Hey-oh there, Negative World.

So, I've got a question for y'all. As we all know, 3DS's Virtual Console has not only classic portable games for download, but now also NES games as well. And while I'm pretty sure the topic of having to re-buy digital copies of Virtual Console games we already own on Wii has come up before in various threads, I don't think there's a thread strictly dedicated to it. I wanted to get your thoughts on the subject, how you feel overall about it, and whether or not you've downloaded any NES games yet, or plan to in the future. (Ambassador games don't count, since we got 'em all "for free" anyway)

I bring this up mostly because of the recent (re)launch of Punch-Out!! on Virtual Console. I enjoy this old classic quite a bit. But I've already downloaded it on Wii - I was a little disappointed that to play it on my 3DS, I'd have to buy it on 3DS.

Well, "a little disappointed" maybe isn't the right term. I was actually kind of upset about it. Like seriously, Nintendo? What is this garbage? You really expect me to purchase a game I already own? Why can't I just transfer my Wii VC library to my 3DS library? Is it really that hard? Sony allows Playstation 3 users to transfer their PSOne games to their PSP (and now Vita) and back again at no charge. Why can't you be the same?!? This is ridiculous.

But then I also considered something else. Nintendo has actually given me this game (Punch-Out!!) for free before; it was an unlockable in the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing. Maybe throwing Nintendo an extra $5 isn't all that bad - I mean, they let me play it for "free" before, maybe I can kind of "pay them back" this way? And hey. It's only $5. It's not like it's gonna break me. Right?

Hrm. I guess if I followed that line of logic I could justify the re-purchase in my mind. But c'mon, it's the principal of the thing. Right? And so what, Nintendo gave me a "free" version of the game last gen, does that really give them a free pass at my wallet THIS gen? What have they given me for free this time around?

Ok, well, I guess we can count the pre-loaded games that come standard on every 3DS. The StreetPass Mii Plaza's Puzzle Swap and Find Mii/Find Mii 2 are very fun and very social games that are really addicting. And there's actually a surprising amount of stuff to play with those AR cards. Even Face Raiders is more fun than I care to admit. So there are those. And I suppose we could also count the Pokédex 3D? It's not really a game, but kind of a cool app for Pokéfans. Oh! And we can't forget they gave us 3D Classics: Excitebike for free, too. And The Legend of Zelda: 4 Swords Anniversary Edition - despite the fact they could have charged us all $10 and we all likely would have bought it. .....aaaaaaaaaand I guess we can even count the redeemable codes from Club Nintendo that allow us to download games for "free" from the Wii's downloadable service, as well as the 3DS's. (yeah, they are free. Unless you're going out buying games *just* to earn Club Nintendo Coins, you're just getting rewards for buying stuff you would have bought anyway) And speaking of redeemable codes, I should also mention Nintendo's giving me 3D Classics: Kid Icarus for free next week too. Simply because I pre-ordered Kid Icarus: Uprising - again, something I was going to do anyway. So yeah, there's another free game, and it's not even a simple ROM dump.

And that's all without taking into account the 20 Ambassador games. Hm. Looking at it this way, the $5 for Punch-Out!! doesn't seem all that bad. Right? Or... maybe not?

I dunno. It's kind of a strange situation to be in, personally. I can find ways to make it "OK" in my mind to buy Punch-Out!! on 3DS - even though it's not a 3D Classic entry, which is baffling in and of itself. How is THIS game not in 3D, yet freakin' Urban Champion is? That makes no sense whatsoever. But is thinking this way making me some kind of irrational Nintendo fanboy/apologist? I don't really know.

So anyway, what are your thoughts, Negative World? Are you going to buy NES games on 3DS? Are you upset that you can't transfer your Wii Virtual Console games to it?

tl;dr version: Just answer the question in the subject title!

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If it's a straight port that I already own I don't know you gotta give me something more. Although I do have Chrono Trigger on Psx, snes and ios sooooo I guess it really depends on much youlove the game :P.

@Kastiel

Well to be fair, they are adding save states (on top of resuming games from where you last left off when you quit) to 3DS VC games. That's something the Wii didn't do.

And welcome to the forums!

@Kastiel

Welcome!

In can understand to a certain extent wanting a re-release to add something more, but to be honest when I look at special editions of games and what they add, I rarely if ever find that the extra content is as good as the original content.

