Please feel free to update your list as you add more! Also, please feel free to give a quick review of the game

cheers,

-avatar!

My list:

Dungeon Explorer (TG16): Very fun if you're tired or drunk and playing with a friend. Otherwise you'll want to pass on it. So, if you're tired or drunk and playing with a friend 8/10, otherwise 5/10.

Kid Icarus (NES): A classic game I never played! All I can say right now is that it's DAMN hard! But it seems quite cool. I can't give it a score right now because I haven't played it enough.

Kirby's Adventure (NES): Another classic I never played, I'm looking forward to playing it

Super Mario 64 (N64): Believe it or not, I never played this before, and it is fun! The controls take a little getting used to, but that's often the case with Mario games!

Wario's Woods (NES): I heard this was an excellent NES game. Well, it's kinda fun, but I as far as puzzlers go, I don't think it's all that great. I still prefer Tetris, Columns, and such the like. 6/10

updated: 4/30/07

I like the fact that you can download demos off of XBL Arcade before purchasing a VC game. I would have saved a few bucks here and there if the Wii had a similar service because it's so easy to plop down on a lazy Tuesday night, whip out the credit card and take a trip down TG16 memory lane.

Games I've played and/or have beaten:

Donkey Kong Country (SNES): Still as awesome as I remember. I beat it 100% in 3 hours, so I guess my long term memory is still fantastic considering I haven't played this game in years. I wish modern platformers were this fun.

Gunstar Heroes (GEN): Holy shit. What an awesome game. I never had a Genesis, so I didn't play this when it was released. I'm glad I picked it up... it's great for a quick fix of shootin' shit.

Mario Kart 64 (N64): Beer, Mario Kart, four controllers. Yes.

Contra 3 (SNES): Not as awesome as it was when I was younger, but it's still a very solid run'n'gun. I really like the overhead levels, and the spread shot still rules my world.

Super Mario 64 (N64): Not as hot as it was back in the day, but it's still a fun romp through the first 3D world that I had the pleasure of becoming enveloped in. The mid-to-later levels kinda suck, but Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Road more than make up for it.

Games I purchased but haven't played or deleted:

Beyond Oasis (GEN): Top-down action adventure with a giant spider boss? Yeah. Sign me up.

Bonk's Adventure (TG16): I should probably play this soon.

Kirby's Adventure (NES): Yeah. 9.5 on IGN? Whoever typed that is dyslexic. DELETED!

Super Star Soldier (TG16): Fun for about ten minutes, and then I realized that I have PS2 shooters that are miles better than this outdated piece of shyte. DELETED!

Super Star Soldier - Cool
Gunstar Heroes - Awesome
Beyond Oasis - Bad audio, and I thought it would be like Zelda adventure. It's not quite that.  Beat it but deleted it.
Super Castlevania IV - I'm not worthy.  Stuck in the clock tower.
Chew Man Fu - Interesting
Dragon's Curse - Nice, but not without some flaws
Wonder Boy in Monster World - The best of the Wonder Boy games by far
Soldier Blade - Second to last stage is annoying and I don't like its power up system
R-Type III: The Third Lightning - Ok.  Beat it the first time through after lots of tries.  Unlimited continues helps a lot
Streets of Rage - Ok, waiting on the sequel
Bio-Hazard Battle - Interesting

In descending order of preference...

Gunstar Heroes (Gen) - Still bitchin' after all these years.
Kirby's Adventure (NES) - Pay no attention to Zane, he is a dangerous man. Best Kirby game ahoy!
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES) - Still mighty damn fine. And now without GBA voices! Double victory!
Alien Crush (TG16) - Turbo had the best pinball games.
Punch-Out!! (NES) - Another ageless one, but strangely laggy at times.
Wonderboy in Monster World (Gen) - Never tried the series before. It's pretty good, though I'm stuck at the moment.
New Adventure Island (TG16) - S'alright. I kinda expected more from it, but what's there is solid.
SimCity (SNES) - More for my mom, but unleashing Disastergeddon is still fun.
Super Mario World (SNES) - In retrospect I don't love it like I thought I did. And jumping has a hal-second lag for some reason.
StarFox 64 (N64) - Had only fleeting experience with this on the N64, DLed on a hunch it would be better than my negative memories. It's not. If there's a VC purchase I regret, it's this one.

