There was a lot of temptation on the Virtual Console and WiiWare this year, but not all downloadable games live up to the high standards of your heart. Did you end up with any real lemons last year? Maybe you bought a game you skipped many years ago, or something on the recommendation of a friend (or perhaps a trusted gaming site) that just didn't turn out to be quite what you wanted? If so, we want to hear about it.
There was a lot of temptation on the Virtual Console and WiiWare this year, but not all downloadable games live up to the high standards of your heart. Did you end up with any real lemons last year? Maybe you bought a game you skipped many years ago, or something on the recommendation of a friend (or perhaps a trusted gaming site) that just didn't turn out to be quite what you wanted? If so, we want to hear about it.
Reader Comments (107)
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 10:35AM Jayenkai said
I got the SNES Harvest Moon.
*sigh*
*sigh*
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 3:36PM blahblah55 said
:( But that was a classic Harvest Moon! My first and my favorite (other than Wonderful Life) !
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 10:37AM (Unverified) said
waverace N64
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 10:42AM (Unverified) said
harvest moon and donkey kong jr. and dungeon explorer
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 10:55AM Bowser Rogozhin said
Super Mario RPG: once again Club Nostalgia reconvenes on the internet to engage in an exciting game of creative revisionism. An ugly, archaic RPG which would have bored me stiff in 1996, let alone 2008. Maybe Nintendo were doing us a favour by releasing this 12 years later than scheduled. And as for the Great Geno; what a great disappointment he turned out to be. He doesn't do anything.
World of Flash Puzzler: about 1000 points too expensive.
Megaman: really hasn't aged well, a waste of 500 points.
World of Flash Puzzler: about 1000 points too expensive.
Megaman: really hasn't aged well, a waste of 500 points.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:30AM (Unverified) said
I had rented Super Mario RPG as a young teen. Loved it and couldn't wait for the VC release. When it finally came out, I got sucked into it for about a week and a half until I beat it. For me, it lived up to the hype completely.
World of Goo still shocks me as perhaps the best gaming $12 bucks I've spent (got the Wii Points on a discount deal).
Just curious, any downloadable Wii purchases you *did* like??
And what can I say, you would have been wiser to spend $8 bucks on the MM anniversary collection, but you should have already known that.
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World of Goo still shocks me as perhaps the best gaming $12 bucks I've spent (got the Wii Points on a discount deal).
Just curious, any downloadable Wii purchases you *did* like??
And what can I say, you would have been wiser to spend $8 bucks on the MM anniversary collection, but you should have already known that.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:48AM Bowser Rogozhin said
Megaman Anniversary Collection was never released in over here in Europe, he lacks the fanbase and pretty much irrelevant.
Good VC games: Gunstar Heroes, Crack Down, Kirby's Dream Course, Super R-Type, Gate of Thunder. Some others as well.
Good Wiiware games:
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Good VC games: Gunstar Heroes, Crack Down, Kirby's Dream Course, Super R-Type, Gate of Thunder. Some others as well.
Good Wiiware games:
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:29PM (Unverified) said
Loved Mario RPG. Geno is your go to guy the last couple levels, not sure what your saying. Disappointed in F-Zero, Mario Bros 2 Import. Both wastes of money. Agree River City Ransom would be much better with a map, or any clue as to where to go next. Played the heck outta DK, Galaga, And Dig Dug.
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Posted: Jan 5th 2009 12:05PM (Unverified) said
What's with people downvoting comments just because they don't agree with them? To me, downvoting is for abusive or stupid comments. And Bowser Rogozhin's comment is neither. Or am I misunderstanding the concept of up/downvoting?
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:02AM rduran said
Donkey Kong. Looking back (with Rose Tinted Glasses) I had blast pumping quarters into the Arcade game. I bought the VC DK and played it a couple of times and then deleted it.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:41AM Trekkie said
Speaking as someone who was old and remembers donkey kong intimately the VC version of DK is *not* the arcade game by a long shot.
