Skyward Sword remains on the horizon, a shimmering mirage never seeming to materialize into reality. Kirby will return to Dream Land somewhere over these arid dunes, but we can't see him past the sands. And don't even speak of the lost RPGs, the gifts we know have been promised to those who live in distant, lavish lands. That bounty of rainfall won't be falling here.
This is gripping metaphor, people. It's a desert out there.
But even in the Wii's worst days, Nintendo's system has thankfully had one sustaining salvation. The consistently unsung, often forgotten canteen that always has at least a bit of refreshing water to take the edge off our toils -- the Virtual Console.
Home to nearly 400 different classic games now -- emulated and available through the system's Shop Channel -- these old hits of yesteryear are a wonderful source of gaming sustenance. Chances are that even dedicated VC followers could find another life-giving game or two in its archives now, so we're here to help that happen with the Virtual Console Survivor's Guide.
This is your road map to the best of the Console, breaking it down by category and suggesting purchases for you based on what you're most thirsting for. Need a new shooter? The VCs got lots of them, and there's no way you've played them all. Want a fresh adventure to embark upon? There are several awaiting you in the past, available again by download here in the present.
So read on, dying Wii owner, and see if the canteen of classic gaming might be just the thing to help prolong your Nintendo-loving life. Long enough to finally make it to that oasis of Zelda, at least.
Classic+<a+class='autolink'+href='https://games.ign.com/objects/025/025047.html'>Nintendo</a>
The greatest strength of the Virtual Console has been its foundation of Nintendo's biggest franchises. The AAA, first-party games of three generations -- NES, SNES and Nintendo 64 -- are all here and ready to be relived. Or, for those who missed them the first time around, experienced for the very first time.
The Big Three are all here, with the core series sequels of Mario, Zelda and Metroid all ready to be owned once more. Donkey Kong is represented by the full DKC trilogy. And while you'd have to jump over to the 3DS Virtual Console to replay Kirby's first adventure (Kirby's Dream Land), his NES debut (and the debut of his ability-copying mechanic) is right here on Wii. Here are our Top 10 picks from Nintendo's biggest brands, in no particular order:
Vintage+Sega
Gamers who lived through the 16-bit era never could have predicted how deep the once-bitter rivals of Nintendo and Sega would bury the hatchet 15 years later, and Mario and Sonic's new friendship paved the way for classic games from Sega's Genesis and Master System consoles to join together with the old Nintendo library.
Nintendo loyalists who never touched a Sega system before could start exploring that passed-by era of gaming on Day 1 when the Virtual Console went live, and throughout the past five years a vast selection from the House of the Hedgehog has been made available. Here are our top blast-processing choices:
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Streets of Rage 2 |
Sonic & Knuckles | Shining Force II |
Ecco the Dolphin | ToeJam & Earl |
Earthworm Jim | Ristar |
Alex Kidd in Miracle World | Shinobi III |
Old-School+Hudson
If we're highlighting classic Nintendo first and vintage Sega second, it naturally must follow that old-school Hudson gets the spotlight third. Though the company is now gone, having been absorbed by Konami earlier this year, Hudson's heritage and great games from the early '90s live on through Wii's Virtual Console.
These titles are drawn from two terrific systems -- the TurboGrafx-16 (which was the third horse running in the race between Nintendo's SNES and Sega's Genesis) and the TurboGrafx-CD, the disc-based follow-up that boosted its games with superb CD-quality audio. Help honor Hudson's memory by rediscovering one of these great past hits:
Bonk's Adventure | Bomberman '94 |
Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood | Devil's Crush |
Air Zonk | Ys Book I & II |
New Adventure Island | Military Madness |
R-Type | Gate of Thunder |
Shooters+Galore
Mentioning R-Type and Gate of Thunder at the end of the Hudson list helps us break out of company-specific categories, and now we're moving on to specificgenres -- like shooters. Shoot-'em-ups, more than any type of game, are overflowing in Nintendo's Wii Shop. There are so many classic designs from so many different developers it's insane.
Really, any serious shooter fan should already own a Wii just to be able to take advantage of this vast selection and have them all playable on one machine. It's nearly impossible to suggest just 10 to check out, but we'll try. (And since R-Type and Gate of Thunder already got mentioned earlier, we're technically getting 12.)
Fantasy Zone | Life Force |
Lords of Thunder | Gradius III |
R-Type III | Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou |
Axelay | Soldier Blade |
Space Harrier | Blazing Lazers |
Imports+from+Japan
If "Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou" from the above list sounds really odd to you, that's because it's one of the Virtual Console's several untranslated-from-Japanese import titles. This category has been one of the most exciting for the service, as it's served up not old games we remember from our childhoods, but new-to-us titles that were skipped over for localization in their first release.
Bomberman '94 and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, mentioned earlier, also fit into this category, but we'll feature 10 more fresh picks right now. Some of these titles have a bit of a language barrier, as they remain untranslated and emulated as-is from their Japanese releases. But one highly sought-after game in particular, Sin & Punishment, actually got a bit of new English work completed for it just for its VC release.