Of course, none of these are getting any playtime lately since I got myself Super Paper Mario...heh.

correction - Amiga had the best pinball games.

Looks like our opinions differ in a couple of different places.

I spent a lot of time with Kid Icarus and everyone else seemed to like it, even my Dad. I put Kid Icarus in the same league as Metroid and Legend of Zelda, but clearly Nintendo doesn't share my opinion. I would've loved to have a 2D sequel on the SNES.

  It took me 2 weeks to beat Mario 64. I spent another 2 weeks collecting the remainder of the stars and finding shortcuts, getting stars in different ways, and just messing around. The move into 3D can only happen once, so I can understand why IGN stated there will never be a game like Mario 64 again. For instance, the novelty had worn off by the time Mario Sunshine came out; I had already become accustomed to 3D and the shock was gone.

  Edit: I don't have a Wii yet, so those are my quick thoughts of the original releases. I played Mario 64 ten years ago; it was nineteen years for Kid Icarus.

I actually put Kid Icarus in the same category as Metroid as well. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact (or what I believe I read YEARS ago in a strategy guide) that they actually debuted on the NES on the same day. They also look quite similar (graphically) as well outside the gameplay simularities.

The Kid Icarus soundtrack also appears on the Famicom 20th Anniversary Original Sound Tracks Vol. 1 disc alongside the Metroid and Legend of Zelda soundtracks and I think it definitely deserves to be there even if it's not nearly as revered.

I don't have a Wii, but I presume you can include Live Arcade stuff? I've only just bought a 360 and my first purchases off XBLA have been:

Castlevania SoTN, (naturally). I sold my PS version of this yonks ago, and it's nice to be able to sit down in front of a big TV and play it again. Even the pad isn't so bad after a while.

Cetan. The board game conversion. Okay, admission here... I bought the 360 - a new, cutting-edge console to all intents and purposes - because it was announced that Talisman is being made for it. A 24 year-old boardgame is the only thing that compelled me to buy a new console. Quite perverse. Anyway, Catan is alright. Not one of my favorite boardgames (it contains neither dragons nor spaceships, so loses points in my book), but it's okayfor a light session.

Jetpac! I'm a sad old duffer that grew up with the ZX Spectrum, so this is a real treat to me. The modernized version is actually really good. Gives me hope that Rare will bring some of their other old classics to Live Arcade.

Metroid and Icarus also have the same composer, IIRC.

-Joshua

I've bought way too many and will still buy way too many more, most likely.

Sabreman, Catan had no demo, but it does interest me.  I was thinking that it wouldn't be so much fun single-player; have you played it single- or multiplayer?  What are your thoughts for either?

Wait, wait, wait a minute...

They're bringing Talisman to the 360?  Are we talking the second-edition version, with all the expansions?  Because that would be pretty freakin' sweet.

Yeah, it's coming by way of Capcom, along with Rocketman, Super Street Fighter II Turbo Remix HD and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Remix HD.

"Talisman is based off a different strategy game, only in this case it'll be sticking to its Games Workshop roots. Revolving around a 3-D representation of the board, Talisman is a translation of the tabletop game that sports one to four players on or offline, 25 characters from the franchise and expansion through downloadable content in the future. It will be seeing a release this winter for XBLA, PSN and PC as well."
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/13/capco … a-and-psn/

Looks like it most likely will be based on the 4th edition version, since the board game version of that will be released in October:  http://www.capcom.com/BBS/showthread.php?t=13525

Alright, I agree that Kirby's Adventure rocks, no doubt about that, but best Kirby game ever?  I'm afraid not.  I have two words for you: Super Deluxe.  The Great Treasure Hunt owns all.  And who could forget Megaton Punch?  One of the best 2P minigames out there.

Truth-bringer, you are.  Yet another SNES title I wished Nintendo had ported over to the GBA; doubtless it'd be absolutely perfect for portable play.

