Thirty games, thirty dollars.
That in and of itself should turn heads, but the Rare Replay collection actually has GOOD classic games. This gigantic package includes Rare games from the PC and NES era through Xbox 360, including Xbox 360 remakes of N64 classics Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and Perfect Dark, as well as hidden gems like the four-player R.C. Pro-Am II. The package even includes their own take on NES Remix (albeit less manic), as well as unlockable bonus content like artwork, interviews, and unreleased footage of shelved Rare games. Beautiful artwork decorates the screen borders to fill in empty space. Achievements even carry over for players who owned the 360 releases. Based on what was on display on the show floor, the emulation is fantastic, making this bundle one hell of a deal that should tempt many Nintendo fans.
What can Nintendo learn from this? First off, they hardly have a monopoly on childhood nostalgia or retro gaming. Trickling out the same virtual console releases on new systems is not a competitive strategy. The release of Earthbound Beginnings is excellent, but they need to dig deeper into their catalog of first and third party games, and for games they've already released, look at ways they can further enhance that experience such as N64 memory pak emulation support, extra sound channels, and optional border artwork.
The Virtual Console's fairly rigid pricing structure also looks pathetic compared with Rare Replay's value. The recent humble bundle on the eShop and prior one-off Virtual Console and early adopter sales are great, but Nintendo needs to consider more aggressive pricing models if it wants its retro gaming to be a selling point that appeals to those who don’t already own their console. Nintendo could easily offer significant discounts for large bundles—there are plenty of gamers that would be willing to pay $100 for a bundle of fifty virtual console games, even if they already owned half of those in another format. Additional features like cross-buy and transferable save files would also sweeten the deal.