Rapadash6

These figures plus the Pokewalker accessory almost make me want to get back into this series. ALMOST. Personally, I just can't take more of the same gameplay. It's far past due for this series to make a major change and until that happens I won't buy anymore of these games.

@MarcusA

Stop trying to explain why homebrew is a good thing as we already know. Nintendo is a business, however, and it is well within their legal right to protect their assets. It is also well within their rights to put limits and rules on development on their systems. Also, as Cipher says, Nintendo isn't alone on providing these limitations, so stop accusing them of being this tyranical entity preventing you and people like you from being creative. There are plenty of by the book ways of getting your work out there so just let it go.

So much for that "mythic Virtual Console title". Dark Void Zero definately has me interested though.

@Tsuchinoko

Sorry, but it'll BE Final Fantasy II as it should be. The ESRB rating already confirms that much. Why is this so important to people who already know the difference? Does the number on the title screen really make the game any less enjoyable?

Greenpeace is just a part of the Global Warming BS those environmentle fat cats want you to believe so they can sell these companies credits, which are basically permission slips to pollute the environment. I'm all for saving the environment but the people involved in that initiative are quite shadey and I'm not falling for their crap.

Why the complaints? We had an absurdly amazing holiday season with releases, so how could anyone NOT expect it to slowdown for a while? I expect the remainder of the fiscal year (through March) to be fairly ho hum so I won't be dissappointed with these mondane updates (although this one isn't completely throw away, to the right people). Poor Europe has only started to recover from the brink and it's not looking like they'll get any consulation for it either, so we should really consider ourselves lucky. Cave Story, Final Fantasy II, Sonic & Knuckles and Kirby Super Star all will likely come to the service once it picks back up, but Nintendo will, as usual, space them apart as much as they can. Enjoy what you have now, in the meantime.

Hmm, I don't know what to say about this. Three years ago I would've been stoked but now, four Castlevania virtual console purchases later, this could be a tough sell. I have three versions of SotN already (the original disc, PSP and PS3 versions) so I would only really be swayed if it included the extra area's found in the Saturn version of the game, which were never included in any of the updated releases. Also, how well these are emulated would make or break the purchase for me. On another note, if this is the ONLY way to get the original version of Rondo of Blood, possibly translated, then I'll have no choice but to purchase it, of course.

Final Fight 3 is a good release but everything else is throw away. I expected things to slow down so I'm not really bothered by this update and I expect it to be this way for a while. It's cool though, now I can catch up on some of the games I missed in the onslaught of downloadables that were released during the holiday season.

I don't want my name anywhere near something called Furry Legends, thank you.

Like I said in the forum topic, super sweet update and the single VC release was expected and I predict will become the norm once again.

The delay could mean the addition of Wii Speak support. Which would be vital to this kind of game, imo. On the bright side at least we are still getting TvsC in January.

It's long overdue but at least we know it's coming now. I would've been honestly shocked if this highly requested import title never showed up. Nintendo, Konami and Hudson all know we want it, so it only makes sense. As for the translation business, I don't think that was ever a real issue. All the menu items are in English, so it's still perfectly playable to those who don't speak Japanese. I'd say it's even more so than the already intenationally released DoReMi Adventure game in fact.

Ditto that SSBF1999. It's cool for me because I can't really think of many others I'd want anyway. Great to see this game page back up too!

Maybe releasing Smash Bros in June was some kind of error and you guys too were suppose to recieve it today. Or maybe Nintendo are just being jerks.

Finally we have Smash. I was hoping Pilotwings was coming today with it but at least now we are completely caught up to Europe (plus one) on Arcade titles. On the WiiWare front I'm surprised not to see Cave Story and that should concern us all. With only one update left in 09 and Cave Story's absence on the Q1 release list, I think we're only a week away from confirming this game as vaporware. It's a shame too because this was the best WiiWare game to have been announced. I guess we'll see next week, huh?

I'll admit, I've never been all that great at Mega Man games either but I still love to play them. The inclusion of an easy mode means I might actually be able to beat a Mega Man game finally! Between these new Mega Man games, Contra, Gradius, Castlevania ReBirth, New Super Mario Bros Wii, A Boy and His Blob, etc, etc, this generation is a dream come true for us old school gamers. I'm lovin' it!

