It is no secret the Wii U has had a hard start, but with strong offerings such as a Super Mario 64 Wii U Virtual Console release in the near future, hinted on the Nintendo Virtual Console site, could help Nintendo’s console turn things around sooner rather than later.
The Virtual Console on the Wii U has seen a release of games from past Nintendo systems. So far titles have been released from 4 past systems including the original NES, the Super NES, Game Boy Advance, with the Nintendo DS being added in April. The service is based on the idea of selling owners of the Wii games from Nintendo’s back catalog, as well as games from participating 3rd party publishers such as Square-Enix and Capcom.
The addition of games from the Nintendo 64 — which was originally released in 1996 — has been rumored from Nintendo for a long time, but the company has been mum on the subject with no new information coming out during E3. However, a change on the home page for the Nintendo Virtual Console states the following:
“Check back regularly for the latest releases, including the future addition of titles from the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo 64 systems.”
While no official date is given, chances are we can start to see digital offering of games like Super Mario 64 appear on the Virtual Console before too long. No pricing has been set, but looking back at the Wii’s Virtual Console, N64 games cost 1,000 or 1,200 Nintendo Points which translated into 100 points for $1.
Super Mario 64 was released previously on the Wii Virtual Console when the service launched on November 19, 2006. The Virtual Console service was hinted as far back as 2005 when the now defunct 1Up.com reported for the Wii (codenamed Revolution at the time) possibly offering remastered or retouched versions of past games. The service eventually was released on Nintendo’s 3DS and the Wii U as well.
The Wii U currently has just under 100 offerings for the Wii U Virtual Console, spanning the NES, Super NES, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS systems. The Wii U’s Virtual Console offerings allow players to play the games either on the TV or on the GamePad. Nintendo 64 games such as Super Mario 64 have long been rumored from Nintendo, but with this change on Nintendo’s official site we expect an announcement to be made in the following days.
The Wii U is riding a wave of good will coming off a positive showing at E3 including a healthy jump in sales with the release of Mario Kart 8 as reported earlier. A strong offering of new Virtual Console releases such as Super Mario 64 and other titles could not come at a better time to keep the momentum going for Nintendo.
Image Source | Wiki Commons
