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  • WEDNESDAY JUNE 7 2006 7:00 PM

Classic Games on Wii Priced Under Ten Bucks

Submitted by WilWheaton

Edited by WilWheaton

Nintendo raised eyebrows years ago when they seemed to declare themselves the company for family-friendly gaming. At the time, Mortal Kombat was fueling console sales like crazy, and Nintendo's version was bloodless, fatality-less, and, well, for kids. (As much as a fighting game can be for kids, anyway.) More mature titles were coming onto the market, especially for second-gen consoles like the PS1, and lots of industry watchers thought that the brains at Nintendo had gone crazygonuts.

But over the years, Nintendo carved out a significant portion of the gaming market for itself, going after kids with Pokemon games and other family-friendly titles like Pikmin and whatever the hell Kirby was doing with that cute Kirby thing. Though they released a few mature titles, they mostly left Xbox and PS2 to fight over the mature crowd, while they quietly became [i[the company for family-friendly, kid-oriented games.

Now that the next generation consoles are set to do battle all over again, Nintendo seems to be carving out two new markets: the you-are-out-of-your-fucking-mind-if-you-think-I'm-paying-that-much-for-a-console market, and the easier to type GenX market. In addition to its reasonable (when compared to the PS3) price point, Nintendo will offer classic NES, Turbografix 16 and Sega Genesis games for the Wii.

Today, Digg, Slashdot, and just about every geeky game site in the universe is pointing to some version of this story from Arstechnica, which breaks the news that Nintendo will price those classic games at under ten bucks, American.

Iwata revealed that games for Nintendo's "virtual console" that will allow Wii owners to play old titles on their consoles will be priced at ¥500 and ¥1,000, roughly US$4.50 to US$8.99. For reference, classic retro games for the Nintendo GameBoy sold for upwards of US$35 for some titles, US$19.99 for others. Uptake was understandably low, as gamers were reticent to pay that much for old content.

Ten bucks seems reasonable, for classics like Bonk's Adventure, Splatterhouse, or Excitebike, but some geeks are already wondering why they should pay money to play Wii versions of games they already purchased at full price a billion years ago when NES ruled the world. Some are suggesting that the price is too high, while others have already taken out seconds on their houses to get a complete classic gaming library. Personally, I think this pricing is entirely fair, and is clearly aimed at gamers who are currently in their thirties, and presumably have a bit of disposable income for this sort of thing.

Iwata did not reveal a Wii street date, or a retail price, but said that Nintendo was increasing DS production to meet the anticipated demand for Wii + DS gaming, once Wii ships.

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Comments
Cassiel

Cassiel

Aurora, CO
September 2004

JUN 07, 2006 07:03 PM

is Wil Wheaton a Homestar Runner fan?

Eiron

Eiron

Buffalo, NY
May 2006

JUN 07, 2006 07:11 PM

Meh, Mortal Kombat. I was a Street Fighter II: Championship Edition kid all the way.

Cigarette

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH
April 2004

JUN 07, 2006 07:13 PM

If the Brothers Chap at H*R know whats good for them, they'll give Wil a cameo.

Moonrabbit

Moonrabbit

Vancouver, BC
February 2005

JUN 07, 2006 07:16 PM

Cassiel said:
is Wil Wheaton a Homestar Runner fan?



Duh. That's old news... Big Willy Style.

Anyhoo, back on topic.
My NES works just fine and if I find games for it they're cheaper than $10.
Though you develope nasty nintendonitis if you grip onto those blocky little controlers too long.
As long as they bring back some of the harder to find classic titles.
I hope they also bring back some SNES games though.
That system seems to develop some problems when it gets older.

[Edited on Jun 07, 2006 10:17PM]

filmjedi

filmjedi

Brighton, MA
June 2004

JUN 07, 2006 07:16 PM

i already have the roms : and my nes still works.

dingoes8

dingoes8

Milwaukee, WI
March 2004

JUN 07, 2006 07:20 PM

Yeah, I think that's too much. It should be like $10 for a bundle of 20 games.

ChezGeek

ChezGeek

Port Orchard, WA
January 2004

JUN 07, 2006 07:30 PM

this makes me actually want to get one now

Cigarette

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH
April 2004

JUN 07, 2006 07:43 PM

Imagine what'll happen to the resale price of hard to find SNES games if they get reprinted. Things like Earthbound and some of the MegaMan X games and Evo are reselling for their original price and if unopened, cost upwards of $100.

Wren

Wren

SUICIDEGIRL

Minnesota, USA

JUN 07, 2006 07:46 PM

benhasglasses said:
i already have the roms : and my nes still works.



Indeed.

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUN 07, 2006 08:29 PM

Is it really just NES, not SNES, N64, or GC? I could have sworn it was supposed to be Nintendo's entire back catalog and the (comparatively small) TG-16 and Genesis selections.

Because if you think I'm paying money for any NES game at all, you is out of your damn mind.
I could do 5 bucks for the cream-of-the-SNES-crop, though. 10 if it were professionally translated previously-Japan-only gaming.

Otherwise I will stick with my emulators, thankee.

MschfMayhemSoap

MschfMayhemSoap

Phoenix, AZ
April 2006

JUN 07, 2006 08:59 PM

TurboGrafix and Sega....

Why does that give me a mental image of Miyamoto-san in the "Gaming graveyard" (also known as "gametap").... with a shovel and a smile..

*edit* with Dollar signs eminating from his eyes... just thought Id throw that little bit in..

[Edited on Jun 07, 2006 by MschfMayhemSoap]

DireChocobo

DireChocobo

Fairburn, GA
July 2004

JUN 07, 2006 09:12 PM

Hmm, this is kinda hard to guage. I like the idea though. One one hand, it's awesome, because you'll definitely have a working release of a classic game for a reasonable price. On the other, ROM's are free, although quirky with lots of problems, and you need plenty of spyware and virus protection to get them.

I think it's pretty cool though.

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUN 07, 2006 09:41 PM

Lots of problems? The only ROMs I've ever had any issues with are n64 and Playstation ROMs, and they're new enough that the emulators aren't quite polished.

AceT

AceT

Portland, OR
April 2004

JUN 07, 2006 10:47 PM

malkav11 said:
Lots of problems? The only ROMs I've ever had any issues with are n64 and Playstation ROMs, and they're new enough that the emulators aren't quite polished.


New enough as in 10 years old?

mokole

mokole

Canada
June 2004

JUN 07, 2006 10:53 PM

it's everything except the cube library, since it can still read cube games. so it has snes and n64 games as well. roms maybe free, but they never felt the same to me, i'm pre-ordering my system hopefully in two weeks. hoping they have the turbos cd library too, love to play some Y's again smile

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