(Kirby's) Adventures in the Virtual (Console) Realm
Visited the Wii Shop Channel for the first time in at least a couple of weeks, and, for the first time ever, I saw a game in the Virtual Console section worth typing in my credit card digits for: Kirby's Adventure. I usually learn of the week's releases on Joystiq, but either I missed the addition of Kirby due to Moving Madness, or simply didn't think much of it at the time. Anyway, I bought some Wii points, then spent 500 of them on that sucker; I figured $5 was a decent enough price for an NES game I've never played, a title in a franchise I've played little of but have always enjoyed.
The whole process of buying Wii Points was fairly easy, much like using Amazon or any other online retailer, only without having to type in a full mailing address :P There was even a receipt!
As for the game I bought, it showed up in one of the "channel" spots in the main Wii menu. It was one of those games that one could use the Wiimote, GameCube controller, or Classic controller for, but despite the convenience of using the former two, I finally cracked open the packaging on one of the Classics. It's super-lightweight and handles much like an old SNES controller (from what I remember, anyway... haven't touched a SNES controller since I was a kid).
For the most part, Kirby played nicely. Sometimes there's some artifacts at the left side of the screen while side-scrolling, and I think the game lagged a tiny bit at one point, but otherwise, it's been smooth sailing. The images were as crispy as one expects from NES graphics (none of that anti-aliasing junk you get with certain Snes9x settings), and more importantly, the game played like an NES title. Oh, and there's a manual that can be accessed with a touch of the Home button; took me awhile to figure that out, though :P
So yeah, Virtual Console is pretty cool so far. Now give me Chrono Trigger, dammit!
The whole process of buying Wii Points was fairly easy, much like using Amazon or any other online retailer, only without having to type in a full mailing address :P There was even a receipt!
As for the game I bought, it showed up in one of the "channel" spots in the main Wii menu. It was one of those games that one could use the Wiimote, GameCube controller, or Classic controller for, but despite the convenience of using the former two, I finally cracked open the packaging on one of the Classics. It's super-lightweight and handles much like an old SNES controller (from what I remember, anyway... haven't touched a SNES controller since I was a kid).
For the most part, Kirby played nicely. Sometimes there's some artifacts at the left side of the screen while side-scrolling, and I think the game lagged a tiny bit at one point, but otherwise, it's been smooth sailing. The images were as crispy as one expects from NES graphics (none of that anti-aliasing junk you get with certain Snes9x settings), and more importantly, the game played like an NES title. Oh, and there's a manual that can be accessed with a touch of the Home button; took me awhile to figure that out, though :P
So yeah, Virtual Console is pretty cool so far. Now give me Chrono Trigger, dammit!