Nintendo: Virtual Console games "have not been changed"
by Blake Snow 
{ Nov 13th 2006 at 5:25PM }
Nintendo confirmed exact replicas of all Virtual Console titles in an interview with CVG noting that original games "have not been changed" for Wii. From the interview: "All [Virtual Console] games will be faithful recreations of the original versions in all areas, including content, movement and expressions, so they will not feature new functions like multiplayer or internet play if the original title did not."So for $5-10 per old game, expect no changes in "principle programmer," character design, sound, graphics, or gameplay modes. That's like charging a buck for a less than CD-quality music download...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Optimus Prime @ Nov 13th 2006 5:28PM
Whats the point of VC again? ... Ive got 500+ NES and 300+ SNES ROMS sitting on my HDD right now.
Nushio @ Nov 13th 2006 5:30PM
Hadn't they promised they could/would issue "patches" for VC games to allow even new characters (Such as Wario) on old titles, or even sprucing things up with updated sprites?
Meh
-Another Bitter Nintendo Fanboy
Nushio @ Nov 13th 2006 5:30PM
Thats not the point, you r0m pirate!
JodyAnthony @ Nov 13th 2006 5:30PM
Doesn't matter, tons of people will buy tons of vc games, just like tons of people buy tons of xblarcade games, just like tons of people will buy ps3 downloadable games.
MonkeyJohn @ Nov 13th 2006 5:33PM
Charging a buck for less than CD quality sound? Thats a flawed analogy. The original price of these games was $50-$80. Yeah the graphics arn't as shinny anymore but they are selling them at 1/10th the original price.
Dracula Jones @ Nov 13th 2006 5:44PM
Save anywhere? Please? Passwords were great back in 1987, but they don't cut it in 2006, Metroid and Megaman. I can't leave my NES on pause while I go out to play anymore.
Nate @ Nov 13th 2006 5:36PM
That's kinda disappointing to tell you the truth.
To me, a lot of the draw of XBLA games is that they have online play, leaderboards, and achievements (not that achievements are important to me or anything...they're just something fun to do). It's always cool to see how you stack up against your buddies and everyone else in the world. How nice would it have been if you could play Super Mario Bros. to see who could get the best time? Kill the most goombas? Etc. Etc. With leaderboards, achievements, and the like, it's a totally different experience, and i't enhanced for the better. Kinda sucks that they won't be implementing that. It woulda made the purchases much easier to swallow.
40inch man @ Nov 13th 2006 5:37PM
Too bad, PSP can do wifi multimedia on older systems like SNES, or Genesis.
Don't think I might use VC many. Only all the Zelda collection. But the question is when, I cannot see if I will see all the Zelda by end of 2007.
Alex @ Nov 13th 2006 5:38PM
If Nintendo changed the VC games then there would be people saying "Why couldn't they just leave it like it was?", people wantteh original, not a remix. It was a good move by Nintendo to do nothing new on the VC games.
chiralfox @ Nov 13th 2006 5:37PM
Disappointing, it was reported ages ago that some of the games would be spruced up. I was looking forward to a prettier Legend of Zelda.
Incidentally, I would say that the improvements are one of the reasons that people do buy XBLA games. It might not seem like much but the little bit of extra love given to some games (take Scramble, for example) makes all the difference to some.
Mullinator @ Nov 13th 2006 5:38PM
Who says that once you purchase a VC game they won't release updates for it down the road that will allow you to play it's original version AND an updated version?
JodyAnthony @ Nov 13th 2006 5:38PM
Look at it this way, they have to pay for the servers that house the files (no matter how small they may be), they have to pay for the bandwidth to transfer the files from their servers to you, they have to pay for the servers that let people play the eventual online games online for free, it only makes sense that they would recoup some of the money spent on keeping their actual service free with the virtual console games (no matter how much any sony or microsoft fanboy will say they are ripping us off)
Would I prefer if the virtual console games were cheaper? Of course! What rational consumer wouldn't? Is that going to keep me (or tons of other people) from downloading VC games (or xbox live arcade games, or ps3 downloadable games)? No way. You all know it.
And before you talk bad about how Nintendo is charging whatever for their vc games, keep in mind that no matter what your system of choice is, they are also charging you to download their equivalent games. You don't like the prices, don't download them (or do what I assume most people would do, go online and raise a stink over how you will never download stuff for such crazy prices, then go home and download your xbox live arcade/ps3 downloads for similar prices)
Miniboss @ Nov 13th 2006 5:39PM
"That's like charging a buck for a less than CD-quality music download..."
