With the announcement of the Wii-U, this may be somewhat of a moot point; however, all of the games for the Virtual Console were super old to begin with, and that never stopped Nintendo before.  I guess they don’t hesitate when a buck is to be made.  Well, seemingly anyway.  Pretty much the existence of this list is based on the Nintendo contradiction of their love of money but somehow never seem to do the things that would generate them money.  Go figure.  I’ll explain throughout.  Anyway, as your Holiday feast slowly digests and the eggnog heads south, as the euphoria of Christmas Day and presents that you really wanted and received fades as well as the disappointment of those you did not, I present to you my wishlist of disappointments and only hope the day will come when I can purchase these titles, even if I must purchase them myself.

5. Pro Wrestling for the NES

I’m not really sure why this hasn’t come out for the Virtual Console.  ???? For those of you who have had hacked Xboxes or simply had an emulator for your home computer probably have ran the old NES game package that is floating out there on the internets.  Nintendo has the software and code already written so it’s beyond me why they simply wouldn’t post it, especially when it is a game developed by Nintendo themselves.  This complaint is valid for all the games on my list in some shape or form.

Anyway, uh-hem!!! Pro Wrestling.  I have to admit this one is probably purely a nostalgia pick, but aren’t pretty much all Virtual Console games based on nostalgia and classic gameplay?  I was reluctant to play this game initially, but it ended up being in the first group of games I bought when I finally purchased my NES 2 years after all my friends had gotten theirs.  A very good friend is who I have to thank for bringing this game to my attention.  I was with him when he bought it at the toy store, whereupon I voiced my displeasure.  I asked him why he didn’t get a myriad of games that were available, all of which I felt were heads and shoulders above Pro Wrestling.  Boy, was I wrong.  In his own words, “Nah, believe me.  This game is sweet!”  And boy was it.

It was hard to take him seriously because he, unlike myself, wrestled and enjoyed it very much, whereas I had absolutely no desire at all to enter that sport.  So many sports available, all of which looked much more appealing than wrestling, but he was the baby of the family and had 7 older brothers, all of whom wrestled.  Also, he would watch the WWF and all those other incarnations that were out there, and now there are even more to keep track of these days.  Yet, another thing I was not all too interested in.  So, based on that, I figured that this game would only be for people who loved those kinds of things.  But it wasn’t.  This game is, or was, genuinely fun!  It was one of the few games at the time that allowed 2 players simultaneously, and the fact that you could go head to head made for an even more enjoyable experience.  It was amazing how competitive things got as we organized tournaments in the neighborhood and competed to see who would win the title.

I myself played the wrestler from Japan, Fighter Hayabusa.  Everyone hated him and said how much he sucked because his special seemed so useless, but if you took the time how to learn to use it, it was deadly!  It was the only move that could be pulled off from a distance, which meant you were in a safe position to pull it off.  It was a double edged sword, however.  If you pulled it off, it sent your crumpled opponent to the mat, but if you missed, you were the guy on the mat.  I also was known to play Starman, the masked luchador from Mexico, and the Giant Panther from the United States, whom I am sure died from a tragic tanning bed accident (You’ll understand when you see how ridiculously tan this guy was).

The wrestling games of today are somewhat more sophisticated I suppose.  I mean, the graphics are decades more advanced, and now there is talking in the game, which I guess could be a good thing, but when I hear the wrestlers talk it seems more like it spoils the game.  Also, the repertoire of moves is superior, seeing that you now have 8 buttons at your disposal instead of the 2, but I honestly have to say I liked the old Pro Wrestling game better.  In my opinion, this genre has kind of gone to hell, so please, Nintendo, bring this game to the Virtual Console and let the smack talking begin yet again!!!

4. Soul Blazer for the SNES

I can’t really tell you anything about this game.  All I know about this game is what I learned when I was trying to find out if Illusion of Gaia was coming to the Virtual Console:  mainly being that Soul Blazer was the predecessor to Illusion of Gaia, which is good enough for me.  I want it!!!!!!  I also heard that Soul Blazer is a good game, but I love Illusion of Gaia so much; they had me at the word “prequel”.  I would love experiencing the game that lead to the Illusion of Gaia story.  True, you don’t really need to play this game to understand the story of Illusion of Gaia, seeing that I played IOG and loved it as much as I did, having not even known that this game existed, but how much richer of an experience would it have been had I played the actual characters and seen the deities references purely as back history in IOG?  Kind of like how the Silmarillion laid the foundation for a rich Lord of the Rings experience with the entire Middle-Earth history at Tolkien’s disposal.

3. Illusion of Gaia for the SNES

Why Nintendo hasn’t published this game is beyond me.  I REALLY like this game.  How oft I have wanted to play this game but never have because I don’t want to have to dig out my SNES, and to tell you the truth, I don’t even know if it can connect to my HD TV.  When you look at the Virtual Console library and see how crappy some of the games are, I can’t believe that this one hasn’t been made available yet.

I wish I could remember who I should thank for making the Illusion of Gaia experience part of my life.  All I know is that I was at a game store in a mall, and I think I was looking or buying a game, and the guy at the counter said that I should get this game.  He may have referenced Zelda as far as seeing if it was a game I would like, but I can’t even remember what the guy looked like.  All I can say is that it was a guy.  Well, at least I think it was anyway.  I was young and naïve and have since then learned much about the world so who can say for sure.  Nah, I jest.  I’m positive it was a guy, but I wish I could remember more about him and his name because I would like to express my gratitude.

