One of the things that got me excited for the Wii initially was the fact that you could download and play classic games from other consoles on it. When I was at E3 in 2006, I was just as excited to play Bonk’s Adventure on the Wii just as much as Wii Tennis! With the Wii Virtual Console, you can play games from consoles like the NES, SNES, N64, Commodore 64, Sega Master System, Genesis, Neo-Geo, even TG-16! And due to the popularity of original Xbox LIVE and PSN games, later on the Wii let you download original games as well with their WiiWare service. So in this part of my blog series, we’ll look at some of my favorite Virtual Console and WiiWare games.

Virtual Console

I really can’t list ALL the good VC titles because there are so many. And I didn’t download every single one of them for various reasons. Some include me already having the cartridges, or maybe I played that game to death already, or I didn’t want to spend that much money on them (those Wii Points do add up, you know). As expected, I will say that you really can’t go wrong with anything that has Mario, Zelda, Metroid, or Kirby in the title. Square also put a few of their classic 16-bit RPGs out there as well. I even downloaded FF6 (3) on VC since it’s one of my top five favorite games of all time.

I will say that the Wii Virtual Console didn’t live up to its full potential. Or at least to my expectations anyway. You see, there were a lot of SNES games that I didn’t get to try back in the day for whatever reason. Or maybe I rented them once and wanted to play them again. So I was hoping they’d show up on VC. But it didn’t happen. Granted, some of the games I wanted were pretty obscure. Such as SNES games like The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang, Enix action RPGs like Illusion of Gaia (yes I’ve never played it), or E.V.O. And I would’ve loved to play SNES Lufia 2 again, as that was a very playable RPG.

However, I was very pleased with Hudson’s support of the Virtual Console. A BUNCH of their games appeared on it. Too bad Konami kind of engulfed Hudson. I think the best VC deals were for TG-16 games (from Hudson). They were almost SNES and Genesis quality, but only cost 100 points more than NES games (600 points total). Of course, there were a few of them that were a bit more, but those were usually imports or Turbo CD games.

Plus, since I never had a TG-16 back in the day, a lot of these games were new to me, or I hadn’t played them to death already yet. Some of the more notable TG-16 games I had on VC include all the Bonk games (1, 2, 3, even Super Bonk on the SNES). Also the spin off shooters Air Zonk and Super Air Zonk on the Turbo CD. Speaking of shooters, I also had all the Star Soldier games, including Star Parodier (also on CD), which was a silly shooter riding the coattails of the popular Parodius series. There was also neat TG-16 pinball games like Alien Crush and Devil’s Crush, as well as the fun maze game Chew Man Fu.

Of course, there were a few SNES games that I especially enjoyed on VC, since they hadn’t gotten a lot of attention back in the day. So I wanted to briefly go over those, too. Plus the SNES is my favorite console ever. My first Virtual Console game I downloaded was the SNES version of SimCity. I remember when this was popular back in the day on PCs, and the SNES version was even better. I remember renting it and noting how addictive it was. My brother Jeff got addicted to it, too, after I got it on VC. So after that, he bought all the more modern ones to play on his PC!

I was also glad to see the first Mystical Ninja (Goemon) game on VC, as it was pretty high quality for a first gen SNES title. And I instantly downloaded ActRaiser right away when it was released on VC. I rented that one TONS of times back in the day, so I’m glad I can play it whenever I want now. Kirby’s Dream Course was a unique take of golf on the SNES, and I credit it to being the game that first got me truly hooked on Kirby games. Plus it’s one of the few VC Kirby games you can’t play on the Kirby Collection, so it’s a good one to download. Finally, I was happy to be able to play a few imported titles. One was Do Re Mi Fantasy: Milon’s Adventure for Super Famicom. It was a sequel to Milon’s Secret Castle on NES (and on VC), which I loved as a kid for some reason. And Ufouria was a cutesy, Metroid styled game that was ALMOST released on the US NES, but got canned at the last minute. It’s based on a Japanese game called Hebereke.

WiiWare

Due to the popularity of original Xbox LIVE and PSN games, Nintendo started doing that, too, with their WiiWare games. I downloaded a few of them and thought I’d list some of the more memorable ones to me for the second half of this blog.

FF4: The After Years

Yes, this one is nowhere near as good as the original FF4 game. There are a lot of poor design decisions and you can really tell this was initially a cell phone game. BUT, it was nice to play an old school RPG like what I used to play in high school. And it was cool of Square-Enix to give US fans a chance to play it, too. You can also play After Years on the PSP, which is a good choice as well.

Bit.Trip series

These games mimicked classics like Pong or early 2-D platformers, but they were also music games, too. I reviewed a lot of them. They made a collection of all of the titles on one disc. I’ve been meaning to get it, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I don’t know whether I should get the one on Wii or DS. What do you think?

Grill-Off With Ultra Hand

This is really just a enhanced Cooking Mama game, but it’s significant because you could only get it via Club Nintendo, and it stars one of Nintendo’s oldest toys: the Ultra Hand.

Wario Ware D.I.Y.

The DS Wario Ware D.I.Y. game was my best game of the year for 2010, mainly because one of my games was featured on one of Nintendo’s contests. The Wii version was just an expansion, really, that let you play your games on a big screen, try a few new ones, and share games with Wii owners as well. But I still played it tons!

Gradius Rebirth

I think Konami made a lot of ‘Rebirth’ games on WiiWare, like Castlevania Rebirth and I think there was also a Contra Rebirth. But the one I had was Gradius Rebirth. It was like a long lost SNES Gradius game. Normally I don’t like super hard games, but the Gradius games are some of my favorite shooters. They’re really tough, but fair, and you know that next time you play; you’ll get just a little bit further than last time.

Alien Crush Returns

Like I said earlier, Hudson did a great job of supporting the Wii, and they also had a few WiiWare titles. One was an update of the TG-16 pinball classic: Alien Crush. While the story mode was a little unnecessary, it was still a great game of pinball.

Space Invaders Get Even

Not one of the best WiiWare games, but as a Space Invaders fan, I loved how you got to be the aliens and wreaked havoc on humans.

Missing in action

Of course, there are TONS of other Virtual Console and WiiWare games I didn’t list. There’s just no way for me to play and list them all! And while I’m talking about games I never got to play on the Wii, here’s a few disc games I never got around to getting either: Dragon Quest Swords, Okami (only played PS2 version), Chocobo’s Dungeon, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (only played it on GameCube), and of course, Bit.Trip Complete. Of all the We Love the Wii blogs, I hope this one gets the most audience participation. In the comments section, let me know your favorite Virtual Console and WiiWare games. Are there any I missed that you would recommend? Next time on Part 4, we’ll look at the best Wii sports and fitness games!

Tags: Misc