Wii Virtual Console Wishlist

Getting away from the Pokemon stuff for a minute...

(By the way, there was an explosion of Black/White info today; check out Serebii.net.)

I'm going to run through a list of a few of the games that I feel should be made available on the Wii's Virtual Console.


1. Donkey Kong 64 - At first, I thought that the whole Expansion Pak thing that the original needed to play was preventing it from going to the VC; after all, it may have been too big for the Wii's memory to handle. But then Zelda: Majora's Mask, which also needed an Expansion Pak, was put up on the VC. Now, there's no excuse. It may have been filled with glitches, apparently (thanks alot, Rare), but it's a shame for this game to be left behind in Nintendo history. This was Donkey Kong's biggest adventure yet, and people who missed out on it the first time deserve a chance to play it; perhaps Nintendo could iron out the glitches before releasing it.

2. Mario Tennis - I loved the original Mario Tennis on N64. I never played the GCN sequel, but I read about the addition of special moves, and didn't like it. The original one was much more simple, and I would love to see it on the VC. Especially since Mario Golf is on there, and that game was rather boring (but hey, it's golf; it's hard to make that sport interesting).

3. Earthbound - Okay, there's no excuse here. This game is available on the Japanese Virtual Console, and the game WAS released in the states back then. Yeah, it didn't sell too well, but thanks to Super Smash Bros., the series has some newfound interest. It's even worse when you consider that both it and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem were "demos" in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but were removed from the localized versions because they're not on those VCs. Yeah, Fire Emblem:MotE was never released outside of Japan in the first place, but Earthbound should have at least stayed in. I don't know why Nintendo is being so stubborn with the Mother/Earthbound series; not even Mother 3 is coming out of Japan (though the fan translation was on par with an official localization).

4. Marvel vs. Capcom - The Marvel Vs. series never touched Nintendo consoles, but the VC now has a category for Arcade games. They said that they could not offer the ever-popular Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as a VC title because of its size compared to what the Wii could handle. Now, with MvC3 on the horizon, they could use this as an opportunity to hype up the third entry in this series (even if it's going to be on PS3 and X360) by offering the very first title in the Marvel vs. Capcom series (I'm well aware that the series actually started with X-Men: Children of the Atom). Yeah, MvC might not have as many characters as MvC2, but MvC has a better presentation than its sequel; the characters actually have personalities, there's theme music, and the stages actually came from the titles on both sides instead of being generic stand-ins. Plus, MvC is more closer to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom in spirit, and we all know that that game is exclusive to the Wii (the PS360 fanboys now have MvC3, so they can shut up about TvC being Wii exclusive).

5. Plok - This obscure SNES game had it's own charm. It had great music, very nice visuals, and a nice concept of throwing your limbs at enemies before Rayman hit the scene. Though it had two things going against it: No way to save your progress (in a game that like half the length of Super Mario World), and the infamous difficulty spike of the Flea Pit stages. Since the Wii automatically suspends your game when you quit (well, for the earlier console titles, at least), the save issue could be somewhat remedied if you need to take a break from trying to reach the end of the Flea Pit.

6. Super Mario All-Stars - One of the best SNES games ever (well, actually, it's the rarer Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which I own), this deserves to be on the VC. ...Well, the big thing working against it is that all four of its games are already on the VC as NES titles, and I don't think Nintendo would want to sell $20 worth of games at $8 total (basically each game would be a tenth of its original price). Shame... I think All-Stars perfected these already great games, but that could be me having nostalgia goggles, since All-Stars and Super Mario World were the very first games I've ever owned.

7. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Another great SNES game. ...Though the GBA port is better, since it has more levels, and because of that, it's easier to unlock the bonus stages from the original game (instead of having to get 100 points on every stage like in the original, the world total had to be at least 800 points). But the original had its own charm. Plus, Nintendo seems to be phasing out support for the GBA, since the newer DS models lack the GBA slot needed to play those games. It would be great if the VC version has the extras that the GBA port has, but that's just wishful thinking. Also, the GBA ports of the Donkey Kong Country series didn't stop them from porting the original games to the VC, and just recently Kirby Super Star has been added, despite having a superior DS remake, so Yoshi's Island may have a shot.

8. Tetris Attack - Sticking with the Yoshi theme, I'm actually surprised that this isn't available yet. Panel de Pon, the original Japanese version of which this came from, is available on the Japanese VC, but this one is absent from the North American VC. Perhaps it's because Pokemon Puzzle League--which uses the same puzzle game--is already available, but that didn't stop them from releasing Super Mario Kart when Mario Kart 64 was already available (and SMK isn't that good, to be honest). Let's give Yoshi's puzzle game access to a new generation of gamers.


Perhaps I'm being too wishful. Getting my hopes up too high. Maybe, but that's what this blog is for, right? To get my ideas out there, on the off-chance that someone from Nintendo (or Capcom in MvC's case, and one of the Pickford brothers in Plok's) sees this and perhaps gives them an idea. Not likely, but I can dream, right?