Adamant

"Also, is this the last Sonic SMS game?"

There's also Sonic Spinball and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, if you count them. They're different enough from the Mega Drive originals to warrant a release.

"Don't be so sure. Given TMNT (Konami and whoever owns the TMNT rights these days) was 600 points and we've not seen any more I have a strange feeling the liscence holder wasn't happy with getting 100 points per sale (well minus the Nintendo royalties etc) and charging anything more than 100 points is ludicrous."

Eh, if given the choice of either paying, say, 800 for an awesome NES game like Batman or Duck Tales, or not getting the game on the VC at all, I'd guess quite a lot of people would accept the increased price as a nessecary evil.

Well, the game is designed around using your money intelligently and playing good through the entire game. Not starting over upon death would kind of kill the entire concept.

Plus the revival potion kind of acts as an extra life.

Plus, once you've learned how the game works, it's not particularly hard. I beat it fairly quickly.

Sonic Chaos is, for all intents and purposes, Sonic 3 for the Master System/Game Gear.

Sounds pretty damn good, actually. Might look into this one.

cough Pokemon Puzzle League cough

So, looking at foreign releases of these:
*Formation-Z is Japan-only
*Double Dragon is already on the VC everywhere else.
*Tactics Ogre was released in America on the PSX
*Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars was released worldwide
*Galaxy Force II was released worldwide
*Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu was released worldwide on Turbografx as "Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes"
*L-Dis is Japan-only
*Dai Makaimura is on the VC worldwide as the Mega Drive "Ghouls'n Ghosts", Japan included
*Winning Shot is Japan-only
*Super Darius 2 was released on Mega Drive in America and Master System in Europe as "Sagaia", as well as getting a Saturn release in Europe as "Darius 2")
*Wallaby!! Usagi no Kuni no Kangaroo Race is Japan-only

Super Darius 2, L-Dis, Formation-Z and possibly Winning Shot (never played it) are import-friendly. Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes is announced for a worldwide release as it's Turbografx iteration. Alex Kidd and Galaxy Force II are probably getting releases all over the world. The others probably won't come, unless Square Enix has an easy way of slapping the PSX script translation of Tactics Ogre onto the SFC game.

@7th lutz: Alex Kidd in Hi-tech World isn't a real Alex Kidd game, but the anime-license game "Anmitsu-hime" with a new slap of paint for it's release outside Japan. It won't be on the Japanese VC.

"Too bad Twinbee is very unforgiving. One tiny little bullet hits you"

Yeah, no other shmup has ever done that. Curse you, Twinbee, and you evil design ideas!

Yeah, I believe they're simply renaming it so people will understand which series it's part of.

Likewise, I can see Square Enix releasing the "Dragon Warrior" games under their current Dragon Quest title, and the Final Fantasy games with their correct numbers if these where ever to make it to the VC.

This was assumed to be the reason why Shadow Warriors was released on the European VC as it's American counterpart "Ninja Gaiden" - that's what the recent Xbox games are called, and they want people to know it's the same series.

@Drake: But Bomberman Blast in online, which makes it superior to all th games that aren't.
Come on, who plays Bomberman in single player anyway?

Wonder Boy in Monster Land is awesome, probably my favorite game in the series. Definitely get it.

Sucks to be you. Can't the non-fanboys enjoy the game in peace?

(actually, that wasn't even right - the Red Knight is the boss on level 3. Forgot what he looked like when I mademy previous post)

The Red Knight is in the game. You find him in the hidden mansion on the island, and probably some later places as well.

@7th lutz: "Adventure Island is better than Wonder Boy."

In what ways would you consider it better? Wonder Boy is pretty much universally considered the superior of the two.

@Angelic Lapras King: "Does this have the Special Options the Euro version got too?"

Indeed. Why wouldn't it?

slangman, the Master System was a haven of horrendous box art. This game is above par as far as the system is considered.

@Stuffgamer1: "It's funny. I would have thought this game would get a "D" or MAYBE a "C" given what little I know about it thus far. Then again, I suppose the Japanese do tend to be lenient."

It's mostly just America that's prudent enough to throw M ratings on silly toilet humor like this.

Only true to Australia and Europe, since they don't have separate regions, yet have separate stores. Changing regions to/from Australia will permanently nuke your Wii points, though.

If it was true to everyone else, why would people complain about not getting what other regions got when they could just switch and download?

You're wrong.

Having just downloaded this, I'd say it's worth a 7 myself. It's not going to astound you or anything, but it's a new nd interesting take on Bejeweled, with some nice ideas behind the stages and nice powerups. Worth a download if you like this kind of puzzlers.

At least MUSHA has been rated for an European release. We have no idea if we're getting Kirby's Dream Land 3 or not (though, having played it, I kinda agree with the review here - it's not THAT good).

Gunstar Heroes isn't a shmup.

@Viral: " I was more of a Fire Emblem guy to be honest...and still, no love coming my way on VC for those."

There's a bunch of them out in Japan. You'll just have to import a Japanese Wii.

@zoipi: "I didnt's spected this to be very good... At least is decent."

What? It does exactly what it claims to do - apart from it having a really horrible interface that would reduce the score, there's no reason how this couldn't be "decent". A single look at a single screenshot of the game pretty much tells you all there is to know about it.
It's up to each individual to determine whether a lonpos game is worth the asking price or not. This isn't a game that really requires a review for people to make up their mind.

Yeah, a number of the hearts are horribly annoying to get. I really hated the one where you need to count spiky balls in a second or so, with multiple different faces appearing on them.

