The Wii Virtual Console is an arena for playing classic games designed for older Nintendo consoles. Read on for a list of games that work on this platform, and to know how many Wii points you need to buy these games.
The Nintendo Wii is a truly great video game console to own and play on, and it has been very well received all around the world. This list will tell you about the games that you can play on the Virtual Console (VC) that are available only in North America. There are other regions like Japan, South Korea, and PAL (the Phase Altering Line of the video game industry, which deals with regions in southern Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and western Europe), but this article will only deal with the North American titles.
Like all the other competing video game consoles in the market today, the Nintendo Wii also has online services that offer gamers more features and products to choose from. One of these features is the Shop Channel, and one of the best products on offer there is the Virtual Console. This is a software that acts as an emulator on the Nintendo Wii game console, and allows gamers to play video games that were released for earlier versions of Nintendo consoles. So, in effect, this is a method of backward compatibility of games that is offered by Nintendo themselves.
The best games are the ones that used to run on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Nintendo 64, and some other consoles from Sega and TurboGrafx. To buy any of these NES titles and others on the VC you need a certain number of Wii points, which is a method of payment through credit card that Nintendo makes use of.
List of VC Games on Wii
People who loved the classic video games of the past are the ones who benefit from the Virtual Console the most, as they now have an opportunity to play these games again. Moreover, all the games mentioned in this list for North America are found in their original form, with no changes in the graphics and the gameplay. Hence, they are a throwback to a forgotten era.
NES Games for 500 Wii Points
| A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Bloblonia | Adventure Island | Adventures of Lolo | Adventures of Lolo 2 |
| Balloon Fight | Baseball | Bases Loaded | Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa |
| Blades of Steel | Blaster Master | Bubble Bobble | Castlevania |
| Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest | City Connection | Clu Clu Land | Crash n’ the Boys: Street Challenge |
| Dig Dug | Donkey Kong | Donkey Kong 3 | Donkey Kong Jr. |
| Donkey Kong Jr. Math | Double Dragon | Double Dribble | Elevator Action |
| Excitebike | Final Fantasy | Galaga | Ghosts n’ Goblins |
| Gradius | Ice Climber | Ice Hockey | Kirby’s Adventure |
| Life Force | Lode Runner | Lunar Pool | Mach Rider |
| Mario Bros. | Mega Man | Mega Man 2 | Mega Man 3 |
| Mega Man 4 | Metroid | Mighty Bomb Jack | Milon’s Secret Castle |
| NES Open Tournament Golf | NES Play Action Football | Ninja Gaiden | Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos |
| Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom | Operation Wolf | Pac-Man | Pinball |
| Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom | Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream | Renegade | River City Ransom |
| Shadow of the Ninja | Sky Kid | Soccer | Solomon’s Key |
| Spelunker | Star Soldier | StarTropics | Super C |
| Super Dodge Ball | Super Mario Bros. | Super Mario Bros. 2 | Super Mario Bros. 3 |
| Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels | Tecmo Bowl | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Tennis |
| The Legend of Kage | The Legend of Zelda | Ufouria: The Saga | Urban Champion |
| Wario’s Woods | Xevious | Yoshi | Yoshi’s Cookie |
There are a few games in this list that cost 600 points. It has been noted that there are around 89 titles for NES games (at 800 Wii points each, excluding a few), 20 titles for Nintendo 64 games (at 1000 Wii points each, excluding a few), 16 titles for the Sega Master System (at 500 Wii points each, excluding a few), 72 titles for the Sega Genesis (at 800 Wii points each, excluding a few), 63 titles for the TurboGrafx-16/TurboGrafx-CD (at 600 Wii points each, excluding a few), 29 titles for the Neo Geo (at 900 Wii points each, excluding a few), 9 titles for the Commodore 64 (at 500 Wii points each, excluding a few) and 15 titles for the Virtual Console Arcade (at 600 Wii points each, excluding a few).
As you can see, there are plenty of choices available for people who love to play classic video games along with their modern Wii games. Some of these games will never go out of vogue, and there will always be plenty of takers around the world. This is not a complete list, as there are many more great games that can be included here as well. Feel free to add the names of games not in this list in the comments section below.