I picked up Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection because the VC still isn’t giving me my Phantasy Star 1 fix (this is only the third time it’s been released in the states, and the GBA version was buggy). More Genesis games than you can shake a stick at, and still far more Genesis games than have been released on the Virtual Console. Heck, the Genesis collection has more Master System games than the Virtual Console.

And now that I think about Sonic’s, it makes me wonder what’s going on behind the scenes with the VC. Why does it make sense to Sega to pay for the production and manufacture of this collection and price it for only $30 (until it lands in the bargain bin) when all those games could be put on the VC, selling $5 to $8 or more each with what should be practically no overhead? The only explanation I can think of is that Nintendo is deliberately trying to keep these VC releases as small and uninteresting as possible, for reasons beyond the ken of mere mortals.

Or for two dollars less than that, you can get Ocarina of Time on the Virtual Console. If you’re trying to make the case that the library of PS1 games on the PlayStation Network is better than the library of Virtual Console games on the Wii, you’re going to be fighting a losing battle there.

But yeah. Japan gets everything, etc. That part is true.

Or, for $4 more, I can go over to the competition and download Final Fantasy VII. Sony’s still talking up that one in my inbox.

Hmm…

And what did Wii owners in the Land of the Rising Sun get last week? Why, look, it’s Final Fantasy II! They already got the first one a month ago.

But we get Sim Earth, and on the TG16 at that. It’s almost as if suspects the $2 price difference between the TG16 and SNES versions would harm sales of a game that’s already not very high on anybody’s “must own” list.

Seriously, what is this? Some sort of cultural phenomenon, real or perceived by Nintendo, that us gaijins just aren’t interested in teh old skool, even though we’re the ones that kept the company afloat during the N64 years? Is it that we’re seeing more WiiWare than the Japanese (which we aren’t)? I just finished filling out my survey on the DSi, Nintendo seems really worried about Apple, are they worried that having a Virtual Console that’s just too darned interesting will keep them from competing with the iPhone or whatnot? Is Nintendo holding back on the Virtual Console in an effort to make the Wii seem more accessible by turning off the oh-so-scary hardcore gamers?

I’ll freely admit that there aren’t that many WiiWare or DSiWare games that have piqued my interest, mostly because I have an MMORPG occupying my time and a back-catalog of older games on physical media I’d like to catch up on, but I certainly don’t begrudge Nintendo for trying to push newer content from up-and-coming developers, especially to an audience that may not have touched a video game since the 2600. But why must this be at the expense of the products that I am interested in? Yes, the people who manage Nintendo for the Americas aren’t the same people who manage it for Japan, but I should think that different would manifest itself mostly in which titles are chosen to be offered, not whether or not to offer games to begin with! The difference in the number of WiiWare titles is about 20, but the number of VC games still differs by over 100!

It’s just as well, I suppose. I should be saving my disposable income to pay for the repair service my Wii needs. I’m getting black specks in my picture.