Yoshi's Cookie Will Be Removed From Virtual Console Friday

[BlameTheWizards]

Yoshi's Cookie Will Be Removed From Virtual Console Friday

You'd think a game with Mario's faithful steed in the title would have a longer shelf life.

If you want a copy of the NES puzzler Yoshi's Cookie for your Wii, snap it up before 9 a.m., Friday, Oct. 18, when the game gets pulled indefinitely from the system's Virtual Console download service. After that point, customers won't be able to purchase it or redownload it if they already bought it. The game was already removed from the European and Japanese Virtual Console service.

Joystiq hypothesizes that an expired license is the cause of the delisting, noting that similar disputes have resulted in previous games being removed from the service. These include Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Irem's R-Type and the three Donkey Kong Country games.

Yoshi's Cookie, developed by Bullet-Proof Software, was released for the NES in 1992, with a Game Boy version also being released that year and a Super Nintendo version in 1993. It was released on the Virtual Console in 2008. Neither the Game Boy or SNES versions are currently available on the Wii Virtual Channel, according to Nintendo's official site.

Source: Joystiq

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[Dr.Awkward]

Why exactly does this need to be pulled? If the license is expired, that should just mean you can't charge for it anymore. Or is Nintendo afraid to realize that perhaps, just perhaps, making many of these old games free to download could *gasp* legitimately combat piracy?

 

[Rad Party God]

That's why Nintendo sucks at digital distribution.

If homebrew emulation for the Wii is a much better deal than the Virtual Console itself, then something is deeply wrong with your service.

 

[GeneralFungi]

Why exactly does this need to be pulled? If the license is expired, that should just mean you can't charge for it anymore. Or is Nintendo afraid to realize that perhaps, just perhaps, making many of these old games free to download could *gasp* legitimately combat piracy?

The only difference between Nintendo hosting the game for free and people making roms for others to download online is that in the first instance Nintendo has to pay for the servers that hold the game.

 

[The_Great_Galendo]

Okay, they want to not allow people to buy the game anymore? Fine, that's their right, and regardless of whether or not I think it's a good decision, it's their decision to make.

That being said, preventing people who already bought the game from downloading it again just seems wrong. One of the oft-touted "advantages" of digital distribution is that if you don't have the hard drive space to download a new game, you can uninstall your old ones to make room, then download them again later if you want to play them again. But now, for this game at least, you won't be able to do that. Seems unfair at the very least.

 

[lacktheknack]

OT: Daw. It doesn't seem very smart, though. Die-hard Mario fans are going to piss boiling oil if they lose their copy and can no longer get it legally.

 

[Abomination]

or redownload it if they already bought it.

What?

Nintendo taking a lesson from EA or something?

If someone purchased, just ONE person, via this distribution method then they need to be able to download this title. All you have to do is stop selling it. That doesn't mean you pull the digital download service from your system. It's a drop in a bucket that's a bucket in a truck full of other buckets, that dumps those buckets into a dam that other trucks dump buckets with drops in into. That's how much keeping this available on your systems will cost compared to the rest of Nintendo's operational budget.

Is it really worth eroding the faith people have in your digital distribution service?

They really need to actually ask consumers what they think about some things before they do some things.

 

[thiosk]

What I'm surprised about is that there was a pre-SNES yoshi. I had no idea that yoshi was a cookie eating dinosaur in the days before mario turned 16-bit.

I suspect that Nintendo isn't particularly happy to remove them from the site. I'm really surprised about R-Type.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

Shit like this why digital distribution shouldn't be the future, or at least if it has to be, why an open platform like the PC, Steam box, or *gasp* Ouya is a necessity.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

"After that point, customers won't be able to purchase it or redownload it if they already bought it."


And that's why digital download games are not, nor will ever be a substitute for disc's.

Not for consoles anyways. Some games on the PC just wind up as freeware after long enough.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Shit like this why digital distribution shouldn't be the future, or at least if it has to be, why an open platform like the PC, Steam box, or *gasp* Ouya is a necessity.

That's a good joke. Using Ouya and necessity in the same sentence like that.

 

[weirdee]

What I'm surprised about is that there was a pre-SNES yoshi. I had no idea that yoshi was a cookie eating dinosaur in the days before mario turned 16-bit.

I suspect that Nintendo isn't particularly happy to remove them from the site. I'm really surprised about R-Type.

yoshi was originally thought of after the release of the first game, but they couldn't figure out how to get him to work technically until the SNES

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

What I'm surprised about is that there was a pre-SNES yoshi.

There wasn't, or not in any game at least. Yoshi debuted in Super Mario World in 1990. Yoshi's Cookie is from 1992.

 

[Sarge034]

And this is why hard copies are far superior to digital copies. The only good aspect to digital downloads is that you can re-download the content if gets corrupted or whatnot, and they are taking that away from people. This shows that it can be done, and that is enough to ward me off.

 

[Rossco64]

"After that point, customers won't be able to purchase it or redownload it if they already bought it."


And that's why digital download games are not, nor will ever be a substitute for disc's.

Or in this case, cartridges.

 

[Abomination]

And this is why hard copies are far superior to digital copies. The only good aspect to digital downloads is that you can re-download the content if gets corrupted or whatnot, and they are taking that away from people. This shows that it can be done, and that is enough to ward me off.

Well, physical copies are also susseptable to their own kind of issues, such as going out of print or being damaged.

If the physical copy goes bust then you would turn to digital. If the digital copy is bust there's often the black flag method of obtaining the software.

 

[Sarge034]

Well, physical copies are also susseptable to their own kind of issues, such as going out of print or being damaged.

If the physical copy goes bust then you would turn to digital. If the digital copy is bust there's often the black flag method of obtaining the software.

It might surprise you to know that I still have a Yoshi's Cookie cartage and it still works perfectly fine. So excuse me if physical media has proven to be more reliable than digital media to me.

 

[Hero of Lime]

It sucks it has to be pulled, but it's not end of the world by any means. I'm sure there are plenty of online emulators out there if someone really needs their Yoshi's Cookie fix.

 

[Abomination]

Well, physical copies are also susseptable to their own kind of issues, such as going out of print or being damaged.

If the physical copy goes bust then you would turn to digital. If the digital copy is bust there's often the black flag method of obtaining the software.

It might surprise you to know that I still have a Yoshi's Cookie cartage and it still works perfectly fine. So excuse me if physical media has proven to be more reliable than digital media to me.

To you, yes.

Both have their advantages but I'll be damned if one can claim to be objectively better than the other. Both are objectively better than the other in different fields.