Castlevania, Mystical Ninja, Shockman whip Virtual Console

Been waiting forever for Castlevania. Bout time!

I bought Legend of Mystical Ninja when it appeared here in Europe on the VC! Such a great game! Funny, clever and challenging, with lots of neat minigames! Myself and my brother rented this game out so often back on the SNES that we would have saved money buying it! Now I can replay it to my hearts content, as well as finally try to finish it! I don't think we made it past the 5th area when we were younger.

Both Castlevania and Mystical Ninja fall into the "games I absolutely loved when younger but am not entirely convinced I still like 'em enough to drop the VC cash" category. I'll probably snag 'em at some point, but not today.

If I didn't already own the Super NES Mystical Ninja Game Pak (as well as the Japanese-only GBA port of Ganbare Goemon 1+2), I'd totally download the VC version.

Ah, heck. I might download it anyways, so that I don't need to bring out the Super NES to play it again.

Goemon's just that good.

The downward trend where the VC is selling 4x as many games as XBLA was at the same time last year? Sure the numbers went down a little, but the focus on the downward swing smacks of over-opinionated reporting (sorry, forget this was a blog momentarily).

XBLA through it's first 4 months - 600,000 sales
VC through it's first 5 months - 3,300,000 sales

I'm just amazed that the 'story' is VC is slipping in sales. The story is it is has bene selling at an INCREDIBLY AMAZING pace. One it couldn't possibly keep up...could it?

I played Shockman quite a bit when I was a kid. I was the only one I knew with a Turbografx :P It’s actually quite a solid game. It’s like MegaMan, but there are two different characters to choose from, and you can play the game with a friend :) It’s not punishingly hard like many MegaMan games, but it’s really fun and has some really nice sequences. It’s been a long, long time since I played it, so I’m definitely downloading it.

Now, Goemon/Mystical Ninja…. That’s an instant download. Sorry but, screw Castlevania today!

Oh shi... I'ma be using up some money today!

Right or wrong Russell that isnt what the world (especially investors) care about. It isnt an X versus Y comparison it is X versus X and the last thing an investor wants to see is a downtrend. Is it enough of one to scare an investor? I strongly doubt it... nor should it be! But it still IS news.

I completely agree with BPM and Mister Disco, Legend of the Mystical Ninja is the game du jour! In my opinion, it's the best game to hit the VC thus far.

I had it for the SNES and for some reason I can't remember I got rid of it. I bought it on ebay recently for $0.99 ($4.99 shipping) but yet for some reason I am thinking of buying it on the VC because it's that good! I am not a big fan of digital distribution and haven't been a big fan of getting games on the VC (only have 3 so far) but Legend of the Mystical Ninja is a must buy and I hope others don't ignore it for Castlevania.

I'ts inevitable that the VC titles slip in sales eventually to a halt. Why? Because Nintendo is not handling storage of these titles reasonably. I'm almost full on space where I can hold playable VC titles, therefore a few more and i'm done. Yes you can back them up on the SD card, but that's a back up. You cant play it from the SD card. Screw that!

I think Nintendo really needs to re-think this issue. Eventually everyones wii will be out of space. Plus the space for VC titles is shared with saved games and Wii channels. They need to allow you to be able to utilize the SD card like a True HD and not as a back up save dump.

billychaos,

I know it might be a pain but you can delete VC games from your Wii and redownload them anytime from the Wii Shop Channel to make sure you have enough available channels for whatever you need.

I'm only buying 1 of these this week:
Original Castlevania from 8-bit generation for my Wii
for $5
or Symphony of the Night from the 32/64-bit generation for my Xbox 360 for $10

I'm leaning towards SotN; any opinions?

Funny thing is, the reason these VC titles are selling so much is because theres no Wii games to play. Id be willing to wager a good percentage of these people just want to give thier pretty white box they spent so much effort to get a purpose. Any purpose will do, even if it means buying 20 year old games they already own the physical versions of. I havent turned my wii on in months, it'll stay that way until either smash bros. comes out, or I toss it out the window.

billy...billy...billy

When will you learn? tisk...tisk...tisk...

Nintendo will never revise the Wii. It has already sold in the millions.

Nintendo has the same motto as the Republicans: "YeeHaw shitbird son of a bitch, if its not broke don't fix it"

Ben E: SOTN!

Now we're talkin'! Gotta love the Mystical Ninja, my sis has been dying for this to release so we can co-op.

