Virtual Console

Virtual Console

Developer	Nintendo
Type	Classic video game re-release distribution
Platform	Wii Nintendo 3DS Wii U
Website	Wii Official US website Official UK website Official Japanese website Nintendo 3DS Official US website Official UK website Official Japanese website Wii U Official US website Official UK website Official Japanese website

Introduction

Virtual Console, also abbreviated as VC, is a line of downloadable video games (mostly unaltered) for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home gaming consoles and the Nintendo 3DS portable gaming console.

The Virtual Console lineup consists of titles originally released on past home and handheld consoles. These titles are run in their original forms through software emulation (excluding GBA titles on 3DS), and can be purchased from the Wii Shop Channel or Nintendo eShop for between 500 and 1200 Wii Points (Wii), US$2.99 and US$6.99 (3DS) and US$4.99 and US$9.99 (Wii U) depending on system, rarity, and/or demand. Virtual Console's library of past games currently consists of titles originating from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS, as well as Sega's Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive, NEC's TurboGrafx-16, and SNK's Neo Geo AES. The service for the Wii also includes games for platforms that were known only in select regions, such as the Commodore 64 (Europe and North America) and MSX (Japan), as well as Virtual Console Arcade, which allows players to download video arcade games. Virtual Console titles have been downloaded over ten million times. The sale of past games through the Virtual Console is one of Nintendo's reasons for opposing software piracy of old console games.

List of Virtual Console games

Virtual Console

Platform	Wii Shop Channel (to be discontinued on January 30, 2019)	Nintendo eShop
	Wii	Wii U	Nintendo 3DS family
Arcade
Virtual Console Arcade	Yes	Partial: Available in Wii Mode only	No
Home systems
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)/ Famicom (FC)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Super NES (SNES)/ Super Famicom (SFC)	Yes	Yes	Partial: Available on the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 2DS XL models only
Nintendo 64	Yes	Yes	No
Master System	Yes	Partial: Available in Wii Mode only	No
Mega Drive / Genesis	Yes	Partial: Available in Wii Mode only	No
PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16	Yes	Yes	Partial: Available on Japanese 3DS Systems only
Neo Geo AES	Yes	Partial: Available in Wii Mode only	No
Commodore 64 (North America and PAL regions only)	Terminated: Removed from Wii Shop Channel in August 2013 (games already purchased can be redownloaded)	Terminated: Originally available in Wii Mode only (removed from Wii Shop Channel in August 2013, but games already purchased can be redownloaded)	No
MSX (Japan only)	Terminated: Removed from Wii Shop Channel in February 2014 (games already purchased can be redownloaded)	Terminated: Originally available in Wii Mode only (removed from Wii Shop Channel in February 2014, but games already purchased can be redownloaded)	No
Handheld systems
Game Boy	No	No	Yes
Game Boy Color	No	No	Yes
Game Boy Advance	No	Yes	Partial: Available through the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program only
Nintendo DS	No	Yes	No
Game Gear	No	No	Yes

Wii

Control

Virtual Console games can be played using the different controllers. The Wii Remote itself (turned on its side) can be used for NES, Master System, TurboGrafx-16, and some Mega Drive/Genesis and Neo Geo AES games. The original and the pro versions of Classic Controller (sold separately from the console) can be used for all Virtual Console games. The controllers from the GameCube can also be used for all games on the Virtual Console, except for some multiplayer TurboGrafx-16 games that use the GameCube controller for the fifth player. As a result of this, the wireless GameCube controller (the WaveBird) has seen increased popularity.

All Virtual Console games have their buttons mapped to the respective buttons on the controllers, however, in certain circumstances users can use X and Y instead of A and B, if the original controller does not have X and Y buttons (for example the NES). In certain titles, such as Nintendo 64 games, there may be specific controls tailored to the Classic Controller or GameCube Controller. Nintendo 64 titles that originally provided force feedback via the Nintendo 64 controller's Rumble Pak peripheral however, are not supported by the built-in "Rumble" feature of the GameCube controller.