It's missing an entire level (The Conveyor Belt Level), it doesn't open with Donkey Kong grabbing the girl, climbing ladders, and hopping bending the girders.
As you do better at it, there aren't more mad springs. I used to be able to get to about 8 or so, the timing on those was murder.
The blue girder level doesn't drop, have DK fall bang his head, and then you get the girl at the end.
You don't have the donkey kongs stacked up with '25m, how high can you get?' and going to 50/75/100 etc.
So yeah, it's not the arcade game. It's the same shitty port that was put on the NES back in the 80s. I don't recal a single time that game was ported right. The Atari 800 (8 bit computer) version was close it did most of those.
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It's missing an entire level (The Conveyor Belt Level), it doesn't open with Donkey Kong grabbing the girl, climbing ladders, and hopping bending the girders.
As you do better at it, there aren't more mad springs. I used to be able to get to about 8 or so, the timing on those was murder.
The blue girder level doesn't drop, have DK fall bang his head, and then you get the girl at the end.
You don't have the donkey kongs stacked up with '25m, how high can you get?' and going to 50/75/100 etc.
So yeah, it's not the arcade game. It's the same shitty port that was put on the NES back in the 80s. I don't recal a single time that game was ported right. The Atari 800 (8 bit computer) version was close it did most of those.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 9:30PM Dopple Boppler said
They had a port of the arcade version of Donkey Kong in the factory level of Donkey Kong 64. I remember finding that as a kid and playing it way more than the actual Donkey Kong 64; good stuff.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:04AM igorponweed said
Sim City. Nuff' said.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:05AM spyker3292 said
Well, I'm careful. So...nope :D.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:11AM (Unverified) said
Donkey Kong Jr.
It was so much fun when I was in junior high school ...
It was so much fun when I was in junior high school ...
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:13AM (Unverified) said
Mega Man 9
Sorry but that ish was too damn hard. Perhaps I'm not enough of a purist but I don't want to have to try for an hour and a half to get through a level.
Sorry but that ish was too damn hard. Perhaps I'm not enough of a purist but I don't want to have to try for an hour and a half to get through a level.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:46AM (Unverified) said
Same here. I didn't remember Mega Man games being that hard. I regreted buying this.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 8:48PM (Unverified) said
Except that Mega Man 9 was really easy compared to some others like Mega Man 7. Try navigating pitch black floors on spinning platforms where the aid of Rush is useless. Mega Man 9 only had one mildly annoying moment in the Wily castle where you float upwards at spikes and your method of motion revolves around blasting in the opposite direction.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:14AM johnostout said
Megaman 1 - Bought it then 2 days later MegaMan 2 came out. Dang shoulda waited.
Defend the Castle - Cant even remember the name as it's been deleted from my wii.
A N64 Yoshi Game, my wife though it was a different game. It hasent even been played.
Defend the Castle - Cant even remember the name as it's been deleted from my wii.
A N64 Yoshi Game, my wife though it was a different game. It hasent even been played.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:14AM VictorTheG said
Ninja jajamaru,it wasn't bad but got old fast.Sim City was horrible it is super boring and most of the time in the city all you have to do is do nothing to have an ok city
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:15AM adv2k169 said
Bonk's Adventure :
It's just a stupid kids game
Comix Zone:
The game is IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT. Regardless how I jumped I would always die jumping over this lava pit in the middle of the game. The game is to hard for its own good anyway.
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja:
The game is a mix of adventure and beat em up, but both are done badly.
Neutopia II:
I enjoyed the first one allot, but the second one they change the map lay out and make it more difficult. So now its not the same game and more confusing to navigate
StarTropics:
Talk about Tedious game, you would go into a dungeon and than the lights turn off and you have tons of areas to die. Or how about finding a secret area to bomb that leads to your death. BullSHIT GAMEPLAY at its best
1080 Snowboarding:
It does NOT hold up. Fun back in the day, age does not help this game at all.
