Community Member RaiseHavok made this post to his SG User Blog today. Wii Fanboys, please check your flamethrowers at the door.
Every Monday, I Die a Little Inside
Posted Today at 09:09 AM by RaiseHavok
The Virtual Console is a great, yet simple idea. Nintendo rakes in cash, while appeasing the nostalgic tendencies of its loyal fans. When Nintendo President Satoru Iwata first announced the VC at E3 2006, I almost lost it. You see, I made the mistake of choosing the Sega Genesis over the Super Nintendo. This is not meant to be a knock on the Genesis, but merely an acknowledgment of the greatness of the SNES. With the introduction of the VC, I would finally be able to play all of the glorious SNES games I missed the first time around. However, my enthusiasm for the service no longer burns as bright as it once did.
The pricing structure on the VC seems to be sore spot for some people. Personally, I don’t mind paying $8 for a quality SNES title. Compared to the prices on eBay, the VC games don’t seem overpriced. For instance, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past costs $8 (800 points) on the Virtual Console. The lowest price I saw on eBay was $8.99 (not including shipping and handling), though most auctions were between $12 and $15. Harvest Moon for the SNES, which is a rare game, can go for at least $80. The prices listed above are from auctions using the “Buy It Now” option.
Take into consideration that Wii games are $10 cheaper than Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games. For the price of a 360 or PS3 game, you could get a Wii game and an N64 game (or two NES games). I admit I would like to see the prices go down (especially since most PSone titles on the PSN cost $5.99), but they aren’t outrageous.
However, the payment process is where the experience begins to sour. First off, you have to enter your credit card information every single time you make a purchase. It doesn’t take that long to input the information, but it is tedious and extremely annoying. Second, instead of allowing you to add a specific amount of the money to your funds (say $8 to purchase an SNES game); there are four fixed options ($10, $20, $30 and $50). That means that if I purchase an SNES game, I have $2 left over after the transaction. I guess Nintendo thinks they can milk some more money from consumers as people use their leftover funds to purchase an extra game or two. I can look past these minor annoyances, but am agitated by a much bigger problem.
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7 responses so far ↓
1 SWSilentkiller // May 8, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Nintendo may be listening to their fans, however, I think they need to check their hearing. I myself am not the biggest earthbound fan, mainaly because I haven’t played it. What I do know is that most Mother/Earthbound fans want Nintendo to release Mother 3 to the rest of the world.
2 Officer Mudkip // May 8, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Best user blog by far.
Alot of effort and thought went in here.
A great read.
3 lwelyk // May 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Yes, every week on the gaming blog I write for, I complain about this. I’ve written rants several times. It’s not really Nintendo in general. Japan and Europe are getting good releases. Nintendo of America is screwing up the most here. NoA has always been inferior, but I’m really feeling it now with the VC. It’s a simple thing, and they are somehow screwing it up…
4 Logan // May 8, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Great Blog, and I agree
VC is a great service and all but there are a good amount of problems
What I always wanted Is a DLC for GH III and Rock Band
5 Dableo // May 9, 2008 at 12:52 am
there is one solution that will fix all of your problems: emulators. Free, easy, full selection.
6 gingerbob // May 9, 2008 at 2:27 am
Dableo, the Wii IS an emulator, you only have to look at their recent release list to see that it is a PS2 and Dreamcast emulator.
7 adamkantor // May 10, 2008 at 10:44 am
Just to touch on one thing, I am glad that I have to enter my CC info each time to purchase VC titles. I input my CC info into my live account on my 360 and now have been waiting close to 2 months to have it removed.
When you can store your info it makes it way too easy to buy something… at least if I have to enter my CC number each time I actually think about what I am buying for a second or two.
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