VTT: Our most wanted Virtual Console games

The Virtual Console. When we heard about it over a year ago Nintendo gamers jumped up in the joy, mostly at the chance that we would at last be able to play the best of the best from past Nintendo consoles on its newest and greatest. Well the excitement quickly turned to frustration and then annoyance for Australian. No Turbografix games and one game per week?

Putting those few disappointments aside here is Part 1 of a few classic games some of our staff would like to see on the Virtual Console in a feature we like to call, Vooks Top Ten (VTT).

10

Forum Name: Flamecondor
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (The Arcade Game) (NES)

Back in the early 90s the Turtles were the shiz. Gone were the heydays of He-man and Transformers and the Pokemon & Dragon Ball era had yet to arrive. Talking humanoid animal superheroes were where it was at and none of them were bigger then the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So as with most major cartoon franchises came the video games based upon them and without a doubt, one of the best TMNT games was the original arcade game.

This game is very much a traditional style arcade beat em up, a button for attack and a button for jump, quite simple really. Now, many people would think the NES version of an Arcade game would be somewhat less of a game then the original version, but not this game. Aside from the drop in graphics, this game improves on the original arcade game by giving us a few extra levels, a few extra bosses and heaps more extras on top of that. I would love to see this on the VC. Ive always been a fan of the Ninja Turtles, hell, it doesnt even have to be this one, it could be any of the NES or SNES Turtle games (just not the first one, as that was odd) Anyway, Cowabunga dude!!!

Forum Name: Spirit (Sean Jones)
Forsaken (N64)

Sure, the single player wasn’t anything to write home about but nothing beats playing with a friend against an insanely hard bot or two late at night. As long as the multiplayer remained intact, this is a game I would buy even if just for that few minute playtime where I try to remember just what I found enticing about this game in the first place.

Forum Name: Ninja Catfish
North and South (NES)
Well I doubt that many people reading will know of this game. This was a strategy game set during the American Civil War, but it was hardly complex. Well it was simple enough for me to almost understand as a child. I spent most of my time with this game playing against my brother, who was even younger than me.

I dont think I really understood much of what I was doing, but there was a map, where you captured certain points by running along a train or something, and placing a flag at the end. To fight for territory the two players were brought to a real time map screen, where they controlled cavalry units, cannons and infantry in an effort to emerge victorious. With any luck, Ill now be able to understand the mechanics of the game much better than back then, and have even more fun with my brother again on the Virtual Console.

Forum Name: NX Monkey
Donkey Kong Jnr Math (NES)

No seriously, I mean it. One of the finest examples of edutainment ever to exist and if youre especially lucky you may have played the NES game on Animal Crossing for the gamecube. Who could honestly pass up the chance to practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with a bunch of smelly, banana hoarding primates?

9

Forum Name: Flamecondor
Castlevania III (NES)

It was only recently I got into the Castlevania franchise. Up until the DS version which I more or less bought on a whim, I hadnt really given the series a look in. Sure I had played the occasional 1 or 2 every now and then, but I never really got into the series. Since I purchased Castlevania DS, I have fallen in love with the series. From all reports, Castlevania III was for a long time one of the best games in the franchise to make it to Western Shores. It is also one of the hardest to track down. It introduced a lot of the features that are mainstay in the games such as leveling up, magic, multiple characters and multiple endings.

To this day it remains one of the best action adventure games on the NES, and hopefully itll be one of the best Action Adventure games on the VC in the not so distant future.

Forum Name: Spirit (Sean Jones)
Super Smash Bros. (N64)

We have Brawl coming, we have Melee lodged into our Gamecube trays permanently so why do we need to go back? Because Smash Bros remains to this day the best in my honest opinion. Combined, I have spent easily over 500 hours on Bros and Melee and would love to expand on it on the Wii with all three games at my fingertips. I can imagine now, playing Smash Bros, working up to Melee and then finishing off the night with Brawl.

Forum Name: Ninja Catfish
Super Metroid (SNES)

Now this was a groundbreaking game. Though I only had limited experience with it, what I did have was great, and the amazing quality of Metroid Fusion and other 2D Metroid games Ive played, plus the great reviews and scores this game has attained, point to this game being an absolutely masterpiece. Really look forward to playing through this game, and forming my own conclusions.

Forum Name: NX Monkey
Harvest Moon 64 (N64)

Everyones favourite simulation of farming life made the jump to 3D on the N64 and it just so happens to be one of my personal favourite instalments of the series. Harvest moon makes small town country living fun. Just dont forget to feed the animals.

8

Forum Name: Flamecondor
Earthbound (SNES)

For many years in the PAL regions of the world, most of us would have been blissfully unaware of the SNES RPG called Earthbound. That would all change with the advent of Super Smash Brothers for the N64. You see aside from the main cast of characters that we all knew and loved, there was a hidden character that Im sure a fair few of us looked upon and thought, who the hell is he and where did he come from?

Who is this odd looking boy with his bizarre collection of mental mind powers? He was Ness, the lead character for the game Earthbound, a game that despite coming to the USA, never made it to our humble PAL region. Earthbound is an RPG that really stood out from the crowd upon its release. Instead of trudging through dungeons filled with Goblins and Orcs, you may have found yourself in a Video game arcade being attacked by Skate Punks. Instead of your normal RPG arms of magical spells and mighty swords, you had mind powers and weapons that ranged from Yoyos, to Frying pans.

