Virtual Console First Timer

More than 4 months after I got my Wii and almost 2 after I got my copy of Metroid Prime 3, I finally gathered enough courage to try the Virtual Console service. I took out my trusty credit card (hooray for credit cards... woohoo!!!), bought 5000 points (that's $50 for you, mister) and started browsing through the list of top games.

My first choice was a no-brainer: Super Mario World (SNES). I was also tempted to buy the recently released Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) but I decided that it wasn't on my list of priorities right now (actually, if I had to buy a NES Mario game it would be Super Mario Bros. 2). The inclusion of Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos on the list, now that was surprising. Yes, I consider that game one of the greatest, most enjoyable for the NES, but I didn't know that a lot of people felt the same. Tecmo, if you're reading this (chances are you're not), please make a Ninja Gaiden Black game for the Wii!!!

After checking the list and passing on the Metroids and Donkey Kongs (I played those to death when I was a teenager) I went to the Genesis section and picked Gunstar Heroes (a game that was ahead of it's time and was sadly overlooked) and another no-brainer, Streets of Rage 2, a game that makes me remember those days when beat'em ups like Double Dragon or Final Fight where everything. Finally, my first day of shopping ended with me buying Paper Mario for the N64. I left the Virtual Console with 1100 points on my wallet and the sensation that I totally understood how women feel when they buy shoes.

¿So, what should be improved?

- The Mario "progress animation" is a nice detail, but when you're downloading a big game (N64, Neo Geo) it can eventually become annoying. I would like to have the option to choose a real progress bar that showed percentage or actual downloaded kbytes.
- A news/future releases section would be an interesting addition.
- How long until Square gets in the game?
- When will Capcom start releasing the Mega Man games?
- It would be great if we could get the content of the original instruction manuals.
- We want more GOOD old import games (the kind that were never released).
- I hate the fact that I can't play the games if I transfer them to my SD card. If I want to make space in the Wii's internal memory, I have to repeat the tedious process of copying and erasing each game. The Wii has no "move" option from memory to card, and there's no option to copy/erase multiple games.

Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable experience. I'll be doing some more shopping in a couple of months.

On a side note, I just ordered Super Mario Galaxy (Merry Christmas to me!!!) from www.cduniverse.com, a great store that not only has better prices than Amazon in some products, but it also ships videogames to South America. Yeah!