Speaking of flaws with the Virtual Console, the pricing system for the VC is royally fucked. It goes like this:

N64 - $10.00 USD
SNES/Genesis - $8.00 USD
Turbo Grafx 16 - $6.00 USD
NES - $5.00 USD

Of those, only the N64 games are priced reasonably. Another problem is that they only release like three or four games per week and usually only one of them is a game that anyone gives a fuck about. This week that game is Super Mario World. Don't get me wrong, SMW is a great game, but I already have it on the GBA and it sure as fuck ain't worth $8. I am really down on the VC right now, and I got annoyed enough to e-mail Nintendo about it. Will they give a shit? Of course not. But I feel marginally better.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Dear Nintendo, I am writing to you in regards to your Wii Virtual Console. Prior to launch, it was touted as key feature of the Wii. However, thus far, it has been rather disappointing. We were promised an extensive library of games, and that library does not exist. Rather than giving us a decent selection to choose from, your company has chosen to release a handful of games each week. Many classics are missing in lieu of medicore games. I can't download Bubble Bobble or Castlevania III for the Virtual NES, but Nintendo Baseball and Nintendo Soccer are there. My guess is that you're hoping shoppers will accidentally click on those games and waste their virtual points. That HAS to be your plan; no one would buy those games on purpose. Furthermore, some of the good games you HAVE released for the Virtual Console are absolutely worthless. You guys are currently patting yourself on the back for releasing Super Mario World this week. Great job, there's just one problem: you released this game for the GBA a few years back as Super Mario Advance 2 for $29.99 USD, and then later for $19.99 USD as a Best Seller. And now it's on the Virtual Console. Not only is it on the Virtual Console, but it's the featured VC release of the week, which basically means that out of three VC games you felt like releasing this week, Super Mario World is the only worthwhile one. Let me ask you something: Is it fair to me that the only good game released this week is one that I already spent $29.99 USD on? Do you really think I'm stupid enough to pay another $8 for a game that I already have that's compatible with a Nintendo system that's still commercially viable? And didn't you promise us SMW at the VC launch? Come on, now. Here are my suggestions for the making the Virtual Console better: 1. Release at least one game for each console each week. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect at least one game for console each week, and that's only barely more effort than is currently being put into the VC. But if I were guaranteed at least one N64 release each week, I'd be a lot happier. 2. Pricing. Right now, your pricing structure is ridiculous. $10 for an N64 game is certainly fair, but $8 for SNES and Genesis games? Are you kidding me? If you're going to charge $10 for a 64-bit game, it would follow that you should charge 2.50 for a 16-bit game and 1.25 for an 8-bit game. Or maybe $4.00 and $2.00 respectively. You could even offer special pack deals, like all three NES Castlevanias for $5. 3. Give your loyal customers their due. In recent years, we've seen reduxes of classic games such as Super Mario World, Final Fantasy, and A Link To The Past for the GBA as well as the Classic NES series. The people who have bought these games deserve free DLs of their counterparts for the VC. I'm not sure how'd you go about this, as not all of the games came with PINs, but you've got to find a way to make it happen. It is incredibly irresponsible to try and double dip from these customers. 4. Bring arcade classics to the Virtual Console. Currently, you don't seem particularly interested in bringing arcade games to the Wii; your release of the SNES version of Street Fighter II, more or less confirms this. And while the SNES version of SF2 is more or less faithful to the arcade version, other games are not. No one in their right mind would ever want to endure the horror of the SNES version of Mortal Kombat ever again, and the Genesis version wasn't much better. Other classics such as Bad Dudes and Rolling Thunder suffered through NES ports so terrible that they bordered on criminal. The solution? Add a virtual arcade console. It will probably mean a Wii-Ware update, but it's the smart thing to do. I would like to close by saying that although I am currently very displeased with Virtual Console, I am a huge Nintendo fanboy. I have owned every Nintendo system from the NES on, with two exceptions: Gameboy/Gameboy Color and the Virtual Boy. And if you take only one thing away from this, it's that the VC library needs to expand more quickly, specifically the N64 library. The dubious pricing is a close second though. - Syd Lexia

JEW wrote:

1: what was so different about the NES version of contra to make it better than the arcade version? besides the graphics sucking considerably more and the little bitch 30 lives code existing?

After the first level, the game is largely different. I'm pretty sure the arcade version didn't have the fake 3D levels that the NES version had.

My bad. At some point when I'm feeling less lazy, I'll have to play through the arcade one again. There definitely are differences besides the graphics.

Actually, they're NOT exactly the same game. The base levels are designed very differently, which isn't a big enough deal to really care about, but I found something that is: The NES game had a better Level 3 boss.

Here's the gay ass arcade boss for the waterfall level:




And here's the bad ass boss from the NES version of the same level:



MAME fucked up on me because I tried using save states so I didn't get any further than that, but I seem to recall there being some significant differences as the game progressed.

Yeah, the arcade base levels were cooler.

The NES boss for that level is probably slightly easier, but it's more than just a sprite swap. The arms track you like a sumbitch and shoot stuff, and the mouth shoots fire rings as well.

The other issue is that some games are worth more than others, regardless of what system they're on. Super Mario Bros. MIGHT be worth $5, but Nintendo Baseball certainly isn't.