I left you thinking about 3D Classics, and I hope you’ve taken a minute to think about it. I’m not sure how 3D could enhance a game like the original Mario Brothers, a game that is as 2D as 2D can possibly get. The only 3D I could see that kind of game getting would be the useless cardboard-cut-out kind of 3D you see in movies that have it added in post production, where there are a few layers of depth, and everything gets slotted into a layer and left there. There’s been a huge consumer backlash to that kind of half-assed 3D, and for good reason. It’s crap. So what kinds of games might work? Well, Rad Racer for one, or perhaps even the original Zelda games. The Zelda games in particular might look a little odd, but I would have said the same thing for Excitebike, and it turned out rather well. The 3DS clearly has the horsepower to handle SNES emulation at the very least, and could deal with N64 games without sweating. This brings to mind the original Mario Kart and StarFox in 3D, which is enough to make any big Nintendo fan a little sweaty in the palms. There is a massive back catalog there, and I’m sure they could find some games to re-release in 3D. This is Nintendo after all, they love selling you the same games multiple times, and a lot of seem to love buying them. That being said, what else is kicking around the 3DS estore?
I personally feel reviewing classic titles is akin to giving bananas a rating. (4 thumbs sideways, if you were wondering) They’re bananas, alright? What am I going to say, they’re yellow and taste distinctly of banana. The Virtual Console section has titles like Tennis, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Land, Alleyway and Radar Mission for the original GameBoy. Of course when I say like, I mean it only has those. All decent titles I suppose, though the two you’d probably buy, Super Mario and Donkey Kong, are $3.99 instead of $2.99, just because. We can debate price until you’re blue in the face, talking about smartphone apps, flea market or ebay sales, digital distribution and all the rest of it, but Nintendo feels it’s old games are worth money, and they expect you to pay. I’ve lost several copies of Super Mario Land over the years so $3.99 doesn’t kill part of my soul like I kind of feel it should, but I do get that distinct feeling of being ripped off when I hit ‘buy’. Especially as I now have $3.07 showing in my balance, which reminds me of the 2 years I had 80 Microsoft points staring at me from the dashboard whenever I turned on my Xbox. Can you just let me pay for the game I want Nintendo? Please? I know you’ve made the lowest amount I can add $5, but that’s still too much. Especially when Link’s Awakening DX is $5.99
$6 for a Gameboy Color game? I hear you scream. Yes, plus tax. It is a classic game and by far the best of the virtual console titles, a game that even non-Zelda fans should really check out. Which is probably why it costs $5.99. But perhaps that’s being cynical. So, now you’ve spent too much money on games you’ve bought 4 times before, but what about the ‘Real Games’? The reason we’ve bought the 3DS, the innovative titles that you can’t get anywhere else? Hmm…
