Virtual Console Reviews

that would be an excellent idea as more games would be tried out and downloaded.

Is this for WiiWare or for games of the Virtual Console ?
I could see this happen for WiiWare but not for old nes, snes, SMS, ... games. You download the game and what, you can play for 5 mins ? Not happening !

On the bright side, I'm always glad to see new options, even though I will never use them

Aye, my Xbox owning friend was showing me the Xbox Live service and said you could get demos for most of the games, which I thought was a good idea... I've downloaded some rubbish of the VC, and to me this is Metriod (nes), I tired because of everyone saying how good it is, but I couldnt get into it, so a demo would had saved me 500 points. I'd try demos for every game on the list, just in case I've missed a game that I might enjoy.

In other words... DO IT!

IMO while the games available to the VC are far better than the 360. The XBLA is a far better service.

Ninty need to step it up, and this is a good first step.

If Nintendo can't figure out how to do VC demos they could do worse than just mimic the masterpieces on Super Smash Bros Brawl (basically a limited amount of time with a pre-definded saves/save-state).

The issue I have is some of the masterpieces don't give a good idea of how the game plays (for instance I don't think you have time for any dungeons in Zelda titles).

As for WiiWare demos. Star Soldier R please. It would have to be less than 2 minutes or missing Wi-Fi and score saving else there would be no point buying the game

My point exactly ...
but who will download demo's (and fill up precious storage room (sorry to menton the S-word, I know a lot of people get headaches whenever they hear this)) if you only can play for a minute or 2 ...

I would like it but I think it would mean that a lot of people would mostly download demos and almost never buy the full game.

@Steve - On XBLA on the 360 I actually find having a playable demo encourages me to try out games which I am not sure about and therefore buy (assuming they aren't a steaming turd of course!).

I guess demos will only pay off if the VC game in question isn't something like Urban Champion!

They would lose so much money if they did demos. While there are some really good games out there, MOST of the games on the vc are garbage. IMHO, you would have far less people taking chances on games.

"I could see this happen for WiiWare but not for old nes, snes, SMS, ... games. You download the game and what, you can play for 5 mins ?"

Isn't that what most people do anyway? ie - with VC games they've actually bought?

That's all Greek to me. ^^' Hopefully it does mean something along those lines as I think the Virtual Console service is long overdue for an update. I'd like to see these things added to the service:

-Demos
-Automatic aspect ratio adjusting for 16:9 televisions
-The ability to condence all your VC games into one channel
-The ability to use said channel to organize and load your games off an SD card

Well I think this could be a likely possibility. Doesn't SSB have demos? I don't 'cause I'm still bloody waiting for it... >

SSBB vc demos was a lame cheap and stupid idea...a 5 KB game hjas a demo? just put the whole version you cheap bastards. lol who wants to play 30 sec of mario bros.

secondly, they'd be wise to put out demos of wii games

lol point taken
I'm with Steady Mobbin (9.) though ... With demo's you would only buy the games you really are sure they're still fun, not the "I used to play this as a kid, it was great - in hindsight it actually sucks" ...

I personally think that the excellent reviews of the vc-reviews gurus are all the demos we need

The problem with demos for VC games, is that I think it would lead to DECREASED sales. People will demo the game to get a feel of the nostalgia they had, then realize that the game play is severely lacking in many of them, and not purchase. obviously not all. The few games I downloaded, I probably would still have gotten, but the ones I downloaded are "classics" for the most part.

I've said my piece a thousand times regarding the proliferation of Wii channels and content w/o a viable storage solution. So in the words of my 12 y/o neice ' What-Evs' - makes W with fingers -

@Unimpressed - Excellent point and one that I hadn't even taken into consideration. I was a victim of nostalgia myself...Eternal Champions yuck. Maybe that would work out for us in the end. Less turds!

I usually try out the emulator rom to see if I like a game before purchase. Granted I don't have a emulator for every system on the vc but I have most of them.