I'll bet you guys will get Mario Kart next week, yeah. I'm just glad to see you guys start to get more than a single VC title. Hopefully that trend will continue for both regions, no?

Blaster Master, YESSS!! Next week should bring us Smash finally. Perhaps Pilotwings will sail on with it as well. Virtual Console now, in North America, seems to have found a good balance between the barrage of releases we saw in the services first year and the drought we saw before just a couple of months ago. I would assume with all the new games popping up on the ESRB, as well as news bits like the whole Sunsoft thing, this could be the norm for a while. Here's hoping it is, at least.

If you guys review this game, you HAVE to review Rondo of Blood too. >

Of all the classic Sunsoft games, Blaster Master is my favorite, so I'm thrilled they are starting with that one. Journey to Silius has a great reputation but I've honestly never played it, so I'll have to try that one when it's eventually released as well.

Meh. Maybe next week will bring Blaster Master. ^^

I have 1 through 3 on Virtual Console and plan on getting Sonic and Knuckles when that ones released as well. Not sure if I really have any reason to get this myself because of that, obviously.

I think we should lay off Sony. 440,000 units is very good and Sony really stepped up their game this year, so they deserve it. Nintendo, however, is pretty much unbeatable at this point, at least in North America. As much as I love the Wii (probably my favorite system ever), I think it only has a couple viable years left in her though and Nintendo would be wise to have a new, high definition and fully backwards compatable, version ready in 2011.

Not a great update but a fairly abundant one at least. After the awesomeness that was last week I wasn't expecting anything Earth shattering this time anyway. Next week I'd wager we'll get Pilotwings with Smash Bros following two weeks later, as part of our Christmas update. I was hoping to see Final Fantasy II and Sonic and Knuckles by years end but with only 4 updates left in 2009, even at two games each, it seems unlikely with all the C64, arcade and Genesis titles we still have yet to catch up on.

Wow, what a fantastic update! I would've never imagined Nintendo would release any VC title alongside Mario Kart, let alone one I actually wanted. It would also seem that we are back to two games a week, although I am certain it's just through the holiday season.

This is complete speculation and rumor. Why would Nintendo allow Sonic games to go on Virtual Console when they could potentially compete with the Mario titles? Also, true or not, Nintendo would not disclose that kind of explaination to any publisher.

FINALLY! Not so much because it's Mario Kart but because it's a first party game. It's been half a year sinse we got one. I'm also thrilled that Nintendo addressed Smash Bros. as that has been floating over our heads for sometime. VC is back baby!

I'm guessing Nintendo's scaling back VC releases in Europe because they're preparing for a Hanabi coming up. I know you guys just had one but remember, Nintendo is completely unpredictable in this regard. Also I think the reason they are favoring North America at the moment is because we had a few months of either crap or nothing for a while there and we have to catch up. We still don't even have Smash Bros remember.

Wow, what a great update! I expected Indiana Jones to come along eventually but had no idea it would come so soon. Pokemon Rumble also has me interested and I'm definately going to try the demo at least. Also, this is the FOURTH week in a row of two VC releases... UNBELIEVABLE!

No offense to MJ fans but he was always a much better singer than a video game hero. Who am I kidding? I'll probably download this just for the camp value.

Horray for Excite Bike! Boo to pretty much everything else. Two VC games for the third week in a row is good news though. Slowly but surely we are catching up. I think we'll be getting Smash Bros within the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, Cave Story by the end of the year.

Hmm, I was kind of expecting you guys to get two VC games as that would indicate we would continue to do so as well. Now that's looking unlikely but at least now we've made up for those two weeks in which we had nothing, thus conforming to the one game a week mantra.

I'm fairly certain we'll get Smash Bros sometime in December. I mean Japan got it at the beginning of the year and Europe got it about half way through. So if they are just keeping the release of this game evenly spaced among territories, for whatever reason, that would place a North American release in December. If we don't get it by 2010, I think it might be possible that North America just won't get this game period.

