E3 06: Wii Virtual Console Hands-On

A big part of Nintendo's next-gen strategy is its back catalog of N64, SNES, and NES games; GameSpot takes a look at how they'll play on the Wii.

One of the many Wii features touted by Nintendo has been the Virtual Console that allows Wii owners to download and play games from the company's extensive NES, SNES, and N64 game library using system emulation software. The library isn't limited to legacy Nintendo platform games, either. Nintendo has signed deals to bring Sega and Hudson Soft TurboGrafix 16 games over the Wii Virtual Console as well.

Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console demo station featured five signature games from the system's past: Super Mario Bros. from the NES, Super Mario World from the SNES, Super Mario 64 from the Nintendo 64, Sonic the Hedgehog from the Sega Genesis, and Bonk's Adventure from the TurboGrafix 16. The navigation menu only allowed us to scroll through the five title selection pages, so we didn't get a chance to select and download games to run.

The Wii Virtual Console stations used the gamepad Wii classic controller instead of the motion-sensing Wii-mote used with modern Wii games like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or Super Mario Galaxy. We spent time playing all five games and didn't notice any differences between the Virtual Console versions and the originals, although we must admit that it's been about decade since we last played these games on their native systems. Games played in a letterbox on the widescreen booth display, but screens still looked sharp and vibrant.

The button settings were fairly intuitive for most games since the layout of the Wii classic controller can safely mimic the controllers of past consoles. Super Mario 64 had the least familiar mapping with player movement bound to the left analog stick, camera angle bound to the right analog stick, and the Z button bound to a tiny button stuck on top of the controller, just to the left of the right shoulder button. Hopefully, Nintendo will allow players to set their own button bindings in shipping Wii systems. The select and pause buttons function as expected, and players can press the home button in the center of the controller to open a quit game prompt to go back to the game-selection menu.

After seeing the Wii handle five flagship console games without a problem, it appears that the Virtual Console emulator is poised for a successful launch.

206 Comments

  • elozl

    Posted May 22, 2008 10:17 pm PT

    oh man, how did i get here?
    lol, im looking for double dragon!

  • gigabrowser12

    Posted Feb 18, 2007 6:54 am PT

    Cow man maybe later... maybe later...

  • Cowman820

    Posted Dec 18, 2006 3:49 pm PT

    Will you be allowed to download original Super Smash Bros.

  • townsenda1

    Posted Nov 30, 2006 10:10 pm PT

    The Classic controller is only about $20. I bought one at launch. Definately worth it.

  • senan

    Posted Nov 22, 2006 11:56 am PT

    no you can use NGC instead of the CC

  • Toad2009

    Posted Nov 18, 2006 3:35 pm PT

    to play the games?

  • Toad2009

    Posted Nov 18, 2006 3:17 pm PT

    also do you have to have the virtual console controller

  • Toad2009

    Posted Nov 18, 2006 2:57 pm PT

    When will the controller be on sale and how much? I have looked and can't find anything.

  • jiribe

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 4:48 pm PT

    the wii is going to be amazing, specially for people that still enjoy playing classic games, i can't wait to get my hands on it

  • Anita_Bath

    Posted Oct 27, 2006 12:46 am PT

    No Rare games! Then what about Donkey Kong and Banjo?

  • antispam1994

    Posted Sep 17, 2006 5:53 pm PT

    is it confirmed that there will be no rare ware games on wii

  • antispam1994

    Posted Sep 17, 2006 5:48 pm PT

    If you already own retro games is there a way that you don't have to pay money to use it on wii.

  • bubblepaul

    Posted Sep 16, 2006 2:59 pm PT

    This is going to be great

    Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Secret of Mana here I come

  • raichu79

    Posted Sep 15, 2006 12:31 am PT

    Too bad Nintendo let go of their shares of Rare. It would have been nice to see Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark on the Wii. Microsoft has them now and I don't think they would licence them to Nintendo at any price.

  • bigredman3000

    Posted Sep 14, 2006 7:39 pm PT

    can't wait to play that kirby dreamland3. I always loved that game.