Think of all the kids who cant afford to buy vc games every week/month, it would be great for them to get a chance to play various demos without bothering parents for money. Kids are easily entertained. Me, if I see a geme I like I just buy it, no demos for me.

var NO_WIFI = 0; /* no WIFIFREE or WIFIPAY */
var WIFI_PARTIALLY_CHARGED = 1; /* partially charged WIFI */
var WIFI_FREE = 2; /* WIFIFREE only */
var WIFI_ALL_CHARGED = 3; /* all charged WIFI */

I'm sorry to rain on anybody's parade, but I don't see how this code snippet has anything to do with demos or game rentals.

The best I could come up with what these four lines would refer to would be online play (Hence the WIFI part). NO_WIFI would be for games that don't allow WIFI play (free or otherwise), while WIFI_FREE would refer to games that offer completely free online play. WIFI_PARTIALLY_CHARGED and WIFI_ALL_CHARGED may refer to games that offer online play for a fee, with PARITALLY_CHARGED games only applying to some of the features.

The other thing that makes this questionable is the context. This code appears on the WiiWare download page, right? The only reason they'd be there is to act as markers that might be applied to games the users are considering purchasing, perhaps to add a logo or disclaimer to the game. This would fit right in with games that are "pay to play" -- A logo and warning would show up if the game is WIFI_ALL_CHARGED, letting users know they will have to pay to play it online (or at all?), while a game marked as WIFI_FREE might show a different message stating that the game supports WIFI free of charge.

Sorry, but I don't see how any of this would apply to demo games at all. In any case, this is far too little information to make any kind of an educated guess as to what it might mean.

I agree Waxxy, I am not sure if this implies demos. It's to vague

I think they will put demos on their major titles like SSB

SSB was the first time I tried F Zero. Pretty cool

@ Waxxy - I wasn't sure what it had to do with it either. It didn't seem to relate at all to demos. I'm no coding genius, but I see no reference to demos. Just pay for play. Maybe I'm just loopy from expired lunch meat. (Don't eat fuzzy chicken)

Touch fuzzy, get dizzy.

Demos have been confirmed for WiiWare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwXfn2y6FE

Ok well that squashed that rumor! Thanks for the link!

If you consult the NeoGAF link you'll see that the guy who spotted that code explains why he thinks it relates to demos...but anyway, WiiWare demos it is!

I would certainly download demos as so far 2 games i downloaded wasn't my cup of tea (Actraiser & Mario and Yoshi).
1300 points down the drain .

Please let this happen! I want to try so many vc games, but don't want to just jump in and waste points.

Kawaiipikachu, if only you knew how to demo vc titles, you would still have 1300 points.

@Tim There no current vc demo available yet so i dont know what you talking about tim

I like butter.

@Manicfatty - I am a low fat margarine kinda guy myself, thanks for sharing

I use Smart balance myself. ITs very healthy

By the way does this mean VC reviews won't be able to post the new releases early anymore? I enjoy seeing whats coming out early

By the way does this mean VC reviews won't be able to post the new releases early anymore? I enjoy seeing whats coming out early
The user agent loophole has been non-function for months. VC-reviews relies on press releases being shared early (members of the press usually get the PR on Friday to give them time to write reviews for Monday)

@Tony - We've not been able to use the user agent trick for ages... we'll normally know the North American VC games 1 or 2 days early depending on when we get sent the press release.

@Serpent - Are you sure this isn't a video of the free online-only version of Dr. Mario. If one person downloads the full version of Dr. Mario, they can play with friends who download an online only version for free. I don't know Japanese to read anything in this video, but that is what it looks like to me.

@Dazza - Are you getting official press releases from Nintendo now?

Yup we get them directly from the big N now

Cool
Look forward to more updates then

Dr. Mario has a free demo: You can send a free demo (if you bought the game) to any of your friends in your list. This demo includes online play only, but you can play with your pals

@arobo21 - Yes, the Smash Bros demos just ticked me off royally, however I did manage to beat the first levels on Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario World before the timer expired! Animal Crossing GC included several fully functional NES games for free. By the way, they're not 5 kb apiece. For comparison, Super Mario Brothers ROM is 40kb, Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World are both 512kb, Mario64 was 8Mb, and Sunshine is approximately 1.4Gbytes! But 4kb would be about the right size for an Atari2600 game, LOL!

The built-in emulator and the user's manual generally make up the bulk of the file size for NES VC games.

Awesome! Nintendo should have thought of this idea before.