Nothing that great but the fact that there were two VC games again is enough to get me excited. Two weeks in a row! Hopefully this is going to become more the norm as we have a lot of catch up games in the que but we are down one today at least. ^_

I would actually prefer the NES version of Contra. Of course I'm not so sure any of these games will come to the US anyway.

Could someone please tell me why anyone would want this game, what with so many other better versions already available?

Great month for Japan but kind of ho-hum in terms of what's in store for the rest of the world as most of these games will never come over. It's cool though, we still have a lot to catch up on anyway.

While I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get Castlevania ReBirth this week, I'm very happy to see ZAMN and an additional catch up VC game to go with it. This is the first 2 VC monday the US has had in a long time. Hopefully they'll become more common in the coming weeks.

Edit: I think that "8-bit classic" they're referring to is Castlevania ReBirth.

Great news about Sonic and Knuckles. I was beginning to think it was never coming but I guess the delay was worth it, what with lock-on left completely in tact. Sweet!

I doubt it's a new main entry Mario game, what with TWO on the way already. A new Paper Mario game isn't totally out of the question, however. Also considering how crazy well Mario Kart Wii did at retail, worldwide, I wouldn't be surprised to see another one come out before the systems life is up.

With Fighting Street likely coming out next week, the final Wiikly update of October, that pretty much confirms this month started well but is going to end terribly for Virtual Console. WiiWare will be just the opposite if Castlevania Rebirth comes out next week, which I'm betting it will.

This looks REALLY different than the original Game Boy version. Thank goodness for that. ^^'

I was actually considering picking one of these up the other day but when I weighed the pros and the cons I found it was not a wise purchase.

Pros
-Sleek design
-Built in Flash Drive

Cons
-Smaller screen
-Shorter battery life (with the UMD Drive out, this one completely blows my mind.)
-Have to rebuy my current PSP games to play them on this new unit.
-Costs way to much for what you're getting.

Why so few games for North Americans, Nintendo? Pick up the pace already!

Sighs... why can't we ever get nice updates like this anymore?

@MrPinguy

Don't feel too bad. You have to remember that it's only really important to the people who already know the difference. People like me who don't follow the series as religiously don't buy enough Final Fantasy games for it to really affect us. I have fond memories of FF II and III on SNES here in America and to change them to accomidate the actual Japanese numbers might cause more confusion for many Wii owners who have only gotten back into gaming recently, which from my understanding is the large chunk of people who own the system.

@MrPinguy

You do know the ESRB rating for this game is pegged as Final Fantasy II right? See below:

FINAL FANTASY II

Platform: Wii

Rating: Everyone

Content descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes

Rating summary:
This is a 2D role-playing game (RPG) in which players embark on an adventure involving magic crystals and a quest to save the world from destruction. Players move small character icons across a field map and enter turn-based battles with an assortment of imps, dragons, and robots. Weapons and special attacks (e.g., "magic," "jump," and "kick"), accessed via a menu-screen, cause enemies to blink and disappear when defeated. One female enemy is depicted wearing a bikini top that exposes a moderate amount of cleavage.

That doesn't sound like the Japanese version of Final Fantasy II to me. So, sorry to you but looks like the confusion will continue.

@MrPinguy

Dude, chill out. To me the US SNES version of IV will always be Final Fantasy II and I'm glad they aren't changing it for the VC release.

I think that Square should simply stop numbering these games and instead go back and give each one subtitles not unlike how Zelda games are titled. Final Fantasy IV for example could be called Final Fantasy: The Crystal Saga, or something similar. Until then though I'll always refer to it as Final Fantasy II.

I wonder how this feature will work for games like Zelda and Metroid? I mean, will it find Heart Pieces and Energy Tanks for you, or just progress with the item upgrades you already have? I'm sure this'll be a great feature for a lot of people but I personally prefer to play through my own games thank you very much, and if I do need help, I'll just refer to a text based guide to simply steer me in the right direction.

STILL no first party games... I'm getting concerned we've seen our last Nintendo branded VC game here in North America. Final Fantasy is a good release, though. Personally I prefer II (IV), so I'll just wait for that one. Also I'll add the obligitory "where the heck is Cave Story?"