Topic: Game Boy Advance Virtual Console Finally Coming to Wii U

[Soren]

...3DS games are obviously coming to 3DS eventually...

Obviously.

[azeke]

The WarioWare GBA game should be the first one, as i am guessing. Which is cool, but i hope they will get around and release Twisted sometime. I don't even care on which platform.

Warioware Twisted is one of Nintendo's all time greats (this is not a compliment that should be given lightly but  Twisted totally earns it) and it's a huge shame not a lot of people can experience it.

Otherwise, i'm down for some Mario & Luigi RPG goodness.

[Ian Sane]

Who is going to buy a $300 console for old GBA games?

I'd think of it more along the lines of that extra push for those on the fence. And if you can get the same thing on 3DS, that's not really helping Wii U.

Okay so Nintendo doesn't want GBA games on the 3DS to not steal the Wii U's thunder but they will release 3DS equivalents of every single Mario Wii U game prior to the Wii U's game release and are continuing that trend with SSB?  I'm not going to doubt the possibility that Nintendo is thinking this way but it's such a minor effort.  SSB 3DS is going to be a huge hit while SSB U does nothing to improve Wii U sales just like what happened with NSMB2/U and SM3DLand/World.  But don't put those damn GBA games on the 3DS!  THAT is going to tip the scales!

But it isn't unbelievable.  Nintendo getting hung up on stupid GBA games while ignoring a likely damaging trend where almost every notable Wii U game is preceded by a similar 3DS game that makes a Wii U purchase largely unnecessary to all but the most completist Nintendo fans sounds exactly like something they would do.

If it makes no sense then, YES, Nintendo is totally doing it!  They probably turn the lights on as they leave the office for the night and turn them off when they arrive in the morning.

[pokepal148]

Calm down, 3DS games are obviously coming to 3DS eventually, they'll just be timed WiiU exclusives for a while to give it a boost.

Nice typo,

But seriously I would like to think that n64/gamecube games are bigger selling points on the Wii U then games on the gba.

But all that aside let's take a look at the japan lineup because something caught my attention.

But at the very least we can expect previously unseen content that could only be found on the GBA library

Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World

[ShyGuy]

I got a lot of play out of that version of Yoshi. Good times.

[pokepal148]

Except they are literally putting out the crappy gba version(with a few small additions to enjoy) of a game that's already on virtual console.

[nhaines]

The reason they're releasing Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island on the Wii U is the same reason they never released Star Fox or Yoshi's Island on the Virtual Console: no SuperFX chip support.

Basically, the SuperFX chip is an embedded processor that has to be emulated perfectly concurrently with the SNES hardware emulator, and if you do it perfectly you get synclock problems.  Most PC emulators really fudge it, but Nintendo wants perfection.  Which is fair enough.

Don't ask me about the Super Mario World GBA port, though.  I have no idea.

[rlse9]

I just don't get this.  They would sell a ton more GBA games if they were putting them on the 3DS, I just don't see this as a big selling point for Wii U, and they've done so little with the Wii U VC as it is to this point, how about they just get all of the NES, SNES, and N64 games out?  Then from there, how about the Gamecube?  Or since they seem to have such a strong partnership with Sega, the Dreamcast?  I don't have a 3DS so it being on Wii U instead of 3DS does no harm to me, but I'm not excited by it either, maybe I'll get a game or two at some point but it seems like there's more interesting things they could do with the Wii U VC if that's what they want to focus on.

[ShyGuy]

Theory: I think the engine that powers the Wii U Virtual Console will be what they use going forward. When we get the 3DS hybrid in 2015, it will share its unified eshop with the Wii U VC.

[geckog7]

I'm actually happy to have GBA games on Wii U. I never played Metroid Fusion and look forward to trying it out. I'd rather play it on a TV than 3DS........

[Adrock]

I'm not going to doubt the possibility that Nintendo is thinking this way but it's such a minor effort.  SSB 3DS is going to be a huge hit while SSB U does nothing to improve Wii U sales just like what happened with NSMB2/U and SM3DLand/World.  But don't put those damn GBA games on the 3DS!  THAT is going to tip the scales!

First, GBA games on both Wii U and 3DS are still the same games. Offering sequels on two platforms is a significantly different strategy since they're exclusive. Second, and more importantly, the proximity between releasing games in the same series matters. Releasing New Super Mario Bros. 2 a few months before Wii U launched with New Super Mario Bros. U was poor planning (despite the latter being a far superior game). This has been said many times before. Super Mario 3D World released two years after Super Mario 3D Land. That's a good amount of time between series entries. The verdict is out on Super Smash Bros. since they have no release dates. It would certainly help if Nintendo released the Wii U version first.

Nintendo shouldn't dust their hands off and call it a day after making GBA and DS Virtual Console games exclusive to Wii U (for now). That would be silly. If people are complaining about this, they probably want access to those GBA games. It seems to me that this is already to working. No, this isn't earth-shattering, game-changing news and it isn't supposed to be. It's just something to help Wii U. Since Nintendo insists on not unifying the Virtual Console, making GBA and DS digital downloads exclusive to Wii U is exactly what they should do. It helps, but don't stop there.

[Leo13]

I agree with rise9 and geckog7


I'm happy to get GBA games (assuming we actually get them in April), but I also think it would be really cool if we got Dreamcast VC!!! Come on Sega/Nintendo!