The button mapping has become the cause of problem and concern, however. The button mapping is rigid and is not customizable. Because of this, many games are difficult to play. All Neo Geo AES fighting games have very awkward control schemes and glitches when changed to GameCube controllers. Nintendo has acknowledged this issue but has not put any efforts towards fixing it on the Wii. Currently, all Wii U Virtual Console games support customizable button mappings.

With the release of Bomberman '93, it was revealed that TurboGrafx-16 games can support full five player games. Since a single Wii can only have four Wii Remotes and four GameCube controllers connected at the same time, a combination of the two are needed for five player games. The same issue is found in 5-8 player Commodore 64 games as well. Because the Wii U doesn't have GameCube controller ports, only up to four player games can be played on the system.

	Wii Remote	Classic Controllera	GameCube Controller	USB Keyboard
NES/Famicom	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Super NES/Super Famicom	No	Yes	Yes	No
Nintendo 64	No	Yes	Yes	No
TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Master System	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Mega Drive/Genesis	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Neo Geo AES	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Commodore 64	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MSX	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Virtual Console Arcade	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Note:

a

The NES Classic Controller, the SNES Classic Edition Controller and Club Nintendo's SNES Classic Controller have at least partial functionality with all Wii Virtual Console releases, but may require button remapping to accommodate for the lack of buttons.

MSX games also support USB keyboards, as the original system featured their input. However, Commodore 64 titles use a pop-up "virtual" keyboard, which can be toggled on and off by pressing the "1" button on the Wii Remote, and are only used to set up the game and are not for input during gameplay.

Titles

System	Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong	North America	PAL region		South Korea
			Europe	Australia
Commodore 64 (NA & PAL Regions only)	-	-	-	-	-
MSX (Japan only)	-	-	-	-	-
NES/Famicom	147	94	79	77	23
Master System	14	15	15	15	-
TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine	119	59	58	58	-
Mega Drive/Genesis	91	73	74	74	-
Super NES/Super Famicom	102	63	64	65	13
Neo Geo AES	75	54	54	54	-
Nintendo 64	20	21	21	21	4
Virtual Console Arcade	78	21	20	20	-
Total	659	398	385	384	40

Storage

Games downloaded from the Virtual Console library can be stored in the Wii's built-in 512 MB flash memory.

Wii system software versions 2.0 and later allow Virtual Console and WiiWare games to be moved from the console's internal memory to a removable SD card and then back to the same console. Wii Menu 4.0 added a new menu to run channels from an SD card provided there is enough free space to hold a copy of the channel in internal memory. If the console runs out of memory, the SD menu will offer to move other channels to the SD card.

Virtual Console games are locked to the Wii on which they were purchased—they cannot be transferred to another Wii via an SD card, although it is possible to purchase games in the Wii Shop Channel and send them as gifts to people on their Wii Friends list. This procedure does not work across regions and it has been reported that bought titles cannot be sent to users from other countries either, even if they are on the same region. In the event that a Wii is damaged and the Virtual Console games can no longer be played, Nintendo will provide support (if the serial number or console email name can be provided). Also, if a Wii owner transfers all data on their console to a Wii U, the ability to download those titles from the Wii Shop Channel, along with all save data currently on the Wii, is transferred.

Game saves and save data

Game saving is functional and intact on the Virtual Console for all games which originally had a save feature on their cartridge. Saved games are saved to the Wii Internal Memory and function exactly as the original cartridge did. A game which in its original cartridge form did not have any form of save feature will not have any save game feature on the Virtual Console (though depending on its original system it may have the suspend feature as described below).

Most first-party N64 games used internal cartridge memory for game save data and thus will save properly on the Virtual Console. A select few first-party and nearly all other N64 game cartridges utilized the extra memory capability of the N64 Controller Pak. Saving of data to the Controller Pak is not supported by the Virtual Console, so for those games which used this feature, the save feature will not work properly in the Virtual Console.

An extreme example is that of Mario Kart 64 which uses internal cartridge memory for progress and save game data. Consequently, all progress is saved properly (since it was saved to the cartridge itself) but one of the features in Mario Kart 64 (saving ghosts for racing at a later date) will not work since that particular feature utilized the Controller Pak, and the option to copy data to the Controller Pak won't function in those games.

