Bros Arcade. I watched a Let's Play of it on YouTube and it looks just different enough that would make for a great experience for myself.

@GC-161 Yep, great game. I used to play that on my mates NES, Blades of Steel was another classic. I had a Master System instead of a NES back then but we'd often swap for a few days.

I kinda regret getting the Mario Bros game given the price as I’ve barely played it. I might wait for the vc version of SMB

Definitely picking up Vs. SMB because I'm done with the original. Double Dragon is a maybe. The "elbow punch til the end" mechanic and that one jump over the gap in the bridge grinds my gears, LOL. But it's arcade perfect, so maybe.

Also, the King of Fighters '96 (I know someone here will be excited about that) and the Last Blade come out at around that time, too. Happy Holidays, indeed!

@JoeDiddley Mario Bros? The NES version is easier if anything. But since it's based on the arcade original, why not dive in on that?

SMB is a different story, as Vs. SMB is much different.

Hamster, look, I love what you are doing here, and I've been supportive with my words and my wallet. But maybe I haven't been clear about this: GIVE US PUNCH-OUT!! and BASEBALL STARS PROFESSIONAL ASAP! Thanks, that is all.

@masterLEON Actually, Vs. Super Mario Bros is a 1986 arcade game that was designed and based off the 1985 NES version of SMB. In fact, all of the Vs. series of games are ports of their original NES counterparts. Nintendo created these arcade games in order to broaden their appeal and introduce their games overseas here in the West.

@bezerker99 Oh, I know, but I think he was talking about two different things, ACA Mario Bros. and VC SMB, now that I reread it. Reply is now edited.

Not sure how I would feel if they got the Double Dragon picture wrong and it's actually the NEOGEO Double Dragon game releasing on Switch...erm...actually I think I would be disappointed.

@bezerker99
It's not a good idea to release everything all at once. In fact they'll probably make the least amount of money that way. It would over saturate the market all at once, and people would only have so much money to spend on them anyways so they just buy the top five games and then ignore and forget about the rest. And those other 100 titles they released were a waste of development money.

I mean it's no different than normal games. You would never see Nintendo release Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, ARMS, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade, etc all at once. Most people would only have enough money for a few of those. You spread your releases out over time at a constant rate that people can keep up with.

I wanted to have punch out by now...

I will definitely be getting this

@Roam85 Oh come on, you didn't think Punch Out would be anything other than the last title released do you?! We have a couple of months to go before we see that game

@Yorumi
That too I'm sure.

But there's no question that pacing content is the best approach, for a variety of reasons. I think the people who buy a console later ultimately miss out on a lot of previous releases (hence why sales after release is always much lower than the week of release), except the very best that they feel they can't miss or a few they got on sale. For example, I think if you took everyone who buys a Switch over the next 5 years, and released a game like ARMS after the fact, when everyone already owns the console, it would sell way more than trying to appeal to people as a back catalogue title.

Either way I'm not getting my hopes up very much for virtual console games beyond NES and SNES. I think they learned during the Wii U era that if they inject a constant flow of VC, fans won't buy anything else. And I noticed that with this console, indie games (and 3rd party games in general) are selling much better than they have in the past. To an extent I think it's because people aren't spending a constant rate of money on VC, which Nintendo fans will likely choose over any other game if given the choice. They're relatively cheap and offer just as much content as a $20 indie title, so people basically kept their plates full on a VC-only diet.

If they wait a year before they start, then just do NES/SNES for 2 years... I think by that time the system will be hugely popular and games will be selling extremely well and maybe they can come in then with the rest of the VC, and kind of cram a more potent release schedule to fit in all the games before the generation ends.

@bezerker99 They're not ports, that would imply they're the same. All of them to some minor to huge degree are very much unique games. VS Super Mario Bros may have the same level of stages but each of them has been dramatically altered with new holes, blocks, traps and enemies/enemy placement to make it a nastier game. PunchOut is another that's very much different as is Balloon Fight, but then stuff like Ice Climber and even Mario Bros are largely much more similar to the NES content.

