Topic: Best of the 3DS eShop: Virtual Console. Game Boy - Part 2.

[Luigi Dude]

I think a lot of the best Game Boy games still hold up pretty well.  I didn't play Donkey Kong 94 for the first time until 2008, and was blown away.  Finally got a chance to play the Wario Land 1-3 that same year as well and loved them too.  My first time experiencing Mega Man VI and V was after buying them on the 3DS eShop by in 2017 and loved them too which is why I praised them earlier.

I mean I can understand something like Metroid II is a hard sell in a post Super Metroid world, but there's still quite a few Gameboy games that have gameplay that I think quite a few people would still enjoy, even those that didn't experience them back in the day.  When Nintendo eventually puts Gameboy games on the Switch Online service, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these games earn new fans.  Getting newer gamers to spend $5 individually on these old, many of them colorless games might have been a hard sell on the 3DS Virtual Console, but when it gets added along side NES and SNES games, people will be more likely to try them and I wouldn't be surprised if this gives new love to the system.

[Mop it up]

And here I thought I was going to get chewed out for dissing Metroid II! But I guess I didn't have anything to worry about in the end.

Nope. Heck, you should make a thread just for Dissing Metroid 2. It could be the most popular thread to hit these forums yet!

I dunno, I'm pretty sure that will unleash the wrath of UncleBob and he'll ban us all!

[Khushrenada]

And here I thought I was going to get chewed out for dissing Metroid II! But I guess I didn't have anything to worry about in the end.

Nope. Heck, you should make a thread just for Dissing Metroid 2. It could be the most popular thread to hit these forums yet!

I dunno, I'm pretty sure that will unleash the wrath of UncleBob and he'll ban us all!

He already tried to ban the whole forums before but it was discovered that such an attempt was ineffective and everyone was unbanned. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

[Khushrenada]

I think a lot of the best Game Boy games still hold up pretty well.  I didn't play Donkey Kong 94 for the first time until 2008, and was blown away.  Finally got a chance to play the Wario Land 1-3 that same year as well and loved them too.  My first time experiencing Mega Man VI and V was after buying them on the 3DS eShop by in 2017 and loved them too which is why I praised them earlier.

I mean I can understand something like Metroid II is a hard sell in a post Super Metroid world, but there's still quite a few Gameboy games that have gameplay that I think quite a few people would still enjoy, even those that didn't experience them back in the day.  When Nintendo eventually puts Gameboy games on the Switch Online service, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these games earn new fans.  Getting newer gamers to spend $5 individually on these old, many of them colorless games might have been a hard sell on the 3DS Virtual Console, but when it gets added along side NES and SNES games, people will be more likely to try them and I wouldn't be surprised if this gives new love to the system.

Like the optimism but I don't see it. If Nintendo adds Game Boy games to Switch, I forsee a majority of complaining instead from users expecting / wanting N64 or GameCube titles over Game Boy games especially with Super Nintendo games outshining most of the Game Boy library which seems to be the major consensus so far in these two threads. More people are going to want to play Super Tennis on the SNES over Tennis on the GB just as most would probably rather replay Super Metroid again over Metroid II. And I know I'll play any of the DKC games again before playing DK '94 again.

[Khushrenada]

All of your opinions are fair. I will say if you didn’t play most of these games in the 90s, it may be difficult to see why people like them. For example, I’ll always love Link’s Awakening (I know it isn’t on either thread) though the limited controls of the Gameboy may spoil the experience for someone playing it for the first time 25+ years later. Having to pause to every time you want switch items is something we haven’t had to deal with in decades. Many of even the best games on Gameboy suffer from similar quality of life issues.

That said, I still recommend Wario Land II.

Yeah, just having the two buttons of A and B for Link's Awakening was probably the biggest irritant about that game. The Link's Awakening release on Virtual Console was the first game I played from the 3DS VC. Having played other GB titles, I'm now even more impressed about how well that game was made and able to fit a topnotch Zelda experience on the GB even with that system's limitations. Unfortunately, being the first GB game I played, it probably helped give me wrong expectations for the rest of the game library. It's easily the best Game Boy game in my opinion. But I suppose I should wait until doing a Game Boy Color VC thread to praise this title or else it could lead to all that discussion happening now rather than later. I just wanted to comment on the fact that even with LA being slightly hampered by the Game Boy's limitation of buttons it was still one of the few games to succeed and still be relevant today by gaming standards despite the Game Boy's handicaps. The majority of titles have not been as successful in the face of time and gaming advancements.

