The Xbox One Just Made a Mockery Out Of Nintendo's Virtual Console

Thanks to the release of Rare Replay today, Xbox One owners will now be able to play seven Nintendo 64 classics on Microsoft’s console. Nintendo’s current console, the Wii U, only sells people the chance to play six.

While there is an asterisk to this—Wii U owners can buy and play 15 more N64 games through the Wii U’s last-gen “Wii Mode”—this is another sad indictment of Nintendo’s paltry support for its incredible back catalog.

[PhoenixUp]

PS1 Classics have been putting N64 VC titles to shame since 2006. Not only are PS1 Classics offered usually offered for a cheaper asking price than even some SNES VC titles, they also have cross-buy across PSP, PS3, and Vita as well as weekly discounts.

Rare Replay further puts salt in Virtual Console's wounds by ironically offering more N64 titles on Xbox One than the ones offered natively on Wii U.

[INTOmyMOUTH]

Rare ain't gonna be square.

[INTOmyMOUTH]

Thanks Obama, really.

[BillytheBarbarian]

I'll take N64 and SNES games over PSone games all day.

[Trolltroll]

Im not calling anyone a winner here. But there are a S ton of great ps1 classics. I would give sony more points for it if they got rid of their convoluted download limit. I lost over ten games from my ps3 and psp days to the limit.

[OhMyGandhi]

@BillytheBarbarian

why do you have to choose? oooh! it's because your a fanboy. I see!

[BillytheBarbarian]

It's a simple thing. I still play Mario 64, Zelda OoT, Fzero 64, WWF No Mercy, Mario Kart, etc...

I just look at the PSone games and they just haven't aged all that well. Tekken, MGS, FFVII, GT, just those early 32bit console games don't hold up too well. The Resident Evils were redone on Dreamcast and Gamecube so I'd play those versions if I really wanted to or download the XBLA ones.

The 2-D fighters and Lunar games were still decent and stand the test of time simply because most sprite games do.

Just sayin'. I'm a Sega/2k fanboy. That's about it.

[pivotplease]

What download limit? I haven't heard of that. You have certain .Activated devices and that's all there is to it. I thought the downloads were unlimited. I know a few games I've downloaded as many as five times and on different systems too.

[Concertoine]

Only thing the other consoles have them beat at is price. On my wii u i can play:

SNES
NES
N64
GBA
DS
Wii
NEO GEO
Commodore 64
Genesis
Master System
Turbo Grafx 16

If you aren't scared to mod, you can add a lot of Gamecube games too.

[WildArmed]

yeah! My (modded) Wii plays all of them too <3

Well except DS (i think?) and Wii U (obviously).

Does it play DS? o.o

[Concertoine]

@Wild

Wii U has DS games for sale on the eshop.

[pivotplease]

N64 lineup is still pretty sad imo. Sure there's Wii mode but that requires you to buy a whole other controller unless you happened to have a Wii with the classic controller already (who would? Imo Wii was casual and Wii u is really damn core like the GameCube).

[Concertoine]

@pivotplease

It is sad, true.

But i expect less than 5% of wii u owners to have not owned a wii prior. Almost all wii u owners are just hardcore nintendo fans, with a minority of casuals. Both groups largely had a wii.

Now they're kind of expensive but around wii u's launch i could get classic controllers out of the clearance bin in gamestop for like 5-10 bucks. There's some perfectly good third party ones too. You're really missing out if you haven't played some of the wii's hidden gems, dude. Like really, it wasn't the best console, but it had some damn good games.

[jrshankill]

My Raspberry Pi can play 9 of those 11 systems.. plus PS1 games.

[jcnba28]

SNES titles are way bigger classics than PS1 games. Of course they are going to be more expensive.

[Picnic]

PS1 games generally look underwhelming as 3D games these days, that's why they're cheap. Whereas SNES games can still look pretty good as 2D games.

[Big_Game_Hunters]

PC emulators already made all three look like jokes a long time ago.

[Software_Lover]

"Rare Replay further puts salt in Virtual Console's wounds by ironically offering more N64 titles on Xbox One than the ones offered natively on Wii U."

............ That's just sad.

[Bathyj]

Hey at least its now possible to play a really great Rare game on an Xbox. Thats long overdue in my book.

[Naga]

Hey, Killer Instinct has been there for a while (both original and reboot)

[Mr Marvel]

Killer Instinct is garbage.

It has never been even half decent, especially when compared to the competition (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc)

[4Sh0w]

"Killer Instinct is garbage"

-uhm, OK....your opinion, which tells me we are definitely very different type gamers because I have the new MKX and its good but X1s Killer Instinct is pure fighting goodness goes, fast, furious, tight gaming controls...no gimmicks, just COMBO beat downs & superb net code.

[Rookie_Monster]

Mr Marvel,

You are on some heavy med. KI is one of the fresher, balance, unique fighters with the best net code of any fighting games in recent memory. Please try to play it before commenting.