Gee.. I thought for a few VS system titles it wouldn't take months just to emulate... again so much "in the coming weeks" it's classic Nintendo, we most likely get another one like Punch Out or Urban Champion in Easter...

I know everyone's begging for the Virtual Console, but seeing how well the new eShop games are doing I just hope VC doesnt take away the sales and/or attention to the great brand new stuff we've gotten and will get on the eShop.....

@Sinton
More like we're not seeing Virtual Console period. We'll get N64 classic instead. And then Game Boy classic. Game Boy Color classic. DS Classic. Rinse and repeat.

I wouldn't mind seeing VS. Balloon Fight receive a release. As far as I know, MAME is the only platform you can play it on. I know it plays identical to the home versions, but it just looks better. Actually amazed that no one has tried doing a graphics hack on the NES version yet. The arcade game certainly looks doable.

YES! YES! YES! Wished it wasn’t next month though, want it NOW!

OMG HAMSTER HEARD MY WISH!! IS THAT ARCADE PERFECT DOUBLE DRAGON?!?!?!?! Oh God PLEASE come to the west. That was one that I've been wanting for a LONG time, and with this Arcade Archives series, I figured there'd be a sliver of a chance! Oh and, I'm actually a little excited for Vs. SMB if stages are tweaked a touch-- It'd still be nice to give that one a go. Goodness. I guess my hope for arcade perfect Donkey Kong can't be too far behind (that one's a bit more of a longshot, but who knows?)

@Exy
lol i would love a Marvel vs Nintendo sign me up.

@Angelic_Lapras_King

Its not by accident the VC has not been launched, and you have hit on the head the very reason why. Nintendo wants third parties to do well, and for a steady stream of releases to fill the eshop, but if they had filled it with Nintendo VC releases, it would've drown out 3rd party releases, resulting in less releases down the line.

The fact that the VC has not yet occurred is not by accident, or due to bad planning. It was planned out well before the Switch released and I would imagine will continue until the 1 year anniversary. Nintendo very well may have guaranteed limited competition from its own catalogue for the 1st year. Maybe longer.

Calling Vs. SMB two player competitive is misleading. It's alternating two player just like the original NES SMB.

Double Dragon I will buy.......assuming it is up to the other Hamster standards.

Vs Mario I'm not sure.....I played it in arcade but I have enough Mario versions.

What I really want is Donkey Kong, but the GameBoy version made into arcade classic graphics........

@Sinton Street Fighter 2 is covered by Ultra don’t you think? But I agree TMNT would be awesome.

@Starbuster Sort of covered, but it’s still not a true reproduction of the arcade game.

@Sinton You mean the first Street Fighter 2? A lot of Switch owners might find it a little redundant considering the lack of characters, stages and options you’d be getting compared to Ultra. Can’t see them doing it.

@justin233 That's why I stopped buying digital games with the release of the Switch. Oh, and also now that they killed off Club Nintendo there is zero reason to download.

@Starbuster Isn’t that the case with every arcade game that gets a re-release 20 plus years later? But yeah, I don’t see it happening either.

@amstans I understand not being able to transfer indies or digital retail games, but I’d like to keep my collection of VC games on the current hardware and don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible to transfer from WiiU to Switch in much the same way as from Wii to WiiU. I don’t buy retail digitally except for that time they gave away a game by downloading MK8, but I still buy select indies.

I don't understand the drip feed approach. If the new game isn't worth it then yeah the older better designed and fun games will win out. With this drop feed we've had niche sports titles for the last two weeks on ACA. At this rate it will be January 2019 before all of the Nintendo ACA games are all out. Why not have Hamster dump all the Neo geo, konami etc ACA at once that is already on other systems like the ps4 then we will be caught up and can then join in on the already slow drip.

@GameOtaku Because it takes time to do that.