A lot of the time, for recent releases and remakes of old games, the original creators are gone from the developer, and the project is farmed out to some small dev who isn't quite as talented as the people who created the original. For instance, the extra content in Chrono Trigger DS: it feels tacked on, it's not fun to play, and the dev seemed to miss the point completely. CT has great pacing, the extra content is tedious and grindy.

So in the end, extra content doesn't entice me. I don't ask for it anymore than I would demand extra scenes when buying a movie in a new format or new chapters when buying a new printing of a book. I either pass up on the re-release entirely, or I buy it because it's my chance to experience a game I haven't played before.

HUGE BUMP!

I was tooling around in old threads for some reason, and I came across this one. The issue that I had a bone to pick with (and thus inspired the thread) was regarding Punch-Out!! on 3DS Virtual Console. I didn't feel like I had to buy the game AGAIN since I already bought it before on Wii.

Well, seems like it was all for nothing. I ended up getting Punch-Out!! on 3DS for free, as a Club Nintendo Reward. Y'know, back when Club Nintendo was still a thing. Funny how that turned out.

But now, I have a new question. The NEW 3DS now has SNES games available as Virtual Console downloads. And while I haven't bought all of these games before, I'm buying them now on 3DS. But that's me. How about you?

How do you feel about having to re-buy SNES games on N3DS? Or buy twice if you want them both on the Wii U *and* N3DS?

My position sure as hell hasn't changed. Here is how I play old games now that Nintendo decided to be greedy about this:



and




Happy as can be.

I'm extremely excited to be able to play SNES games on the New 3DS. I'm not as excited to pay full price for them when I have them on my previous consoles. I'm still buying them cause I've always wanted perfect portable versions of SNES games.

@Hinph

What am I looking at? What are those? How do I get them for myself?!? I NEED ANSWERS MAN DON'T HOLD OUT ON MEEEE.....!!!

@sirmastersephiroth

Yeah, I'm buying them too. Haven't bought a majority of them on Wii or Wii U before. So there's less anger about it from me this time around. Plus, they are earning me those precious Gold Coins in my uh, My Nintendo Account. Which also makes this easier to swallow. I recently was able to get Super Punch-Out!! as a freebie for Wii U, using my Gold Coins. So if we get that for 3DS soon (as I believe Europe has) then I won't feel "burned" by having to buy it separately for 3DS.

But yeah, not TOTALLY happy with having to cough up the cash AGAIN...but the excitement to have these verifiable classics on-the-go far outweighs any potential anger I may have.

At least, for now.

@GameDadGrant

You just buy them with cash or credit!

The controller is a Bluetooth SNES controller replica from 8bitdo. Feels great and is compatible with lots of platforms. They have a NES controller which I also like a lot. Goes for $30ish on Amazon, $40ish if you want the phone cradle thing. Cheaper on eBay.

The other thing is the NVIDIA Shield TV... powerful Android TV box which is basically like an Apple TV, Chromecast, and better Ouya all in one. It's a bit pricey at $200, but I use the thing every day. Load it up with emulators and roms, get a frontend like Arc Browser or Gamesome, and... well, it's just awesome:



Oh, and the 8bitdo controllers work great with the Shield TV too!

Until I know that my purchases of these games will hold from platform to platform I refuse to give Nintendo any more money for retro games.

It's ridiculously silly that you can pay a small upgrade fee to "upgrade" them from Wii to Wii U, but if you want that same game on 3DS, it's anywhere from $5-$12 for games that are 20 years old. Good games, of course, but come on Nintendo.

I've paid to 'upgrade' some of my games because I like the Wii U features. I guess paying $1.50 is reasonable to transport my old game to a new emulator with new features? Paying full price for any of these games on another platform? No thanks. If I own the game on Wii U...why can't I just pay a dollar or whatever to access it on 3DS? Wouldn't Nintendo stand to make more money from gamers doing THAT rather than completely double dipping?

Regarding the SNES stuff, they probably don't even care because no one really has a New 3DS anyway. A nice way to experiment how they can charge $12 for an SNES game...sheesh.

@PogueSquadron

They're $12?!?

They were $8 10 years ago and that seemed high.