Suspending play

Like other emulation software, the Wii Virtual Console enables the user to suspend play of a game at any time. To do this, users simply return to the Wii main menu from the game. Two exceptions to this are the N64 and Neo Geo AES, titles which do not support this feature. The N64 will allow play to be halted by returning to the Wii Menu but will require the person to start from the title screen to continue playing. Note that suspending play enables the player to pause the game indefinitely but does not function as a "save state" in that, once the game is resumed, the user will be able to pause play again (overwriting the suspend point) but will not be able to return to the previously suspended state.

The suspend feature will not be available if the user resets the Wii with the reset button on the front of the console during gameplay. Further, if the Wii loses power during gameplay, there will be no further suspend state, nor will there be a way to restart from the previous suspend state. There are some exceptions, however. Arcade games released by Bandai Namco feature an updated menu and when reset during gameplay the save state will be saved before the console is reset.

Nintendo 3DS

The Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console logo

Titles

System	Japan	North America	PAL region		South Korea	Taiwan and Hong Kong
			Europe	Australia
Game Boy	70	50	49	49	13	4
Game Boy Color	20	31	29	29	7	3
Game Boy Advance (Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors only)	10	10	10	10	-	-
Game Gear	22	16	16	16	-	-
NES/Famicom	111	64	63	62	15	-
Super NES/Super Famicom (New Nintendo 3DS only)	49	30	31	31	-	-
TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine (Japan only)	4	-	-	-	-	-
3D Classics	24	22	22	22	-	-
Total	310	223	220	219	35	7

Storage

Virtual Console games are saved on an SD card and are accessible through the Nintendo 3DS home menu.

Game saves and save data

The save feature for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual console service is similar to the Wii's. However, unlike the Wii's, the games can save a single "restore point" that can be used as much as the player wants to but is replaced and overwritten if the player makes another one.

Wii U

The Wii U Virtual Console logo.

Control

	Wii U GamePad (Off-TV Play)	Wii U Pro Controller	Wii Remote	Wii Classic Controller b	USB Keyboard
NES/Famicom	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Super NES/Super Famicom	Yes	Yes	n.b. a	Yes	No
Nintendo 64	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MSX	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Game Boy Advance	Yes	Yes	n.b. a	Yes	No
Nintendo DS	Yes	No	No	No	No

Note:

a

Wii Remote is compatible with SNES and GBA releases, but may require button remapping to accommodate for the lack of buttons.

Note:

b

NES Classic Controller, the SNES Classic Edition Controller and Club Nintendo's SNES Classic Controller have at least partial functionality with all Wii U Virtual Console releases except DS games, but may require button remapping to accommodate for the lack of buttons.

Titles

System	Japan	North America	PAL region
			Europe	Australia
NES/Famicom	148	94	89	89
Super NES/Super Famicom	101	51	49	49
Nintendo 64	22	21	21	21
TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine	52	40	40	40
MSX (Japan only)	23	-	-	-
Game Boy Advance	102	74	70	70
Nintendo DS	31	31	31	31
Total	479	311	300	300

Storage

Virtual Console games are saved either on the Wii U's flash storage (8GB or 32GB) or can be saved on a USB flash drive or external hard drive.

Game saves and save data

The save feature for the Wii U Virtual console service is similar to the Wii's however unlike the Wii's, the games can save a single "restore point" that can be used as much as the player wants to but is replaced and overwritten if the player makes another one. Game saves from Wii Virtual Console games cannot be transferred to the Wii U versions since they are based on different builds.

Nintendo Switch

Template:Main The Nintendo Switch does not use the "Virtual Console" label for the digital distribution of its older games from past platforms. However, they are instead released to subscribers to the Switch's Online service, while others are made available through the Switch's eShop. Classic titles originally released on non-Nintendo hardware, such as the Neo Geo and Sega platforms, are releasing via the Switch's eShop under the Arcade Archives and Sega Ages banners, respectively.

Differences from original games

Nintendo has stated that the Virtual Console releases will be faithful to the original games, eliminating the possibility of graphical enhancements, customizable controls, or added online multiplayer features. However, for various reasons, the gameplay experience is not always identical to the original.

