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[Diddy Kong]

I'd like to know what's going on with the DKC trilogy. I already have them, but I'm still curious

 

[Fantastical]

Now watch as Brawl never gets a future digital-release because of the Dr. Wright assist trophy being caught up in some legal clusterfuck no one will do anything about.

(The horror! The horror!!)

If only Melee was available to play and not Brawl, would anyone care?

 

[DidntKnowJack]

Oh certainly... there will be a point in time where it will be up to you to backup your games to SD card. I don't trust "redownload rights" long term.

You know, I completely forgot you can back this stuff up on to an SD card. Definitely going to do that first chance I get.

 

[BocoDragon]

Actually, if they couldn't release it due to the Expansion Pak, Majora's Mask would not have been rereleased. In any case, it is interesting that SimCity and the Donkey Kong Country trilogy were removed specifically. The only times previously when a game was removed from the Virtual Console were due to rights issues. Irem imploded in on itself when led to their games being removed, and Konami and Ubisoft lost the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license to, err, THQ though given THQ's current financial state, that may not be for long.

Donkey Kong Country and SimCity do have potential rights issues though, namely trademark issues. Nintendo does have to license out Rare's trademark from Microsoft to use Rare's logo for the DKC games, and Nintendo does have to license out EA's trademark on SimCity to use its name. Naturally, Microsoft wouldn't help a competitor and the rumors seems to have EA being angry at Nintendo for not using Origin for the Wii U.

Basically, there is every reason to believe that Microsoft and EA are just not playing ball with Nintendo anymore.

I forgot about the bolded.

You know, I completely forgot you can back this stuff up on to an SD card. Definitely going to do that first chance I get.

You might as well... Just store em on your PC or something.

 

[gkryhewy]

Phew, still available to download for previous purchasers.

 

[ASTROID2]

The police stations never worked for me in the VC version. Did that ever fixed or was it just me. I tried re-downloading it multiple times, maybe I jest got lazy cops. Its been years so maybe I should try again.

 

[Vane_MagicCity]

You know, I completely forgot you can back this stuff up on to an SD card. Definitely going to do that first chance I get.

They are still tied to the console. Having a backup after your Wii dies is useless.

I am concerned about digital games being removed like this. One of the strengths of DD is supposed to be the infinite supply but apparently the supply is even more limited than physical copies as it's based on a license. To clarify, you can still find physical copies of Sim City on the SNES but no longer can you get it digitally.

 

[Pociask]

The police stations never worked for me in the VC version. Did that ever fixed or was it just me. I tried re-downloading it multiple times, maybe I just got lazy cops. Its been years so maybe I should try again.

I'll tell you what never worked for me - how SLOW the game is. Bought it because of the GAF hype, and I loved Sim City, 2000, and 3000. But couldn't stand that even on Cheetah speed, the game crawled. One of the games that illustrates that perfect emulation isn't always best emulation.

 

[oatmeal]

Glad I bought it on Wiis launch day! I hope this doesn't become a trend or that it gets renewed ASAP.

Nintendo, stop fucking up everything!!!

 

[ASTROID2]

I'll tell you what never worked for me - how SLOW the game is. Bought it because of the GAF hype, and I loved Sim City, 2000, and 3000. But couldn't stand that even on Cheetah speed, the game crawled. One of the games that illustrates that perfect emulation isn't always best emulation.

I never could play the other simcity games. They never made sense to me. All the stuff they added made it to confusing.

 

[Zee-Row]

Good point.

(I bet they didn't want to emulate the Ram pack? No Super FX chip games either. Or it could be some bizzare Nintendo logic where they want to hold back the games with teh special chipz for future download services).

Street Fighter Alpha 2 is on there though and that game had a special chip that took zsnes and snes9x programmers years to emulate.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

EA probably asked Nintendo to take it down in an effort to starve the fanbase of all SimCity experiences in an effort to force them to buy the upcoming new SimCity.




Probably because DK64 is embarrassingly bad.

