Europe to get 36 Wii VC titles through March

Nintendo has promised a steady stream of new downloadable games for its Virtual Console service on the Wii, and today the publisher detailed its plans to keep the games coming for European gamers in the first few months of 2007. Nintendo Europe announced it will release 36 games for the Virtual Console over the first quarter of 2007. Of those games, 20 will be pulled from Nintendo consoles of yesteryear, while seven TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine games and nine Genesis/MegaDrive titles will be added to the service.

Titles which have so far been named for the Nintendo lineup include Mario Kart 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Street Fighter II: World Warrior, Super Probotector (Contra III: The Alien Wars in the US), and Super Mario World.

Some of the games from other systems have also been announced, with Sega offering Genesis titles Streets of Rage, Bio-Hazard Battle, Bonanza Bros, and Comix Zone. Meanwhile, Hudson will be releasing the TurboGrafx-16 games Soldier Blade, Double Dungeons, and New Adventure Island.

Comix Zone was a 1995 action game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis set within the panels of a comic book. Double Dungeons was a 1989 role-playing game for the TurboGrafx-16 system that lets two players explore a mysterious labyrinth together, and Soldier Blade, also for the TurboGrafx-16 system, is a scrolling shoot-'em-up.

Virtual Console game prices start at 500 Wii Points for NES games, 800 Wii Points for Super Nintendo games, and 1,000 Wii Points for Nintendo 64 games. Wii Points can be bought for £14 ($27) for 2,000, and they can also be purchased by trading in Nintendo Stars, which gamers can earn by purchasing Nintendo products.

No specific release dates have been announced for the games.