@NinNin
They are already out on ps4. All Nintendo needs to do is sign whatever agreement is needed and hamster can then dump them. Honestly 1 game a week if that?! Why not 2 or 3? Or why doesn't Nintendo support its on VC other than on wiiu, the wiiu has about 20 or so nes titles that 3ds doesn't like star tropics and earthbound beginnings so for releases like those it would take no time at all since the testing has already been done on Wiiu so they just need to copy and paste to the 3ds VC!

@GameOtaku What do you mean by "dump"? This game and Neo Geo games on the Switch are ports. They aren't VC games.

@NinNin
Is there a difference between the ps4 and switch versions of the ACA games? To my knowledge there's not. So why would it take so long?

@GameOtaku The PS4 uses an x86-64 CPU, but the Switch uses an ARM CPU. The APIs are different. The code needs to be ported.

@NinNin
Still that should not take months of drip feeds. Nintendo should step up its efforts on VC.

@berzerker99, the arcade punchout came before mike Tyson punchout.

No.. just.... no

I honestly thought they forgot about the Nintendo Arcade Archives.

Super Mario Bros. on NES was the first Game i ever owned, so i can't wait to pick up this Version i haven't played yet.

Would I pick up Vs. Super Mario Bros on Switch? ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY!! Bring me some of that Double Dragon action too!!

It was played during the neintendo world championships here un the USA so it would only make sense to make a western release.

All these old games would be an instant buy if they had online multiplayer

I said it yesterday but I'll do it again. Please stop confusing SMB for VS SMB. While graphically the same, the games are not. The arcade game has different pits, blocks, enemies and placement, and it's more aggressive. It's a challenge between SMB1 and SMB2(Jp on Famicom Disk System aka Lost Levels.)

Don't think buying it means you're re-buying another identical copy of SMB on NES.

If Hamster continues making arcade ports for Switch, someone needs to make a pre-made cabinet with Switch dock. Would be nice to have a arcade cabinet in my basement that my switch powered

Vs Super Mario Bros day 1! I couldn't be happier with the release of these Nintendo arcade gems! And original Double Dragon (non-home console version)!! The Switch is becoming my platform for classic arcade gaming.

Back when Club Nintendo had surveys, this was the kind of thing I'd always ask for. The real curiosities that relatively few people have had the chance to play. I'm genuinely excited about this (and some of Hamster's other offerings to be honest; I'm way more hyped for their release slate than I was for SEGA's 3D Classics, which is the only comparable project I can think of)!

That document looks like the back of a game case. Physical edition in the works?

I'm tempted, just because I remember playing this in the arcade as a lid and was intrigued then by the subtle changes to the home original. Would like to play it again.

@ThomasBW84 I don't believe VS. Super Mario Bros. is a competitive game, or at least not any moreso than the standard game. It's just a difficulty mod.

"VS." refers to the name of the hardware itself. It was the name of the console, which was an NES-based arcade board which allowed arcade owners to swap the game by replacing the ROM chips on the board, rather than needing to buy a whole new board for each game, as they typically had to do.
I think the name VS. was chosen as they envision competitive games being made, and it was sold as a single "Unisystem" and linkable "Dualsystem" version, enabling up to four players (as VS. Tennis was said to support).
The only other such arcade machine with replaceable media that I know of at the time was a Data East board which loaded games from audio cassette tapes.
DECO Cassette System or something?

@GameOtaku There is a very simple reason for the drip feed, more sales. If they release one game per week, the people that like these games will buy them all.

If the release 10 or more games at once, a lot of people will say „I don’t want to spend 70$ on old games, I’ll just buy one or two“.

So they will start releasing normal arcade titles soon? That means Mr. Goemon is not too far off?

I'm hoping this long delay in VC games is because they may allow for redownloading of any previously purchased games under the Nintendo Netowrk. High hopes, I know. But even if that were the case, the Switches home screen would need a massive overhaul. We're about due for one soon, anyway.

@countzero
I don't see it that way. With more game variety per week then people would have more choice. Sports games are niche, shooters are niche, with only one game per week options are limited.

