Betagam7

I think this is how I was able to hit the window. It was 8:00pm in the evening where I am right now so that's probably how I found a quiet spell to sneak in and preorder while the UK was at work!

@Pj1 Me too. About twenty minutes ago they ran out of stock.

They have terrible reviews online, but they used to be Littlewoods catalogue so they aren't an unknown entity.

I managed to get one pre-ordered through Very.co.uk around half an hour ago. They are now sold out.
Uncharacteristic good fortune for me. (touch wood).

Another absolute joke from NoE and another reason not to buy a Wii-U.

Fail harder? It wouldn't be possible than these cretins have managed.

They've been removed without notice from the NA shop.

I just bought this game new for £3.99! from play.com

Hope it loves up to this review score!

Typical stubbornness and stupidity from Nintendo.

"We didn't invent a concept so we refuse to incorporate it to the detriment of our system".

Such an easy thing to have included and if they'd wanted to innovate on the concept then they could have actually made the reward for accumulating achievements something tangible like free Nintendo-points or tie it into Club Nintendo rewards in some way. This would actually encourage further sales of software but, as usual, Nintendo prefers to cut of its nose to spite it face by refusing to incorporate someone else's great idea into its product despite the concept of achievements/Trophies now being an industry standard.

Wow...Jonathan Blow is going to have a field day applying psychology to this one!

I'm going to be extemely interested to see how this is going to work with the PAL versions notorious 50hz VC games. I can see a lot of compatability problems here and, now that Nintendo openly embraces HD, they are going to look increasingly ridiculous if they keep trying to serve up substandard VC ports.

No. Zelda should just go away, full stop...at least until someone with the spark to reignite the franchise is available.
There hasn't been a truly great Zelda game since Wind Waker and, as such, perhaps it would have been better to let "Hyrule" stay drowned and try and create some new IP's instead of recycling the same old ideas ad infinitum.

@Alucard

I'm almost 100% sure its simply the emulator Sega uses that's at fault. Sega seemed to think the hanabi games did run at 60hz when they originally launched as this was stated on the Wii shop channel (and then quietly removed after people began complaining and asking for their money back).
It seems like the emulator Sega uses is doing the downgrading, just like trying to play an import title on an old PAL machine would do.

It should be pointed out (as this review fails to - unlike James recent review of SSF2) that the PAL game has suffered from SEGA's usual downgrading of import titles: Crammed through a 50hz letterbox it has has large black borders at the top and bottom of the screen as well as squashed sprites and (presumably) slower music.

Really disappointing that after all the effort of translating the game Sega can't deliver a 60hz Megadrive game. Just what is the problem here Sega? Every other system on the service delivers its imports in 60hz yet the Megadrive constantly gets these broken PAL conversions? Fix your emulator for goodness sake! Why spend all that time translating a game just to botch the conversion? Has Sega ever responded on this issue? Clearly it puts effort into making it's releases seem special, with motion controls in its VCA games, online in SF2 and translating this title yet it then screws it all up with these awful PAL conversions.

It's like a chef who makes the most delicious meals he can come up with, labouring for days on end, then when he's done serves them on three day old unwashed dishes and hopes nobody will notice.

It makes no sense. Does Sega even know that the games are being presented this way? I ask because until people complained to Nintendo about false advertising Sega was claiming that the imports did run at 60hz. Who is in charge of putting these games on the PAL VC service?

Wow, motion compatibility! Well done Sega. I think I will have to support this one.

SEGA, can you please give us Wonderboy IV in 60hz please. You are going to the effort of translating the thing, how hard can it be not to botch the PAL release?

Where is Ryo Hazuki?