Peripherals

Some Nintendo 64 games offered optional features that required peripheral hardware, such as the Rumble Pak for force feedback and the Controller Pak for additional data storage. Because these peripherals are not emulated or simulated in the Wii Virtual Console, the games played on the Virtual Console as they would on the Nintendo 64 without the peripherals attached. In particular, Mario Kart 64 cannot save "Ghost Data" since no Controller Pak is available, Cruis'n USA still allows saving game data but data cannot be copied to a Controller Pak. Wave Race 64 still has the ability to save progress but like Cruis'n USA the copy ability that allowed data to be copied to the Controller Pak cannot be used. Similarly, both games Mario Golf and Mario Tennis cannot use a Transfer Pak to copy data to or from a real Game Boy Color or the 3DS Virtual Console running the respective companion game.

Three Famicom games—Excitebike, Mach Rider and Wrecking Crew—included the ability to save player-designed levels via the Famicom Data Recorder. Since this peripheral was never released outside Japan, the NES versions of these games did not support this save feature. Despite this, all three games have had the feature implemented in their Virtual Console releases for Wii and Wii U, allowing players to save course data to the system's memory or an SD card; however, these features are not present in the Virtual Console releases of Mach Rider and Wrecking Crew for Nintendo 3DS, although the 3D Classics release 3D Excitebike does retain this feature as it is not a Virtual Console release.

The N64 game Pokémon Snap allowed players to take their Game Paks to special in-store kiosks to print stickers of their in-game photos; the Virtual Console version emulates this by letting players send a photo to the Wii Message Board once per day but this was removed from the Wii U version. Also, the Virtual Console versions of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (Game Boy Color) and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Game Boy Color) on the Nintendo 3DS cannot print photos from either game, since this required the Game Boy Printer peripheral to be attached throughout both games and any features that required use of the Game Boy Color Infared port can't be used since the 3DS uses different infared technology from the Game Boy Color.

Controllers

Some reviewers have reported that games play differently due to the different controllers. For example, Super Mario World is often cited as being more difficult to play due to the GameCube controller's button mapping. The Classic Controller has a button layout more like that of the Super NES controller, and an adapter has been released that enables a player to plug an actual Super NES controller into one of the Wii's GameCube controller ports. Similarly, most N64 Virtual Console games have mapped the Z button to the L, ZL and ZR buttons and the C-buttons to the right analog stick on the Classic Controller, which some reviewers have described as awkward. Furthermore, the mapping of the left analog stick for N64 Virtual Console games does not use the full range of the stick, and instead uses a range of approximately 67%, likely due to the differences in design of the N64 controller's control stick and the GameCube style analog stick. This has been noted to provide a significantly different sensitivity when compared to the original N64 mapping.

Virtual Console releases of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on the Nintendo 3DS give the player the option to play the games as they appeared on their original hardware. By holding a button combination while launching the game, the 3DS presents the game in its original resolution rather than upscaling it to fit the height of the screen, making it appear smaller but more crisp. Game Gear games can also be played in the original resolution by changing the screen settings on the touch screen menu. Monochrome Game Boy games can be displayed in both "black and white" and "black and dark green" color palettes, switchable during gameplay.

Content

While virtually all Virtual Console games play identically to their original versions, some games have been altered cosmetically to address licensing and copyright issues. Tecmo Bowl (NES) originally included the names of real football players licensed from the NFL Players Association, but since the game's release, Electronic Arts obtained exclusive rights to the license; consequently, the names were removed from the Virtual Console version, with only the players' numbers being shown. Likewise, Wave Race 64—which featured Kawasaki logos on the title screen, jetskis and ad banners—had the logos removed from the title screen and jetskis, and the banners replaced with Wii and Nintendo DS banners due to licensing issues with Kawasaki. The Mega Drive/Genesis game The Revenge of Shinobi originally featured Spider-Man as a boss character, but because the license to that character had expired, the 2009 release for Virtual Console removes the Marvel copyright notice and changes the character to pink, but retains all of Spider-Man's behaviors and patterns. The Virtual Console release of StarTropics (NES) changes the name of one weapon from "Island Yo-Yo" to "Island Star", since Yo-Yo is a trademarked term in Canada.