@Musarao @FinalFrog
Variety is the spice of life. 1 genre released a week?! That's not appealing to a large group especially considering these are retro titles. I don't really see them eating into new game sales or by the same token a new game eating into theirs. Not everyone wants to purchase the same thing. Assuming all gamers wanted that week was a basketball game is ridiculous, but if they release it alongside say, Haunted Castle, then you would have more sales split between the 2, rather than a small percentage from only 1 afterall the money is going into a singular point.

I want some Donkey Kong 3 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , I used to spend a lot of quarters on Donkey Kong 3.

@AlexSora89 The Switch can’t accurately emulate Wii, Wii U, DS or 3DS games with its current hardware setup. Games from those consoles would have to be heavily reprogrammed and modified to work properly, making them new releases and not Virtual Console games, which are emulated titles by definition.

@Musurao
I disagree completely. Consumers have more choice so they will only buy what they want and then ignore what they don't just as they always have since time immemorial. These releases are cheap, less than $10, that won't break the bank. So they only release for example metal slug and those that want it bought it then with more buying after the release but that was the only option then. If I wanted nba jam then I may have to wait 4-6 months at this point before it happens and they lose out on potential sales because they don't won't to cannibalize one game?!

@electrolite77 I don't think it's intended, though. I'm sure that if Nintendo can release one million Zelda games tomorrow, they will do it.

I want TMNT arcade version!

Can anyone tell me if this version uses regular Mario jumping physics or if, like the Mario Arcade game, it uses those old fashioned 1980s controls? ???

@masterLEON sorry for the late reply. You’re response is logical and correct.

I’m just personally waiting as this version seems a bit expensive, and won’t hold the same nostalgia (the original was the first game I owned and played). Who knows SMB might be cheaper, or even part of the online service.

I’m also hoping that joycons with a d pad are released whenever the vc hots up, I play mostly in handheld. Switch is not currently an ideal platform for me to repurchase all my vc games I have on Wii and 3DS (as they are unlikely to be transferable).

@thesilverbrick
I'm going to agree as long as DS and 3DS are involved. Everything else is just a white noise made up of excuses. The Joy-Cons are essentially what amounts to be the Wii's motion controls done a thousand times better. And yet, we shouldn't see Super Mario Galaxy on Switch? Why?

@AlexSora89 For starters, Wii U emulation isn’t possible without a second screen, for obvious reasons. And any Wii game that used the sensor bar is out of luck, since the Switch is lacking one of those. Sure, they could entirely rework every Wii game to use motion controlled pointing, but at that point and after all that work they’re new games and not emulated Virtual Console titles.

@thesilverbrick
I can rule out Wii U as well because I never thought of the whole second screen, but that's it. Super Mario Galaxy on Switch is a possibility, I mean, motion controls are there, and they're done so well now that the lack of emulated pointing would be a terrible waste of potential.

@AlexSora89 I certainly could see a version of Mario Galaxy running on Switch, but you won’t be seeing listed as a Virtual Console title. The title would need to be reworked fundamentally to run on Switch, but it’s not an impossibility. At that point, you’d probably end up seeing a version of the game with enhanced visuals billed as an upgraded port, but as it stands, Wii games in their current coding aren’t compatible with the Switch’s hardware setup. Each one would need to be heavily reworked, at which point they would no longer be emulated “Virtual Console” games by definition. That’s all I’m saying. Could they rework selected Wii tiles as enhanced ports for Switch? Absolutely. And I would most certainly wager that we will see at least a handful of them in the next few years. Just don’t get your hopes up for full fledged Virtual Console support for Wii games across the board.

@thesilverbrick
"Newer Play Control: Switched Up! - Super Mario Galaxy"
Bit of a mouthful, but something to look forward to nonetheless.

@AlexSora89 There you go! Now we’re talking, haha.

@thesilverbrick
Eeyup! Last week I barely turned my PC on, so I'm sorry for replying late.