Topic: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round B: SNES VC)

[M.K.Ultra]

Background
The Wii U eShop will only be open for a limited time so it is worth looking at the games there while there is still time to buy them. In the past few months we looked at all the available eShop games, but we omitted the Virtual Console releases, until now! Nintendo introduced the Virtual Console (VC) with Wii as a way to sell games from previous systems a la carte. That same service continued with Wii U and 3DS before being replaced with a Netflix style service bundled with the Nintendo Switch's Online membership.

The Games: Bonus Round B - SNES VC
Much like the games available with the Switch's online membership and the mini-console releases, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was next in line after the NES. F-zero was the sole title to debut with the initial eight games in April 2013 Link to NWR article. After several years of additional offerings, the 16-bit library extended to 51 different games, all of which are still available.  (See full list) The titles are all priced at $7.99, or $1.50 if you had already purchased the same title on Wii using the same account.

In addition to Wii virtual console, SNES games have been available in a number of mediums. Most notably, the aforementioned Switch online membership includes access to 38 NES titles covering about half the eShop offerings (See full list). There was also the SNES Classic Edition, which included 20 games (See full list), but currently sells for about $200 on the secondhand market. The 3DS eShop also boasts a decent virtual console that includes 28 SNES games, however they are only available for the New 3DS and 2DS systems. Since the clock is ticking on that eShop as well, here is a short list of games not found in the other places mentioned: Final Fight, Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3, and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. Finally, some third parties have taken it upon themselves to release collections that include some of these classics.

• Mega Man Legacy Collection 2: includes Mega Man 7
• Mega Man X Legacy Collection: includes Mega Man X - X3
• Castlevania Anniversary Collection: includes Super Castlevania IV
• Contra Anniversary Collection: includes Contra III The Alien Wars
• Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection: includes Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers

Focusing just on titles not found elsewhere we are left with lean list of 12 titles with information in the following order
Game Title (developer, US release year, cartridge cost*, NWR review)
* Loose cartridge only, source: https://www.pricecharting.com/

• Axelay  (Konami, 1992, $40, NWR recommended)
• Cybernator (Konami, 1993, $25, NWR recommended)
• Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Grey Wolf (Koei, 1993, $21)
• Harvest Moon (Amccus, 1997, $30, 7 from NWR)
• Metal Marines (Namco, 1993, $75, NWR recommended)
• Nobunaga's Ambition (Koei, 1993, $19)
• Pac-Attack (Namco, 1993, $9, NWR recommended)
• Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (Namco, 1994, $6)
• Rival Turf (Jaleco, 1992, $11)
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (Koei, 1995, $20, NWR recommended)
• Uncharted Waters: New Horizons (Koei, 1994, $46)
• Vegas Stakes (HAL Laboratory, 1993, $3,  NWR Not recommended)

The Highlights
Many of these games cost more to buy as loose carts. The most valuable being Metal Marines which sells for over $100 CIB and was given a thumbs up by NWR's Steven Rodriguez when it came to Wii VC.

Harvest Moon was a late SNES game (1997!  ) and the only one in this list to get a full review from NWR. According to Andrew Brown, the game is still fun if you have nostalgia for the series.

If you missed out on the SNES classic, then we should also mention Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. This is not available on the 3DS VC or Switch online service currently and with the licensing involved may not be. This fan-favorite was given a recommendation by NWR when it came to Wii VC.

Please comment with your thoughts on the SNES VC and join me next week for a look at some games with great Grafx from the one third party console to grace the Wii U VC.

[pokepal148]

I'm still salty that Mario RPG didn't come to the new 3DS VC.

[Order.RSS]

Vegas Stakes/Las Vegas Dream has a surprisingly useful soundtrack if you're putting together an elevator music mixtape. I've always been somewhat baffled by this game's existence; so it must be around 1992 when the whole Night Trap controversy kicked off and the industry fell under much closer scrutiny, right? The ESRB was founded in '94.

So Vegas Stakes, literally just a casino simulator on a children's game device with miiiiiiiiiiiild storytelling elements releasing in the middle of that (1993) really feels like HAL/Nintendo were pressing their luck. It got a 1995 GameBoy port too, but I've never heard anyone make a stink about that game.
I don't really know when casino-esque games fell out of favor in the post-pinball game of skill lawsuit era, but it feels like they were just fair game for a while still. When Aruze bought SNK they drowned the NeoGeo Pocket in slot machine & roulette cartridges, and the early Pokémon games had slot machines in them too around 2000.

If anyone has played some of these strategy games (Nobunaga's Ambitions, Ghenghis Khan 2, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 4) I'd be curious to hear about them. Did they use the SNES Mouse? Were they turnbased or realtime?

[M.K.Ultra]

Vegas Stakes is apparently rated E for everyone with the MSRB, but has a 12 rating from PEGI.

Whenever I think about the concern over mature content in video games I just think of violence, harsh language, and sexuality. I don't know how much appeal there is for gambling with children. Personally, I was enticed by it as a child and used to buy scratch-off lottery tickets from a vending machine when I went with my mom to the grocery store. Nobody seemed to care I was breaking the law. Once I learned probability theory I lost interest in gambling.

I also found an interesting NWR Extra Life article on Vegas Stakes.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 4 was discussed on two episodes of RFN: Episode 347: Aggressive Drilling and
Episode 591: The Funk Will Do That to You so that could provide some answers to your questions.

[Order.RSS]

Vegas Stakes is apparently rated E for everyone with the MSRB, but has a 12 rating from PEGI.

Whenever I think about the concern over mature content in video games I just think of violence, harsh language, and sexuality. I don't know how much appeal there is for gambling with children.

Yeah, feels like this is a much more recent concern. Now that gachapon/lootboxes/microtransactions are becoming the norm (particularly on the mobile platform which exist beyond the ESRB's scope), we're seeing what I think might be the beginning of tighter laws on monetization.
In Hawaii for example there were legislators who wanted to limit EA's lootboxes in Star Wars Battlefront.

Just amusing to see how in the early nineties people were concerned about witchcraft, satanic content, gore, violence and foul language... But not gambling.