Also, the one where you need to dust off flowers is evil. You need to bring the not-too-manueverable Rick through the entire stage to reach the flowera, then dust them off and jump over them. If you step on a flower, you fail.

Jasco, the N64 RE2 is considered the best version of the game.

Ratings are not enforced, but for physical media, it's pretty much a nessecity, as big chains like Walmart and Target won't sell unrated games.
Since every VC game is rated, I assume Nintendo won't put unrated games on the service either.

@Viral: Then Hudson would've definitly have left the VC. Turbografx games don't have enough support to get the nessecary votes.

"Lastly, Little Nemo is actually NOT a licensed property but public domain due to it's age, so it is perfectly eligable for release on the Virtual Console."

The Nemo game is based on the movie that came out at the time, and probably has some license problems regarding that.

Can't really say I disagree with any of these, though I'm a bit surprised at the lack of the original Contra. Should've been on the VC a long time ago.

I can't really come up with 10 games out of the blue right now, but let me at least mention Battle of Olympus, an ace Zelda 2-ish NES adventure game it's hard to not like, and Side Arms, one of the best shmups not on the VC yet.

You can't beat DK3. It's an endless arcade game where you try to get the highest score.

@Angelic Lapras King: Funny you should say that - I'm currently staying at a motel that has one of those arcade cabinets with a dozen games built in, including the three DK games. I'm typing this comment shortly after having played the original arcade version of Donkey Kong 3 for the first time (well, 3 first times - I had to give it a couple more gos).
Yes, the arcade version is definitly better than the downgraded NES port (I don't think DK throws coconuts in the NES port, does he?), but that doesn't mean the NES version is BAD or anything (though I wish Nintendo would make some of their arcade classics available too... on Wiiware, maybe?). In fact, playing the arcade original mostly served to remind me how fun DK3 actually is, and I'll download the VC game once I get my system back.

Bad update? Nah.

(or, to put things into perspective - staying here, I've spent 1.50$ playing DK3 and 2$ or so playing the original Donkey Kong (a credit is 50c), and the only reason i didn't spend more was because I ran out of quarters. 5$ for an infinite amount of credits, even if it's a slightly downgraded version of the game? A bargain if you ask me.)

Eh, Donkey Kong 3 is quite a fun game, and Enduro Racer isn't horrible or anything. It's not THAT bad an update, really.
Plus, DK3 has taken it's sweet time to get released, too. Nice to finally get it.

And you gave DK3 the same two-star rating as DK and DKJr, so I don't really see where the "pretty terrible" is coming from.

@Link79 "Have you ever heard of a hard Kirby game? "

Paint Panic in Canvas Curse was murderously hard.

@LAA: So, why are you on this site at all? After all, every single game this site has covered is family-friendly. Shouldn't you be off playing GTA and watching porn like the grown man you are?

I agree with a lot of the comments regarding Mario RPG here - it's a solid RPG that's been horrendously overhyped over the years, and doesn't realy belong on the list at all, especially not at first place.

Mario RPG better than Phantasy Star 4? Utter bollocks, I say.

(Paper Mario was way way better than Mario RPG, too. And yes, I played Mario RPG on an emulator before Paper Mario came out)

Little Nemo is too bogged down in licensing issues to have a chance of getting released.

@Stuffgamer1: I'd say Zoda's Revenge is quite a bit tougher than the original Star Tropics. The original was better, though.

Psst, guys, it's "Getsu Fuuma Den", not "Getsufuu Maden".

And yeah, it's a great game, and not really texty enough for it to not work as an import.

"Super Metroid's not very hard to finish if you're not concerned with your end rating. The challenge comes from trying to get a 100% and/or fast win.
Definitely easier than the NES (probably the hard part on the NES is handling the duplicate rooms without a map. Neither issue is a problem in Super.)"

The NES version isn't very hard to navigate. The rooms are laid out in a very logical manner, and it's easy to keep track of your location. The sequel was worse, but had more closed-off areas you progressed through in a linear fashion, so it wasn't such a big deal there.

Wasn't Hudson only dropping VC support for Europe? American Wii owners should be fine.

Oh, an the original Phantasy Star is on a collection, too - Phantasy Star Collection for the GBA, collecting the three first games in the series.

PS1 wasn't initially released due to it being a Master System game, and thus not supported by the VC when PS2 was released, but yeah, it really should be coming soon. It's amazing as well, probably my favorite Master System game.

Awesome.
And dammit guys, you're getting one of the best games ever made - games of this caliber are acceptable as solo releases.

@Virus: I said VC/WW games that were eligible for coins could get registerd if you mailed Nintendo. A large amount of them are not so.

Fortunately for Nintendo Man, Dr. Wily realized light guns wouldn't be particularly effective against super fighting robots while his level was still in the design phase.

Yes, already downloaded VC and Wiiware games that qualify for coins can be exchanged for them.

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/bigkahunareef.jsp

There's a free demo of the game here, if you'd like to try it out.
It may not be the most original concept in the world, but it's certainly not shovelware. A cash-in, maybe, but it plays quite well.

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/bigkahunareef.jsp

There's a free demo of the game here, if you'd like to try it out.
It may not be the most original concept in the world, but it's certainly not shovelware. A cash-in, maybe, but it plays quite well.

Looks liek the same thing to me. The "N64 RAM Expander 4MB Memory Expansion" Amazon lists is third party, though, so it should be of lesser quality. Go for the Nintendo-produced one.

Nah, they should've gone with one of the other console ports. You know, one of those that actually had more than the name in common with the arcade original.