I think this game was the longest game I had ever played at the time.  Talk about an epic storyline, and this, I’m sure, was my very first JRPG game.  Love triangles, drama, death, sacrifice, kids falling in love, and of course loads of fighting.  Yep, all JRPG requirements have been checked off the JRPG prerequisite list.  Plus, how your main character could change into different warriors from the past was way too cool.  Also, they used these transformations and their abilities to solve puzzles throughout the game.  I liked all the characters and all the transformations, but I was partial to Fredan, the bad-assed knight!  Great game.  C’mon, Nintendo, throw us a fricken’ bone here!

2. Popeye for the Arcade

There was a Popeye that came out for the NES, but seeing how advanced home consoles have become, I would prefer that they ported the original arcade game.  There was a Popeye that came out for cell phones that was slightly modded, and I would even be happy with this version.

For those of you who have no idea what Popeye is, let alone ever having played or heard of the video game, I weep for your deprived childhood.  I have read that this game did not perform all that well at the arcades, being buried beneath all the Pac-Man and Donkey Kongs, and I would have to agree that Popeye was not as good as most of those, but isn’t there enough room for all three?  I really enjoyed this game: catching Olive Oil’s adoration and cries for help, eating spinach and clocking the suddenly coward Bluto, crushing the Sea Hags bouncing skulls and pulverizing her pet vulture. But nothing was as truly satisfying as being able to land the bucket on Bluto’s head on the bottommost floor of the level and getting the max points as he was snared by the trap.  Oftentimes I would save my spinach to punch Bluto out after I had snared him with the bucket as he struggled to pull his head free for good measure.  Why, Nintendo!!!! Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Rygar FOR THE NES!!!!

As many of you out there may know, Rygar is already out for the Virtual Console, and it is even made by Tecmo like the NES game, BUT the one for the Virtual Console is the original arcade release, not the NES release.  Now, most of the time as I was growing up, we always wished that the home consoles would have graphics as good as the arcade versions. In other words, bring the arcade experience 100% to your home, which seemed like a never ending pipe dream that would never come to fruition.  Those days came quite a while ago, but that being said, I have to say I enjoyed the home release WAY more than the arcade release.  I never bothered wasting my money on this trash because I already had the Tecmo arcade release when I bought a Tecmo compilation for the Xbox.  I cannot express in words how disappointed and crest fallen I was when  I fired up Rygar for the first time, only to go, “What the hell is this!!!!!” as tears welled in the corners of my eyes.

The NES release was way more epic and quite frankly better overall in every facet.  The home release mimicked more the Legend of Zelda formula in that you had to acquire more tools and weapons to reach levels that were before unobtainable.  The only thing I would change for a Virtual Console release would be that I would include a save feature that the original release never had.  As much as I loved Rygar, it was a pain in the ass to win the entire game in one sitting.  Now, being an adult, I would never have to time to do so.

Nintendo released a modern version of Rygar for the Wii a while back, a rerelease of the PS2 Rygar except Rygar now had gel-spiked, technicolored hair like a punk out of the Ginza district.  The game itself was crap, but I was really hoping that Nintendo would release the NES Rygar to promote and coincide with the Wii release.  Sadly this was not the case.

I wrote Nintendo many times in the past about Virtual Console games, Rygar in particular.  To date I have never received any answer or help that I felt was helpful or informative.  Whenever I asked them if they were ever going to release any of these games, I received the standard answer:  “Thank you for your interest in Nintendo and Nintendo products.  Unfortunately, we do not know if there are any plans to release [insert title here] at this time.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAAAAAAH!!!!”  Since I had written a few times, I knew for a fact that these were standard form letters that you send with a click of a mouse, although I had a pretty good idea from the language that this was the case even before I had verified it.  And I could also guess that my emails never saw the light of day nor were forwarded to someone who could actually do something or at least influence the outcome of something like this.

When will Nintendo, or any company for that matter, learn that if they truly want to make large profits, they need to listen to what their customers actually want instead of telling us what we want?!!!!!  All we hear about is how rough the economy is, which is true, and I’m sure sales would be down regardless, but wouldn’t it improve some if they actually made stuff that we wanted?  And it’s not like that they would have to write and create any of these games from scratch.  If there’s one thing I have learned from working with computers and technology, it’s pretty easy to post or make available things that have already been made.  I mean come on, it’s not like they are going to cleanup or redo the graphics like the whole slew of rereleases they have been pumping out recently.  And there is really no excuse for obtaining the rights for any of these games because most of these are made by Nintendo themselves while the others basically have given Nintendo the rights and permission to publish these games anyway.  I know for a fact Tecmo has already.  I have seen the press release, and the fact that we already have all of these Tecmo games on the Virtual Console is proof in itself.

So, as Nintendo makes further progress with the Wii-U in the wake of dying Wii sales, as the avid gamers flock to the HD consoles and the casual gamers have stopped buying games 2 years ago, and as Nintendo weathers the storm of lower than expected sales with the 3DS, if they really want to think of ways to help their quarterly reports, why not take advantage of something which is staring them in the face?  Release games that people actually want.  Games that they don’t have to pay programmers and writers to develop because they are already made.  Games that are posted once on a server that will generate sales with a single posting yet produce multiple sales and  profit with no material cost.  Probably because it is too easy and makes way too much sense for them to do; they will never do it.  It’s for this reason that I question if Nintendo, or any company for that matter, is really interested in generating a profit.  So here is my list.  I know everyone will disagree over specific titles or the order in which they should fall, but I do know at least that I am not alone.  As I have checked back through the years for the availability of these games, I always seem to find blogs and articles which voice their desires for these very same games.  I guess misery does love company.