Cast your mind back to Nintendo's 2005 E3 press conference. Very little was revealed about the then-titled 'Revolution' console, save for the exterior design and some mysterious comments from Satoru Iwata. But one feature was mentioned- the Virtual Console. The gaming world collectively exploded with excitement- Nintendo were to resurrect decades of gaming heritage! It would be the iTunes of gaming! The history of Nintendo gaming, from the NES right up to the present, would be playable on one box. What an idea!

How jealous Microsoft and Sony must have been. How worried they, particularly Microsoft, must have felt- surely Nintendo's massive back catalogue of classics would eclipse their fledgling Xbox Live Arcade service, and render it worthless. But most importantly of all: How they must have sighed with relief when they saw the list of games that Nintendo announced would launch the Virtual Console service.

There are a number of problems with Nintendo's Virtual Console launch. Quality and quantity of the games are the big ones. Take a look at the European line-up for starters. To all intents and purposes, most of the line-up looks like a random selection of mediocre titles- yes, Solomon's Key and Urban Champion, I'm looking at you. Dull NES games comprise over a third of the initial line-up. The SNES gets a paltry three titles (though F-Zero and Donkey Kong Country are amongst them). As regards the poor old Nintendo 64, only Super Mario 64 is getting a look-in at launch. It's all a bit bare-bones, isn't it? Where are the Super Mario World's and Link to the Past's of this world? Ah, they're in Japan, as it happens. And this is the second major problem with the Virtual Console- and a much more serious one at that. You see, rather than just have one universal Virtual Console, Nintendo have segregated Japan, North America and Europe. Whilst it's quite reasonable that Nintendo can't release untranslated versions of Japan-only titles in English-speaking regions, where's the sense in giving Japan Super Mario World and Zelda, and giving the rest of the world no indication as to when these and other titles will be released? Even more worryingly, as this article goes goes to (metaphorical) press, different European countries appear to have different games available, with Australia being deprived of any Turbografx games for the bewildering reason that the system was never released there in the first place. It'd be best to hold off criticism of this until a clearer picture emerges in the weeks and months ahead, but this kind of drip-fed, haphazard approach smacks of disorganisation and a lack of a coherent strategy.
I'm playing the devil's advocate here because I genuinely believe that the Virtual Console has the potential to be important as feature of the new console as the Wii Remote itself. Ideally, the VC will act as a gateway into decades of classic gaming for non-gamers and even lapsed gamers who have been enticed by the Wii's accessibility. For the hardcore gamer, like much of N-Europe's readership, how will we resist the opportunity to download classics like Yoshi's Island and Ocarina of Time, even if we've played them to death already ? (often on multiple consoles!)

There's definitely a distinctly low-key feel to the launch of the new download service, which is a shame. Nintendo shouldn't be hiding their light under a bushel, as the Bible saying goes- they should be proclaiming the virtues of the Virtual Console from the highest mountains instead. But before they do that, they need to sort out a series of niggling technical problems that are already marring the service.
Firstly, what's with the bizarre loading times? It takes a full 30-35 seconds from clicking the Wii Shop Channel icon until you're actually able to access the Virtual Console games list. Anyone who's ever used Xbox Live will know the Marketplace menus appear near-instantaneously. So why the delay with Nintendo's version? It's simple, really- the Xbox 360 automatically caches the data from the Marketplace periodically while the console is on, allowing for rapid access to the newest Marketplace content, the Wii does no such thing- instead it fetches the data while you wait. So much for the 'always-on' WiiConnect24. Nintendo should really release a future firmware update to fix this.

The design of the Virtual Console menus leaves quite a lot to be desired, too: 'functional' is a generous adjective to use: 'shoddy' seems nearer the mark. There is a definite rushed and incomplete feeling to it all, especially compared to a service as slick and feature-rich as Xbox Live, with its download manager, scheduled downloads, and wide variety of demos. Another minor mess-up is the fact that the Wii fails to adjust the aspect ration when you run a Virtual Console game- meaning that if you have wide-screen tv, you're going to have to manually change the Wii's settings to 4:3 before you load the game. It's another niggling issue that we'd really like to see ironed out. Worse still is the news that, generally, Virtual Console games won't run in 60hz mode in PAL regions. So when we shell out our Wii Points for Super Mario 64, we'll be getting the slowed-down PAL version and a set of ugly borders thrown in for good measure. It's another disappointment that could've been avoided. It's early days yet though, and if Nintendo are pro-active enough (and that's a big if), can remedy these problems with regular updates to the service. A laissez-faire attitude will do them no good this time, especially given the intense level of competition in the online arena, and the growing emphasis on digital downloads.

Forgive the negative tone- I'm quite confident that for all its current quirks, the Virtual Console will emerge as a major boon for the Wii. Hopefully Nintendo are planning on tying in Virtual Console releases with major Wii releases- perhaps some new Mario games around the same time as Galaxy's release, or Super Metroid tied into Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's launch. I'm looking forward to falling in love- for the umpteenth time- with Yoshi's Island, or to reacquaint myself with the charms of Pilotwings 64. The Virtual Console gives Nintendo an unparalleled opportunity to marry the best of the past with the bleeding-edge present. It would be a great shame if they didn't take full advantage.

Nintendo's have never had a problem coming up with grand designs- but the implementation of many initiatives has often left a lot to be desired. GameCube to Game Boy Advance link-up, the Virtual Boy, and the Power Glove are just three examples.

The Virtual Console, however, is too tantalising a prospect to mess up. Make this one work, Nintendo.

(Editor's note: There's quite a bit of confusion at the moment surrounding the Virtual Console's lack of 60hz functionality- it is being reported that Super Mario 64 isn't a straight port of the PAL version, but that we'll be getting the same version available in North America- sans borders. It's difficult to ascertain what is the case at the moment, but all will become clear in the near future.)

Mark Cullinane
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