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Best of the 3DS eShop: Virtual Console. Game Boy - Part 2.
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. :-X
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. ;D )
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 :P), 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 :P). 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.