Editing Virtual Console

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The Virtual Console lineup consists of titles originally released on past home and handheld consoles. These titles are run in their original forms through [[Emulator|software emulation]] (excluding GBA titles on 3DS), and can be purchased from the [[Wii Shop Channel]] or [[Nintendo eShop]] for between 500 and 1200 [[Nintendo Points|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 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 [[Sega Genesis|Genesis/Mega Drive]], [[NEC]]'s [[TurboGrafx-16]], and [[SNK]]'s [[Neo Geo (system)|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 game]]s. 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.

{{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.

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.

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 [[Controller Pak|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.

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.

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{{note|a}} Wii Remote is compatible with SNES and GBA releases, but may require button remapping to accommodate for the lack of buttons.<br>

{{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.

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.

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.

Some Nintendo 64 games offered optional features that required peripheral hardware, such as the [[Rumble Pak]] for force feedback and the [[Nintendo 64 accessories|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 (video game)|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 (video game)|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.

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 [[Super Famicom Classic Controller|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.

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 [[National Football League Players Association|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 Heavy Industries|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 [[Sega Genesis|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 Comics|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|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 (video game)|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).

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 (video game)|Metroid]]'', which used a similar password system, retained its original behavior. Similarly, ''[[List of Mario sports games|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 (game)|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.

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.