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GBAWiiU

GBA Wii U Virtual Console Worldwide Line-Ups Revealed

by Daan Koopman - March 26, 2014, 10:03 am EDT
Total comments: 28

Everyone can start digging into 32-bit fun next week!

Starting next week, Wii U owners worldwide will be able to download Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. Check below for the whole list of games coming to each region in April.

In Europe and North America, players can look forward to the following titles:

• Advance Wars (€6.99/£6.29/$7.99) - April 3

• Metroid Fusion (€6.99/£6.29/$7.99) - April 3

• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (€6.99/£6.29/$7.99) - April 3

• WarioWare Inc.: Minigame Mania (€6.99/£6.29/$6.99) - April 10

• Kirby: The Amazing Mirror (€6.99/£6.29/$6.99) - April 10

• Golden Sun (€6.99/£6.29/$7.99) - April 17

• F-Zero: Maximum Velocity (€6.99/£6.29/$6.99) - April 17

• Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (€6.99/£6.29/$7.99) - April 24

Japan's line-up was announced during the February Nintendo Direct, but additional details have been revealed since. All the upcoming titles will set you back 702 yen and during a special launch period, you will able to purchase a secondary GBA VC game with a 30% discount. No similar deals have been announced for the western regions yet. Additionally, all the games will be single-player. The Japanese versions are confirmed to have the original manuals scanned in and these can be checked from inside the game. Just like all other Virtual Console titles, you will be able to create save states and map the controls as you please.

Unlike North America and Europe, the GBA games in Japan will be released in two seperate batches. One will be at the start of the month and the other at the end. As a reminder, here is Japan's line-up for the month of April:

April 2

• Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World (702 yen)

• Wario Ware Inc. (702 yen)

• Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (702 yen)

• Golden Sun (702 yen)

• F-Zero: Maximum Velocity (702 yen)

• Advance Wars 1 + 2 (702 yen)

April 30

• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (702 yen)

• The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (702 yen)

• Mario Tennis Advance (702 yen)

• Wario Land 4 (702 yen)

• Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (702 yen)

• Metroid Fusion (702 yen)

Other titles, outside the ones listed here, are not mentioned or scheduled for the time being. When and if new titles for the service are announced, we will surely give you all the details.

Images

Talkback

TrueNerdMarch 26, 2014

I am shocked, SHOCKED, that there's more than three games lined up for this. If I wasn't beyond cynical about all future treatment of the Virtual Console, I'd almost have hope that this is a good sign that we'll see steady releases of GBA games.

Really, I'll consider this a success if they put out Zero Mission. Oh and they should put these on 3DS where they logically belong.

KITT 10KMarch 26, 2014

I had some of theses games on my GameBoy Advanced and would love to have them on my 3DS as well.

KhushrenadaMarch 26, 2014

Interesting. Almost the exact same line-up as the Ambassador games. Only Golden Sun, M&L: Superstar Saga and Advance Wars replace Fire Emblem, Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Wario Land 4.

Personally, I think the must play library of the GBA is pretty small and I think there are only about 20 games on it I'd want to play or considering owning. Possibly 25 if I stretched for a few of the Sonic Advance games. Thus, I'm surprised Nintendo is releasing so many so soon.

MagicCow64March 26, 2014

All I want is Drill Dozer.

broodwarsMarch 26, 2014

OK, that's a good 1st month lineup. Now let's see if they drop the ball the following month like they usually do and we get a trickle of 1 game every 2-3 weeks. And by the way, Nintendo, more VC schedule releases, please. I like knowing just how pitiful the eShop's going to be ahead of time.

AVMarch 26, 2014

Mario and Luigi IS INCREDIBLE.


Seriously the best Mario RPG ever released for two simple reasons its laugh out loud funny and it knows not to outlast its welcome.


The rest of the mario RPG's drag too much and are too wordy this is the best of the whole bunch and I do include the paper mario games in this bunch.


The graphics should hold up rather nicely on the TV/Gamepad because its art style is simple and clean and very pretty.


$8 is a damn good price.


I really hate that Nintendo clings to the idea that all games within the system should cost the same, that F-zero sucks and should be like $3 tops

Ian SaneMarch 26, 2014

Good initial lineup.  Still makes no sense that the 3DS doesn't have this since the ambassador program clearly demonstrates that they have a half decent GBA emulator for it.  Not that I think they shouldn't be on the Wii U as well.

Nintendo must have some copyright issue with the Super FX chip to always go with the GBA version of Yoshi's Island.  If hackers can make Super FX emulation then surely Nintendo should be able to.

CrankyTapirMarch 26, 2014

I totally agree with what everyone here has said.  This is great that there's this many GBA games coming out for the VC so quickly but a tad bit disappointed that they're not coming out on the 3DS.  Right off the bat there's 4 titles I'll be picking up (maybe 5 if I feel like getting Metroid - I have it and still have a way to play it).