Spoiler

And has a curse word in its opening theme song.

It is a shitty game. It's best we just leave it alone. But Jet Force Gemini, plz.

 

[Ranger X]

Of course its an issue with EA releasing a new SimCity.
The real problems are the rights law that is all over the place. Since that game was permitted at the time for Nintendo to publish it in this exact form, Nintendo should still have, regardless of whatever, the right to publish it again. Seriously.

 

[Chrom]

Personally, I'm disappointed at this news because I actually did have a minor interest in getting SimCity at some point, much like Donkey Kong Country 3. I love Virtual Console, but I wish we weren't subject to these kinds of moments.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Best SNES attract screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxSYzCesxfU

Damn straight

One of my all time favorites

 

[Vane_MagicCity]

Of course its an issue with EA releasing a new SimCity.
The real problems are the rights law that is all over the place. Since that game was permitted at the time for Nintendo to publish it in this exact form, Nintendo should still have, regardless of whatever, the right to publish it again. Seriously.

I don't think this has anything to do with EA releasing a new Sim City game. Sim City 4 Deluxe is on sale on Steam and I think Sim City 2000 is on sale on GOG. If they aren't pulling those down then I doubt an SNES port of the first game is worth EA taking down.

Reasons are probably similar to the reasons the DKC games were taken down.

 

[Ranger X]

I don't think this has anything to do with EA releasing a new Sim City game. Sim City 4 Deluxe is on sale on Steam and I think Sim City 2000 is on sale on GOG. If they aren't pulling those down then I doubt an SNES port of the first game is worth EA taking down.

Reasons are probably similar to the reasons the DKC games were taken down.

And what are those reasons? I can't figure out anything that makes sense.

 

[Vane_MagicCity]

And what are those reasons? I can't figure out anything that makes sense.

No one knows what the reasons are. It wasn't EA though.

 

[Drago]

Nintendo warned everyone weeks in advance about the DKC trilogy's impending removal from the eShop didn't they?

In Europe they did. There was no warning about it in NA, and the games were taken down a week before they were in Europe.

I was pissed. I still needed to get DKC2 and 3.

 

[SmithnCo]

Wow. Glad I already bought it then. That's sad, I love that game.

 

[Eusis]

Wow. Glad I already bought it then. That's sad, I love that game.

Yeah, glad it was one of my first SNES VC purchases. Couldn't really get into it again though, and I'll probably just play 2000 or 4 instead at this point. Still sucks to get it pulled though. :/

 

[DidntKnowJack]

I was pissed. I still needed to get DKC2 and 3.

Me too. Had only gotten around to snagging the first one.

But I'll go online and buy the SNES carts. Fuck 'em. Now they'll see none of my money.

 

[BGBW]

One of my favourite SNES soundtracks. Maybe I'll pull out my SNES copy and give it a whirl.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Me too. Had only gotten around to snagging the first one.

But I'll go online and buy the SNES carts. Fuck 'em. Now they'll see none of my money.

Pretty much.

The price of old 8 and 16 bit games could really push people to just buy the digital ones on the VC. Too bad Nintendo isn't taking full advantage of their fantastic back catalog.

 

[Zee-Row]

To this day every time I go to a downtown part of a city this plays in my head!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-rMgFUWcvY

 

[Tiu Neo]

It really looks like Nintendo is killing the Virtual Console. Hope they announce the Wii U VC soon, but looking at the state of the VC those last years, and the speed which they launch 3DS VC games...

Already got this game, it hasn't aged very well imo, but was a good game, nonetheless.

 

[Zee-Row]

I just don't see why they can't simply put Virtual Console games on the eshop. Now they have to relaunch the whole thing again on Wii U and we painfully have to wait every week while at the most we get one game or at the least nothing for a game we may be anticipating.

 

[urfe]

I really hope Nintendo has some master plan that's awesome, and isn't just fucking things up.