River City Ransom:
It would of been a bad ass game if I could buy a MAP of the world. The game also forgets to give you any clue of where your supposed to go next.
F-Zero X:
It was an amazing game, but after GX it's difficult to go backward.
It's just a stupid kids game
Comix Zone:
The game is IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT. Regardless how I jumped I would always die jumping over this lava pit in the middle of the game. The game is to hard for its own good anyway.
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja:
The game is a mix of adventure and beat em up, but both are done badly.
Neutopia II:
I enjoyed the first one allot, but the second one they change the map lay out and make it more difficult. So now its not the same game and more confusing to navigate
StarTropics:
Talk about Tedious game, you would go into a dungeon and than the lights turn off and you have tons of areas to die. Or how about finding a secret area to bomb that leads to your death. BullSHIT GAMEPLAY at its best
1080 Snowboarding:
It does NOT hold up. Fun back in the day, age does not help this game at all.
River City Ransom:
It would of been a bad ass game if I could buy a MAP of the world. The game also forgets to give you any clue of where your supposed to go next.
F-Zero X:
It was an amazing game, but after GX it's difficult to go backward.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:54AM Bowser Rogozhin said
"Bonk's Adventure :
It's just a stupid kids game"
Kids, huh. Don't you just love 'em.
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It's just a stupid kids game"
Kids, huh. Don't you just love 'em.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:54PM Roto13 said
"The game is IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT. Regardless how I jumped I would always die jumping over this lava pit in the middle of the game. The game is to hard for its own good anyway."
There's a switch on the opposite wall you have to throw a knife at. Alternatively, release Roadkill in the plane before that one and he'll open up a shortcut with some items and you can skip that panel entirely.
It's not unbeatable. I've beaten it like a thousand times.
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There's a switch on the opposite wall you have to throw a knife at. Alternatively, release Roadkill in the plane before that one and he'll open up a shortcut with some items and you can skip that panel entirely.
It's not unbeatable. I've beaten it like a thousand times.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:15AM gilbertwii said
That Bag Toss game. The game is awesome in the arcades, but the wiiware version just didn't do it for me. No WiFi support, poor record keeping, lack of customization, and too easy.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:31AM Bowser Rogozhin said
To be honest, if you buy a game like that you deserve disappointment, disappointment and a bag of coal.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 3:16PM gilbertwii said
Its an awesome game if you play the arcade version. Just missing a couple key features and some possible refinement in the control scheme in the wiiware version.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:27PM (Unverified) said
That Toki Tori game, I think it was called.
Got great reviews, but I found it pretty dull...
Got great reviews, but I found it pretty dull...
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:18AM (Unverified) said
NES Operation Wolf. I had fond memories of this in the arcade but I never bought the NES version - now I know why! This is awful and virtually unplayable.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:34AM (Unverified) said
Yoshi's Story. What a sad excuse for a sequel to the SNES classic. I still have difficulty believing that this game was developed by the same team who made Yoshi's Island. It's terrible.
Posted: Jan 5th 2009 3:37PM (Unverified) said
Wrongo. It is a *FACT* that Yoshi's Island (SNES) is one of the greatest 2D platformers ever made. Proof is in the numbers...
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/588740.asp?q=yoshis%20island
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http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/588740.asp?q=yoshis%20island
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:43AM samfish said
Lets just say that Streets of Rage wasn't nearly as good as I remember :(
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:44AM yerand said
i bought ice climber and its not that i hate it but i dont like it, its so boring
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:48AM Mr Khan said
The only thing i regret is Check Mii Out, and i'm not sure if that was 2008 or not
Good premise, but it didn't suck me in. Otherwise, i've been blessed with my ability to make gut decisions about games i know next to nothing about and have it pay off
Good premise, but it didn't suck me in. Otherwise, i've been blessed with my ability to make gut decisions about games i know next to nothing about and have it pay off
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 5:18PM (Unverified) said
hey, at least it was free, right? i think this post is more about things you've actually paid for and regret doing so.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:58AM (Unverified) said
Toki Tori:
I watched the video, read the reviews and gave it a try. It was fun for a couple of minutes but really not worth it after that. I wished I'd not have gotten that one.