Huzzah to the Gourmet Race!

i have quite a few
this is from a .txt file so that's why some have the cost next to them

Super Star Soldier
Military Madness
Victory Run
Bomberman 93
Bonk's Adventure
Toejam & Earl
Space Harrier II
R-TYPE - 800 points
Alien Crush - 600 points
Dungeon Explorer - 600 points
Soldier Blade - 600 points
Moto Roader - 600 points
VIGILANTE - 600 points
Chew Man Fu - 600 points
New Adventure Island - 600 points
Donkey Kong - 500 points
Donkey Kong Jr. - 500 points
Kirby's Adventure - 500 points
Kid Icarus - 500 points
Gunstar Heroes - 800 points
Biohazard Battle - 800 points
Streets of Rage - 800 points
Wonderboy in Monster World - 800 points
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 800 points
Mario Kart 64 - 1000 points
Dragon's Curse - 600 points

Kirby's Adventure
Punch-Out
Super Mario Bros.
Castlevania IV
Donkey Kong Country
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Mario World
Mario Kart 64
Star Fox 64
Super Mario 64
Beyond Oasis
Gunstar Heroes
Toejam & Earl
Bonk's Adventure
Bonk's Revenge
Dragon's Curse

I still think the best Kirby game is Kirby's Dream Course, which just came out for the Japanese Virtual Console last week.  Hopefully that means we'll see it here soon, too!

I'm kinda curious.  Can one of you who downloads a lot of these VC titles give me an idea of how many blocks the average VC game uses up by platform?  Thanks.

Most games are around twenty to fifty blocks, with the larger N64 titles bordering on 100, in my experiences.

Have you tried The Amazing Mirror for the GBA? It's basically an extended Great Treasure Hunt, complete with treasure chest hunting and multiplayer action. It also includes a number minigames that are essentially clones of the Super Star/Super Deluxe ones. I do think Super Star is the best package overall, but The Amazing Mirror has a tendency to be overlooked.

I'm choosing wisely.

Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past (SNES)
Mario Kart 64 (N64)
Super Mario World (SNES)
Kirby's Adventure (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

I'd like to see NoA release Actraiser for the Americas. It's been released in Japan for months now.

Strange they didn't release it yet, it's been out in Europe for over a month as well...

anyways, my acquisitions:

Super Mario Bros. - for old times' sake
Bomberman 93 - can't get my wavebird to function as 5th controller...
Soldier Blade - spent quite some time on this one, excellent quality for money
Super Mario World - doesn't work with component on my tv
Actraiser - what a great game this is! shame I didn't get it during the SNES' life

Here's what I got so far:

Kid Icarus: I mostly remember this game for being weird and hard, but mostly for being weird. The controls are kind of sloppy, and the grim reaper music makes me want to play the game on mute, but the otherwise awesome music won't let me. It'll take a lot of discipline to finish this one.

Contra Spirits: this is actually the first time I sat down to play through a Contra game; I've only played a level or two before. The game is slightly less hard than I though it would be (i.e. impossible to finish--it still kicks my ass) and I had a lot of fun playing it. The final boss battle was awesome, easily the best I've played. I'll probably pick up the other Contra games when/if they come out for the VC.

Mario 64: A fun game I'll probably replay when I've got the time. Camera is pretty bad, and the signs everywhere are kind of distracting. The controls are maybe a bit too complicated/eleborate. I don't like the location of the Z button on the classic controller so I'm playing this one with a Gamecube controller.

R-Type 1: I like these games but really suck at them. Music is nice. Second stage music strongly reminds me of another game's music, but I can't remember tune at the moment. I suck for paying 600 points for a half a game (as I understand it the US version has the complete game for 200 points more).

AJ Dracula IV: Never played a Castlevania game except for 2. It's kind of sluggish, but the music is nice and gloomy, as are the environments. Not that difficult so far (I'm somewhere around level VIII I think).  I'm slightly disappointed by it, but probably just set my expectations too high.
Edit: Ouch. Looks like it's getting harder from here on.

I have tried it, but only briefly.  I was kinda turned off by the multiple Kirbys and the cellphone thing.  Four Swords Adventures this is not.  That said, I would love to play it in 4P co-op, but sadly I only know one other person around here who has it.  Maybe I'll give it another shot in 1P someday as I do like the setup otherwise.