[Khushrenada]

Since I did for Part 1, here's the Nintendo Power recommendation list for this half of the Game Boy VC.


Recommended

Mario's Picross (Staff Pick)
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (Staff Pick)
Metroid II: Return of Samus
Mole Mania (Staff Pick)
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Staff Pick)
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3


Hmmm...

Pac-Man
Qix
Quarth
Radar Mission
The Sword of Hope II
Tennis
Tumblepop


Grumble Grumble

Maru's Mission
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Side Pocket


Now Available

Lock 'n' Chase


Post Nintendo Power

Mega Man II
Mega Man III
Mega Man IV
Mega Man V
Pokémon Blue
Pokémon Red
Revenge of the 'Gator


Delisted

Tetris (Staff Pick)


Alright. So some things to break down here. Sometimes when giving their brief recommendation write-up, NP would also have a Mii picture of a staff member with their name next to the recommendation. This may have meant an even higher recommendation then the standard green seal of approval. With Part 1, there was only 1 game with that special designation which was Donkey Kong '94. However, on this half, there are a 5 games to get that extra special commendation including Tetris which is no longer available on the VC.

At the time NP came to an end, only 1 of the Mega Man games had come out on VC. The rest came later. Pokemon was basically the last Game Boy game added to the service and one can only wonder what the write-up on Revenge of the Gator would be. (But I think it may be been positive). If you want to dismiss NP as pointless biased reviews then you can point to their recommendation of Metroid 2 as proof but, unlike Part 1, Part 2 actually has some games to get the Grumble Grumble recommendation.

The one that surprised me the most about that is Goemon. When watching various Game Boy trailers, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was from 1998 and the clips made the game seem pretty decent. I've been finding that the Game Boy games released in the later years of the system seem to be of a better quality than those of the early years so I found it puzzling as to why no one else seemed to be talking about or playing this game. But for NP to give it the lower end of the scale now sheds some light on that mystery. I was ready to add that game to my list of future GB purchases but now I'm not so sure. Steefosaurus recommended Side Pocket but NP begs to differ on that and Maru's Mission sticks to the usual trend that a bad game usually has bad cover artwork.

One odd listing is Lock 'n' Chase. Sometimes games released on the eShop didn't get a review or recommendation. They just got a quick mention as also being released that month along with the other games. Lock 'n' Chase is the only Game Boy VC release to fall under that designation. That may suggest a game of poor quality and yet Pokepal148 seemed to be positive about it. Having watched the trailer, I've been intrigued enough to possibly get it now as well. So, I don't know why NP decided to stay mum on the subject.

Finally, one of the other surprise top picks is Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Of the recommendations for Mega Man games, it seems like 4 and 5 are were the true value is at. Yet, NP really like Wily's Revenge. Getting a Staff Pick and a second recommendation beyond that. You see, after about 7 - 8 months of the eShop existing on the 3DS, NP did a top 40 list of the various games on it. When it came to Game Boy games, these were the titles they listed as best on the service so far: Donkey Kong '94, Kirby's Dream Land, Mario Picross, Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2, Metroid 2 and Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. No real shockers aside from Metroid 2 getting another plug. But MM:DWR is the only third party Game Boy to get a shout-out.

[Khushrenada]

I might as well give my breakdown on the titles for this thread also as to what I'm now wanting to check out and what gives me pause.


Plan To Buy or Have Bought

Lock 'n' Chase
Mario's Picross
Metroid II: Return of Samus (Too late to Pass on it)
Mole Mania
Radar Mission
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3


Still Debating

Mega Man II
Mega Man III
Mega Man IV
Mega Man V
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Pac-Man
Quarth
Revenge of the 'Gator


Pass

Maru's Mission
Pokémon Blue
Pokémon Red
Qix
Side Pocket
Tennis
The Sword of Hope II
Tumblepop