[pivotplease]

It seems like some kind of nostalgia-esque attachment more than anything else. There's a reason the reviews and the sales aren't saying it's the best. Though to each their own. I just wouldn't ever put it at the top of Rare's impeccable backlog. Not even in the top 10.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

And while the fanboys gloat, they fail to realize that there's more to N64 games than just Rare's titles.
Plus, Micro is still way behind the ball on native BC, even though I applaude their recent efforts.
And Sony just needs to stop the whole PSNow nonsense and use actual BC.

[n4rc]

What do you mean "way behind"?

Behind who exactly? And in any case, native BC isn't going to happen..ever.. For either..

True native BC would require a 360 (or a ps3 in Sony's case) soc built into the new console..

[MSBAUSTX]

@n4rc

Nintendo's BC on the Wii is native and doesnt require any special waiting period for developer agreements. Wii U essentially launched with hundreds of playable games.

[n4rc]

well fair enough.. havent followed nintendo since the 64.. lol

but wii u (after verifying lol) does indeed include custom hardware just for wii games..

you run a soc (system on chip) which is the entire last gen console on a single chip.. its expensive and it seems both sony and ms have moved away from wanting to do that again.. but thats how you get true native BC

so it wont be happening for ps4 or x1.. emulation in software is the only route besides streaming the game from the actual hardware like psnow does

[lemoncake]

And then when u compare the price it's even more shocking.

[WildArmed]

Wait, so a company that has supported BC for almost all of its home console releases should be ashamed?? Ahh ok

[Mr Marvel]

Apart from Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye, all Rare games suck ass anyway.

[WeAreLegion]

Ok. You're clearly in a bad place right now. You need to go cool off and get back to us when you feel better.

[N0TaB0T]

Your first game you ever played in your life was probably Call of Duty.

[bananaboats]

then you don't know Jack about Rare.

[DarXyde]

I agree with WildArmed.

Nintendo basically has super BC with Wii U, extending to even DS games and back to the NES era.

On top of that, Nintendo still has what many argue is the BEST N64 game, Ocarina of Time. Rare Replay has some awesome titles, no disputing that. However, the big ones, Perfect Dark and Conker's Bad Fur Day, while great games, haven't exactly aged well in terms of humor or gameplay. Great to revisit, but now, I'd place them behind Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. Those are timeless. I think Nintendo's VC has always been great at offering the games that are still great by today's standards. In terms of price though, Rare Replay is a steal. I'd pay $30 for the Banjo games and Killer Instinct alone. The rest is just an outstanding bonus.

Not knocking Rare Replay, but I'd be more interested in seeing what Sea of Thieves becomes. I frowned upon Square's reliance on nostalgia and they seem to be doing big things now. Maybe they can follow suit.

[theFAYEsorceress]

if they remade the first perfect dark, i'd be sooo happy~

[Trolltroll]

One more 64 game? Im going to go out on a limb here and say that Xbox collection of 64 games will stay at 7. Nintendo would only have to slide a couple titles over from the wii market as they pointed out. As if lacking 64 titles make a mockery of anything. Backwards compatible that would be Nintendo Stomping news if they hadn't included it at launch.

The Rare Collection looks great. Why try to shift that into a Nintendo jab? Worst Kotaku article I have read in a long time.

[RosweeSon]

Exactly at the end of the day they will never have any more N64 games on the Xbox because they've now released everything they legally can that rare have done, but if Nintendo just pulled there finger out there's just over 20 N64 games on the older Wii virtual console they just need to port them to the Wii U, that could take until Christmas and beyond tho. Sega genesis collection did this first tho all of the Sega classics in one package still this Rare replay is still a great bargain.

[GordonKnight]

I think Capcom did it first, but I could be wrong.

[RosweeSon]

Both services are pretty poor ps1 classics have pretty much dried up yet there's still a few classics yet to be released and ps2 classics is barely 10 games worth grabbing there should be at least 50-100. Nintendo service is even worse as there were focusing on 3ds then Wii U can't they do both ie games compatable with both systems not necessarily cross-buy but just able to choose which console you want it on rather than 3DS has now GBA games to buy or even SNES games could even do the DS ones technically but yet Wii U gets GBA, SNES, DS, GAMECUBE, wish Nintendo wouldn't drip feed the games so much NES is pretty much covered on 3DS GBC has been forgotten about as their are loads of games I'd like to play Metal gear and Resi as I never played either but SNES and GBA games were made for the 3DS I want the SNES version of Super Mario World, please.
Nintendo are insistent on making it one Virtual Console game a week and that might only be for one system. How about 2-3 games a week over all the older platforms and with the amount of games available there's more than enough to worry about running out, they just rather give us these random games (nothing wrong with random) but half the time just awful hence why no one remembers them because they didn't play them 20 years, we want classics and we want them Now!!

[Segata]

True but Nintendo can still make good games unlike Rare.

[RosweeSon]

Now that is such a shame, but very true.

[Coachkeys]

That's neat. But I wouldn't declare anyone a winner here. Stop re-releasing games and make new ones.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

the article is stupid