Adventure Island headlines Virtual Console Monday

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Sep 3rd 2007 at 9:30AM }

It didn't really have much of a choice in the matter, since squeezing three more game titles into the above headline would have resulted in an incomprehensible mess of letters, numbers and colons. Scheduled to arrive in the Wii's Shop Channel at 9AM PST, the following four games benefit from having largely self-explanatory names:

Adventure Island (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): Grab a skateboard and venture onto an island... of adventure! Not to be confused with Ad Venture Island, the tropical billboard simulator.
Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES, 1-2 players, 200+300=500 Wii Points): Place your child's education in the hands of a monkey! If I'm holding 17 bananas in my left hand and 23 bananas in my right hand, how big are my hands?
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole (Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Don the pointy ears of an elvish treasure hunter (somehow named "Nigel") and seek out the king's shiny goods.
Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points): After two medium-sized adventures, Bonk embarks on his third and largest quest. Size clearly matters this time, since Nintendo's press release reminds us that "you can change your size to bonk your way through" all sorts of situations.

Tags: VirtualConsoleMonday

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jamie @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:14AM

I'd like to know who would actually buy Donkey Kong Jr. Math for the VC.

megapenguinx @ Sep 3rd 2007 1:23PM

I will.
My children's education is at stake!

sheppy @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:20AM

Hmm, I was just playing Landstalker on my CDX a few days ago. It's a good game but VC lacks a decent scheme for a Genesis controller.

mr nimblewick @ Sep 3rd 2007 11:52AM

Turning the remote sideways works pretty well...

sheppy @ Sep 3rd 2007 12:20PM

No, no it doesn't. A is completely seperate from B and C. Trust me, I played through Wonder Boy in Monster World like that. Because your items and spells are attached to A+Direction left or right, it makes casting spells and using items awkward.

mr nimblewick @ Sep 3rd 2007 12:25PM

Was that in wonder boy? Do you have to press a direction and the A button in landstalker? If so, is it possible to change the button layout in the game to prevent the problem?

The amount of genesis game I've bought on the VC is limited so far (since I still own so many of them), but Panic on Funkotron and Gunstar Heroes both work great with the remote flipped.

On a different note, could the classic controller handle Saturn games?

sheppy @ Sep 3rd 2007 12:31PM

It's certainly possible. Saturn only had ABCXYZ, and two shoulder buttons. Well, and start. So if they attempted it, two of the face buttons would have to be remapped to the inner shoulder buttons. But so few Saturn games used the full controller anyway. It's certainly possible. But given the Wiis limited amount of space for internal memory, would a Saturn game be feasible? I mean, my copy of Fighters Megamix is 200+MBs alone.

mr nimblewick @ Sep 3rd 2007 12:49PM

With the addition of neogeo games on the VC, it seems likely they will have to add SD or HDD support. All they have to do is figure out a way to stop piracy.

idioteraser @ Sep 3rd 2007 1:19PM

If you can change the button arangement then the wiimote is great for Genesis games. Otherwise get a classic controller.

BPM @ Sep 3rd 2007 1:50PM

Piracy isn't a problem, YET, for Virtual Console. Doesn't look like anyone has cracked the VC files yet.

waves @ Sep 3rd 2007 2:28PM

Gamecube controller works pretty well.

Kn1ves @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:21AM

Adventure Island for the Gameboy was the best!

Diskoboy @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:37AM

Adventure Island was better when it was known as 'Wonder Boy', and it was made by Sega.

DKjr Math - gimmie a break.....

shouryuuken @ Sep 3rd 2007 1:28PM

i was going to say something like that... "whoa master system games are on vc now?" but it wasnt by sega.. it was by westone (originally known as escape), it was an arcade game.. and westone ported it to the master system.. sega owned the rights... but not to the stages and monsters etc.. so hudson licensed them.. added a ripoff of the main dude in wonderboy.. and created adventure island.. which was more popular since unfortunately the sms wasnt. also... the sms game had more stuff in it.. i hate ripoffs.

mr mobius @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:59AM

Wow, DKJ:Math is only out now in America? Its been out in Europe for months thought IMO its a dud that I'd never buy. DKJ I'd not buy nevermind one trying to teach basic maths.

Covarr @ Sep 3rd 2007 11:08AM

DK Jr Math is awesome, easily one of the best edutainment games I've played.

waves @ Sep 3rd 2007 2:29PM

Nice avatar.

decompiler @ Sep 3rd 2007 12:00PM

adventure island headlines!? have you ever *played* landstalker? that game was f-ing incredible! (for it's time) not to mention well received:

http://www.gamespot.com/genesis/rpg/landstalker/player_review.html?id=212988

adventure island; not as much:

http://www.gamespot.com/nes/action/takahashimeijinnoboukenjima/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=tabs&tag=tabs;reviews

i'm just sayin', if you're gonna pick a headliner, and it can't be the (what i'm sure is) educational and highly entertaining donkey kong jr. math, then landstalker should've been the natural choice.