  • xdumbxjackassx

    Posted Sep 13, 2006 4:00 pm PT

    Chrono Trigger here I come

  • spank_my_bottom

    Posted Sep 12, 2006 5:59 pm PT

    A Home button in the middle of the controller ! OMG they're coping off MS ! hehe

  • TNTales

    Posted Aug 28, 2006 10:07 am PT

    One of the things that crippled Nintendo in the console wars early on, besides their commitment to family games (Mortal Kombat with Grey Blood??) was the lack of backward compatibility. That's why the ps2 ultimately sunk the big N.

    But now Nintendo has access to over a DECADE worth of back catalogue with some amazing games. The Zeldas, Metroids, Marios, the games that made the home franchises are going to be available.

    Yeah, they aren't "high def" and they might be up to 10 bucks each, but it's worth it to relive so many great experiences of my childhood and the awesome gameplay. Nintendo was the home system master for years. Now we can all revist why.

    Not to mention with a price tag at half that of the 360 or nearly 3 times cheaper than the PS3 (with the launch day assurance of backward compatibility via the virtual console) Nintendo will be hard to beat among families and people who remember the classic games.

    I was going to get a 360, but I'm leaning very heavily on the WII now, dependent on 2 things:

    1) will the Wii-mote end up being gimmicky?

    2) The price of retro games (10$ or less is fine, as many of these games are no longer in print).

    And I know you can use emulators and get games for "free." But I'm not really down with that whole "theft" thing. I'd rather pay a reasonable amount to relive some of the great home game experiences I had as a kid.

    Now if we can get the Mortal Kombat 2, Super Metroid, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade), Battletoads, Sonic, Final Fight, Double Dragon, Bad Dudes, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Super Mario Bros, aaaah the list goes on, too many games.

    It's a cinch that I'll buy a whole lot more retro games at 10 bucks a piece than I will 60 dollar next-gen titles.

    Go big N.

    TN

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 7:35 pm PT

    really impressive

  • eely

    Posted Aug 9, 2006 4:37 pm PT


    "NintendoNinja88:
    im sad theres not gonna b any diddy kong racing or banjo kazooie or conker. sob "

    How come?

  • mat2g

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 10:46 pm PT

    Oddly enough, this is the single most reason I am interested in this system, not entirely sold on the whole Wii-mote concept. The retro games are good, but I hope as time passes they get support from 3rd party companies from these systems libraries, that would be the icing on the cake. Speaking of, do anybody know how big the hard drive on this baby will be? I know most of those games aren't huge in size, I'm still curious

  • t3KK3n_4ever

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 8:23 am PT

    wii all love u nintendo, go for it

  • zerox0409

    Posted Aug 2, 2006 11:38 pm PT

    and yeah, i remember Crystalis... one of my favorite games... good times...good times

  • zerox0409

    Posted Aug 2, 2006 11:36 pm PT

    look, only the 64 games will be $4 to $8 the nes and snes games will be only about $2 to $4 tops.

  • yugimasa9999

    Posted Aug 2, 2006 2:52 am PT

    HAHA....This is old...You can at least appreciate this tactic. Homebrew suits my PSP well and it's FREE !!!

  • dark_phoenix21

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 3:28 am PT

    $4.50 to $8.99 (if not more) for a retro game? Hmm, now I love my retro gaming, but why would I pay that for a game where I can just download an emulator off the net for free?? I used to have a megadrive with about 20 odd games, now I have an emulator with nearly 100, economics anyone?

  • likes_harleys

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 6:49 am PT

    Why pay for games again you probably owned back when these systems were popular? This feature is useless if you have a PC, modded XBOX, or PSP.

  • LION90

    Posted Jul 24, 2006 10:01 am PT

    this sounds like awesome dude! i just hope it's not to expensive and doesn't require a credit card.

  • lotsofgunfire

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 6:19 pm PT

    you know they could make this a whole lot easier and just have a cool customizable controller where you can remove certain parts like taking the D-pad off and moving it to where the right analog stick was, do the same with the stick and you had these spare parts like the long lost C buttons to reattach. no matter where you attached them they would work as what they are.
    i saw the idea in singapore, some store had a PS2 controller that worked just like that.