Used up the last of my wii points on these two games:

Gunstar Heroes: Only played this for a bit, but I like the style and presentation. Should be fun to play together with someone else.

Ninja gaiden: Damn this game is hard. The first three levels or so are okay but after that it's just madness. I just managed to finish it about half an hour ago, but I must have played those final three levels about a million times. Still, the controls are really tight, and once you remember all the enemy patterns you can really blast though most parts of the game. I like how all the bosses are complete pushovers except the last three. At least you don't have to fight them in order again every single time you die. Did anyone here play the sequel? Is it any good?

Edit: I ended up liking Super Castlevania IV a lot after all, mostly for the more challenging later stages. The clock tower one in particular was a lot of fun. Bosses also became a bit more of a challenge, though they still felt somewhat underdeveloped. The final battle was great though. It's really cool what they did with the atmosphere in this game. There are lots of details everywhere when you stop and take notice. Shame the mode 7 stuff always feels a bit gimmicky to me (makes me nauseous in some spots too).

Yes, the sequel to Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos is awesome. The most obvious improvement is the fact you can scale walls easier (think Spiderman) and you can increase you maximum ninja power by collecting scrolls hidden in each stage. Outside that the story and characters rock and the cinematic style of the first game is continued. Basically, if you liked the first game I don't what would stop you from enjoying The Dark Sword of Chaos – if not more.

However, I was pretty disappointed with Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. It just seemed pretty lackluster even with its improvements (more animation and new weaponry.) Unfortunately, there was a bug in the original NES game that made you take double damage from everything (it was fixed in the SNES compilation NG Trilogy) so you died 2 times quicker than you should have, it makes it pain to beat it.

I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase the first or second Ninja Gaiden games on any of the console’s online stores.

Thanks for the impressions. I'll pick up part 2 when/if it comes out for the virtual console then. The wall scaling thing would be an improvement. I found it kind of frustrating to jump my way up a single wall in the first game.

I was of the understanding that the double-damage thing, as well as only having five freaking continues, were intentional changes made to the US version after complaints that NG2 was much easier than NG1. The Trilogy version does fix these issues, but there's no staff roll, the soundtrack is mixed up with some pieces missing, and there's also the boss music glitch (basically, in Trilogy, every boss after NG1's Bloody Malth straight through to the end of NG3 has NG1's 5-1 stage theme instead of the traditional NG boss theme). But either way, NG3 is actually pretty lame any way you play it. Skip it.

I wasn't really impressed with the remixed music NG Trilogy offered... I liked the NES originals more; there are some nice pieces in NG1&2 (the opening theme for NG2 is just phenomenal for its time).

The original Ninja Gaiden is definitely harder but I wouldn't say Ninja Gaiden II slouches on difficulty, in a certain sense it seems a little "more forgiving" than the original did but I'd hardly consider it too easy. Good stuff regardless.

Donkey Kong Country 2 hits the Wii VC today. Awww.... yeeeah!

Add that one to my list.

DKC2 was my favorite out of the SNES DKC titles; I still have the cart for DKC3 in my closet though (really wish it was a DKC2 cart).

Interesting.  I have to say that DKC2 was actually my least favorite of the SNES ones since the difficulty was much more frustrating than the other two.  My fav is the first one.  I really liked how the stages were designed for fast play where you could just run and bop from beginning to end without stopping if you knew what you were doing.

Interesting. In all the year I can't remember someone stating such.

Since I added a new one just now I decided to list them all, in alphabetical order unless I consider them a series:

Actraiser SNES
Altered Beast GEN
Bonk's Adventure TG16
Castlevania NES
Super Castlevania IV SNES
Donkey Kong NES
Donkey Kong Jr NES
Donkey Kong Country NES
Excitebike NES
Gunstar Heroes GEN
Ice Climber NES
Kid Icarus NES
Legend of Zelda NES
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past SNES
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64
Military Madness TG16
Ninja Gaiden NES
Punch-Out NES
Sim City SNES
Star Fox 64 N64
Mario Bros NES
Super Mario Bros NES
Super Mario World SNES
Super Mario 64 N64
Mario Kart 64 N64
Super Star Soldier TG16
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES
Wario's Woods NES

Dang man, that's $187 right there! I haven't even put in half that.