Hello Nintendo fans! In episode 23 of the NintendoFever Podcast, Matt Desind, Bradley Kragen and me, Holly Fellmeth, respond to listener questions, report on our recent pick-ups, discuss Metroid Prime, reveal our Virtual Console wishlists, and more. How we managed to fit it all in one episode is a bit of a mystery, but we […]
Hello Nintendo fans! In episode 23 of the NintendoFever Podcast, Matt Desind, Bradley Kragen and me, Holly Fellmeth, respond to listener questions, report on our recent pick-ups, discuss Metroid Prime, reveal our Virtual Console wishlists, and more. How we managed to fit it all in one episode is a bit of a mystery, but we pulled it off.
Okay, technically we did have some additional listener questions we decided to save for next week. On that note, you can add your questions to the mix by sending an e-mail to us at podcast@nintendofever.com. We can’t wait to hear from you, and I’m sure you can’t wait to be entered into our OlliOlli giveaway either, so send away!
If we made you curious about Etrian Odyssey Untold 2, check out Bradley’s video review right here.
Share your perspective. Keep it thoughtful, welcoming and on topic.
In regards to what I’d like to see hit the virtual console that’s a bit rare for the original console it was on:
N64: Mario Party 3
Why hasn’t it been on VC yet? There’s been rumors that there were copyright issues with Hudson Soft or Rare (for DK’s model) but I’m not sure if those were ever true. Regardless, being the final Mario Party game on the N64 made it special, and despite it not being as full of content as say, Mario Party 2 in terms of story, there’s definitely a lot of fun times to be had on the boards there are and the minigames that come with. This game never even made it onto the Wii VC, which was a shame since it seems the Wii got a lot more love in regards to distribution of classic digital games than the Wii U has.
SNES:Tetris Attack
Why hasn’t it been on VC yet? Not so much a reason in the past, but lately getting any kind of “Tetris” game on the Virtual Console will be tough since Ubisoft took the rights for Tetris recently, which is why all the Tetris games were pulled from the 3DS and Wii U eShop (I’m not sure if they ever came back but regardless). But this game was a typical Panel De Pon spinoff game, much like Pokemon Puzzle League on N64. But this one was skinned to be Yoshi themed, and the music from the game is awesome enough to warrant people playing it if they’ve never heard of it. Nintendo even made a smaller port of the game for the Game Boy (which I found a few months back at a local comic convention. Bought that sucker for five bucks! It plays like soggy noodles, and looks like an old game you’d find on a TI-83 calculator but it’s still fun), but after making that port it seems to have faded from their minds. But since this game has two versions, it’d be perfect to have on Wii U and 3DS. The SNES version can go on the Wii U and the Game Boy game can be maybe turned into a 3D Classics version and ship it with some extra features. Hell, Urban Champion got a 3D Classics treatment so anything’s possible.
Now, my main feature: The Virtual Console is a disgrace and should either be overhauled or removed entirely.
Nintendo has a library of titles akin to those walls of books you always see in a castle in a movie, what with the rolling ladder and all. Nintendo also picks those books out and gives them to us akin to a broken faucet in California – there’s barely a drip coming out of it. Why?
Nintendo says that coding them to work is very difficult and it takes a lot of man hours to get done. Some games also need licensing approval. That last statement is something I can understand. Good luck trying to get Hudson or THQ to agree to licensing any of their old games; you’d have to dig up the corpse of their failed companies.
But taking too much work? Why is there no dedicated team for making Virtual Console games? If one has been made since I read their statement on it a few months back, why is it not a bigger team?
Here’s another question. The Wii U emulates the Wii perfectly, because there’s actual Wii hardware in the console. Granted everything else shuts down when the mode is turned on…but now we can play certain Wii games on the GamePad (Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy for example). This tells me that the coding from Wii to Wii U isn’t much different, and therefore there’s no reason some minor things can’t be tweaked from the comparatively vast ocean of virtual console titles on the Wii to the child-sized pool of them on the Wii U.Also infuriating is how they need to make a big announcement for almost every large game that comes out. Again, yes, these are big deals but they become big deals simply because there’s not enough of them out. They gave us Earthbound Beginnings as an announcement before the Nintendo World Championships. We had to wait for Kirby’s birthday this past week to get three games. Other games? Better wait for a Direct to get them! Overall, the whole infrastructure reeks of petty, ham-fisted offerings to keep people entertained long enough to forget that there’s almost nothing else being given. It’s sad that the classics, which already have huge successes in their day, have to be given to us in the same pace as current Nintendo games: at a pace of “eh maybe you’ll get this. Maybe not.” Also, most games anymore don’t have proper multiplayer. Mario Kart DS? Yes, the online service was shut down but how hard could it be to recode that section of the game to focus on the Wii U’s internet? You can even get to the connection menu from the actual game and try to make a connection to no avail…Nintendo you’ve given us so much yet you leave out so much more.
