[The Bookerman]

I have to re-purchase everything? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

Dude, you've paid for worst things on itunes or Google play store. It's A 1$ or 1.50$: Get a grip.

[mugurumakensei]

"Look at it this way; they didn't completely fuck us! So it's not that bad." How's it not that easy? Doesn't the WiiU stream the games? What would they have to change in the program?

No. The game or emulator in this case must make specific IO calls to stream to the gamepad.

Do you expect every PSN title to be compatible with Move on PS4?

There's also the cost of adding Miiverse integration.

If you want to play VC titles for free, you can. If you want to play the games with new features, you have to pay.

[Shalashaska161]

Nintendo is being cheeky as shit over this but I'll probably be a sucker and do it anyways, just for the offscreen play.

[olimpia84]

I'm OK in the way they're handling this although I would have liked if the fee was a bit lower. I can have all my stuff upgraded for less than $10 since I don't own that many SNES games anyways.

[SAB CA]

Wow, a 1.50 to support developers going in an adding content / features to a game... yeah, that's not bad. It's cheap as can be, really. If "free" to consumers = developers don't do it at all, and a few dollars = "highly likely all your favorites will show up", then I'll quickly take the monetized route.

There are SO many ways this could have been horrible. They could force a fee to transfer over from Wii in general. They could force the purchase of a flat price emulator for the service. They could have not bothered with BC at all, and all the games could have been locked to Wii.

The idea of seeing Miiverse communities, and having a bump to actual art and conversation for this classic games is actually rather exciting, really. That's easily worth the buck or so per game, for the ones I cherish. Hopefully, this also means they'll continue to release even more new games from the Nintendo and SNES catalogues.

I felt nothing negative for this while watching Direct. All I could think about is how nice it'll end up being to possibly have a place to post comments an art for things like River City Randsom, Secrets of Mana, Treasure games, old shooters and adventure games, and maybe even TG16 releases in the future. It'll be great times on the Miiverse...

[PhoReal]

I figured they would do it this way. Kind of bummed out, but I'm not forced to upgrade my VC games, so no harm.

[Jucksalbe]

Okay, I downloaded Ballon Fight. The options I can see are "Create Restore Point" and "Controller Settings". In the Controller Settings you can freely assign the NES buttons to any button on the GamePad.

[xyla]

Looks like no N64 in 2013? That's disappointing to say the least.

[PhoReal]

Okay, I downloaded Ballon Fight. The options I can see is "Create Restore Point" and "Controller Settings". In the Controller Settings you can freely assign the NES buttons to any button on the GamePad.

Restore Points???!!! That's what I wanted! :)

[PsychoRaven]

So anyway since I missed the beginning did they specify which Donkey Kong was the one that is coming? Is it the original NES version of the Arcade one or is it the Gameboy version of Donkey Kong? You can't go wrong with either one but it would be nice to know which it is.

[Forkball]

Just when you think Nintendo is getting progressive with their online, they go and do this.

[Shahed]

Even though this doesn't affect me since I've never bought from Nintendo's online stores before, it's still not good. Kind of re-affirms my decision to only go retail for Nintendo and ignore all digital content

[Like the hat?]

Where is my 30 cent ballon fight?

[Madao]

i see myself updating like 2-3 SNES games only. what i really want is N64 since that system's emulation can get a boost from higher specs.

[entrement]

What's with the trickle strategy again as well? Come the fuck on, Nintendo.

[nubbe]

I'm annoyed that Balloon fight is their first release... -_-

[Ninja Scooter]

I shouldn't be surprised that Nintendo dropped the ball with the VC stuff, i kind of saw it coming (and have a sinking suspicion Sony and MS could do something similarly stupid with carrying over XBLA and PsN stuff next gen) but its always surprising when companies can be so out of touch with the current market trends and technology. Can you imagine if every time you bought a new iOS or android device, you had to pay to carry your old apps over, and the app stores started fresh and everything wasn't available anymore? It's ludicrous. And people acting like playing off tv is some grand feature that Nintendo has to charge for, as if its hard work to stream a rom to a controller. Give me a break. Sucks too because VC was such a big bullet point for me but Nintendo can't ever seem to get it right.

[Raist]

No. The game or emulator in this case must make specific IO calls to stream to the gamepad.