KhushrenadaMarch 26, 2014

Quote from: broodwars

OK, that's a good 1st month lineup. Now let's see if they drop the ball the following month like they usually do and we get a trickle of 1 game every 2-3 weeks. And by the way, Nintendo, more VC schedule releases, please. I like knowing just how pitiful the eShop's going to be ahead of time.

Well, that's why I mentioned that there were only about 20-25 games worth checking out from this system's library. (At least for me) Thus, with 8 of those games coming out from the start, there is already a major portion of the good stuff available and so chances are it will be a slow trickle for the remainder. Personally, I own 14 physical games for the system. Thus, there isn't much that I'd be looking for from the GBA collection. With the ambassador program giving me Minish Cap and Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, there are even fewer games I'd be looking for.

Quote from: Ian

Good initial lineup.  Still makes no sense that the 3DS doesn't have this since the ambassador program clearly demonstrates that they have a half decent GBA emulator for it.  Not that I think they shouldn't be on the Wii U as well.

Compared to the other emulators on the 3DS, let alone the WiiU, I would hardly call the Ambassador emulation of GBA games "half-decent". They don't even support sleep mode, for chrissakes.

KhushrenadaMarch 26, 2014

Do you need sleep mode? I like restore points. Just click to create a new restore point and turn off the game. I like that if I mess up, I can just click the last restore point I made and start again from it without always having to do a ton of stuff over.

Kytim89March 26, 2014

When they have Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre then I will be very happy.

Mop it upMarch 26, 2014

I was actually expecting them to be $9 so it's good that they're $8 and $7.

I already have all of this first batch except for Golden Sun. I won't be buying anything, but I may get some if they are ever Club Nintendo rewards.

Quote from: Khushrenada

Personally, I think the must play library of the GBA is pretty small and I think there are only about 20 games on it I'd want to play or considering owning.

If these are just going to be first-party titles then yeah, sounds about right. If there will be third-party titles released then there will be more than that.

Ian SaneMarch 26, 2014

Quote from: Shaymin

Quote from: Ian

Good initial lineup.  Still makes no sense that the 3DS doesn't have this since the ambassador program clearly demonstrates that they have a half decent GBA emulator for it.  Not that I think they shouldn't be on the Wii U as well.

Compared to the other emulators on the 3DS, let alone the WiiU, I would hardly call the Ambassador emulation of GBA games "half-decent". They don't even support sleep mode, for chrissakes.

To me it's all about the accuracy of the emulation.  The technical concern would be if the 3DS can handle emulating a GBA game without it being buggy and it appears that it can.

TheBigKMarch 26, 2014

Never played Advance Wars, so I'm definitely picking that one up. With regards to the rest, I either already own the GBA cart, on 3DS VC, or simply don't like them.

dougMarch 26, 2014

I don’t own any of these games (but played a few borrowed off friends). If these were on 3DS I’d buy all or most of them. It’s a great starting set.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterMarch 26, 2014

So wait we have to buy both advance wars games seperately while Japan gets a compilation? Nintendo it isn't rocket science if you're going to rerelease a game and there's a better version out there you should rerelease the better version.

KhushrenadaMarch 26, 2014

Quote from: Mop

I was actually expecting them to be $9 so it's good that they're $8 and $7.

I already have all of this first batch except for Golden Sun. I won't be buying anything, but I may get some if they are ever Club Nintendo rewards.

Quote from: Khushrenada

Personally, I think the must play library of the GBA is pretty small and I think there are only about 20 games on it I'd want to play or considering owning.

If these are just going to be first-party titles then yeah, sounds about right. If there will be third-party titles released then there will be more than that.

I don't expect many 3rd party releases but you never know. One can hope. If they port more Japan only releases, that could bolster the line-up quite a bit. It was always the hope, or at least I always thought, that companies would take more of a chance on importing games via digital distribution than physical due to there being less risk. With Sin and Punishment, Phoenix Wright: Duel Destinies, Sanran Kangura Blast (or however it is spelled, don't want to check, just want to post quickly, sue me) getting digital ports/distribution and even Earthbound now getting some digital love, I am more optimistic that there could be more imports done in the future.

BlackNMild2k1March 26, 2014

Quote from: broodwars

OK, that's a good 1st month lineup. Now let's see if they drop the ball the following month like they usually do and we get a trickle of 1 game every 2-3 weeks. And by the way, Nintendo, more VC schedule releases, please. I like knowing just how pitiful the eShop's going to be ahead of time.

We all know there will be another VC drought.

"Please understand...."

NO!!! ROM dump the entire catalog, GBA, GB, NES, SNES, N64, and all the 3rd party systems you can get your hands on by the end of next year. VC is so far behind schedule it's ridiculous. You would think they had to remake each game to fit a custom emulator made specifically for each individual game.