Sin & Punishment | Pulseman |
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels | Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa |
Detana!! TwinBee | Cho Aniki |
Ufouria: The Saga | Final Soldier |
DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure | Star Parodier |
Run+and+Gun
You can't have a craving for old-school gaming for long before transforms into a desire for sheer destruction. Thankfully, many of the best explosion-filled epics of yesteryear have found their way to the Virtual Console service.
You can go shirtless and wield a shotgun in the jungle with the men of Contra, tag-team with a friend in Treasure's classic Gunstar Heroes, and blast apart Dr. Wily's wicked robots in six different installments of the Mega Man series (and that's not even counting 9 and 10, which are technically WiiWare games.) There's got to be some nuclear bomb-blasting fun for you somewhere among these selections:
Mega Man 2 | Gunstar Heroes |
Mega Man 3 | Super Empire Strikes Back |
Mega Man X | Metal Slug |
Super C | Super Turrican |
Contra III: The Alien Wars | Blaster Master |
The+Fighting+Craze
The popularity of the fighting genre has come and gone over the years. Its in the midst of a revival right now, as modern titles like the latest Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom and BlazBlue have reinvigorated the scene. But if you want to revisit fighting's first major wave of popularity, you'll need to look back to the '90s.
The Virtual Console's library has representation for a huge chunk of that era, thanks in large part to the addition of the Neo Geo as a supported system less than a year after the VC's launch. That "Fighter's System" contributes several of its biggest names to some SNES and Genesis highlights to build this category up:
Street Fighter II Turbo | Samurai Shodown II |
The King of Fighters '95 | Fatal Fury 3 |
Super Smash Bros. | River City Ransom |
King of the Monsters | International Karate |
Final Fight 3 | Street Fighter Alpha 2 |
Role-Playing+Games
We highlighted several Virtual Console RPGs just recently when we looked back on the role-playing genre across the Wii's entire library, but the excellence of this category on just the VC bears repeating. The early '90s role-playing golden age is remembered well by the Sega and Square Enix selection on sale in the Wii Shop.
And I've said it again and again for five years straight now, but classic RPGs represent the best investment for your gaming dollar across all Wii options. Paying eight bucks to download a game that you'll get to enjoy for 60 hours or more? That's an incredible ratio. So get the best value for your money with one of these hits:
Chrono Trigger | Final Fantasy III |
Super Mario RPG | Secret of Mana |
Phantasy Star IV | Paper Mario |
Final Fantasy II | Breath of Fire II |
Final Fantasy | Beyond Oasis |
Racing+Games
We're getting close to the finish line of our Virtual Console Survivor's Guide, but speeding in and claiming the second-to-last spot before the checkered flag drops is the VC's racing games category. This is a genre that is not quite as well represented in quantity as some others we've already featured, but the enduring quality of the titles featured here is undeniable.
Whether it's ramping off a gigantic jump with an exciting bike, chasing down high-octane hovercrafts in a futuristic society, or just shredding through slopes of snow, Nintendo (and a few other publishers) have made racing games truly memorable across the years, and now across the Virtual Console.
F-Zero | F-Zero X |
Super Mario Kart | Excitebike |
1080 Snowboarding | Wave Race 64 |
Mach Rider | Cruis'n USA |
Victory Run | Mario Kart 64 |
Challenging+Retro+Games+to+Master
Last of all, a bit of an oddball category that represents one of the most important facets of old-school gaming -- sheer frustration. Video games have gotten more and more soft and easy-going on players over the years, but back in the '80s and '90s they didn't think twice about killing you off in seconds flat and sending you back to the Game Over screen. You would cry. You would smash your controller to bits. You would love it.
So if you want to challenge your gamer skills, you can do so with these Virtual Console offerings:
Ninja Gaiden | Bonanza Bros. |
Super Fantasy Zone | Solomon's Key |
Mighty Bomb Jack | ActRaiser |
Gradius | Ghosts 'N Goblins |
Legend of the Mystical Ninja | Star Force |
Are you feeling any relief from the heat after that? I know it's no fun to be stuck out in Nintendo's desert of non-releases, waiting and waiting for the next big Wii game to come along. But hopefully this refresher course on what's available through the Virtual Console has been helpful. Grab a couple of these downloads that you don't yet own, kick back and enjoy some classic gaming to help pass the time.
And the 100 titles featured above are far from all the candidates worthy of your digital dollars. I could have kept on going listing more and more greats on sale through the service. I'll leave it up to IGN's dedicated users to post their own personal favorites using the comments box below, though. So you can tell me I'm crazy for not promoting Punch-Out!!, or Ogre Battle 64, or Kirby Super Star. What can I say? I'm delirious from being in this desert so long.
Thanks as always to The Video Game Museum for classic screenshots.