Isn't that the whole point of an emulator to begin with? Unless each VC game comes with its own internal emulator, this doesn't make sense.

[Jucksalbe]

Unsurprisingly Super Mario Bros. will be coming (it's in the manual). You can also resume where you left off (like on the Wii). There are no screen options whatsoever. Luckily the game plays in 4:3 (on the TV and GamePad).

[Andrex]

Okay, I downloaded Ballon Fight. The options I can see are "Create Restore Point" and "Controller Settings". In the Controller Settings you can freely assign the NES buttons to any button on the GamePad.

Button reassignment is a nice bonus over the 3DS VC, will make the NES Marios much more playable.

[Jarsonot]

I'm annoyed that Balloon fight is their first release... -_-

It's what everyone thinks about when they think classic Nintendo games!

[Flame Lord]

No. The game or emulator in this case must make specific IO calls to stream to the gamepad. Do you expect every PSN title to be compatible with Move on PS4? There's also the cost of adding Miiverse integration.

I don't think streaming is nearly as complicated to add as Move would be. And we don't even know what the Miiverse integration is. To me it just sounded like the were going to add communities for VC games.

[nubbe]

It's what everyone thinks about when they think classic Nintendo games!

Well, it was the first Nintendo game I ever played when I was 4 years old... still remember :p

[mugurumakensei]

Isn't that the whole point of an emulator to begin with? Unless each VC game comes with its own internal emulator, this doesn't make sense.

Uh, yes, most VC titles shipped with their own emulator optimizes to ensure timing was the sames as the original. They specifically updated Star Fox 64's emulator to restore the original's slowdown.

[PaulLFC]

The Japan UMD transfer program. Very obscure reference, since it is related to the Vita ;)

Digital > Digital and Physical > Digital aren't the same thing...

[Keiishi Viciat]

Can Anyone confirm this ??

If I pay 30 cts for the Ballon Fight, Will I be able to keep the game after the 30 days with no extra cost ?

[Alcoholikaust]

Where is my 30 cent ballon fight?

yea...

[Brazil]

Can't find Balloon Fight in the Canadian eShop. :/

[Kai Dracon]

Flying off the handle about Nintendo ripping you off seems misplaced here. They have to perform fresh development for these titles to add not insignificant new features.

Charging a buck to upgrade seems reasonable. Because you can still play ALL your VC games on Wii U. They are not charging for being able to transfer and use your library on Wii U. They are charging a small fee for upgraded versions with a lot of new features - and it's not like they're holding a gun to your head to force you to upgrade every single game.

Just pay the buck for the games you really want to play with the new features / on the gamepad, when you feel like it.

[Drago]

So is Earthbound forever doomed to never see the light of day outside Japan? :'(

[mackattk]

Isn't that the whole point of an emulator to begin with? Unless each VC game comes with its own internal emulator, this doesn't make sense.

This is what I am having trouble understanding. Nintendo should be able to create an emulator that has off screen support, and load up the roms as it needs to.

[MarkusRJR]

They should have released the entire VC library over the year, not this 1 game a month bullshit. Also, no N64 plans at all? No Earthbound for NA? No account system? Pay more to play already purchased games? You get an F Nintendo. 0 gold stars for you. Do not pass go. Get out and only come back when you have decent plans for Virtual Console.

[Hero]

Damn, I'm hesitant to use this word but some of you guys are being entitled as hell right now.

Nintendo doesn't owe you anything. You can fully play ALL of your Wii Virtual Console titles on your Wii U at NO COST to you.

They are upgrading VC titles to be playable on the Game Pad and who knows what else they have to do in the background to make this work. A dollar fee to convert your Wii VC game to a Wii U VC version is dirt cheap.

[Jucksalbe]

They should have released the entire VC library over the year, not this 1 game a month bullshit.

1 game a month is only for the discount promotion.

[Jarsonot]

This Spring Nintendo Wii U will be getting its own version of the Virtual Console.

In the spring update, right?

But balloon trip is in the regular eshop?

'Cause wouldn't that mean that each game does have its own emulator?

I is confused with this.

[Habieru]

I'm annoyed that Balloon fight is their first release... -_-

[Xellos]

Wii U VC games should be free for those who already bought the Wii versions, but $1 to $1.50 is low enough that I'm not too upset. Hopefully they'll get around to some of the games that didn't show up on Wii, like the FX-chip games, and Earthbound (NA).