@PogueSquadron, @Stephen

Yeah, what? What games are $12? I'm pretty sure all the SNES games on N3DS are $8. Maybe $10 for Earthbound? For some reason?

What game did you buy that cost $12?

@Stephen

You mean like how I can play my copy of Donkey Kong Country that I downloaded back in 2006 at the Wii Launch, on my WiiU today, nearly 10 years later?

Nah. Best stick to praising consoles with 'account' systems that *don't* let me carry my digital purchases to the next generation.

Waitwaitwait. I missed the 'retro' qualifier. I suppose that's enough to straight up ignore fact that Sony and Microsoft don't carry forward their digital offerings.

Nintendo lets you carry your entire VC/WiiWare/DSI Ware library forward. People complain about what they're not getting.
Sony and Microsoft tell you to keep your old consoles? Praise them!

Go figure.

Fun fact. Outside of crazy stuff like 30 cent Super Metroid, I haven't 'rebought' any VC content, yet can play everything I want to on my current systems.

I will never understand these 'We have to buy Super Mario half a dozen times' arguments. No, you really don't.

Well the only reason Nintendo does that is that they typically allow BC from one generation ago.

At some point it would only make sense to tie purchases to a digital account, since Nintendo isn't going to have DS or Wii guts in everything moving forward right?

I see what you're saying. What they do is reliable, but it has its faults. I think it'd be pretty reasonable on Nintendo's part to offer discounts to enable cross-buy (or just allow it to work across multiple devices).

It's kind of silly that I have Super Metroid on my Wii U, but if I want to play this same exact game running on an emulator on a 3DS, it would cost another $8. I'll take the cost of the New 3DS out of the equation since I assume all portables will be able to handle it from this point on. I am pretty surprised they don't have the SNES games on the old 3DS though.

@Shadowlink

It's good to see that you still don't grasp the difference between these two separate issues and keep trying to frame it as some hypocrisy on my part.

Nintendo asks you to rebuy the same games on different systems. That is shitty.

If Sony asked people to rebuy PS2 games on PS4 that would be shitty. And they did that, and it is shitty.


If Sony tied purchases made to the console and not an online ID enforcing super archaic DRM that would be shitty.

Nintendo does do that and it is shitty.

There's no hypocrisy there. There are two issues, one being selling you the same content over and over and one of letting you access the games you paid for in an efficient manner.

My bad, for some reason I thought the price was higher.

Still, I stand by my point. I don't see why we can have an upgrade fee on Wii U but not bring that same discount to 3DS owners.

@PogueSquadron

But you have to ask, what's the point of having them tied to a digital account if you can't play them on your current hardware? And yes I've heard all the arguments defending Sony and Microsoft from a technical standpoint before. As far as I'm concerned they're irrelevant though, at least as far as the final practical result goes.

The fact is even if Nintendo doesn't follow up for the next generation, what we *did* get is still beyond what Microsoft or Sony offered. The ability to move our entire digital library between hardware generations. All the complaints in the world about 'needing' to rebuy things on a portable or whatever won't change that.

It's just weird to me that people will focus on the minor things Nintendo is missing and bitch about that instead of acknowledging that what we *did* get is pretty damn good when compared to their competitors efforts.

@Stephen

They can't sell you the same content 'over and over' unless you're silly enough to buy it 'over and over'.

Like I said- Outside of crazy 30 cent exceptions, I haven't rebought anything. Yet I'm managing to enjoy my games just the same. It's a miracle.

@Hinph

Hmm, I have to buy new hardware, huh? Hmm. I thought maybe I can add these games to my iPhone.

Still, cool stuff. Gotta admit.

@Shadowlink@Shadowlink

I don't buy any of their old content any more so it's their loss and I never rebought anything. Fuck them. I'll download their ROMs and play on PC if the need strikes me. But the fact that I have to decide if I want to spend $5 to download Punch Out on my Wii U or 3DS or presumably NX or pay double or triple that for convenience is shitty.

The basic principle at play here is that if you own a title and hardware is capable of playing it then it should. If Gamecube games were added as VC titles I can understand them not working on 3DS but I sure as hell expect to play them on any Wii U I want. Until that happens Nintendo gets none of my money for old titles.

@Stephen

Again, I've never rebought anything either. Yet I'm playing games and you're not.

So who's really losing out here?