Nintendo has no plans to address players' inability to save time trial ghost data in the just released Wii Virtual Console port of Mario Kart 64 (the original game required a Controller Pak to record the data). "Due to unavoidable technical reasons unfortunately it is not possible to save ghost data," claims a Nintendo statement sent to Pro-G. Shoppers are apparently advised of the missing feature before purchasing the title from Wii Shop Channel.

Unavoidable? Maybe, but we suspect Nintendo's just being lazy. Since no N64 game required any of the 'Pak' controller add-ons (including Rumble) to play (some required a Controller Pak to save), developers of VC's N64 emulator and its games aren't bothering to re-code scripts to circumvent commands meant for the Paks. Surely ghost data could be saved to Wii's flash drive; after all, the original Controller Pak contained a mere 256 KB of memory. If a more important Pak issue, for a more important N64 VC game arises, trust us, "unavoidable" will become "we're working on it."

Last Monday, Nintendo's excellent Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past sat around, waiting for its friends from Sega to make their way onto Nintendo's fledgling Virtual Console service. We don't need to tell you that they never showed up. Until now that is.

This week another seminal Nintendo title, Mario Kart 64, is being joined by Bonanza Bros. and Comix Zone -- two of the three promised Genesis titles (despite what Sega's website says) -- with the forgettable Gain Ground being pleasantly replaced with the similarly 16-bit SNES title, Super Probotector: Alien Rebels ... errr, rather Contra III: The Alien Wars. Normal VC prices apply to this batch: N64 titles fetch 1000 Wii Points while SNES and Genesis titles go for 800 Wii Points.

Jason spotted this gem over on Amazon's "browse by system" link. It's great that they're still supporting systems that could be considered retro (Mario Kart 64 anyone? No? How about Crazy Taxi for your DC?), although excluding modern platforms like the DS and the Xbox 360 may not be in their best interest. Maybe they should start up an operation in Senegal? We hear that retro is really popular over there.