Nintendo Announces Wii U Virtual Console Lineup

Nintendo has announced the Wii U Virtual Console lineup.

Wii U has faced many hardships throughout its short history, between the profit margin on its consoles being quite small, and getting a lot of bad titles and not much else. If you’re not raring to play some Need for Speed Most Wanted U or Dead or Alive 5 Plus, you haven’t had much to choose from game-wise on the Wii U. Perhaps Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate will tide you over when it arrives.

Recent reports say that the Wii U game releases will be speeding up, but with the list of games announced for the Wii U Virtual Console launch, the selection isn’t promising. The list is mostly games ranging from classic NES to N64, before Nintendo went the way of the disc.

Balloon Fight is similar to Joust, a very simple game harkening back to the days of Atari, released on the NES. It was among the first waves of button mashers where the objective was to keep your balloons inflated while you tried to pop your opponent’s balloons.

Donkey Kong Jr. is the sequel to the mega-popular Donkey Kong, where it switched roles. Instead of you playing the role of Mario trying to rescue Pauline from the titled ape, you played the role of the ape’s son, rescuing your dad from Mario.

Excitebike was one of the first trick race games ever made, where the objective was to cross the finish line in spite of multiple obstacles almost ensuring a race-losing crash.

Ice Climber is another platformer, where the objective is the get as high as you can (vertically) and rescue vegetables.

Kirby’s Adventure might be one you’ll actually spend time with, as the creampuff with the iron lungs inhales his enemies and gains their powers until he’s hit.

Punch-Out!! was originally Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!. It was a simple boxing game with a celebrity endorsement until Mike Tyson got some bad press and Nintendo removed him from the game, replacing him with Mr. Dream.

F-Zero was the first attempt at a futuristic racing game, using the SNES’ rotation technology to add a sense of surrealism.

Super Mario World was a radical upgrade to the Super Mario franchise, adding an overworld map to the classic platformer we all knew. It also added Yoshi, the dinosaur with an iron stomach.

Eight games is all Nintendo is promising for release on the Wii U Virtual Console when it launches, and most of them aren’t even impressive.

What do you think of Nintendo’s launch lineup for the Wii U Virtual Console?