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Curated playlist

Virtual Console games for Wii U

  • Street Fighter Alpha 2Street Fighter Alpha 2 was Japan's top arcade game of 1996. It arrived less than a year after the first Alpha.
  • Street Fighter II TurboStreet Fighter II Turbo reached arcades in 1992 as an upgrade kit.
  • Super Street Fighter II TurboIn Japan, no arcade game earned more in 1994 than Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Capcom built it for arcade cabinets as the fifth installment in the Street Fighter II sub-series, following Super Street Fighter II from 1993. Oddly, it did…
  • Final Fantasy Mystic QuestIn Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, players see enemies coming and choose whether to fight.
  • Final Fantasy VJapan asked Square not to release Final Fantasy V on a school day.
  • Final Fantasy IIIFinal Fantasy III's developers followed a programmer to Sacramento after his work visa expired.
  • Super Mario Bros.Super Mario Bros., Nintendo's 1985 platform game, had only about 20 bytes of cartridge space left once its music was added. Shigeru Miyamoto spent them on a small crown. The crown appears beside the life counter, and only for players who…
  • Final Fantasy Tactics AdvanceFinal Fantasy Tactics Advance was first planned for the PlayStation 2. It ended up on the Game Boy Advance.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the PastThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past reached Japanese players in 1991 as the third entry in Nintendo's Zelda series. It was built for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and it followed Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, which…
  • The Legend of Zelda (video game)The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo's game about a boy named Link, began, by its designer's own account, with a lake. Shigeru Miyamoto remembered it this way: "When I was a child, I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to…
  • Final Fantasy IIFinal Fantasy II replaced experience points with stats that grow by use. Its designer felt it went too far.
  • Super Street Fighter IISuper Street Fighter II let eight players compete in one tournament across four linked arcade cabinets.
  • EarthBoundEarthBound is a 1994 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and its American advertising declared, 'This game stinks.' Nintendo meant it as a joke. In Japan the game was called Mother 2, and it was led by Shigesato…
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TimeThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time holds an average score of 99/100 on Metacritic, the highest of any game on that review aggregator. Nintendo developed and published it for the Nintendo 64, and it was the first Zelda game built in three…
  • Super Mario WorldOn the 21st of November 1990, Super Mario World reached Japanese players under the longer title Super Mario World: Super Mario Bros. 4. It was one of only two launch games for Nintendo's new Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan.…
  • Pac-ManPac-Man was first called Puck Man, until executives feared vandals would change the P to an F.
  • Street Fighter IIStreet Fighter II's combos began as a bug that the team chose to keep. It appeared in the car-smashing bonus stage.
  • Final Fantasy (video game)Final Fantasy got its name because its creator planned to quit if it failed. Square was also facing bankruptcy in 1987.
  • Final Fantasy IVFinal Fantasy IV began with a Formula One race. Hiroyuki Ito saw cars pass at different speeds and got an idea.
  • Final Fantasy VIFinal Fantasy VI lets its hero fail to save the world. The story's second half is called the World of Ruin.
  • Final Fight (video game)Final Fight, Capcom's arcade brawler, began as Street Fighter '89. Operators said the name was misleading.
  • Super Mario 64Super Mario 64 is a 1996 platform game from Nintendo for the Nintendo 64, and a sealed copy of it holds the record for the largest sum ever paid for a video game. That sale happened in July 2021. Heritage Auctions' specialist said: "It…
  • Donkey Kong CountryDonkey Kong Country made its public debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, which ran from the 23rd to the 25th of June 1994. Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln saved it for the finale of the company's presentation. He…
  • Super Mario Bros. 3Super Mario Bros. 3, a platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, was more than thirty years old on the 20th of November 2020. That day, a sealed copy sold for 156,000 dollars. At the time, nobody had ever paid more for a video…
  • Mother 3Mother 3 is a role-playing game that took twelve years and four consoles to finish, and then never left Japan. In the run-up to its release, people who phoned the Japan Post heard the game's main theme, "Love Theme", while they waited on…
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's MaskA grimacing moon looms over the land of Termina in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Nintendo released the game for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The moon is predicted to strike at dawn on the day of the Carnival of Time, an annual harvest…

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