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Natsume Say Nintendo Are Moving On From SNES Games For Wii U Virtual Console

You might have noticed it yourself, seeing less and less SNES games being released on the Wii U Virtual Console, and now Natsume have said that “Nintendo’s interests have moved onto other classic systems.” This was revealed in a Q&A on the Natsume Community Manager’s official tumblr, after being asked: “Will the two Pocky & Rocky SNES games ever be re-released on the Virtual Console?”

The Q&A also offered some insight into how the titles are brought to Virtual Console. They told us that Nintendo actually do most of the work, after they discuss with the publisher which title would be best to bring to Virtual Console. What console do you think will be Nintendo’s next focus? I, for one, am sad to see the SNES titles go!

How does the virtual console porting process work? What are all the steps needed to put a game (Like HM2 GBC for example) on VC?

The titles for Virtual Console are handled by Nintendo. The publisher and Nintendo discuss which classic titles would be a good fit and have the best potential to sell. Once a title is agreed upon, Nintendo and the publisher work together to bring that title to the designated system, with Nintendo doing the bulk of the work.

Will the two Pocky & Rocky SNES games ever be re-released on the Virtual Console?

At this point, it’s unlikely we’ll see any other Natsume SNES games coming to the Virtual Console, as Nintendo’s interest has moved onto other classic systems.  

46 thoughts on “Natsume Say Nintendo Are Moving On From SNES Games For Wii U Virtual Console”

    1. Gamecube games won’t work on the Wii U because the Wii U doesn’t read pressure sensitive shoulder button input. Maybe they’ll come to the next system’s Virtual Console.

  1. Eh, I’m fine with that. Apart from a few dearly missed gems, between the Shop channel and eShop they’ve got approximately 90% of the stuff worth having on the Super. would like to see certain titles (Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, etc.) getting the full U upscaling/custom control treatment but I can live without it. with the release pace being as torrid as it’s been for the last 4-5 years it’s nicer to get something previously unreleased instead anyway.

    1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      I have Chrono Trigger for my DS but it’d be nice to play that game I loved on a bigger screen. When I originally played it, it was on a small ass TV. But now I got a nice big ass TV so full upscale would be much loved. Oh & like the other guy said, it has to be the DS version.

  2. I don’t think nintendo has stopped snes releases it just that they are putting more other consoles first since they have so few released. Im waiting for Onimusha tactics!

    1. I think so too. Maybe they want the main focus to be N64 Virtual Console for the time being, then pick up SNES, later down the road.

      1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

        I sure do hope their main focus is N64 VC since there were only 24 freaking N64 VC games to own on the Wii! And there was only like 3-5 of them that I actually wanted to own! Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the N64 would be very nice to own. (I only got to rent it growing up since it was cheaper to just rent games than to buy them at that time.)

  3. I highly doubt this. Nintendo still hasnt added some super nintendo games that were on the Wii’s virtual console so i think this is just a hoax

  4. As long as it’s in favour of N64 and, hopefully in the future, Gamecube games, then I don’t really mind. Maybe they can focus on SNES on the 3DS instead.

    1. One person’s opinion won’t affect what other people think. You don’t like them? Well then that’s fine.

    2. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      Please tell me you hate those games because you didn’t like them & not because of who made them as those two games were pretty fucking great to play. Sure Square Enix of today leaves a lot to be desired but there is no denying how great their games were back in the day.

  5. I’m more interested to see if Nintendo will add more DS Virtual Console in the future since I would like to play an actually good game. It astounds me that the very first game they chose to add was a that subpar Yoshi’s Island DS title (But Yoshi’s New Island is MUCH worse).

    1. Nah, I agree The DS one was bad, but New Island is actually a lot better, although not close The original. But I enjoyed it and got all 6000 points.

  6. I love how this means they can’t release their own SNES games just because Nintendo may or may not actually be moving on just because of N64 & DS.

    1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      *facepalm* I really, truly hate comments like these! 5-20 bucks for games that use to cost over 80 bucks is too expensive? Unless you live in a place like Brazil that charges an arm & a leg for these games. In which case, yes. They are too expensive.

    1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      That reminds me. I need to dig into my backlog of games & actually finish Ogre Battle 64 on Wii’s N64 VC. 10-15+ years of loving what little of the game’s story I know of & I still have yet to beat it. Of course, it doesn’t help that I tend to ignore older games when new ones that I really want to play come out. lol

  7. Virtual console was my favorite thing about Nintendo, late into the Wii they really seemed to stop caring, and the way it’s being handled on the Wii U is so disappointing. Sure we got EarthBound and Donkey Kong 64 now. But we went back to waiting for things that were already released on the Wii to be released again, Not to mention that bullshit fee for putting things onto the wii u… or full price if your wii had a broken SD card slot.

    I hope this doesn’t mean the end of SNES games on the Wii. Because I want Super Mario RPG and Starfox, among others.

    1. ^Truth.

      It’s BS that they were able to handle 4-5 a week for 3-4 years. Then all of a sudden lucky to get 1 a week? Now we get maybe 1-2 a week, but the majority are upgrades. Why can’t they try getting majority of the games up. How hard is that? When they don’t pick popular titles, of course they aren’t going to sell.

  8. Now we just need Nintendo to move on from the NES and we can start getting quality Wii U titles like the N64 and GC had

    1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      This might not be a well liked opinion but I feel NES games would be perfect as smartphone games. Especially ones that keep track of a score like Super Mario Bros for NES.

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