PlayerOne

The Commodore 64 was an American machine, Tides. And I'm pretty sure those games cost more than 500 points when they were new, even without taking inflation into account. Budget games were less, but neither of those were originally budget releases.

Young people today!

I haven't bought any VC games for ages, despite having a load of points and a load of games I want. I figured I haven't played the ones I've got, and the new ones aren't going anywhere. I'll still be able to buy them when I'm ready.

The older VC games aren't going anywhere, they're still there available to download. Maybe the previous higher numbers were just to build up a catalogue, and now there's no need for so many new games a week?
Part of me, though, wonders whether the VC is just not enough of a commercial proposition to attract other publishers.
Whatever the case, I am no longer bothered about checking the shop on a Friday morning, and am happy to let this site's RSS feed tell me about the releases instead. Which is kind of sad, but not exactly the end of the world.

Zero Mission is based on original (NES) Metroid, no? Super Metroid is a different game. I think. I hope.

I had what looked like swimming Mario&Luigi when I downloaded it this morning. Never had that before. They missed a load of the coins, even though there were two of them.

I'm not at all happy about the higher prices. VC games are, in my opinion, mostly overpriced already. I'm torn between boycotting the prices and showing my support for the import games.

The exception is Sin & Punishment, which I think justifies the extra money with the extra work put in for the translation. I'm not sure it's my kind of game, though.

It is also the case that there were fewer PAL games in total for all the VC systems. It could just be that there aren't enough to go around.

But my money stays in my pocket again. Except it's already in Nintendo's pocket because I've already bought the Points Card, even if I haven't spent the points yet.

I would assume, though, that Nintendo published SMRPG and control the rights for it? So it's possible that they could release it on the VC without much input from SquareEnix.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday on the MD is one I'd like to see.

Presumably the only way we could get SMB2 Japan is if they release Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES.

Well, I kind of hope we get Shining Force on Friday, but then I also only have 600 points left.

Excellent stuff. Paper Mario was my first instant download since Streets of Rage 2. I loved the GC game, and tried to get the N64 version on ebay, but wasn't willing to pay enough.

All three MD games are on the Mega Drive Collection for the PSP (and PS2), which also has about 25 other games, extras, wireless multiplayer and no PAL/NTSC issues, and can be found at less than the cost of these three games. Although obviously that's little consolation if you don't have a PSP.

This would definitely make up for the last two dismal weeks. But then so would Streets of Rage 2. And it's a long weekend here in the UK, so either (or both) please, Nintendo.

If they released everything in one go, then quality games would get overlooked. Everything needs a bit of time in the "shop window" of new releases. I expect there are already older games that are getting neglected, and why would Nintendo want to release their best games now when the customer base is still growing?

It does seem a particularly poor week this week, but then we did get four games last time.