Wii Virtual Console kicks ass. The whole concept of all these classic games, crammed into one nice, little unit, without taking up all that shelf space, is something that'll never cease to impress me...not to mention being able to purchase and use them as soon as I want them...

And then I remember ROMs and emulators, and how much the official disributors and producers tried to crack down on them.

I think back to 2001-2004, and how I purchased not one game in those 3 or so years...it was because I had moved to emulation and ROMs! And it wasn't because I was pirating new games, no, I was going back to all the classic titles!

The question is, if consumers were already doing it, why didn't Nintendo leverage that opportunity?

Why, do you suppose, that Nintendo never released an officially-endorsed emulator, and ROMs? They would've been compatible with any PC, thereby bypassing the need to buy a console! It would've removed a barrier of entry to consumers!

I look at my Wii, and the 8-10 Wii games I have left on my shelf, and I can only imagine, that eventually, the only Wii games I'll own are the Wii VC and Wiiware titles I have...it has to do both with my love for classic games, and the digital nature that they're distributed in now, as well as my jadedness with modern gaming...

And it makes me wish, if only Nintendo had released their own emulators and ROMs for the PC...

Nintendo make money on hardware.
And they like to keep things within their own technological ecosystem.

They're a lot like Apple that way.

And they've totally ignored it... now instead of getting all these classic games from the past we all knew and loved all we get are WiiWare/DSiware shovelware crapola that makes me disappointed in each so called "update" we get each week.  Honestly who even buys most of the crap that gets released each week?

You know, I can't help but think the same way, but then I'm probably too busy washing myself in the nostalgia of 10~15 year old games to have any kind of unbiased objectivity towards today’s games. Still, not everything I've replayed from then has retained its luster, so I'm not completely blind either. Recently, I didn’t find the original DKC to be as good as when I played it back in its prime.

This reminds me of what my one co-worker said to me one day. He said I was lucky in that I could be pleased with older games and not spend $60 a pop on newer games. Unfortunately, I had to set him straight because he didn't take into account while the games I'm after often are more inexpensive, let’s just say I usually buy a few at a time, so while I'm going home with more titles I'm not always spending less. Seriously, my next new years resolution is to buy fewer games (well, fewer everything!)

There ARE good WiiWare games, but there's too much Cabbage Patch or Barbie or whatever generic crap coming out, it makes it hard to sift through all of them.

You're right, though; I haven't seen any virtual console titles released for awhile, and it's becoming disconcerning.

Isn't there any way to petition Nintendo to finally release certain titles on Wii VC? Like beingable to submit requests straight to them?

I don't know about you, but I think the age - of customers just accepting whatever crap that companies want to give them - is over...we're able to communicate more directly with companies, and tell them what we want. Sales are driven by demand, and if companies can't give us what we want, I suggest we go elsewhere...

I just breezed through the first 3 regions in the game last night, and I probably enjoyed it now more than I did back in the day!

After the crapfest of JRPGs on the PS2, though, I guess anything would seem like fresh air...