So, even though this half of the GB line-up seems to have some of the better titles, my interest in the games offered here is a bit less compared to Part 1's line-up. A big factor is my inexperience with the Mega Man series. Having hardly played any games in the series, it is hard for me to be interested or excited about the GB editions or to make them my gateway into the series. Even though Goemon got the Grumble Grumble review, I can't shake that the trailer made it seem semi-decent and it is a later GB developed title. Likewise, not sure how much I'll care about a Game Boy pinball game considering I've never really been wowed by any pinball video game before. Perhaps if I enjoy Kirby Pinball Land then I'll give Gator a go since it came from HAL also but it is wait and see for me. Radar Mission seems like an out there choice but the idea of a portable Battleship game is enough to entice me to try it and there is even a second mode where you target ships with a submarine. Having played Steel Diver, I'm curious to see if this might act as a spiritual predecessor of sorts with it's end of mission sub battles. As for Lock 'n' Chase, I'm going by pokepal's brief statement, it's trailer and the fact that it seems to get no attention.

And again, if there is anything here that you've been motivated to pursue in the future when it comes to these Game Boy offerings then feel to post it here. For the heck of it, if there were any other Game Boy titles you wished had been released on the VC but never were then why not give them their due now in this thread also.

[Order.RSS]

Steefosaurus recommended Side Pocket but NP begs to differ on that and Maru's Mission sticks to the usual trend that a bad game usually has bad cover artwork.

Yeah maybe my write-up here was a bit too enthusiastic, so just for emphasis before you run out and buy the entire eShop: Side Pocket on GB is the second-least bad version of a game that has been ported at least 7 times by now, and it has both sequels and rival releases, all of which eclipse it.

Is it good? Eh, about as good as you can expect from a 1986 game down-ported to a handheld. If you can derive a measure of fun from lining up shots correctly, GB Side Pocket will be entertaining for an hour or two.
The only person I would truly recommend this version to is basically myself, as I not only like snooker/pool/billiards, but also because I've played the 1999 version on WonderSwan which is somehow less feature-complete than the Gameboy one from a literal decade earlier.

Everyone else with the vaguest interest in virtual billiards on Nintendo systems should just get Break In for TurboGrafx-16 on virtual console, or spring for a SNES cart of Side Pocket. On GameCube I guess there's Pool Paradise if you're into purple velvet tablecloths & disembodied hands, or of course Monkey Billiards in Super Monkey Ball if regular billiards is too boring for you.
There's also a 3D Pool something game on Switch, but I don't know anything about that one.

[ejamer]

(Off topic... but my favorite video game implementations of pool are either some of the game with motion controls on Nintendo Wii, or some of the various pinball tables using pool as a theme.)

[Luigi Dude]

Finally, one of the other surprise top picks is Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Of the recommendations for Mega Man games, it seems like 4 and 5 are were the true value is at. Yet, NP really like Wily's Revenge. Getting a Staff Pick and a second recommendation beyond that.

Dr. Wily's Revenge is a good game and something I'd still recommend for anyone that's a fan of the Mega Man series.  It manages to take the Mega Man experience and makes a good smaller, handheld version of it.  Yeah it tones down the action because of the Game Boys limitations but increases the platforming elements to make up for it.  All the other GB games follow this formula, so I can see why Nintendo Power would give this one an award since it was the first to do it.

The reason why the fans though don't view it as favorably and prefer 4+5 more is because Wily's Revenge is a much shorter game and still relies heavily on it's NES counterpart.  Yeah it does add some new elements and the stages are different, but 4+5 do a lot more to separate themselves from the NES games and are closer in length to those titles as well.

A big factor is my inexperience with the Mega Man series. Having hardly played any games in the series, it is hard for me to be interested or excited about the GB editions or to make them my gateway into the series.

I'd recommend getting the Legacy 1 collection first then to experience the 6 NES games.  If you enjoy 2-6, then you'd probably like the Game Boy games, Wily's Revenge and especially 4+5.  Capcom usually has the Legacy collections on sale a lot so that would be the better value in finding out if you like the Classic Mega Man games or not.

[UncleBob]

A few comments:

Metroid II is a fun game.  I bought the remake, but never got around to playing it.  Not sure why.  Anywhoo, it *is* really outdated and has a lot of weaknesses, but it's still a lot of fun and the dread of finding a new Metroid evolution.... eek.  For $5, unless you're an evil monster with a heart of stone, you should be able to get your $5 out of it.