Really, to me the best solution would not be to make Wii and WiiU VC the same, but 3DS and WiiU VC the same. I would buy so much more if that was the case.

 

[Josh7289]

Digital distribution!

 

[grandjedi6]

I just don't see why they can't simply put Virtual Console games on the eshop. Now they have to relaunch the whole thing again on Wii U and we painfully have to wait every week while at the most we get one game or at the least nothing for a game we may be anticipating.

either Nintendo is being slow in setting up a new VC shop, being slow/unable to figure out a way to store purchases, are unwanting to even ALLOW people to make dual purchases, or they were stupid and didn't license the VC games for future consoles in the 1st place.

 

[Agent Unknown]

Uurrrrghh. As said before it drives me nuts that they don't at least warn people a week or two before pulling games, it would at least net them some extra sales. Sega warned people about a full month in advance IIRC before they pulled the Master System version of R-TYPE (which prompted me to get it in that case).

As said before this obviously must have something to do with the VC license expiring across consoles with EA and Will Wright somehow but DKC games make no sense at all, they own those games, characters (obviously) and scenarios lock stock and barrel (ahem). Glad I got my VC copy of DKC1 safe and sound.

Edit: This makes me paranoid now wondering what other titles we should be worried about and possibly thinking about pre-emptively downloading. And as speculated in a previous post, this could be very worrisome for VC's future, especially if this is an indicator they don't have a long term plan for it.

Edit: NOE actually had the courtesy to warn people about DKC series being pulled? GG as always, NOA.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Uurrrrghh. As said before it drives me nuts that they don't at least warn people a week or two before pulling games, it would at least net them some extra sales. Sega warned people about a full month in advance IIRC before they pulled the Master System version of R-TYPE (which prompted me to get it in that case).

As said before this obviously must have something to do with the VC license expiring across consoles with EA and Will Wright somehow but DKC games make no sense at all, they own those games, characters (obviously) and scenarios lock stock and barrel (ahem). Glad I got my VC copy of DKC1 safe and sound.

Edit: This makes me paranoid now wondering what other titles we should be worried about and possibly thinking about pre-emptively downloading. And as speculated in a previous post, this could be very worrisome for VC's future, especially if this is an indicator they don't have a long term plan for it.

Edit: NOE actually had the courtesy to warn people about DKC series being pulled? GG as always, NOA.

I think Sega also gave like a year heads up on losing the Ferrari license and removing Outrun from xbla. Nintendo knows when their licenses expire, they just don't care to let anyone know apparently.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Best SNES attract screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxSYzCesxfU

Oh no no don't post this! Everytime I hear it I go into full-on nostalgia mode D: It's one of the most beautiful pieces of videogame history, heck the entire soundtrack is! I always get reminded how I read the manual of SimCity almost like a good-night story day for day when I was about 7 years old, something about it just fascinated me

And as many others in this thread I simply can't understand why Nintendo would pull it :/ Sure the timing might make seem the release of the new SimCity like the culprit but even if there is some truth to this I fail to see how a old SNES game might impact the release of a brand-new PC title at all, it's not like people wouldn't buy the new one because they have the SNES one on their Wii's o.o Thinks like this really make me wary about the medium of video-games losing many more classics and pieces of history in the future though luckily SimCity is on my Wii already atleast :/

 

[Agent Unknown]

I think Sega also gave like a year heads up on losing the Ferrari license and removing Outrun from xbla. Nintendo knows when their licenses expire, they just don't care to let anyone know apparently.

A year, wow?

And yeah, it really looks like they don't care at all. Way to strengthen even less confidence in your online services, Nintendo. Besides pricing and purchase history not being transparently tied to your NNID, this is why I have zero plans to download full Wii U titles.

 

[charlequin]

I just don't see why they can't simply put Virtual Console games on the eshop

Because Nintendo is literally worse than every other company in the industry in every single possible area when it comes to online services, presumably.