Perhaps it didn't get more sales because after playing Twighlight Princess and experiencing first hand what a boring, soulless, OOT wannabe that game was, people then had no faith that this new game would be any better...which, incidently, it isn't.
There hasn't been a truly great Zelda game since Wind Waker and at this rate, especially with the game being dumbed down to the extent that the domestic housepet of a borderline idiot would struggle not to know what to do next in it, there never will be again.
"Master, you have found a minor item. My calculations show a 98% chance that the game will now explain to you for the 100th time what it is and what to do with it. Incidently your hearts are running low, I will now activate several annoying beeping noises alerting you to press the D-pad so that I can inform you that your hearts are running low! Futhermore, the batteries in your wiimote are running out. I calculate a 98.5% chance that I have just destroyed any last vestige of immersion you had in this videogame that I am explaining to you step by step even though you are in Hero Mode and have chosen expert settings."

Can we expect some level of effort to go into this collection given that Nintendo doesn't just have a handy SNES Rom to slap onto a disk?
Can we expect to be graced by the option of choosing to play the games in 60hz or will we be forced to endure the VC versions just for the sake of internal consistency as with the demos...sorry "masterpieces" on the otherwise 60hz SSBB?

Now we see why Nintendo's e-shops have prices permanently frozen in carbonyte.
We used to think it was ignorance of business practices and marketing that prevented Nintendo offering sales or adjusting prices for its older games.
Now we see the true reason: By keeping prices static Nintendo reduces the liklihood of units being sold, thus reducing the liklihood of hitting the magical 6000 figure, thus reducing the liklihood of having to pay developers a penny for titles that have raked in thousands of sales for Nintendo.
The problem with a corrupt, cynical business practice like this is that small devs are only going to fall for it once. The larger problem is that it will reduce those putting their games on the system to big names and shovelware trash.
Does the VC have a similar policy? Why did C64 support dry up?
Yes, it's all making sense now.

@ Uel.

James wasn't reviewing the Genesis version, he was reviewing the VC version and that means looking at it for what is being presented to us in 2012 not what was presented to us in the nineties.
If a game is going to implement an online mode then this should be part of the equation when reviewing it. If that online mode is poor or undersupported then the review should say so; and it does.
James obviously reviewed the game as it stands on its own and not as part of a table of other people's reviews of earlier games in the series. The best thing to do is read the review he has written and not fixate over the score. Reading the review it's pretty obvious why the game the score it did.

Thank you for this brutally honest review, James and a big thank you for going into detail about the PAL conversion. This is so often ommitted from reviews on the internet that it can be a frustrating experience trying to gauge the conversion a particular game got, even when presented with the established patterns of VC channels.

It really is a shame that with SEGA/Nintendo now adding features that most definately do not replicate the original gaming experience (i.e. online) they still refuse to address this persistant issue.

Once again though, thanks for the very informative review.

Although I don't own it to confirm I imagine that the SNES version on VC may have been partially optimised for 50hz to remove borders (as 99% of SNES VC games are).
What we do know is that 100% of Megadrive VC titles (including import titles that should run in 60hz but don't) don't get any optimisation done.
As this is technically something slightly new with the whole online feature it will be interesting to see what SEGA does with it although as it seems to be the emulator they use that is at fault it's unlikely to be any different from the rest of the VC output.

I'm beyond optimism at this point, sadly. When the company has a 100% track record on VC for doing this then there is little hope of change at this point. A real shame as The Mega Drive is getting some really interesting games late in the VC's life.
I normally look forward to imports on other VC platforms as they ensure a proper conversion; it's a shame that Sega's end up broken. They should at least reduce the cost to the price of these imports to that of a "normal" VC game if they can't properly emulate it.

It's just a shame that Sega can be relied upon to botch the conversion, squashing it into borders and slowing it down when running it through its horrible Mega Drive emulator...of course it'll charge us an extra 100 points for the priviledge and probably falsely advertise it as 60hz if previous hanabi imports are anything to go by.

Dragon Crystal is a fantastic game, way better than Fatal Labrynth. I spent hours and hours on it with the Game Gear back in the day (there was a thing called an AC adaptor which this reviewer perplexingly fails to acknowledge). These days I play it again on a little cheap GG handheld type device and its still great fun. Never the same game twice and with all the best qualitites of roguelikes. I can only laugh at people complaining there are no towns/story etc. This isn't a JRPG! It's not meant to have any of that.
This game is perfect for a portable. Quick twenty minute sessions that leave you wanting more. Get it.