If only the wii allowed to buy points in hundreds instead of 1000, 2000, 5000.

Yeah, Ben, seriously. SOTN. No question.

Looks like I have to add Castlevania to the list of games I should buy, but feel that I'm holding unto points for something I really badly want. Last week I finally cracked and bought the way overpriced TMNT (I remember selling my copy to Funcoland for 25 cents, repurchasing it at a local store for 75 cents, now dropping 6 bucks on it). All's good though, I did beat the game last Thursday (surprisingly was able to do so).

As for Mystical Ninja, I remember the N64 one that I beat and then sold to Funcoland. Not sure if this one was any better than that one. I really was there was a demo thing, and after reading that article last week how the $5 to $10 is pure profit, I feel I may be more conservative with my points. I really think $5 should be more for games like SMB, SMB2, 3, you know games that can't be purchased at a dollar bin.

As much as I love Nintendo and hate Repuglicans, Jack is right for once, sadly.

...actually, he's not. Who am I kidding?
This is Nintendo, so it should be, "YeeHaw shitbird son of a bitch, if its not broke don't fix it, and even if it is broke, don't fix it anyway, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE GETTING GOD DAMNIT, SO SHUT UP AND BE HAPPY!"



Oh yes, and SOTN all the way.

Here's hoping that's a sign that simon Belmont will be on SSBB!!!!

samfish

97.587643256585% of the time im right......if you can see (THROUGH) my sarcasm.

The original Castlevania is one of those games that you will find did not age well. Super Castlevania IV, Symphony of the Night, and Dawn of Sorrow are probably the best of the series.

whoa, is that COUNT CHOCULA??



.

@13:
"Funny thing is, the reason these VC titles are selling so much is because theres no Wii games to play."

So then, by your "logic"...a decline in VC sales would indicate that more Wii games are selling? Correct? And since when has anybody denied that the VC is a means of filling gaps in Wii releases? Even Nintendo reps came right out and said it.

"even if it means buying 20 year old games they already own the physical versions of."

That's getting to be one of those tired anti-Wii arguments. The people I know who own a Wii are the exact opposite. Only buying games they may have already played, but never owned.

@14:
"If it ain't broke don't fix it..."

I like that plan better than MS's "If it ain't working don't fix it." stand on the RRoD or Sony's "If it ain't broke go ahead and break it." regarding the PAL PS3.

"even if it means buying 20 year old games they already own the physical versions of"

because everyone has been playing video games for 20+ years? Just because many of us have been gaming since the 80s doesn't mean everyone has.

"Ben E": SOTN. It's easily the best game in the entire series, if not one of the best games ever made period.

Yeah, pick up SotN. Great game.

And this happens every week:

"Nintendo releases 3 games for the VC:

#1 GAME
#2 GAME 2
#3 GAME 3

All available for download at 12pm EST."

COMMENTS:

#1 WOOT GAME came out today! I'm downloading that!

#2 VC is overpriced, and it's bullshit that they expect us to pay this kind of money for a game I already own. bitchbitchwhinewhine.

#3 Because there's no games for the Wii, is why people are buying... blahblahblah.

===========

How about next week, we go with: "YAY, VC games. I don't like the pricing, but GAME 2 is a great game. I remember playing that in my day...

Ah... who am I kidding? No one will do that. Everyone's filled with so much damned hate on this site, that it's impossible.

@13

I'm assuming you're trolling. Look at IGN's reviews of some of these games. Most are in the 7+ range and there are quite a few above a 9. You don't need an excuse to by VC games, especially because a lot of people buying them A. weren't around for the originals or B. were too young to appreciate them.

And I'll probably buy Castlevania sometime, but not this week. I'm still playing Gradius III 3 times a day. For anyone that doesn't have Mystical Ninja, check it out. I own the original SNES copy, but it's broken so I'll be buying that too.

Wtf is Shockman though.

Oh and the 360 "+ Pad" is really bad for SotN, so you'll be stuck using the joystick, which isn't TOO bad, but it's hard to pull off some of the spells when you need it most.

Damnit, why won't they just give us Actraiser? If it's an ESRB issue, let's get on with it already as the Aussies have had it for weeks now.

-Leshrac
http://alinktothefuture.com

I freakin' LOVE Legend of the Mystical Ninja! The music is great, the artwork is fantastic, and the gameplay is just plain fun!

Looks like I'm dropping 800 points tonight. And I agree with one of the other guys, Castlevania for NES does not age well.