Hey, people pay for convenience. I know I do.
courtney @ Nov 13th 2006 5:55PM
I am glad they are not going to change. Some of the 360 classic games are really screwed up from them adding to them.
Enzo @ Nov 13th 2006 5:40PM
"That's like charging a buck for a less than CD-quality music download..."
How? These games aren't going to be lesser quality than the originals. They're going to be the same quality. Do you even remember what you wrote five seconds before?
fredrik dunder @ Nov 13th 2006 5:41PM
"That's like charging a buck for a less than CD-quality music download..."
You dont have a clue what youre talking about.
Erik Novak @ Nov 13th 2006 5:41PM
As others have mentioned, the charm of XBox Live Arcade is the ADDED FUNCTIONALITY to old games...be it either playing online, achievements, or comparing your scores w/ friends online. Nintendo isn't offering that, so I have no reason to come back to games I already played.
Aden Nak @ Nov 13th 2006 5:41PM
Is it still piracy if one owns the original ROMs? Does the purchase of media now constitute a license to play the game (much as the purcahse of Windows constitutes not the physical CDs but the permission to install it and use it on one machine)?
Really, that's not for me to decide. But I will tell you that I plan on purcahsing very few actual VC titles. The only few that interest me are the ones where the controls on emulators really just don't live up to the originals. Like F-Zero (SNES) and a scant few others. None the less, most players don't have emulation, don't have ROM support, and will buy some retro goodies to live out their gradeschool years. Me? I'm likely to only get the very few I can't live without.
Andrew @ Nov 13th 2006 5:41PM
Over a billion sub-CD Quality music tracks have been downloaded from iTunes.
Quit spelling doom.
Tush @ Nov 13th 2006 5:42PM
I think it's a GOOD thing, I hate it when they re-release old games and then change them. Didn't anyone get annoyed when Yoshi's Island came out on GBA and had yoshi chirping when he jumped or the damn "brrrring... pah!" ??
Edwin @ Nov 13th 2006 5:43PM
All I know is Minus World here I come.
DWells55 @ Nov 13th 2006 5:43PM
Yeah, sorry, not buying this. I see no reason to have to REBUY my NES/SNES/N64 carts I already have sitting in my room. There really ought to be a way to transfer them or soemthing, I mean how hard of a peripheral would it be to make a ROM dumper for the Wii.
If I want to play my legally owned old games, my Xbox 1 does it just fine.
Kevin @ Nov 13th 2006 5:48PM
It's quite simple. If you don't want to spend $5-$10 for a remake of an old game, then you don't have to lol.
Dirk Dorkelson @ Nov 13th 2006 5:49PM
Wow, having a downloadable Bomberman game with no online multiplayer is as dumb as having a Bomberman game with no local multiplayer. Since when did making a decent Bomberman game become rocket science. Damn.
dantebk @ Nov 13th 2006 5:50PM
The biggest deal for me will be the Zapper games. I have a Projection TV and without the new tech of the Wiimote/Sensor Bar, I have no other option for playing games like Duck Hunt.
joane @ Nov 13th 2006 5:51PM
thanks for this information
JodyAnthony @ Nov 13th 2006 5:51PM
18. I think it's a GOOD thing, I hate it when they re-release old games and then change them. Didn't anyone get annoyed when Yoshi's Island came out on GBA and had yoshi chirping when he jumped or the damn "brrrring... pah!" ??
Posted at 5:42PM on Nov 13th 2006 by Tush 0 stars
------
Try playing the GBA version of Zelda: Link to the Past
the 'yah!' every time you swipe your sword got old REEEEEEALY fast.
JRM @ Nov 13th 2006 5:53PM
VC isn't really for hardcore gamers--IT'S FOR NOSTALGIC CASUALS (i.e Parents in their mid-late 30's).
Leave the Gems the way they are. We've played them a million times already anyway. I'm sure somewhere down the line, there will be many "Tetris DS" type remixes coming out. Heck, the Wii isn't even online for F-k sakes!!
JodyAnthony @ Nov 13th 2006 5:55PM
"Heck, the Wii isn't even online for F-k sakes!!"
uh, yes it is.
at least will be starting with (surprise) the first wii pokemon game
micster @ Nov 13th 2006 6:00PM
Pfft, We ALL know that a hacker will come along and find a way to load illegal roms from SD or hook up to the HDD from the USB
ackmondual @ Nov 13th 2006 6:57PM
@ #1
""Whats the point of VC again? ... Ive got 500+ NES and 300+ SNES ROMS sitting on my HDD right now.""