 

[Aquamarine]

either Nintendo is being slow in setting up a new VC shop, being slow/unable to figure out a way to store purchases, are unwanting to even ALLOW people to make dual purchases, or they were stupid and didn't license the VC games for future consoles in the 1st place.

Licenses for that kind of stuff are very expensive.

I assume all VC games that are not owned by Nintendo are Wii Shop-exclusive...Nintendo would have to re-negotiate contracts with license holders to port the VC games for the Wii U.

...I'm not sure how likely that is, seeing how Nintendo is perfectly fine with letting their license agreement with EA (for SimCity) expire.

Ironically, Nintendo actually developed AND published the original SNES game.

 

[DjRoomba]

A rep from Rare once said that Nintendo has every right to put DK64 on the Virtual Console, not understanding why they haven't. So I don't think Rare is the issue with DKC.

It has emulation issues, anyone who has played on project64 knows this. Thats why its not there
Also Jetpac (maybe)

 

[epmode]

Nintendo is literally worse than every other company in the industry in every single possible area when it comes to online services

This exact quote needs to be relayed to Iwata in an interview or something. It's objectively true.

 

[DjRoomba]

^what about shop music?

 

[Absoludacrous]

what's this?

By the format of the date, it looks like NoE warned people.

I believe by the time Europe warned about the removal, they were already gone from the US with no warning.

 

[Zee-Row]

Because Nintendo is literally worse than every other company in the industry in every single possible area when it comes to online services, presumably.

Everything they do it always seems like they have to do it the "Hard way" , Friend Codes , Accounts , Online Shop , DLC licenses. I just get mushroom clouds coming out of my head every time I think about it.

 

[Aquamarine]

^what about shop music?

Nintendo is the industry leader on ALL console-wide music.

 

[Game Guru]

I don't think this has anything to do with EA releasing a new Sim City game. Sim City 4 Deluxe is on sale on Steam and I think Sim City 2000 is on sale on GOG. If they aren't pulling those down then I doubt an SNES port of the first game is worth EA taking down.

Reasons are probably similar to the reasons the DKC games were taken down.

Except that both SimCity 4 and SimCity 2000 were published by EA for those services. SimCity for the SNES was a port made by Nintendo published by Nintendo using EA's trademarks. All EA would have to do is say "We own the trademark for SimCity and if you don't pull that game, we'll sue." once the licencing contract for that rerelease is over, and there would be nothing Nintendo could do but pull the game.

 

[DDayton]

I need a list of games that have been removed from the VC. Does one exist?

The Club Nintendo spreadsheet (http://clubnintendo.potchgult.com/) we've been compiling over in the CN thread lists pulled titles. I have to add SimCity tonight, but otherwise the Wii lists looks like this:

WiiVC	Bloody Wolf	2007-06-18	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed around 2012-03-01	G-Mode	TG16	
WiiVC	Donkey Kong Country	2007-02-19	0	0	0	0	800	y				Removed 11-16-2012	Nintendo	SNES	
WiiVC	Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest	2007-05-21	0	0	0	0	800	y				Removed 11-16-2012	Nintendo	SNES	
WiiVC	Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!	2007-12-24	0	0	0	0	800	y				Removed 11-16-2012	Nintendo	SNES	
WiiVC	Drop Off	2007-07-30	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed around 2012-03-01	Hudson Soft	TG16	
WiiVC	Legend of Hero Tonma	2007-09-24	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed 2012-03-31	IREM	TG16	
WiiVC	Ninja Spirit	2007-05-14	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed 2012-03-31	IREM	TG16	
WiiVC	R-Type	2006-12-25	0	0	0	0	800	y				Removed 2012-03-31	Hudson Soft	TG16	
WiiVC	R-Type	2009-11-02	0	10	0	0	500	y				Removed 2011-09-30	Sega	SMS	
WiiVC	Silent Debuggers	2007-07-16	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed around 2012-03-01	G-Mode	TG16	
WiiVC	Super R-Type	2008-03-17	0	0	0	0	800	y				Removed 2012-03-31	IREM	SNES	
WiiVC	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	2007-04-02	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed around 2012-02-02	Konami	NES	
WiiVC	Vigilante	2007-02-05	0	0	0	0	600	y				Removed 2012-03-31	Hudson Soft	TG16	