Mole Mania - a fun action puzzle game.  Worth the price of admission for some light play if you like those types of games.

Quarth - eh.  I'm torn on this one.  It's a fun shoot em up/puzzleresque (really, not a puzzle game) game, but the lack of multi-player flatly kills this game.  If you're on the fence, go watch a YouTube video - basic game play footage will sum up all this game is and you can decide from there.

Pac-Man - DO NOT BUY.  One of the most ported games of all time, this version is stupid and pointless.  Now, if you get the legitimate GameBoy game, then yes - if you can get two copies, a link cable, and someone to play with.  The multi-player mode in this game is an amazing little hidden gem.    I'd love to see it renvisioned on a modern system.

Lock N Chase - never played the GB port, but I am a fan of the Arcade and Intellivision versions.  Fun maze-clone from Pac-Man's heyday.  If you like Pac-Man, I will generally recommend this one - but, again, I don't know about the GB port.

[Khushrenada]

Metroid II is a fun game... unless you're an evil monster with a heart of stone, you should be able to get your $5 out of it.

Story checks out.

[Mop it up]

I would guess that NP would have recommended the other Mega Man games except for 2, which would have been put on "Hmmm..." They would also probably recommended the Pokémon ones as well being Nintendo-published stuff. I don't know anything about Revenge of the Gator so no idea where that would land, but maybe a "Hmmm..." also.

I would also not recommend any of the Game Boy Mega Man titles as your first one. Start with the Mega Man Legacy Collection on Switch, and then if you're still wanting more of that series the Game Boy ones are a good place to turn for something else new(er)(ish).

[Khushrenada]

I've got the Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Mega Man X Collection for GameCube. Maybe 15 years ago, I popped in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection to finally see what the series is like and started played a level in the first Mega Man game. Never did get back to it. And that is the entire journey of my Mega Man experience to date. If I'm going to play these games then I'll still probably do it on the Cube (The Greatest System of All Time).

[Mop it up]

Unfortunately those are botched ports of the Mega Man games, but I guess it'll have to do...

[Khushrenada]

Oh really? Botched how? I always thought the collections were well-received.

[Mop it up]

Well, then again I s'pose it's stuff that the uninitiated may not care about or even notice. From what I remember, the music is messed up, some things are slower than they should be, the A and B buttons were swapped with no way to change them, etc. The GameCube version in particular is also missing some of the bonus features that the other versions had, but that doesn't really matter at this point in time.

I don't have the Mega Man X Collection but that's the one which appears to have been handled well and was praised.

[ejamer]

Having just gone back to Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins... wow, this game did a great job. There challenge is very low but the design is great and switching to larger, more detailed sprites makes the controls feel better. There is also a lot of weird creativity in the enemies and level design.

As long as you don't mind playing very easy games, this one definitely gets a recommendation. It seems to have held up far better than I expected it to.

[Khushrenada]

Well, after going through the work of gathering NWR's word on the GB VC for the first 25 games in alphabetical order, would I do the same for the latter half? You better believe it. I'm too far down the rabbit hole to stop now!

Of the 25 games this thread covers, here is the list of them with the corresponding NWR grade and a link to the article for that mini review. (Some of these articles covered multiple games so you may have to scroll to find the actual title for the link you click on.)

Lock 'n' Chase – Recommended For Everyone
Mario’s Picross – Recommended For Fans
Maru’s Mission – Not Recommended
Mega Man 2 – N/A
Mega Man 3 – N/A
Mega Man 4 –N/A
Mega Man 5 – 8.0/10
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge – Recommended For Fans
Metroid II: Return of Samus – N/A
Mole Mania – Recommended For Everyone
Mystical Ninja starring Goemon – Not Recommended
PAC-MAN – N/A
Pokemon Blue – N/A
Pokemon Red – N/A
Qix – Recommended For Fans
Quarth – Recommended For Fans
Radar Mission – Recommended For Fans
Revenge of the Gator – N/A
Side Pocket – N/A
Super Mario Land – Recommended For Fans
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins – Recommended For Everyone
Tennis – Recommended For Fans
The Sword of Hope II – Recommended For Fans
Tumble Pop – Recommended For Fans
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 – Recommended For Fans


Again, as mentioned in the sister thread of this topic, NWR did not get around to reviewing every Game Boy game released on the VC, the review/recommendation system changed after 2012 to the regular 10 point system and Recommended for Fans is the more common grade because we are more picky about our games here. 