So Europe gets to keep its cruddy 17.5% slower Sonic games. What a shame that Sega Europe is keen to answer questions about this but won't answer why 900 point Hanabi imports were delivered in 50hz, with borders and a similar speed despite being promoted as the opposite on the Wii shop channel.

Looking at logical reasons for the Japanese removal though. Could it be that Sega is unhappy about the lower pricing of these games in that territory? Perhaps this is a protest against Nintendo's rigid, infelxible, pricing structure.

@Kage_88

In what way did you "miss out". Last Story "Limited Editions" are still readily available on sites like Amazon. The special edition hasn't sold out.

How about runing a Virtual Console service and then failing to (a) advertise it (b) mention releases on its own website (c) do anything to ever promote it in any way shape or form (d) leave prices static and fill it with badly emulated, sometimes broken software that doesn't even do what it says it does on the Wii shop channel (i.e run in 60hz, Hanabi Import titles).

Will it be 60hz? Fullscreen? Or just the same as every other Megadrive release on the EU VC (even the import ones that are advertised as both but are actually neither).

I very much enjoyed Xenoblade (and will have to get back to it) and while it is a more polished affair than Last Story seems to be (so far), I'm a sucker for the more linear RPG's that tells a stronger story. Last Story after just 6 hours has me more involved and interested in the characters than Xenoblade had after 30 hours...which isn't to knock the latter game, it's just a comment on how much I like the characterisation of Last Story.
One thing that this review also fails to touch on is the exceptional humour in the game, from firing banana skins with your bow to deliberately messing up cutscenes complete with hilarious meta-jokes from the narator, this is a game filled with humour as well as story.
I can't say I've noticed any of the technical issues the reviewer mentions so far (although I'm no expert on framerates) so I hope it wasn't just a problem with his Wii in terms of skipping/overlapping text etc (this can actually be triggered as a deliberate feature by holding down one of the buttons).

Actually the game does have a story, it's a little bit inspired by The Neverending Story with your character going into a bookshop and getting sucked into the world inside a book.
Dragon Crystal has been a firm favourite of mine since the GG days. I have it on one of those little portable GG clones Argos were selling a while back and would pick up the MS version too if I find it.
It's better than Fatal Labryth too...it should be as it's a sequel, albeit for an inferior format.

Nice that Nintendo UK's website is promoting every digital release EXCEPT the Wii VC one.
Just like it FAILED TO MENTION the last EU VC release that came onto the service half a year ago!
Does it want people to be aware that this service even exists?

Good point about the control options. The button placement is awkward in the extreme with the CC due to the jump and rapid fire buttons being so far apart. Thankfully i have two Hori pads!

I also agree that I don't see where the Ninja Spirit comparison comes from. The games arn't alike at all in my eyes.

All of Irem's games have recently been removed from PSN. It's not looking at all good for the other VC games and I highly doubt that Master System R-Type will be the only one to disappear...

Sorry to be picky but the first paragraph of this article has two rather big mistakes in it.

"Before the Virtual Console, emulators provided the only way that people could relive their favourite gaming experiences of years past"

The only way? THat seems like a rather naive statement. What about picking up games and consoles second hand and playing them on the original systems like people still do to this day? I think what you meant to write was "emulators provided the only way for people to illegally harvest hundreds of games for free"

Secondly your statement that:"their only real legal application is to allow those who have already purchased a game in another form to own a second copy." is propogating a myth. A widely propogated myth, albeit, but a myth all the same. There is no "legal application" for using pirated roms. pirated roms are illegal. Period. Even to those who own the original cart.

It's a shame that you don't appear to have read the article properly, Kurachi. If you had then you'd see that the problem extends to way more than "a bit lower graphics quality". Playing games that run 17.5% slower than they were intended to has nothing to do with graphics for one thing. Games that rely on their speed like Sonic the Hedgehog are detrimentally affected by such poor conversions.

Whether they are good games or bad games isn't the issue. the issue is why we should have to pay the same price for inferior products or, in the case of imports, even more for crippled ports,

Still, if you're happy being ripped off, good for you.

