Virtual Console: (Culture) Brain dump
Today was one of those rare days when Nintendo put not one, not two, but three Wii U Virtual Console games up for download at once. That's unusual in itself, but what makes this especially strange is that all three were NES games that have never before appeared on Virtual Console. With only a handful of exceptions, such as EarthBound Beginnings, NES Virtual Console games on Wii U have been retreads of games that previously showed up on Wii and/or 3DS. The new Wii U material has largely focused on Game Boy Advance and DS titles, with the vast majority of NES and Super NES games putting in repeat appearances. Getting three never-before-VC'd games at once is pretty wild.
All three titles, as it happens, hail from the same developer and publisher: Culture Brain. You may remember Culture Brain from my having mentioned them in pejorative terms in our look at crummy boom-era Famicom developers. You may also recall that Frank Cifaldi stood up for them. And, in fairness, I was really just salty because my most recent Culture Brain experience had been the absolutely execrable Ninja Boy for Game Boy:
And maybe that wasn't fair, because there was definitely more to Culture Brain's output than that one game. You wouldn't know it from today's Virtual Console launches, though. Two of today's three releases are directly related to Ninja Boy. Kung-Fu Heroes, known as Super Chinese in Japan, kicked off the series, and the Game Boy title covered above was practically a low-grade port of that release (Super Chinese Land in Japan). Little Ninja Bros. is its sequel, Super Chinese 2. Now, I'm told that later games in the Super Chinese/Little Ninja Boy franchise were a lot better than the terrible impression its Game Boy entry left me with, but I'm loathe to take the chance. I suppose I must, however... for science.
I'm more fascinated by Culture Brain's late entry into the Virtual Console scene. The company made its debut last summer, marking the first time a new publisher had pushed out anything for VC in years. Four years, maybe? Virtual Console in the post-Wii era has been a dwindling marketplace occupied entirely by Nintendo and about half a dozen publishers (Capcom, Jaleco, Natsume, Konami, Hamster, and a few others). It's really weird to see new blood enter the marketplace... especially such a minor blip of a company. When was the last time you even heard Culture Brain mentioned, outside of that Famicom boom episode a few months back? I've heard that publishers and games only appear on Virtual Console when Nintendo actively seeks them out, which (if true) means that of all the game makers in the world, Nintendo decided to go after a minor Japanese publisher whose last new releases happened during the Nintendo 64 era. It's weird, man.
(Today's third game was Flying Warriors, an ambitious, multi-format, sentai-inspired brawling action game. It's a little rough in places, but it sure beats Ninja Boy.)
On the plus side, this does mean we'll probably eventually get to Culture Brain's crown jewel, the innovative and memorable RPG/adventure/action game Magic of Scheherazade. Well, maybe. There's a pretty solid chance Virtual Console for Wii U will die instantly once Switch launches a few weeks from now and we'll have to start over from scratch. Ah, the wonders of Virtual Console.
Speaking of Virtual Console, I have penned a piece for USgamer that lays out what little we know about the service's plans for the upcoming Switch console, and what we'd ideally like to see. I may have used this week's games as an example of what not to do, but in fairness, that didn't have anything to do with Culture Brain; it was all about the gawdawful NES emulation on Wii U.
