ESRB shows seven Sega games for Wii

I think there are several reasons one might consider buying a game on virtual console.

1. You still have the original console and game, but one or both don't work anymore.

2. You enjoyed the game as a kid but couldn't afford it back then, and now that you can afford it they don't sell it anymore.

3. More reliable than hunting down old, beaten-up consoles/games on eBay.

4. The convenience of playing a game legitimately rather than having to screw around with emulators and scour the Intarweb for ROMs.

5. Ability to use controllers that were designed to play console games instead of your keyboard with emulators (yeah, I know you can hook up controllers to your PC with adapters, but you have to buy the adapter and it can be a pain to map the buttons).

6. The convenience of having a whole bunch of old games on your Wii memory card/flash memory/whatever they end up storing it on, so you don't have to lug around a bunch of old game cartridges. Even if your old games still work, there's always something to be said for convenience.

7. Possibility of playing old games with improved graphics, framerate, new features (online play?), etc. Imagine playing Perfect Dark without the prominent lag on some of the levels in the main game, for instance. Obviously we'll need to wait for more announcements from Nintendo on whether or not any virtual console games will be getting a facelift to take advantage of the newer hardware.

Wait, now. Just wait a minute.

Can we PLEASE stop referring to piracy on the PSP as "homebrew" once and for all? Seriously- NONE of you are playing homemade games. You're downloading pirated ROMs from the Internet and playing them on your altered firmware. There's nothing noble or "homebrew" about it. You're pirates. Own up, and we'll all respect you a little more.

For those of us who don't want a bunch of ROMs on our hard drive, or don't want to spend $250 for a system just to hack it and play old games on it, this is a good LEGITIMATE option.

Yes, you could play all those games right now if you pirate them, and use an emulator. We get that. We know that. We also think it's sort of stupid committing a federal crime for a 15-year-old game, so we'll wait it out and pay our $4.50 for it, thanks.

There is no "homebrew" community on PSP that I've see. There's a rampant piracy community, but I've seen very few homemade games being raved about by PSP owners. Let's have some intellectual honesty for once from the Sony camp, shall we?

Of these seven games, I have only played one, Sonic the Hedgehog. As such, I will probably not buy that one, but I am thinking about getting Altered Beast, Golden Axe, and Ristar. The Wikipedia entries for these three just jumped out at me. ^^

I don't like puzzle games, including Tetris, so I don't see why I would buy Columns. I played the Ecco the Dolphin demo for Dreamcast, and that was kind of fun, but I can't see myself actually buying this Genesis version of the game. As for Toe Jam & Earl, it just sounds too disgusting for something I'd buy.

Those are my thoughts! Anyone want to comment on them? ^^

@ #47, point 3

Exactly

I mean sure, i still have a working N64, but I'd rather buy Diddy Kong Racing on the VC, considering it is 98.9% assured to work, as opposed to finding and purchasing the cart.

Mostly I'm using the VC to get all the SNES titles that i missed out on, and lets all pray for some kind of Saturn compatibility!

RISTAR ARE YOU SERIOUS :DDD

The ZeroCorpse

After reading your post, those 7 stars make a lot of sense. Well said.

In regards to those people whining about how they can play these games on an emulator, here's a news flash.

NINTENDO. DON'T. CARE.

The Virtual Console is NOT, repeat NOT for you.

Do you really think they sat around a conference table and said, "Gee, y'know, there are all these gamers out there who pirate our games and probably won't pay for them again. We simply MUST find a way to please them, regardless of any financial loss to ourselves!"

Hell, why stop there. The Wii ITSELF is not for you.

The Wii is for hardcore Nintendo fans (who, let's face it, will pay for anything even remotely Nintendo-related) and for casual gamers and non-gamers, who wouldn't know what a ROM is, wouldn't be able to configure an emulator if their life depended on it and possibly don't even own a computer in the first place!

The Wii is here to make things easy for people. To give them a chance to relive their childhoods and have fun, new experiences with a past-time which, though familiar to us, has always seemed hostile and alien to them. All at an affordable price.

I bet you think $5 for a baby bottle is outrageous too. But that's because it's not designed FOR you. There's a market out there for them, though, and just because personally don't need or want one, doesn't mean there isn't a market for it.

I could just homebrew all these on my PSP and be done with it. Nintendoi overcharging ftl.

Your going to have to do better than 25 year old crappy Games Nintendo, and why is this list 5 games? They're 25 years old. They should just all immidiatly be on WII. Every SNES and Genesis game should be on Wii from day one, period. They're 25 frickin years old, this isn't rocket science Nintendo. Get your shit together.

@55
You are so right. I beleive Nintendo's marketing plans are right on the money, finally. Sorry to say this but we "hardcore" gamers make up only a small percentage of the general public. Yeah I can use my emulators but can my wife, no, can my mom, no, did they used to play games "back in the day", yes. My dad was a hc gamer but stop with N64 "because the controls got too complicated". Everyone (most normal people) likes social activites and types of entertainment but not everyone (at least right now) plays video games. It is to all these other people that Nintendo is directly aiming and also trying to pull us hardcorers along with, not the other way around. As a former fanboy and a hcg myself I say to Nintendo good plan and I hope is works out well for them.