Other games have experienced minor graphical differences from their original versions as well; most of these changes (as well as several others) were done due to Nintendo being more cautious about epilepsy, since many of the games during that time employed high flickering of color patterns that engulfed the screen. F-Zero (SNES) eliminates the track dimming when the player runs over the edges of the track, and Nintendo 64 games render polygons at a higher resolution than in their original hardware (though sprites and text appear blocky and pixelated by comparison). In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the screen turns red upon the player losing a life, whereas the original employed a rapid screen flash (Nintendo has yet to use such an effect since the Dennō Senshi Porygon incident in 1997).

The Wii and Wii U Virtual Console release of The Legend of Zelda (NES) uses the updated version featured in 2003's The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition compilation for the GameCube. While the gameplay is identical to the 1986 original, this release includes the save screen from the Famicom Disk System version, as well as an updated translation of the introduction screen.

The Wii U Virtual Console releases of the NES games appear to have been anti-aliased, resulting in some characters appearing more rounded or blurred compared to their original, Wii, and 3DS Virtual Console releases. The Wii U Game Boy Advance games have the graphics similarly smoothed, but give the player the option to toggle this effect on or off.

One significant difference in gameplay occurred in Kid Icarus (NES), which had its password system altered to disable certain special passwords that gave the main character special powers or large amounts of money, while also enabling new passwords to be found. Many players did not like this change, and the later release of Metroid, which used a similar password system, retained its original behavior. Similarly, Mario Golf originally had a code to enable password input for special tournaments, but had this feature removed for Virtual Console.

The title Donkey Kong: Original Edition was available via promotion on the Wii and 3DS Virtual Consoles, then later was made purchasable on the PAL Nintendo 3DS eShop. This game is a modified version of the NES release of Donkey Kong to more closely resemble the arcade version, and was originally featured as a mini-game in Donkey Kong 64. Both the NES version and Original Edition are available on the PAL Nintendo 3DS eShop. Despite never actually being released on the NES, the game is treated as an NES title but simply lists "Never Released" in place of the original release year.

Wii U Game Boy Advance games do not support multiplayer modes, Game Boy Player rumble features, sleep mode, or GameCube-connectivity. Similarly, Nintendo DS games made available on Virtual Console are identical to their original release, complete with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection set-up screens; however, as the wireless features are not emulated, attempting to use online play or local wireless multiplayer features (such as in Mario Kart DS) will not function, especially as the original service had been terminated about eleven months prior to the Virtual Console debut.

The Wii U Virtual Console re-release of Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 features all of the levels from the World-e section of the game unlocked automatically, including levels only released in Japan. This is done by a modified version of the game, where the levels are contained in the game's data and unlocked automatically. In the original game, the levels were unlocked using cards purchasable at various stores, which had dot codes on them containing the level data, and when scanned by the Nintendo e-Reader peripheral, saved the level to the game's save data for later usage without the card. While the original game could only fit 32 levels at any given time, the Virtual Console version has 38 levels in total, which includes every e-Reader card level ever released.

The Wii U Virtual Console re-release of Animal Crossing: Wild World removes the requirement to have someone visit your town and buy an item from Tom Nook's shop in order to upgrade to Nookingtons.

Game Boy games & Game Boy Color games on the 3DS Virtual Console don't support multiplayer modes or the Game Boy Color Infrared link feature (except for Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal). Game Boy Color games also don't support Game Boy Printer features, and N64 Connectivity. NES Games also don't support Famicom data recorder features in games such as Mach Rider and Wrecking Crew.

Languages

Certain games that were originally released only in Japan have been translated and released in other regions on Virtual Console. Sin and Punishment (N64), which had never been released in English but featured English voice acting, was released on the Virtual Console in North American and PAL regions; all menu commands and certain in-game text (all originally written in Japanese) were translated into English, but the game retains its Japanese title screen and dialogue subtitles. The Mysterious Murasame Castle (NES), and Summer Carnival '92: Recca (NES), which had never been released in English, were released in English on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2014. At least one game was fully translated, Monster World IV for the Mega Drive/Genesis was fully translated to English for both North American and European PAL regions.