"I completely agree with BPM and Mister Disco, Legend of the Mystical Ninja is the game du jour!"

"Game du jour"? Don't you mean "Jeu du jour"?

Or did Babelfish give me the wrong French translation of "game"?

Bring it down to a dollar per game, then we'll talk serious here.

Paviel, you're right about that. Game = "jeu" in French. However, "du jour" has become a somewhat common phrase used in English. Like, for example, many restaurants will feature a "soup de jour," even though "soup" is an English word, not a French one.

Kelekod:
Mystical Ninja isn't one of those games you'd find in a dollar bin. SMB1, though, is. :P
Not only are 3 of the 4 English Mystical Ninja games great (the fourth, a Game Boy game, is pure garbage), but they're not entirely easy to come by. I've paid between $12-$20 for each of them used in the last couple of years.

So, it sounds like Konami didn't fix their translation error with Legend of the Mystical Ninja, huh?
In the Super NES game, Goemon and Ebisumaru were oddly renamed Kid Ying and Dr. Yang, respectively (even though the yin yang is more of a Chinese concept than Japanese), but the rest of the game received no name changes. Then in the other three English games, they switched to using their original names.

Any other questions about Goemon & Co., feel free to ask me. :P

Legend of the Mystical Ninja? Bought. As soon as I get home from work.

$5 for original Castlevania? Thanks but no.

Bring on the Konami on Genesis games!!!

As far as game sales "slipping", it all rounds down to simple economics, specifically "The Law of Diminishing Returns". Essential high tech and sales
will start high (Wii), other companies will begin to grow high because their tech and skills are growing quickly to catch up(whoever else.

It's not that Wii is declining, but the fact that they're on top of their game means that they won't be growing AS MUCH, but will still be making enough to be competitive. Simple economics, diminishing return, market equilibrium and all that.

while a fun game, castelvania was hard at times. not looking forward to playing this one. Some games get easier as you get older and some get tougher. Me thinks this requires child like reflexes. like effing super ghouls and ghosts.

"Nintendo will never revise the Wii. It has already sold in the millions."

Just like they never revised popular products like the Game Boy (Pocket, Color, Advance, Advance SP, Micro) or the DS (Lite)...

@39

... as well as the NES (NES Toploader), SNES (the smaller one), etc...

Mmmm... good stuff they're releasing.

While I liked a lot of the VC games 'back in the day' I've found that they haven't weathered as well in reality as they did in my memory. I think I'm pretty much done with the trek down memory lane, at least until some of the 'I can't live without trying it again' games come out.

Do people honestly keep each damn vc game they beat and haven't played for weeks and months on the system? If you aren't playing some of the vc games and have no intention to do so move them to a SD card.

Learn to organize and prioritize. Delete saves from games you no longer have. I suspect a lot of complainers have wii game saves from rentals or games they traded. You would be surprised at how much space you free up on hard drives when you delete stuff you aren't using.

Funny how the people claiming that Nintendo will release a revised wii forget a simple thing.

The gameboy revisions were done when the time of a new portable was coming. I.E. every five years. Most of the revisions were done with much stronger hardware that allowed the playing of new games. Old hardware had to be discarded since it wouldn't play the new games. Gameboys couldn't play gameboy color games nor could gameboy colors play gameboy advance games.

Nintendo console revisions came out after the next console. NES toploader I never saw in a single store because it gasp came out when the SNES did.
SNES2 guess what never seems to have been sold in most stores because gasp the N64 came out.

They will not beef up the wii specs when the successor system comes out. They do not do that.

DS lite only has a brighter screen and is slimmer. I have had people comment that the DS phat is a better looking system then the DS lite.

Gameboy Micro was meant as a fashionable gameboy for the fashion conscious gamer. No hardware improvements.

A wii revision will have the same vc space as the prior one. It will not play dvds or do other stuff.

Get it through your damn heads.

Anybody else notice that whenever Joystiq's writers think they've come up with a really great "snarky comment," they tend to repeat it incessantly? Like when they wrote up that bogus "news" item about the Wii controls sucking or when the fellow from GDC called it two 'cubes duck-taped together? After both of those stories went up, they continued to link back to them as if to show how brilliantly cynical they are. And now, because they're apparent mathematicians, the current VC sales are pathetic. Not newsworthy...

For those playing Mystical Ninja, might I recommend jumping onto your partner's shoulders for a piggyback ride during the harder platforming areas, especially towards the end. It also looks funny, which is good.