The following is the complete list of the 659 Virtual Console titles that were available for the Wii in Japan sorted by system and release dates. The last new title was released on April 9, 2013, and the ability to purchase new titles ended on January 31, 2019.
126 Family Computer games and 23 Family Computer Disk System games were available, with the Family Computer released in 1983, and the add-on Famicom Disk System released in 1986, both by Nintendo.
102 Super Famicom games were available, which was released in 1990 by Nintendo.
20 Nintendo 64 games were available, which was released in 1996 by Nintendo.
91 PC Engine games, 7 CD-ROM² games, and 27 Super CD-ROM² games were available, with the PC Engine released in 1987, the original CD-ROM² standard launched in 1988, and the Super CD-ROM² standard launched in 1991, all of them by NEC and Hudson Soft/Konami.
14 Master System games were available, which was released in 1985 by Sega.
Title | Publisher [8] [9] | Release Date [3] | CERO |
---|---|---|---|
Hokuto no Ken | Sega | February 26, 2008 | B |
Fantasy Zone | Sega | March 11, 2008 | A |
Super Wonder Boy | Sega | April 8, 2008 | A |
Alex Kidd no Miracle World | Sega | May 13, 2008 | A |
Ashura | Sega | June 3, 2008 | B |
Space Harrier | Sega | July 23, 2008 | A |
Sonic the Hedgehog [lower-alpha 1] (not available from March 30, 2012 to October 15, 2013) | Sega | August 5, 2008 | A |
Enduro Racer | Sega | October 21, 2008 | A |
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 [lower-alpha 1] | Sega | November 18, 2008 | A |
Super Wonder Boy: Monster World | Sega | December 24, 2008 | A |
Fantasy Zone II: Opa-Opa no Namida | Sega | January 13, 2009 | A |
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars | Sega | February 17, 2009 | A |
Sonic Chaos (Sonic & Tails) [lower-alpha 1] | Sega | March 17, 2009 | A |
Phantasy Star | Sega | April 21, 2009 | A |
Sega | May 19, 2009 | A |
91 SEGA Mega Drive games were available, which was released in 1988 by SEGA.
75 Neo Geo games were available, which was released in 1990 by SNK.
9 MSX games and 6 MSX2 games were available, with the MSX standard launched in 1983, and the MSX2 standard launched in 1986, both by Microsoft Japan and ASCII.
Title | Publisher [13] [14] [2] | Platform | Release Date [3] | CERO |
---|---|---|---|---|
D4 Enterprise | MSX2 | May 27, 2008 | A | |
D4 Enterprise | MSX | July 29, 2008 | A | |
Road Fighter | Konami | MSX | November 24, 2009 | A |
Space Manbow | Konami | MSX2 | November 24, 2009 | A |
Yumetairiku Adventure | Konami | MSX | November 24, 2009 | A |
Metal Gear | Konami | MSX2 | December 8, 2009 | A |
Yie-Gah-kōtei no Gyakushū: Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2 | Konami | MSX | December 8, 2009 | A |
Gradius 2 | Konami | MSX | December 22, 2009 | A |
Majou Densetsu | Konami | MSX | December 22, 2009 | A |
Parodius: Tako wa Chikyū wo Sukū | Konami | MSX | January 12, 2010 | A |
Salamander | Konami | MSX | January 12, 2010 | A |
Contra | Konami | MSX2 | February 2, 2010 | A |
Quarth | Konami | MSX2 | February 2, 2010 | A |
Gofer no Yabou: Episode II | Konami | MSX | March 30, 2010 | A |
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake | Konami | MSX2 | March 30, 2010 | B |
78 arcade games were available, most of them by Bandai Namco Entertainment, others from other video game developers like SEGA, Taito, and Capcom.
Puyo Puyo (ぷよぷよ) is a puzzle video game released in 1991 by Compile for the MSX2. Since its creation, it uses characters from Madō Monogatari. It was created by Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, the founder of Compile, who was inspired by certain elements from the Tetris and Dr. Mario series of games.
In the history of video games, the third generation of video game consoles, commonly referred to as the 8-bit era, began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of two systems: Nintendo's Family Computer and Sega's SG-1000. When the Famicom was released outside of Japan, it was remodeled and marketed as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This generation marked the end of the video game crash of 1983, and a shift in the dominance of home video game manufacturers from the United States to Japan. Handheld consoles were not a major part of this generation; the Game & Watch line from Nintendo and the Milton Bradley Microvision that were sold at the time are both considered part of the previous generation due to hardware typical of the second generation.
