Famicom’s 30th – Sorry Donkey Kong, you’re just not a draw anymore!

The Famicom (known as the NES here) is 30 years old today, it’s a console that saved the video game industry as we know it and was the home of both many franchises that still exist today and some that don’t. The Famicom and the Nintendo Seal of Quality stamp on video games should be remembered forever more.

Today Donkey Kong (the subpar NES version) will be released on the Wii U Virtual Console for 30c, it’s the last game in a 7 months long promotion where several games have been offered at the a reduced price in celebration of the milestone. It’s been a fantastic promotion and if you’ve owned a Wii U and haven’t bought all of them, you’re pretty foolish. Since the promotion is over, things will now return to normal and by normal I mean terrible.

It’s time for Nintendo to stop this ridiculous release schedule it has for the Wii U and even the 3DS eShop. Both digital stores remain 10 steps backwards to what’s available already on the Wii Virtual Console, Nintendo spent 7 years drip feeding these titles every week, it was in a position where it could.

As a Nintendo fan, I’ve enjoyed the NES games in a variety of ways – via remakes such as Super Mario All Stars, playing them on the original Animal Crossing for Gamecube, via the NES Classics range for the Gameboy Advance, digitally on the Wii, 3DS and Wii U virtual consoles and of course, on the NES console itself.

Enough is enough, the Famicom / NES were great – we’ve all enjoyed playing its titles and will continue to do so – a lot of them are timeless. It’s time for Nintendo to dump the remaining Famicom / NES titles on the Virtual Console as soon as possible, because let’s face it – we don’t want nor do Nintendo need to drip feed everything out at a rate of two games a week, again, for another seven years.

What about Nintendo’s other consoles?

You’re almost 50 titles behind on the Super Nintendo on the Wii U, they’re also not available to even purchase on the 3DS. The Nintendo 64 library remains sparse. One upside of the Wii U, at least, is that you can still transfer and play your Virtual Cosnole titles, but this doesn’t let you play them on the GamePad – if the Wii U needs games then why hasn’t this been fast tracked.

The Wii U lacks a vast library currently, wouldn’t it be great if instead of a handful of classic titles being available on the Wii U Virtual Console you could choose from hundreds? The PlayStation Vita is finding fans finally after a year of being released not just because its library of games continue to grow but that there’s at least 100 PSone titles to play in addition and they’re cheap.

The Famicom deserves the reverence it receives, but 30 years later we’re ready to move on Nintendo. Celebrate the past, don’t be stuck in it.