Nintendo Reveals Dates for Virtual Console Anniversary Sale

[Steven Bogos]

Nintendo Reveals Dates for Virtual Console Anniversary Sale

Grab seven of Nintendo's greatest classics for less than a dollar each.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Famicom's release in Japan, seven NES and SNES titles will go on sale over seven month-long windows. You can pick up the games from the Wii U's Virtual Console store for just $0.30 USD each. The campaign was announced during the company's 'Nintendo Direct' presentation, but dates were not specified at the time. We now have the full list of each game's 30-day sale window, which follows:


Balloon Fight (NES): January 23 - February 21

F-Zero (SNES): February 20 - March 21

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (NES): March 20 - April 18

Kirby's Adventure (NES): April 17 - May 16

Super Metroid (SNES): May 15 - June 13

Yoshi (NES): June 12 - July 11

Donkey Kong (NES): July 15 - August 13



Owners of the deluxe version of the Wii U will still receive points towards the Digital Deluxe Promotion - 9 points for NES titles and 14 Points for SNES titles. The Digital Deluxe promotion [https://p.nintendo.net/deluxe/] is a kind of 'reward card' system, where participants can collect points from game purchases and cash them in for Virtual Console store credit.

At the end of their sale period, each game will return to its regular price: $4.99 - $5.99 for NES titles and $7.99 - $8.99 for SNES titles. Many of the original Wii's Virtual Console games can be upgraded to Wii U versions, which support off-screen play on the gamepad among other features. Unfortunately, gamers will have to shell out $1 per NES title and $1.50 per SNES title to upgrade their collection.

The NES was released in the United States in 1985. It was released 2 years earlier in Japan, where it was known as the Famicom (Family Computer).

Source: Nintendo [http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/downloads/virtual-console/]

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[Terramax]

No thanks Nintendo. I'd rather stick to playing them... a cheaper alternative. Also, shouldn't these titles be the sale's figure all year round? And if you really wanted to make people happy, ditch the anniversary malarkey and release more of games we genuinely want to play i.e. more N64 and Gamecube titles.

 

[go-10]

Super Metroid is the only one I'll get, I'm still mad Japan gets Earthbound while we get mother f%$&ing BALLOON FIGHTER!!!

I mean come on, its not like they need to translate anything! Earthbound already came out for the SNES in English, why not re-release it for us but do it for Japan

 

[Chaos James]

I'll probably pick up everything but Punch Out!!, as I've never been a huge fan of the series. Everything else should be fun, and I look forward to just using the Gamepad to play some of these games. Can't wait for Nintendo to release Super Mario RPG and Link to the Past though, then I'll be golden.

 

[medv4380]

All except for Kirby and Super Metroid should always be at that price. Those two can supply a decent amount gaming time. The others don't have enough depth to cover even a few hours of play. They are nice little "I'm board with nothing better to play" games. Sure I'll put a quarter down to play them, but their regular 5 buck price is a bit steep for games that have been in the nickle section of the local arcade for decades now.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Before anyone gets pissy, you get to keep the games after the sale ends. "Trial" is a bit of a misnomer here. From the site:

Wii U owners who have purchased the game(s) during the promotional period will not need to purchase the game(s) again at the regular price.

 

[Snotnarok]

Seriously are they only doing this so people might gloss over the fact they're trying to charge money for games they already were paid for? It's an emulator with roms, they're not exactly doing touch-ups or DLC it's the same thing you bought on a different system. The games are expensive enough as it is now rebuying games you already own ontop of it? That's grade-A bull.

I can't think of anyone insane enough to support this, I mean I love Super Metroid, I own the cart and got it on the VC, but paying money on top of something I bought....no.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Seriously are they only doing this so people might gloss over the fact they're trying to charge money for games they already were paid for? It's an emulator with roms, they're not exactly doing touch-ups or DLC it's the same thing you bought on a different system. The games are expensive enough as it is now rebuying games you already own ontop of it? That's grade-A bull.

I can't think of anyone insane enough to support this, I mean I love Super Metroid, I own the cart and got it on the VC, but paying money on top of something I bought....no.

If you already have it on the virtual console for the Wii, you don't have to buy it again. Just transfer the data to the WiiU and play it.

 

[VinLAURiA]

they're not exactly doing touch-ups or DLC it's the same thing you bought on a different system.

