With both of Nintendo’s digital download services finally up and running, I thought it was time to check in with the fine folks over on the forum and see what they thought were some of the best, worst, and glaring omissions in the VC library. But first, I want to throw out a The Bad item, just for thoughtful consideration: Why aren’t VC titles that are released as part of retail package discounted in some way? SNK seems to do this with every compilation, so why not slash prices on Metal Slug or King of Fighters to 500 points? These games are effectively made demos upon the release of the retail package anyway. Cut a guy a break, Nintendo. I’m getting nickel and dimed every where I turn. And quickly, before we get to the real meat of the discussion, I’d like to see some sort of metric that shows VC sales. That would be truly interesting. But I digress! Onward we go.
Kicking it off is llamapalooza‘s astute list of omissions, including one item that ranks among humanity’s greatest atrocities insofar as it isn’t on the VC:
Tetris Attack. I know Pokémon Puzzle League is up there, but that game is ghetto and has hideously obnoxious voice acting. Tetris Attack (SNES, featuring Yoshi characters) is the definitive version. Yes, they don’t have the license to the Tetris name, but it can’t be that hard to change the name to Yoshi’s Puzzle League or something. It worked for Wave Race.
**REVLIK** proceeded to give us a double-barreled blast of The Missing and The Bad, but one is right and one is so terribly wrong. Can you guess which is which? Hands on buzzers!
Missing: Battle Tanx – I put this game on the level of Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Bomberman 64, and SSB for Best of N64 Multiplayer. I hope Nintendo or someone picks up the rights to it and releases it since 3DO is no more. The Bad: \* Toejam & Earl – The first one. I couldn’t spend more then 10 minutes with the game.
Spoiler Alert: Toejam & Earl is *awesome.* It seems **Hungrywolf** and I have a lot in common, as we’re both glad to… well, I’ll let the post do the talking:
The Castlevania games being available on the Virtual Console is great, and so is River City Ransom. Since my NES doesn’t work anymore, the VC has helped me out tremendously.
**Thores** shows his dedication to the team by writing up a great list; it even included bullet points! A few choice selections:
The Good: Paper Mario– I never owned an N64, so I missed out on a lot of good stuff. I think this, along with Star Fox 64 and Pokémon Snap, are the most worthy N64 purchases out of the bunch I’ve made. Paper Mario gets top billing because while Star Fox 64 was sheer fun and Pokémon Snap was buckets of uniqueness and charm, Paper Mario managed to blow me away with copious amounts of both. I’m very glad I got this, and it’s my favorite in the Paper Mario sub-franchise. The Bad: All the Good titles I listed came out over half a year ago– Not that the entirety of 2008 has been complete crap, but I haven’t seen any rereleases that made me jump for joy the way last year did. I understand the increased focus on WiiWare, but this is still pretty dissapointing, and only excuses the VC schedule from May forward. January through April should be ashamed of itself.
The Missing: E.V.O: The Search for Eden– I know Square-Enix is on a DS remaking spree right now with all their retro titles, but they could at least give their more obscure games a little VC love, right? EVO was a really great game, and it has a small enough fanbase that a VC release would benefit S-E more financially than an enhanced remake.
Rounding out the first entry in this series is **Skoad**‘s compendium of GBM. Again, these are highlights, but head over to the forums to see the rest of this great post:
The Good: Gradius III and R-Type III– I never owned an SNES and I absolutely love shoot ’em ups, so these were totally a must-buy for me. Great games and they’re unique enough that when I’m done with one, I feel like playing the other. The Bad: Yoshi’s Story– Wait no, I also regret this one, but not as much. It’s adorable and I remember having fun with it as a kid on some demo kiosk, but I could never find it again when I had money. Playing it through once was okay, but after that halfish-hour I beat it and will never touch the game again.
The Missing: Kirby Super Star– Even if this game was marked up to 800 or a 1000 for it being a “collection of games” it’d be a must-have for me. I’m a pretty decent fan of Kirby games (beat Dream Land 2 countless times) and am considering getting the Crystal Shards game, but if this came out, I would need to change my pants and go missing for a week.
That’s about it for this week’s roundup. If you have opinions on all this stuff, I’ll redirect you over to both [my](http://www.plinkomedia.com/nintendorks/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18182) and [llamapalooza](http://www.plinkomedia.com/nintendorks/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18181)‘s topics on the forums. Not a forum member yet? Do it now!