Over the years, Earthbound has gained a near cult like following, and while games of its nature may not be commercial successes like some other RPGs, maybe a place like the Virtual Console would be a welcome home for it. It would be a nice niche for it to slowly build its name amongst the mainstream crowd looking for something different. Well, heres hoping anyway.

Forum Name: Spirit (Sean Jones)
Banjo Kazooie (N64)

The first of three dreams for the Virtual Console. Banjo Kazooie is and always will be a RARE game, developers now owned by Microsoft, a rival company that has produced it’s own console. Still, I’m allowed to dream that the greatest platformer of all time could possibly end up on the Wii. The game was quirky, funny and remains to this day one of my favourite games.

Forum Name: Ninja Catfish
The Adventures of Lolo (NES)
Well this is really a wildcard mention. As a child, I hired out a game which I never remembered the title to, but I remember it was pretty good fun. Doing a random wikipedia search for it the other day, I found it was The Adventure of Lolo, I just called it Dots Adventure””. Because, yknow, the main character was a dot. So yeah, I mainly want to revisit this game and find out whether it was actually any good.

Forum Name: NX Monkey
Super Metroid (SNES)

Personally this is still my favourite entry in the Metroid series and was a SNES game that you simply could not overlook. It was a true hardcore game that serious gamers could sit down and play for hours searching for every secret passage or elusive expansion and apparent from unrivalled gameplay precision it had a unique atmosphere that was rarely matched.

7

Forum Name: Flamecondor
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap (SMS)

I never owned a Sega system as a child, hardcore Nintendo fan for life here. But I did have cousins who owned a Master System and I did really enjoy playing this game. The game sort of played like an early version of Zelda: Majoras Mask. In the game, Wonder Boy gets turned into a Lizard-Man character by the evil Mecha Dragon, so he must embark on a quest to free himself of the curse. Throughout the game Wonder Boy changes appearance several times, from Lizard to Mouse, Fish to Lion and even to a Hawk. All these different forms have different abilities, such as Mouse-Mans ability to walk up certain walls or Fish-Mans ability to swim in water.

I have to admit, for someone who has always been a Nintendo fanboy, back in the day during the Nintendo vs. Sega wars, this game was a guilty pleasure of mine & maybe if I had gone with Sega instead of Nintendo, I would of ended up loving this game more then any Zelda or Mario game.

Forum Name: Spirit (Sean Jones)
South Park 64 (N64)

The game wasn’t the greatest game designed but it was still allot of fun with friends. Cows being abducted by aliens, crazy robot toys, insanely angry Turkeys and deformed South Park residents was just the beginning of one of the craziest games of that generation. Multiplayer again was a big highlight, with the Cow Launcher ending in many hysterical fits.

Forum Name: Ninja Catfish
Golden Axe (Mega Drive)
Choose from an axe-wielding dwarf, a long sword equipped amazon, or a barbaria with a broadsword, grab a second player, and play through side scrolling levels disposing of enemies with physical attacks and magical spells. It seems that co-op play is a continuing theme in my top ten, simply because playing through a game with a friend is infinitely more fun than playing alone. It may have been another side scrolling beat-em-up, but still it was fun, and another game Id love to play again.

Forum Name: NX Monkey
Chrono Trigger (SNES)

Widely regarded as the best RPG ever to be released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and a familiar favourite in many lists compiling the top games of all times. In every way it was an epic title that combined the best elements of Squaresofts work at the time. Not many games compare even now in terms of both story and gameplay, making this an essential title to bring to the surface once again via the VC.

6

Forum Name: Flamecondor
Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (Turbo)

For fans of the Castlevania games, this game is considered by some to be the Holy Grail. For a long time it was considered and most likely still is depending on who you ask, the greatest game in the franchise. There was one problem; it never got released outside of Japan. This was mainly due to the system it was on, the PC Engine/Turbografx 16 system and due to the system being far less popular in the US than Japan, it resulted in the game not being released over there. This game took many of the features started in Castlevania 3 and ran with them, such as the multiple characters and paths, RPG elements and also introduced many new features to the series such as the Item Crush.

As I said before, Im pretty much in love with the Castlevania games and this title would make a great addition to anyones VC collection. Having said that, it is very unlikely that we will get to see this game on the VC. At the very least though, we can hope for Castlevania X which came out for the SNES which is kind of a remake of this game. Either way, as long as I get plenty of Castlevania action on my VC, Ill be happy.

Forum Name: Spirit (Sean Jones)
Bubsy (SNES)

He was a cat that collected balls of yarn. He was one of those gaming mascots that failed to do anything beyond his first game. Still, Bubsy is a childhood hero of mine, regardless of the fact I couldn’t get passed the last world. Bring this to the Virtual Console please so I can remember just what was so good about this game. Seriously, I can’t remember, I need to be reminded.

Forum Name: Ninja Catfish
The Lion King (Mega Drive)

Everyone loved the Lion King. Its a fact. And luckily for gamers, it also spawned a *good* game adaption! Well at least I remember it being pretty good. The game had your typical platforming levels, boss fights, and even an into the screen level, re-enacting the stampede scene. It even came with pretty decent recreations of the films soundtrack as in-game music. Sadly this is another game I never managed to finish, and would love to be able to do so on the Wiis Virtual console.

Forum Name: NX Monkey
Earthbound (SNES)

Lets just call this one the game that was forsaken in PAL territories and was never released in regions such as Australia. Some of us have had to resort to certain methods in order to experience this unique and rather quirky RPG that replaced swords and magic with baseball bats and psychic powers set in a modern world. Its not particularly well known if well see games from other regions released via the VC, but we can only hope that Ness and pals will make it to shores down under.

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