Kytim89March 26, 2014

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Quote from: broodwars

OK, that's a good 1st month lineup. Now let's see if they drop the ball the following month like they usually do and we get a trickle of 1 game every 2-3 weeks. And by the way, Nintendo, more VC schedule releases, please. I like knowing just how pitiful the eShop's going to be ahead of time.

We all know there will be another VC drought.

"Please understand...."

NO!!! ROM dump the entire catalog, GBA, GB, NES, SNES, N64, and all the 3rd party systems you can get your hands on by the end of next year. VC is so far behind schedule it's ridiculous. You would think they had to remake each game to fit a custom emulator made specifically for each individual game.

The Wii U's physical game drought could be alleviated if Nintendo could back it up with a large digital game offerings like the Virtual Console.

tendoboy1984March 27, 2014

Nintendo shouldn't have to make a custom emulator for each individual game. That takes too much effort. It would be much easier to do it the PC way, create a system-based emulator that can run the games properly and release all the games in one big chunk.

marvel_moviefan_2012March 27, 2014

Quote from: tendoboy1984

Nintendo shouldn't have to make a custom emulator for each individual game. That takes too much effort. It would be much easier to do it the PC way, create a system-based emulator that can run the games properly and release all the games in one big chunk.

That won't work, there are too many variables and it would be easier to just port them over without an emulator, Nintendo doesn't need an emulator anyways they wrote the code they know the timing, they don't have to reverse engineer anything like PC guys do so they could just port the code over nothing says they have to be true emulations.

Ian SaneMarch 27, 2014

In Japan Advance Wars was ONLY released as part of comp with the sequel.  The game was released on September 10, 2001 and you can probably all remember what happened the next day.  Because of the war theme they delayed it in other regions and Japan didn't get it until the sequel was also ready.

While obviously I would like the games together if Japan gets that, in this case the singular ROM contains both games and it would be in Japanese.  There is no translated version of a compilation of the two games together.  We're getting the American version and they're getting the Japanese version and unfortunately for us the Japanese version groups the two games together.  They could be nice and sell them at a 2-for-1 price to balance it out but I doubt Nintendo gave the VC that kind of flexibility in pricing and as annoying as it is they can rely on 99% of the potential buyers to be completely unaware that Japan gets both games for the price of one.

Luigi DudeMarch 27, 2014

Quote from: Ian

In Japan Advance Wars was ONLY released as part of comp with the sequel.  The game was released on September 10, 2001 and you can probably all remember what happened the next day.  Because of the war theme they delayed it in other regions and Japan didn't get it until the sequel was also ready.

While obviously I would like the games together if Japan gets that, in this case the singular ROM contains both games and it would be in Japanese.  There is no translated version of a compilation of the two games together.  We're getting the American version and they're getting the Japanese version and unfortunately for us the Japanese version groups the two games together.  They could be nice and sell them at a 2-for-1 price to balance it out but I doubt Nintendo gave the VC that kind of flexibility in pricing and as annoying as it is they can rely on 99% of the potential buyers to be completely unaware that Japan gets both games for the price of one.

We actually benefited from this last gen on the Virtual Console with R-Type for the Turbographix.  In Japan, that game was always 2 separate games while the North American release combined both.  So on the Virtual Console the Japanese had to buy both games while in America we got the one with both combined.

It's all about the luck of how certain games were released in each county.  Sometimes we in the West benefited from a better release and other times we don't and the Virtual Console/eShop rerelease will be the same.

StrikerObiMike Sklens, Podcast EditorMarch 28, 2014

I wonder how good these games will look on a big-ass HDTV. I may have to buy Metroid Fusion if they look good, even though I already have it on GBA and 3DS via the Ambassador program.

Zero Mission or bust.

jarodeaApril 01, 2014

$8 for gba games is a bit too rich for my blood.  Oh well, I already own most of the gba games I care about and don't really see the point of getting them on the Wii U since I have a gba, ds lite, gcn game boy player, and ambassador games.

That being sais, it is a good roll out line up.

StogiApril 01, 2014

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Quote from: broodwars

OK, that's a good 1st month lineup. Now let's see if they drop the ball the following month like they usually do and we get a trickle of 1 game every 2-3 weeks. And by the way, Nintendo, more VC schedule releases, please. I like knowing just how pitiful the eShop's going to be ahead of time.

We all know there will be another VC drought.

"Please understand...."

NO!!! ROM dump the entire catalog, GBA, GB, NES, SNES, N64, and all the 3rd party systems you can get your hands on by the end of next year. VC is so far behind schedule it's ridiculous. You would think they had to remake each game to fit a custom emulator made specifically for each individual game.

I would buy a Wii U if they ROM dumped.

...yeah, after a second thought, I would.

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