I wonder if there is time to buy and sell 10 or so Wii's in order to spam the connection ambassador programme?

it's also worth noting that the EU version features extra content and simultaneous 2 PLAYER action unlike the reviewed NA version.

Been playing this game all morning after recieving it as a gift. It's fantastic anda true hidden gem of Wiiware. For 500 points European's should be snapping this up!

and still Nintendo fails to capitalise on the resurgence of Kong spawned by KOK by making the arcade game available on VC!

Money down the drain.

Marcel, presuming you reviewed the PAL version of this can you let me know what the VC conversion is like? I know it won't be 60hz or anything but did Nintendo adjust it to make it full screen like most other VC early N64 games have been?

The reason I ask is that there is no other 3rd party N64 game to guage against at the moment as a standard and I don't want to support a game that retained the black borders of the original.

I used to love Dragon Crystal, its a very good rougelike in the veign of Fatal Labrynth. Its a perfect choice for on the go gaming.

This looks more poorly attended than the No More Heroes launch in Japan.

Regardless of King of the Monsters status as a wrestling game the review is incorrect to state that "there has not been a single wrestling game on Virtual Console so far" for the simple reason that Fire ProWrestling 2nd bout was released for the Japanese VC service way back in 2008. The article should say that this is the west's first VC wrestling game (excluding King of the Monsters).

Another point with the review:
"You can also pick a difficulty level for each of the tournaments, which strangely you can't do for exhibition matches".

Please correct me if I'm wrong but are exhibition matches not solely 2 player events? That was my understanding from playing the game. Why then would there be a difficulty level? If there is a way to have single player exhibition matches I'd like to know what it is as that would be a nice feature for occasional play.

I am glad that Marcel gave the game a decent score though. too often wrestling games are reviewed by people who don't understand them and who subsequently fail to appreciate the nuances that seperate the wheat from the chaff.
This game does a lot of things right, from the firepro-esque timed grapple system (way better than the awful system used in the WWF games) to the fantastic movesets of the characters (only hampered by the fact that only three can perform moves from the turnbuckle) to the nice animations, little after match promos and good pacing of the matches this is an early example of a developer genuinely trying to capture the x-factor of wrestling rather than just bashing out something that only resembles it on a superficial level.

It's just a pity that the one player game is rather limited and easy which means that without another human opponent this game offers little replay value once you've tried out the different characters and probably drops its score down to a six.

It would also have been nice to have the option to just play single matches and to mix and match tag teams instead of having preset teams to pick from.

! SKTTR !

Maybe Cricket challenge has too much gore in it for Germany :-/

Just to point out that while this is the first wrestling game to be released on the PAL/NA VC service, Japan has already had a wrestling game with one of the early Super Famicom Fire Pro games getting an early release.

The real excitement here isn't that a mediocre Bomberman game might be coming but that a third party N64 game might be coming!

I have contacted Commodore Gaming numerous times in the past year. They simply do not reply to emails about the VC service anymore and their own VC portion of their website hasn't been updated to even reflect the most recent releases.
Nintendo claim that there will still be C64 games in the future but I don't believe there will be. If you look at how long it took us to get Last Ninja 3's problem recognised (having to report Nintendo to Trading Standards) it gives an insight into how many people probably downloaded the game that so few even noticed it was broken (and we are talking about the VC C64's best game here).
Commodore Gaming is now selling C64 titles for iphone at a fraction of the price that Nitnendo's restrictive VC service allowed them to do. They probably no longer see the point in supporting the service for such miniscule profits.

I'll take "fake importing" over 50hz any day of the week. Of course it would be better if all games just had a 60hz option.

Now perhaps Sega will 'bravely' argue for its games to be PAL optimised.

Honestly, this is typical Nintendo: "test the waters" with something every other online provider has been doing for years by laboriously seeing how it works out with a solitary title. Maybe by 2016 this might be a regular feature.

/sarcasm.

Nope: a 60hz NES import.

At least I'm presuming that's why they are listing it at 600 points for PAL gamers.