When compared to Nintendo Power which reviewed 17 of the 25 games listed for this thread, NWR only reviewed 16 of them. Of course, if you were to combine Pokemon Red/Blue as 1 game and slot Tetris in to make a list of 25 titles that way then NP reviewed 18 games and NWR did not review Tetris so they still stay at 16 total reviews. Sadly, unlike the sister thread, NWR and NP overlapped in a lot of the games they did not review rather than fill in each other's gaps this time around.  The games that NP and NWR did not review are: Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4, Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Red and Revenge of the Gator. NWR did review Lock 'n' Chase and Mega Man 5 which NP did not review and NP has reviews for Pac-Man, Side Pocket and Metroid II: Return of Samus. Yes, NWR wimped out of reviewing Metroid II and giving it the Not Recommended score it deserves. (At least, that's why UncleBob keeps telling everyone.  )

As a bit further comparison, NP gave 7 games their highest recommendation, 7 games got their middling recommendation and 3 games got their lowest recommendation (with the now-removed Tetris also getting their highest recommendation.) NWR breaks down with 4 games getting their highest recommendation, 10 games getting their middling recommendation and 2 games getting their lowest grade. Both of those games with the Not Recommended grade were among the 3 games given NP's lowest recommendation and are Maru's Mission and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. (Neal really disliked the latter game.) Of the games that got the highest grades between the two sources, only 2 made the top grade from both and those games are Mole Mania and Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. (Mario's Picross was robbed.)

[Khushrenada]

Final Extra Reading

So, at this point, I do think I have now exhausted myself on talking about Virtual Console Game Boy recommendations and reviewing what was released for the eShop. However, before moving on to something else (like Game Boy Color games ), here's a little extra reading about the 3DS Virtual Console. Despite releasing quite a few titles when the eShop first launched, the Virtual Console seemed to quickly lose focus from Nintendo as a priority of releasing games on it. There was this article on NWR about the sad state that had soon developed for it (which then became a big argument in the Talkback thread about positive vs negative articles ). Nintendo of America issued a response that didn't seem to impress anyone.

At the end of the day, there were over 1,000 games released for the Game Boy over its lifespan but only about 50 were able to make it to the VC and get re-released again. It's kind of surprising that so much of that back catalogue was not taken advantage of by other publishers and third parties but the 3DS had a slight stigma to it compared to the DS when it took awhile to get sold in its first year. Third party support for the system was not like the DS and by the time it did become another big success for Nintendo, the VC was kind of dead with Nintendo barely offering much for it anymore either.

Still, overall, the VC did seem to provide the titles most people wanted when compared to this early NWR 3DS Game Boy VC wish list which is comprised of GB and GBC games. (Don't look now but Kirby's Dream Land 2 is considered a top game by Zach and now I wish it had color from the Super Game Boy added to it as shown in his part of the article.) Some of the games never did show up like Kid Dracula or TMNT 2: Back to the Sewers but it does seem like 80% of that wishlist was fulfilled.

When looking at other lists of the best Game Boy games such as this one of the 30 Best by Polygon or this one by Business Insider with various errors or heck this one on 50 Best Game Boy (& Color) Games by Nintendo Life then one can note that usually half of the games listed on these Best of lists were released on the 3DS VC. In fact, Nintendo pretty much provided the majority of their library (or at least the most wanted games they developed) on the VC. It is the Third Parties that failed to show up and further add to the appeal of the VC. Most of the games missing from these Best Of lists are Third Party titles for which Third Parties have really done nothing to re-release in the time the 3DS VC has been active until now. Some of that is probably licencing issues and publishers going defunct but for games that didn't face those issues, there was just a greater indifference to partnering with Nintendo and the 3DS VC compared to the Wii VC which was still getting releases into the 3DS VC era.