Tell that to the millions and millions of people who bought $1 DLs off iTunes when they could've gotten their music for free off the internet from other sources. You're quite deluded if you think everyone is willing to DL their potentially corrupt ROMs from dubious sites, mess around with settings on their emus, and then settle for no/low/less than perfect compatibility with their Nin games.
.
@ #19
""Yeah, sorry, not buying this. I see no reason to have to REBUY my NES/SNES/N64 carts I already have sitting in my room. There really ought to be a way to transfer them or soemthing, I mean how hard of a peripheral would it be to make a ROM dumper for the Wii.""
There IS a way to transfer your carts to purely digital ROMs. They sell the hardware online. Have fun converting your 200+ however many games onto your HD
Tim @ Nov 13th 2006 5:59PM
The big problem I have with their comments is that they've already said they are excluding the rumble feature from N64 titles. Then they say there will be NO DIFFERENCES?!?!? I guess they only mean there will be no good differences, only bad ones.
http://www.playwii.com
MosquitoControl @ Nov 13th 2006 6:01PM
No leaderboards is disappointing. But not killer.
The price is killer. I'll buy a few select games. If they were cheaper, more reasonably in my opinion, I'd buy tons of them. I'd certainly end up spending more with cheaper prices.
Ramirez @ Nov 13th 2006 7:10PM
I for one am glad that they are rereleasing the original games as they originally were. Granted some new things that don't affect actual gameplay in any way, like leaderboards or acheivements, would be fun. I'd love to replay some of the games that I used to get high scores on and see just how high they really were. I think that updating the grahics or gameplay and such destroys the charm of older titles though.
Besides, Nintendo is targetting an broader audience including people who might remember playing the NES but have since abandoned games. They wouldn't have ROMs and even if they did it's still not the same playing Zelda with a keyboard as it is with a controller.
Zixaphir @ Nov 13th 2006 6:05PM
...
For once, I'm disappointed with Nintendo. I mean, even ZSNES has a "NetPlay", and it does not touch the internal coding of games at all. It merely sets up a hub, and then when enough players have gathered, usually up to three, though sometimes there's bystanders whom spectate, the host starts the game, a lot like a graphically inferior version of GunBound's rooms. It pretty much works by emulating the same game on everyone's computers, and then just sending their controls to eachother, as I've heard Xbox Live Arcade does.
Of course, since no games are having online at launch, period, perhaps a similar feature to Net Play will be revealed with a firmware upgrade. After all, Nintendo IS holding its cards close, and definitely only playing one or two at a time, such as their channels feature, which 90% of the channels have yet to be revealed.
bm @ Nov 13th 2006 6:13PM
Wow, now bitching about NES games being unchanged when the whole point of it is to play NES games? What is it, retard week here at Joystiq?
Oh, wait. That's not just this week.
number40one @ Nov 13th 2006 6:12PM
sorry Blake, but you're comparing apples to hand-gernades
dave @ Nov 13th 2006 6:18PM
I'd actually consider (re)buying some of those old games if I could play them online, but of course that won't happen since Iwataidiot thinks "Customers don't want online games"
I think they've changed their stance since, but it's still not likely to happen, and I doubt we'll even get online play with the majority of Wii titles.. Hopefully they prove me wrong and don't repeat the same idiotic mistakes they made with the Cube (and the DS with it's friends code nonsense).
Does anyone else like playing games with people who aren't right next to them? :)
azesino @ Nov 13th 2006 6:19PM
"That's like charging a buck for a less than CD-quality music download..."
This stupid, Nintendo fanboys have their brains made out of sand, none of them assimilated what blake tried to imply,Less than CD quality means:
The only reason you are playing 5 to 15 dollars on Live for a game is because it has been Redesigned. Meaning;
1- The games are all in STEREO.
2- The color palete has been also fixed so they won't look washed out like my Nes games look.
3- They have LEADERSBOARD, so you can stack up your scores with other players(I remember back in the day when we used to make an score and tough it was worth of letting the world know we used to take a polaroid picture and send it to a magazine or Nintendo itself lol) Technology and times have change for people to not even worried about it, at this time of age those things should be implated in every single game sold.
5- And lastly they should at least upgrade the games to 480p. Have you guys ever played Mario on a Plasma, It looks Horrendous, I would prefer that it was made like Live arcade games where you could pan and size your image to your desire size, some people like to see the image on the whole screen even if it looks blooki as hell and kill their retinas, and others dont mind playing them at the original resolution with bars on the side and on top while maintaining that crisp look.