[Uncle Rupee]

This wouldn't even be an issue if Nintendo had built a proper ACCOUNT SYSTEM.
They're so fucking stupid on this stuff it bothers me to no end.

[kinggroin]

Very fair. Especially to those who already own the games sans gamepad support.

Price for new still sucks, but I never intended to invest in this much anyway.

[Like the hat?]

Not that it would really matter, but I wonder if the games stay in the Wii menu too or if they get deleted.

Still no ballon fight here, oh well.

[Oddduck]

Flying off the handle about Nintendo ripping you off seems misplaced here. They have to perform fresh development for these titles to add not insignificant new features. Charging a buck to upgrade seems reasonable. Because you can still play ALL your VC games on Wii U. They are not charging for being able to transfer and use your library on Wii U. They are charging a small fee for upgraded versions with a lot of new features - and it's not like they're holding a gun to your head to force you to upgrade every single game. Just pay the buck for the games you really want to play with the new features / on the gamepad, when you feel like it.

I wish more people thought like you.

[Jo-El]

Wii U VC games should be free for those who already bought the Wii versions, but $1 to $1.50 is low enough that I'm not too upset. Hopefully they'll get around to some of the games that didn't show up on Wii, like the FX-chip games, and Earthbound (NA).

Pretty much. I don't mind paying the fee, but it's still kind of bullshit. Sony doesn't charge extra to play your PSP/PS1 games on Vita.

[Kai Dracon]

They should have released the entire VC library over the year, not this 1 game a month bullshit. Also, no N64 plans at all? No Earthbound for NA? No account system? Pay more to play already purchased games? You get an F Nintendo. 0 gold stars for you. Do not pass go. Get out and only come back when you have decent plans for Virtual Console.

You are not paying more to play already purchased games. You are paying a very small fee for upgrades.

That you don't have to pay, to play your VC games on Wii U.

The only significant criticism of Nintendo here is that they may fall back on their "trickle down" strategy and be too slow with releases - but at the same time, they do have to develop and test the Wii U upgrades individually.

Pretty much. I don't mind paying the fee, but it's still kind of bullshit. Sony doesn't charge extra to play your PSP/PS1 games on Vita.

This is a fair point. But nothing is perfect. Sony didn't give most of the world a way to upgrade or import their UMD library to Vita. There's always tradeoffs. Nintendo's strategy here isn't preventing people from playing their VC games on Wii U. The way the VC is designed, with wrappers for each game and its emulated platform, requires more work to port each package to the U native in order to add new features.

[Bony Manifesto]

Haha, it's like a reverse ambassador programme - instead of giving your most loyal fans something for free, you take the opportunity to wring a few more bucks out of them.

[beje]

This is what I am having trouble understanding. Nintendo should be able to create an emulator that has off screen support, and load up the roms as it needs to.

Nintendo always aims for pixel perfect emulator so each game has its own version of the emu embedded to make it work 1:1. Proof can be seen in N64 games for the Wii, where injecting ROMs in different VC games gave different results depending on the VC channel used.

[Marcel]

It's definitely stingy, but who isn't stingy among the Big 3 these days. And no, I don't want your Sony/PS+ responses, thanks.

[Blades64]

Crazy hyperbole overreacting going on here. You don't have to pay for anything as you can play just fine in Wii mode. It's a $1.00 to $1.50 (That's literally the cost of a bottle of Coke) for GamePad and Miiverse integration. Seems reasonable.

[Man Puncher]

Bellyaching over an optional buck for new features?


Entitlement all up in here.

[dallow_bg]

Do people not get that it's not the cheap upgrade price that people are perturbed about?
That's the only silver lining. Barely.

That's not the impression I got, it's a trial price - $0.30 for 30 days, then back to full price.

No it's not. The discount is available for 30 days, but you get to keep the game.

An ok. That makes more sense then.

[Rash]

Wait, I thought the 30 cents was for a trial, then you had to pay the rest of the full price if you wanted to keep the game.

But do you just pay 30 cents and get to keep it? So if I went to the eShop and downloaded Balloon Fight, I'd get to keep it forever for that price?