  • dunndeal427

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 10:41 am PT

    How Nintendo creates it's game console has changed over the years; into a perfected craftsmenship. And this is quite evident in 'Wii', blowing our sights from "within the box" to the stratosphere, and beyond. In having all the old games that kept us coming back for more, in taking time on the software so they follow through with such hype (and we all know the feeling of the exagerated hype that lags on for a way too long). So for that, Nintendo takes the cake with its originality to the old days, exposing the rest of the world to our gamer tome of enjoyment and entertainment.

    Mad props to Nintendo, for geting the job done right.

  • WCLord

    Posted Jun 30, 2006 8:51 am PT

    Iwata announced that the individual virtual console games will be priced between 500 and 1000 yen, which is roughly $4.50 to $8.99 in US Dollars. I can't wait!

  • ArcadeJunkieGMR

    Posted Jun 24, 2006 10:56 am PT

    OH how I would like to play super robot wars in english if it even comes on the revolution

  • darkblade15

    Posted Jun 23, 2006 5:14 pm PT

    this all sounds good, but can someone explain how this thing works? do you download the games off your computer, or somewhere else?

  • cjmoney1

    Posted Jun 22, 2006 1:44 pm PT

    reliving the glory years! i cant wait. i just hope the downloads arent too expensive. hopefully they will do bundle packs. I think 4 games for $10 is fair. if they are cheaper that would be even better.

  • Xbox_lvlaniac

    Posted Jun 21, 2006 10:27 pm PT

    i cant wait till the wii comes out ive got a 360 and i cant wait till the wii...4get the ps3 sony sucks

  • azriaris

    Posted Jun 18, 2006 11:44 pm PT

    Well Done! Now I can play Super Mario Bros 3!

  • louiedagreat1

    Posted Jun 18, 2006 10:07 am PT

    O_o u gotta BUY the games for dowmload, How much will games cost anyway?

  • blackwing837

    Posted Jun 16, 2006 6:47 pm PT

    Awesome!! I hope they will be adding Devi's Crush from NEC and Military Madness.... oh and Neutopia... loved that game too.

  • nhlagentdark

    Posted Jun 16, 2006 2:42 pm PT

    i have all the other nintendo consoles and now another one will be added to my collection

  • CalvinCoolage

    Posted Jun 10, 2006 4:31 am PT

    Buy it while it's in shop? I'm going to pre-order it because of this.

  • jedimastergerco

    Posted Jun 6, 2006 8:59 am PT

    that is one of the reasons im going to buy the wii as soon as its in the shop

  • cyprus646

    Posted Jun 4, 2006 8:02 pm PT

    The virtual console is a very cool idea i just hope nintendo dosent over charge the games that can be downloaded.

  • Dima_06

    Posted Jun 3, 2006 6:51 pm PT

    By adding a virtual console to the Nintendo Wii, nintendo has undoubtably raised the standard of retro gaming for many years to come. Now all we need is a price range for the Nintendo Wii and we are set to experience gaming's most gloriest years of yore. I think that the Wii will probably come in at a hefty msrp of $300 dollars. Oh, and don't buy that less than $250 crap from Nintendo. How else are they going to profit from all those retro games being uploaded at a meager price tag?!!

  • K-BUB

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:09 pm PT

    yay!



    this is good

  • snakeyes1282

    Posted May 30, 2006 10:17 pm PT

    i love you nintendo!!!! always have..always will

  • VGobbsesser

    Posted May 24, 2006 11:44 am PT

    Tell us how much the games cost!

  • skemaal

    Posted May 23, 2006 1:55 pm PT

    Me and my girlfriend grew up with the nes and snes. We love the classics, its a no brainer which console we choose. Even if we don`t buy any Wii games the fact that we have that huge library of games lol, was not a hard decision to make.

  • n3onshark

    Posted May 23, 2006 8:29 am PT

    Neatness

    every Nintendo console game ever and some form sega etc.
    I do hope they add some GB or GBC games

  • wisebandit

    Posted May 22, 2006 10:36 am PT

    Bring it on.

  • HoffmanSony

    Posted May 21, 2006 5:26 pm PT

    I wonder if the color quaulity for the NES games will be better

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