Otherwise, I'm pleased even if they don't get played that much.
I watched the video, read the reviews and gave it a try. It was fun for a couple of minutes but really not worth it after that. I wished I'd not have gotten that one.
Otherwise, I'm pleased even if they don't get played that much.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:56AM (Unverified) said
Mega Man 9. Its not that its hard, its that its boring.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 11:56AM Za23 said
Donkey Kong Country 3
May have just been my GCN controller I used to play it...
May have just been my GCN controller I used to play it...
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:04PM melao said
I bought the Aquarium game. I still can't believe I did this.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 7:11PM (Unverified) said
I also wasted 500 points on this "game" I had the points sitting on my account for ever and just couldn't find any NES games I wanted that I didn't already owned. To this day it is the only download that I have deleted the same day that I downloaded it. I was also very disappointed in Kid Icarus seeing as how everyone wants a sequel so badly, it was terrible.
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:09PM (Unverified) said
Zelda II. I've downloaded and played through all the available Zelda games (currently on Orcania of Time). Zelda I was great, Link to the Past was fantastic.
Zelda II was out-of-place hard and I quickly lost patience with it. Deleted.
Zelda II was out-of-place hard and I quickly lost patience with it. Deleted.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 6:51PM (Unverified) said
lol i just bought both zelda nes carts.( never played them..) i just finished 1. so i started 2 like 10 min ago. its totally different!!! but im liking it so far.
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Posted: Jan 5th 2009 10:05AM (Unverified) said
Yeah, i felt the same way when Zelda II first came out, but over time it ended up being one of my favorites of the Zelda series!
It's it's own thing, but I really got into it, and the music is still to this day gets stuck in my head, because it's just so weird and there's been nothing like it since.
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It's it's own thing, but I really got into it, and the music is still to this day gets stuck in my head, because it's just so weird and there's been nothing like it since.
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:10PM (Unverified) said
Startropics for NES (can't believe how hard the first two levels of that fscking game are)
And in retrospect My Life as King and it's DLC (what good are more dungeons and city upgrades if the city is already full, why the hell do I have to switch to the alternate costumes by hand every time the game starts)
And in retrospect My Life as King and it's DLC (what good are more dungeons and city upgrades if the city is already full, why the hell do I have to switch to the alternate costumes by hand every time the game starts)
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:15PM (Unverified) said
Dr. Mario - played it for 2 minutes then never picked it up again
Super Mario RPG - Just couldn't get into it
World of Goo, the FFCC game, and Lost Winds were definitely great purchases though. Can't wait for the RB2 DLC. I need to go buy a 4 gig SD card and do the trick so I can use it. Of course, I need to send my Wii in to get fixed as it died yesterday while freezing during an update, and I stupidly turned it off when it froze. :(
Super Mario RPG - Just couldn't get into it
World of Goo, the FFCC game, and Lost Winds were definitely great purchases though. Can't wait for the RB2 DLC. I need to go buy a 4 gig SD card and do the trick so I can use it. Of course, I need to send my Wii in to get fixed as it died yesterday while freezing during an update, and I stupidly turned it off when it froze. :(
Posted: Jan 4th 2009 7:28PM (Unverified) said
Glad you like "the Trick", and glad to be of service. ^_^
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Posted: Jan 4th 2009 12:35PM Polecat said
Ninja Scroll.
You know, I remember beating that game loads of times as a kid. Now I just get stuck at the leap of faith. I've all but memorized the order of enemies on the way down, and STILL hit a wall of death some 10 seconds down.
You know, I remember beating that game loads of times as a kid. Now I just get stuck at the leap of faith. I've all but memorized the order of enemies on the way down, and STILL hit a wall of death some 10 seconds down.
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