Maybe not touch-ups or DLC, but the games do come with new features in the upgrade like off-TV play, save states, complete control customization, and Miiverse communities. And they're the same price as the Wii versions for those who don't already own them. And those who do already own them can still play them on Wii U after a system transfer in Wii Mode, the dollar upgrade is just for the extra Wii U features. No one is losing anything they already bought.

Oh, right - did I mention the upgrade is a dollar?

 

[Snotnarok]

they're not exactly doing touch-ups or DLC it's the same thing you bought on a different system.

Maybe not touch-ups or DLC, but the games do come with new features in the upgrade like off-TV play, save states, complete control customization, and Miiverse communities. And they're the same price as the Wii versions for those who don't already own them. And those who do already own them can still play them on Wii U after a system transfer in Wii Mode, the dollar upgrade is just for the extra Wii U features. No one is losing anything they already bought.

Oh, right - did I mention the upgrade is a dollar?

The games are still fairly pricy, never thought the VC prices were level headed as some you can get the real copies for cheaper and I can't imagine the dollar being worth it. The not having to rebuy changes some things, that's all I've been reading online and didn't see much to counter that.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Depends on the game, really. A vintage, real cartridge of Super Metroid might run you quite a bit on eBay and games like Earthbound can easily reach the triple digits. For some of the rarer stuff, VC is a bargain. But fair enough - a lot of VC games probably aren't worth the price by today's standards.

that's all I've been reading online and didn't see much to counter that.

Funny how that happens, huh? All this putting down of traditional media for only saying things people want to hear whether or not it's actually true, when gaming is one of the biggest offenders of whisper-down-the-lane out there.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

they're not exactly doing touch-ups or DLC it's the same thing you bought on a different system.

Maybe not touch-ups or DLC, but the games do come with new features in the upgrade like off-TV play, save states, complete control customization, and Miiverse communities. And they're the same price as the Wii versions for those who don't already own them. And those who do already own them can still play them on Wii U after a system transfer in Wii Mode, the dollar upgrade is just for the extra Wii U features. No one is losing anything they already bought.

Oh, right - did I mention the upgrade is a dollar?

Technically the games themselves don't have any upgrades at all. It's just a new version of the emulator that runs them, and it's probably just about identical for all games from the same original platform, aside from the occasional minor tweak, based on my experience with the PC versions and occasionally poking through the code and changelogs for them. It really is fairly trivial to push out new features like that which enhance all games, and even though it's only a dollar or so, the idea is kind of insulting on top of having to re-buy games I've owned for 20 to nearly 30 years (for much more than I consider them to be worth to me at this point) just to play in a slightly different format.

...so I pull out the old NES and SNES and whatever if I feel like playing those games instead. As long as all that stuff still works, no one's getting any more money than I already gave them.

Edit: Also, this is fun with the "upgrade": http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/wii-u-virtual-console-upgrades-will-leave-save-files-trapped/

 

[Snotnarok]

Depends on the game, really. A vintage, real cartridge of Super Metroid might run you quite a bit on eBay and games like Earthbound can easily reach the triple digits. For some of the rarer stuff, VC is a bargain. But fair enough - a lot of VC games probably aren't worth the price by today's standards.

that's all I've been reading online and didn't see much to counter that.

Funny how that happens, huh? All this putting down of traditional media for only saying things people want to hear whether or not it's actually true, when gaming is one of the biggest offenders of whisper-down-the-lane out there.

A majority of the prices are unreasonable, there's the Genesis collection on PS3 & 360 you can get about 40 games and that launched for 20 and now probably even less. Most of the games on the VC are more expensive than some PSOne games you can get on the PSN which are FAR larger in size and more strenuous on servers (300MB-2.8GB vs 170kb-4mb or on 64 the max cart size being 64MB), some of these games just as rare as the ones you'd find on older systems.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say, if you're talking about taking sides in a console war, I don't want to hear anything specifically negative about the WiiU, I don't have anything against certain consoles because that's like taking sides with what toaster you like best. I will say I've yet to see a reason to consider buying the system, mostly because nothing on it interests me as of yet or I already have the original version of the game that was ported to it. Another big reason being there's no Metroid title on the system and giving the amazing pile of garbage that was Other:M I'm not sure they'll be able to make another good one unless they get Retro-Studios back on it.

Edit: And another note on the dollar 'upgrade' thing, it's still retarded regardless to charge for an update to a game. I mean I'm sitting here imagining steam saying "an update is available for your game, please insert card number to unlock the new stuff". I'm aware it's not mandatory but it's mind boggling they've got their hand out for an update.