Salamander, retitled Life Force in North America and in the Japanese arcade re-release, is a scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Konami. Released in 1986 as a spin-off of Gradius, Salamander introduced a simplified power-up system, two-player cooperative gameplay and both horizontally and vertically scrolling stages. Some of these later became normal for future Gradius games. In Japanese, the title is written using ateji, which are kanji used for spelling foreign words that has been supplanted in everyday use by katakana. Contra, another game by Konami was also given this treatment, with its title written in Japanese as 魂斗羅.
Star Force, also released in arcades outside of Japan as Mega Force, is a vertical-scrolling shooter computer game released in 1984 by Tehkan.
Aleste (アレスタ) is a vertically scrolling shooter developed by Compile, originally published by Sega in 1988 for the Master System and then by CP Communications for the MSX2. The Master System version was released outside Japan as Power Strike. The game spawned the Aleste and Power Strike franchises.
The Virtual Console is a defunct line of downloadable video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
Gradius II is a side-scrolling shooter game developed and published by Konami. Originally released for the arcades in Japan in 1988, it is the sequel to original Gradius and was succeeded by Gradius III. Ports of Gradius II were released for the Family Computer, PC-Engine Super CD-ROM², and the X68000 in Japan. The original arcade version is also included in the Gradius Deluxe Pack compilation for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn and in Gradius Collection for the PlayStation Portable.
Puyo Puyo 2 is a 1994 puzzle video game developed and published by Compile. It is the second installment in the Puyo Puyo series and the sequel to Puyo Puyo (1992).
The Wonder Boy series, also known as the Monster World series, is a franchise of video games published by Sega and developed by Westone Bit Entertainment. Beginning with the original Wonder Boy arcade game released in April 21, 1986, the game has spawned several sequels released for arcade, Master System, and Sega Genesis, as well as three compilation titles and three remakes by other developers. Several titles have been ported to other consoles by different publishers under different names, most notably Hudson Soft's Adventure Island adaptation of the original game. The main character "Wonder Boy" was named Book by the developer and Tom-Tom by Sega for overseas editions.
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom is a video game by Hudson Soft originally released in 1984 for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, FM-7 and MSX Japanese home computers.
Vigilante (ビジランテ) is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Irem in Japan and Europe, and published in North America by Data East. It is considered as a spiritual sequel to Irem's earlier Kung-Fu Master (1984).
Star Soldier is a series of scrolling shooters mainly developed by Hudson Soft. Konami has owned the rights to the series since their absorption of Hudson Soft in 2012. The first game, named Star Soldier, appeared on the MSX and NES in 1986, and the series has continued on various gaming systems. Star Soldier itself was released with little change in a compilation for the Super Famicom in 1995, received enhanced remakes for both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2003, and a different remake for the PlayStation Portable in 2005, while the latest installment of the series was released on the Wii as a WiiWare game in 2008. In addition, Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade and Star Parodier have been re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console and on the Japanese PC Engine's Best Collection lineup for the PSP. The Star Soldier games are best known for their distinctive music, unique weapon power-ups, and a special time attack high score mode called "Caravan Mode".
Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu is a video game developed and published by Namco. It was released in Japan for the Family Computer on August 1, 1986. It was also released for the Virtual Console of multiple Nintendo consoles, for the Wii on March 20, 2007, for the Nintendo 3DS on September 4, 2013 and for the Wii U on February 4, 2015.
Puyo Puyo (ぷよぷよ), previously known as Puyo Pop outside Japan, is a series of tile-matching video games created by Compile. Sega has owned the franchise since 1998, with games after 2001 being developed by Sonic Team. Puyo Puyo was created as a spin-off franchise to Madō Monogatari, a series of first-person dungeon crawler role-playing games by Compile from which the Puyo Puyo characters originated. The series has sold over 10 million copies, including the Madō Monogatari games.
D4 Enterprise Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game publisher currently specializing in content delivery services like Project EGG, EGGY and PicoPico over the Internet. The company has also collaborated with Nintendo to re-release Neo Geo, MSX and arcade titles for the Wii, and MSX titles for the Wii U, as part of the Virtual Console services on both consoles.
Magical Drop II is a 1996 puzzle video game developed and published by Data East for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It was later ported to Neo Geo CD, Super Famicom, and Sega Saturn. It is the second entry in the Magical Drop series. In the game, the player takes control of one of several characters, battling against computer-controlled opponents before facing the villainous Empress in a final encounter. Gameplay is similar to its predecessor Magical Drop (1995) albeit with improvements; the objective is to clear the screen of constantly advancing colored 'drops' via a character placed at the bottom of the playfield, which can grab drops and make them disappear by putting them as a column of three or more drops of the same color. Two players can also participate in a competitive versus mode.