My conclusion is if an VC game don't include this features , at least scored boards its not worth even looking at, And dont bullshit yout self saying that they games where suppost to be left on its original status, if you want to be a hardcore prick go and buy the ORIGINAL system they where designed for and play it as the game was ORIGINALLY intended to be played on the first place. Mere clones have been available for years as Rooms, if the consumer just wants to play an original copy with no improvements its like telling them to go and download them in rooms(very crappy by the way)
Twist @ Nov 13th 2006 6:36PM
Makes sense for most of the launch VC titles but it would be really sweet to see like a multiplayer online version of Secret Of Mana. And of course it would be really nice to see a graphically upgraded version of Goldeneye 007 with support for online play and more than 4 players in online matches. There's Nintendo's Halo killer right there.
SuperJ @ Nov 13th 2006 6:27PM
I'm glad Nintendo won't be altering any of the VC games, otherwise I'd fear a one VC title per Wednesday scenario.
LedRush @ Nov 13th 2006 6:28PM
Am I the only one that is very glad that the games won't be altered? I want to play the games as they were, and it costs more time and (often) money to get them for the consoles. This is extremely convenient, cheaper than expected, cheaper than I would pay, and much anticipated. All of my friends (in the late 20's and early 30's range) are stoked by the idea of the VC.
If they want to update the games, while still offering the originals, that's fine. But I sure as hell don't want to be forced to play a new version of my beloved old games.
Jackson Pritt @ Nov 13th 2006 6:29PM
This is so retarded.
If they changed the games you'd be bitching that they weren't faithful to the originals.
When they don't change the game you bitch that they're selling an inferior product.
When did Joystiq turn Anti-Nintendo?
Does it have anything to do with you guys being owned by AOL?
Vilhelm Smári @ Nov 13th 2006 6:29PM
This doesn't bother me at all, to be honest. As long as I can play them like I did on my old systems, I'm happy.
Chris @ Nov 13th 2006 6:34PM
Have any of you spouting the greatness of XBLA even played Contra, Frogger, Pac Man or Street fighter Online?
Obvously not if you think tacking on features to old games is a good idea. I'm glad Nintendo is leaving these games alone. they have plenty of opertunity in the FUTURE to make new VC games. I just want the originals on one console.
Mr. Khan @ Nov 13th 2006 6:35PM
You all are missing the point entirely
The point is NOT that you "re-buy" the games that Nintendo has already made (although they would love it if you did) The point (in my eyes at least) is to BUY old games for the first time....
I didn't get into Video Games until 1999, when i bought an N64, I missed a hell of a lot of good games
That is why I have been eager for VC Games, that is why I bought Super Mario Bros Delux, and all the Super Mario Advances
I have a weighty collection of N64 titles, and there's no way i'm buying them again (no point), but all the NES, SNES, Genesis, and T16 games that i missed out on are high on my list (although most of the good NES games have been remade, so its really only SNES Games, specifically Super Metroid, and T16 games, and the Phantasy Stars)
Koekoenutt @ Nov 13th 2006 6:54PM
If you really think about it, not changing the way the game plays and works is a great thing. I have some Roms on my computer that the control scheme is so off thrown from the original.
On top of that, a Scoreboard or Leadershipboard, is NOT changing the game. This is an online option, and as the Wii keeps track of what games you play and how long, this could easily be incorperated or thought of by Nintendo already, and just waiting till the Online system is more organized and pressed out. They wouldn't be condradicting this, becuase you dont change the games.
I remember when Joystiq did a review of the Contra for XBox Live Arcade, and HOPED the Wii version would be untouched! Now they are changing thier minds I guess? Online play would be nice, and thats not to say a 3rd party couldn't snap up something to make this possible and use their own servers, or Nintendo expand after the holidays. Least you know whats going on and not left in the dark.
Konchu @ Nov 13th 2006 7:02PM
I have to say I am a little disappointing they have decided not to improve stuff like add network play. I really wanted online ToeJam and Earl(I now this is genesis but it was annouced it was coming at some time).
Though I am not going to say the price is really bad in alot of cases compare a 5 dollar Zelda to the 20 dollar GBA cart. Truthfull nintendo is selling alot of its classics for cheaper than they ever have before and alot of these games are definatly worth the cost. Its just going to be hard to justify another 5 bucks for a game I have in other formats other than convenience. But a treat for those titles I never picked up.
Doomstalk @ Nov 13th 2006 7:10PM
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they changed them, people would complain. If they don't change them, people complain. Just quit your bitching, and enjoy the chance to relive old memories legally.
Stop Bytching @ Nov 13th 2006 7:47PM
Some of the 360 classic games are really screwed up from them adding to them....WTF are you talking about they dont "change" the game itself they ADD Multiplayer. How could that possibly "screw" up the game. Wow what a dumbass.....Contra in Online Co-op Priceless!!!!!