Also in regards to a Smash Bros NintendoFever tournament, I’m working on it. Just need to get past my hate of the mode.
In regards to what I’d like to see hit the virtual console that’s a bit rare for the original console it was on:
N64: Mario Party 3
Why hasn’t it been on VC yet? There’s been rumors that there were copyright issues with Hudson Soft or Rare (for DK’s model) but I’m not sure if those were ever true. Regardless, being the final Mario Party game on the N64 made it special, and despite it not being as full of content as say, Mario Party 2 in terms of story, there’s definitely a lot of fun times to be had on the boards there are and the minigames that come with. This game never even made it onto the Wii VC, which was a shame since it seems the Wii got a lot more love in regards to distribution of classic digital games than the Wii U has.
SNES:Tetris Attack
Why hasn’t it been on VC yet? Not so much a reason in the past, but lately getting any kind of “Tetris” game on the Virtual Console will be tough since Ubisoft took the rights for Tetris recently, which is why all the Tetris games were pulled from the 3DS and Wii U eShop (I’m not sure if they ever came back but regardless). But this game was a typical Panel De Pon spinoff game, much like Pokemon Puzzle League on N64. But this one was skinned to be Yoshi themed, and the music from the game is awesome enough to warrant people playing it if they’ve never heard of it. Nintendo even made a smaller port of the game for the Game Boy (which I found a few months back at a local comic convention. Bought that sucker for five bucks! It plays like soggy noodles, and looks like an old game you’d find on a TI-83 calculator but it’s still fun), but after making that port it seems to have faded from their minds. But since this game has two versions, it’d be perfect to have on Wii U and 3DS. The SNES version can go on the Wii U and the Game Boy game can be maybe turned into a 3D Classics version and ship it with some extra features. Hell, Urban Champion got a 3D Classics treatment so anything’s possible.
Now, my main feature: The Virtual Console is a disgrace and should either be overhauled or removed entirely.
Nintendo has a library of titles akin to those walls of books you always see in a castle in a movie, what with the rolling ladder and all. Nintendo also picks those books out and gives them to us akin to a broken faucet in California – there’s barely a drip coming out of it. Why?
Nintendo says that coding them to work is very difficult and it takes a lot of man hours to get done. Some games also need licensing approval. That last statement is something I can understand. Good luck trying to get Hudson or THQ to agree to licensing any of their old games; you’d have to dig up the corpse of their failed companies.
But taking too much work? Why is there no dedicated team for making Virtual Console games? If one has been made since I read their statement on it a few months back, why is it not a bigger team?
Here’s another question. The Wii U emulates the Wii perfectly, because there’s actual Wii hardware in the console. Granted everything else shuts down when the mode is turned on…but now we can play certain Wii games on the GamePad (Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy for example). This tells me that the coding from Wii to Wii U isn’t much different, and therefore there’s no reason some minor things can’t be tweaked from the comparatively vast ocean of virtual console titles on the Wii to the child-sized pool of them on the Wii U.Also infuriating is how they need to make a big announcement for almost every large game that comes out. Again, yes, these are big deals but they become big deals simply because there’s not enough of them out. They gave us Earthbound Beginnings as an announcement before the Nintendo World Championships. We had to wait for Kirby’s birthday this past week to get three games. Other games? Better wait for a Direct to get them! Overall, the whole infrastructure reeks of petty, ham-fisted offerings to keep people entertained long enough to forget that there’s almost nothing else being given. It’s sad that the classics, which already have huge successes in their day, have to be given to us in the same pace as current Nintendo games: at a pace of “eh maybe you’ll get this. Maybe not.” Also, most games anymore don’t have proper multiplayer. Mario Kart DS? Yes, the online service was shut down but how hard could it be to recode that section of the game to focus on the Wii U’s internet? You can even get to the connection menu from the actual game and try to make a connection to no avail…Nintendo you’ve given us so much yet you leave out so much more.
Also in regards to a Smash Bros NintendoFever tournament, I’m working on it. Just need to get past my hate of the mode.