The Virtual Console

When the Wii was first talked about back in its 'Revolution' days, and it was announced that the system would have access to an online library of classic titles, I was stoked.

I love old games. I started gaming with Coleco, and that was great, but when the NES rolled out - wow, what a life-altering system that was. Of course at that point in my life, I only played what the parents bought, or what my brother brought home (of what method he obtained these I never asked). He's always had a knack for picking out good titles though - even in the comic book realm, he picked up on good artists, story arcs, and first appearances. I really need to ask him how he knew what was coming without having access to a video game or comic book store...

I grew up on a variety of good games - Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Contra, Castlevania, Kid Icarus, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, among others.

I have to say, that the VC was a large reason of why I wanted to buy Nintendo's new 'Revolution'. The purpose of the VC in my mind is to compile all of my favorite games onto one system, and never having to worry about switching cartridges/systems, or losing save data from battery death (which is sad).

So Nintendo releases 2-4 games a week, every Monday at noon eastern time, for the Virtual Console. Of course every week can't be three A-list titles, but I am sure that somewhere out there, someone is excited about a game that comes each week. Nintendo announces its "Wii-kly Update" on Monday mornings at 8 a.m. eastern on press.nintendo.com though it is usually leaked the weekend before and found on sites such as GoNintendo. Or if you're extra savvy, you may notice an upcoming game being listed as rated on the ESRB's website, though this does not guarantee any sort of release date.

So far, I'm up to 23 Virtual Console titles, having purchased about 17,000 points. My first download was Legend of Zelda for the NES. There are games already released that I'd like to have in my library, but they're not high enough on the priority list to constitute me downloading them.

About 75% of the games I've downloaded are first party (Mario, Zelda, Metroid), with the remaining 25% made up of games such as Contra, Castlevanias, Ghouls N Ghosts, and Bubble Bobble. I've probably only played through and beaten about half of the games I've downloaded. (See - So Many Games, So Little Time...)

The list of games to still come out for the Virtual Console seems endless, as there are literally thousands of games yet to be released - as well as the possibility of new systems being added in the future. I would love to see Gameboy and Gameboy Color games added...

Finally, a reason to look forward to those dreaded Mondays...

-Zon