Thus, while the VC kind of puttered out early in the overall lifespan of the 3DS, it wasn't from Nintendo holding back on their side. They took advantage of giving the fans the big titles they wanted from their back catalogue. How well those title still hold up may be debated due to one's gaming preferences but at least they're still available and pretty easily accessible which is great for someone like me who has suddenly become interested in going back to discover these titles. A few months ago was actually the 30th anniversary of the Game Boy system's release which is why there are all these Best of lists on the internet about its library. Turns out, looking into the GBVC was kind of timely after all. If only the Switch hadn't so completely eclipsed the 3DS. Maybe Nintendo would have had some kind of recognition for the Game Boy VC on the 3DS but people just aren't paying attention to the system anymore. Still, if Third Parties had supported it more then maybe Nintendo would have done something to give the VC one last gasp of a sales boost and focus. Instead, it has been left to us, the Nintendo gaming die-hards, to put the spotlight on it one more time for the benefit of those titles that were released for that service.

And no, that rumor of crossplay and gifting ability for the Wii U and 3DS VC never came true nor did GBA VC games ever come to the 3DS aside from the Ambassador released titles. VC for the 3DS was an odd thing indeed.

[NWR_insanolord]

Virtual Console on 3DS seemed to follow the same pattern it did on the Wii, where it was more prevalent early on but then Nintendo pulled back on it as more and more original downloadable games hit the platform. I don't know how accurate it was, but Nintendo sure seemed to think VC games cut into WiiWare and eShop sales.

[Luigi Dude]

I don't know how accurate it was, but Nintendo sure seemed to think VC games cut into WiiWare and eShop sales.

I'd say the Switch confirms it.  I mean they talked about downloadable NES/SNES before it was released but then waited over a year before NES games and we just got SNES games.  They really wanted to make sure those indie titles were noticed that first year, which might have been smart since many indie games ended up having their highest sales by far on Switch.

[ejamer]

I'd believe it - I mean, why pay extra for a new game of questionable quality when for just a few dollars you could play an absolute classic on Virtual Console? 

During the early years of both Wii and 3DS, many developers seemed to write off the consoles and Virtual Console filled meaningful gaps in the release cycle. Switch doesn't seem to have that problem. In fact, it's almost the opposite as they are probably scheduling Virtual Console releases in a way to avoid direct competition with others. My, how times have changed!



Speaking of Virtual Console, CATRAP is over half-way finished. Not sure I love it as much as some... but might be kind of puzzled out after having recently played Mole Mania. (Also, although the puzzles are good the presentation here isn't nearly as cute as Mole Mania.)

I've also played through:
* Super Mario Land 1 (so weird, still don't like the controls, but an interesting oddity)
* Super Mario Land 2 (still fun and creative, but smaller than I remembered and very easy)
* Avenging Spirit (janky, but I still think it's a hidden gem with the many different character abilities)
Next up after CATRAP will be Balloon Kid...

How are other people doing with the GameBoy games that they purchased and/or recommended?

[Mop it up]

What are the sales figures of the Virtual Console? Perhaps most games just weren't selling well enough to be worthwhile?

[Khushrenada]

I suppose they can be viewed as competition but I do think they are targeting different audiences unless it is a case of an indie game trying to replicate an older title in which case they probably don't want their "inspiration" releasing around the same time. Goose Game came out at the same time as Link's Awakening remake but it wasn't overshadowed. If people are excited or really want to play a game then they're probably going to get it regardless of how much gets released along with it. However, that's how I view it. I've always taken the VC as something I can get around to later unless there is a very special title I've always wanted to play / try.

As I prepare for the Game Boy Color list, I see that Nintendo did keep the VC going for sometime with the color games. Basically, once they got through most of their Game Boy titles in the first couple years they then switched to Color and released a bunch of those through 2013 and 2014 and then slowed to a trickle or drip in the years after. At the same time, there were also NES and SNES titles to come out but those weren't as interesting since Wii U was getting them and Wii had them also. It is the Game Boy VC titles that were unique to 3DS.

However, by the time of 2013 and 2014, the 3DS was rocking and pumping out so many of the greatest games in its software library that I was no longer looking at the eShop and VC releases as much anymore. That's where I fell out of VC interest and am only getting around to catching back up on this stuff now. Also, there was all that talk of Nintendo not having crossplay ability and a lot of people were not interested in buying some of the same NES and SNES games again individually for Wii, 3DS, and Wii U. Not sure if that had an impact on 3DS VC sales with people now being less willing to spend again for some of the titles they'd have bought on Wii or not but it could have been.