The Wii Virtual Console

The Nintendo Wii offers an ever growing selection of rereleased games for its virtual console.



Gunstar Heroes

Chris Halvorson

“Gunstar Heroes” is an excellent example of an ideal release on the Virtual Console. It’s a niche title that a lot of people missed the first time around. “Gunstar Heroes” is a solid multiplayer game and well worth the entry price of $8. The game runs just as well on the new medium as it did on the original. Gameplay is just as intense as the original, and cooperative gameplay isstill a lot of fun. The game itself is a bit short by modern standards, but difficulty settings extend its appeal. Now I just have to beat hard mode.



Bomberman ‘93

Sara Hegeman

I have never been a devotee of the Bomber Man franchise. However, this little-known top-down continuation, originally for the Turbo-Grafx, has awakened a new love of the series. I welcome a game where I am 100% more dangerous to myself than the enemies are.

If you play long enough, you may start to become slightly frustrated with holding the Wiimote sideways and everything just not fitting right in your hands. This game is the reason that a friend of mine went out and bought the Wii Classic Controller. We often find ourselves pressing down and then committing suicide as we drift left instead. Although we both still complain about the d-pad’s over-sensitivy, the game experience is much improved by using the classic controller.

Its obvious problems aside, this is still a gem of a game. The single-player is a lot of fun and can wile away many long afternoons of skipped classes. The multi-player is well worth getting five controllers hooked up for an all-out bomber war. At only 600 Wii Points ($6), I call it a steal.



Ecco the Dolphin

Phillip Meiser

“Ecco the Dolphin” was always one of my favorite games, but I never owned a copy myself, so when I noticed it on the Wii Shop Channel I jumped at the chance to pick it up. The game is of course as pretty as ever, and doing dolphin flips along the surface is still fun even by today’s intense gameplay standards.

Like the original game, it only offers you passwords to save your progress, but the Wii’s ability to pause a game and shut down makes playing through much easier, as long as you don’t forget and accidently quit.

My biggest complaint is that the already twitchy controls suffer greatly from the tiny d-pad on the Wiimote. Even the retro gaming pad doesn’t help much, I can’t wait for some third party company to make a controller with an 8-way dpad the size of a silver dollar like Sega used to have. The dolphin needs it.