WiiWare	Bruiser and Scratch	2008-12-08	0	10	0	0	1000	y					Steel Penny Games, Inc.		
WiiWare	Diner Dash	2010-03-29	0	10	0	0	1000	y					Hudson Soft		
WiiWare	Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!	2009-10-27	0	0	0	0	0	y				Club Nintendo Reward	Nintendo		
WiiWare	Evasive Space	2009-02-16	0	10	0	0	1000	y					Akinai Games		
WiiWare	Horizon Riders Demo	2011-10-06	0	0	0	0	0	y			Removed before 11/16/2012	DEMO	Sabarasa		
WiiWare	Jungle Speed	2009-01-12	0	10	0	0	1000	y					Playful Entertainment		
WiiWare	Lonpos	2009-02-02	0	10	0	0	800	y					Nintendo		
WiiWare	Metroid Prime 3 Preview	2007-08-10	0	0	0	0	0	y				CN registered on 9/13/2007.	Nintendo		
WiiWare	Military Madness: Nectaris	2010-04-12	0	10	0	0	1000	y				Removed before 2012-11-16	Hudson Soft		
WiiWare	Neves Plus	2009-06-22	0	10	0	0	600	y					YUKE'S Company of America		
WiiWare	Penguins & Friends: Hey! That's My Fish!	2009-05-04	0	10	0	0	800	y				Removed before 2012-04-01	Gammick Entertainment		
WiiWare	Pit Crew Panic!	2008-12-01	0	10	0	0	800	y					Hudson Soft		
WiiWare	Planet Fish	2011-04-04	0	10	0	0	500	y			Removed before 11/16/2012		Ludia		
WiiWare	Planet Pachinko	2009-01-12	0	10	0	0	500	y					Allied Kingdoms Inc.		
WiiWare	Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem	2009-10-19	0	10	0	0	500	y					Hudson Soft		
WiiWare	The Magic Obelisk	2009-12-28	0	10	0	0	500	y

 

[DDayton]

I wonder if the other Maxis ports will have issues -- SimPlanet on the VC for TG-16, for example.

 

[Platy]

Is it Nintendo that makes ALL the virtual console transfers ?

Also, didn't knew that the Turtles franchise belonged to THQ ... now i'm not sad for not getting the THQ bundle =P

It has emulation issues, anyone who has played on project64 knows this. Thats why its not there
Also Jetpac (maybe)

Doubt that this is the case ... they make emulators specificaly for each game ...

But yes, Yoshi Island and DK64 are really strange omissions

It really looks like Nintendo is killing the Virtual Console. Hope they announce the Wii U VC soon, but looking at the state of the VC those last years, and the speed which they launch 3DS VC games...

Slow VC is still better than No VC

The Club Nintendo spreadsheet (http://clubnintendo.potchgult.com/) we've been compiling over in the CN thread lists pulled titles. I have to add SimCity tonight, but otherwise the Wii lists looks like this:

Damn ... Magic Obelisk was fun =/

Also ... there was only one Ninja Turtles on VC ?

I remember playing Turtles in Time at a friend's house ... must been an injected

 

[jooey]

I wonder if the other Maxis ports will have issues -- SimPlanet on the VC for TG-16, for example.

I'm amazed it was put on VC.

 

[M-PG71C]

I may want to buy some VC titles as a just in case measure for things like this. True shame.

 

[steveovig]

It can't possibly be EA as they still sell Sim City 4 on Steam. Why would they take away the SNES version but not the robust Sim City 4?

 

[Zek]

I just don't get it. What happened to the Virtual Console? How did they screw it up so badly? I would have thought that the cost of maintaining it and adding more games would be relatively trivial, but it's been all but abandoned for years and now it's sliding backwards.