Two games in the same week on VC that I might actually download? What the hell is going on?

For a long time now virtual console on the Wii has really sucked. It's clear that from their E3 Press Conference and some off the collar quips that Nintendo really doesn't care about the core gamers upon who's wallets they rode a wave of hype to become famed as an object of desire among alpha moms and the elderly.

This has been covered a lot online. And I can't say I disagree. For a long time I'd say, "well I have a Wii, but really all I do with it is play virtual console." and for a while that was true. For about a year we were getting three games a week. And for a stretch there was usually at least one game that was keeping me on the little white waggle box. Hell, there was even a period when we were getting games that up until then had only come out in Japan. It was amazing. I could over look a few years of Wii Fit E3s if Nintendo kept bringing home those goods. However, that trend did not last forever. It seems to be that Nintendo is settling into autopilot, dolling out the bare minimum releases. I suspected that eventually they might even stop all together in favor of Wii Ware titles.

But the releases this week have redeemed themselves.

First a quick aside. There's a lot of places you can get information about Wii Virtual Console releases. You can never go wrong with Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler over at 1UP. These guys know there stuff and their Virtual Console Round UP is a great place to get the scoop. The only problem I have with it is that, like Retronauts, it is somewhat inconsistant and does not always come out on a predictable schedule. The guys at IGN Retro write up stuff. My one complaint aobut this site is that, like most IGN stuff there isn't a lot of cohesion. I wish there were more specific RSS feeds. I wish I could get Virtual Console reviews without subscribing to a bunch of Wii shovel ware reviews. Also most of hte links in on IGN seem to blast you all over the site. Basically, if it's not from the saftety of my Google Reader, I hate IGN's layout and mish mash of inter linking. For this reason I recommend keeping tabs on the RSS feed from VC Reviews. This site has consistant updates, decent reviews (althugh I should say not as informative as Parish and Kohler's).

Anyway, today in my RSS feed was news that both Splatter House 2 and Mega Man came out this week. I don't think I need to say much about Mega Man. It is my favorite in the series, yes I like it better than 2, cause I sucked at 2 and I've never gotten over it. I haven't played much of Splatter House 2 or 3. I hear 3 is better than 2. But I'm a huge fan of the first, so I'm planing on checking this one out as soon as I can.

I'll post up impressions later on. For now I'm just glad that there is a brief glimmer of hope for Virtual Console. Hopefully this isn't the last gasp before oblivion...then again what do I care, if VC went belly up, I'd just have more time to play Soul Calibur 4.

Update: According to Chris Kohler's Wired blog, Mega Man is apparently NOT coming out today. Oh well. Looks like Splatterhouse 2 is still a go. Should have known it was too good to be true.