Interestingly the Wii finally went on sale in South Korea for the first time yesterday on the 26th April. This wouldn’t normally be a news item for us but with the Wii launch comes a whole new Virtual Console region with different prices!
Let’s take a look at the launch games as listed on the Korean Nintendo site:
Famicom / NES (400 Wii Points)
Antarctic Adventure - Konami
Donkey Kong - Nintendo
Kirby's Adventure - HAL Laboratory
Super Mario Bros. - Nintendo
Super Famicom / SNES (600 Wii Points)
Gradius III - Konami
Super Mario World - Nintendo
Super Metroid - Nintendo
Cybernator - Hudson
Contra III: The Alien Wars - Nintendo
Nintendo 64 (800 Wii Points)
Mario Kart 64 - Nintendo
Let’s not begrudge the lower price point for games in this region, there is no need for jealousy. These games will cost a whole lot of Won in Korean terms so it’s not really like they are getting special treatment comparatively. Still Nintendo could have just sold the Wii points cheaper to begin with couldn’t they?
If you were wondering what Antarctic Adventure on the NES was, you probably won’t have heard of it because it never got released in the west. It is sort of a racing game where you drive a penguin! The penguin character Penta, and his son Pentarou have made appearances in over 10 Konami games to date, including the excellent Parodius.
Check it out:
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1. MasterMario
27 Apr 2008, 16:20 BST
I agree, they could have sold the Wii points cheaper to begin with. It would make more downloads to certain titles. Or this could be a sign that the prices will be lowered in the U.S. Europe, and Japan. Let that happen, please Nintendo!
How come now Korea gets the Wii when the other regions already had it for over a year now?
2. Starwolf_UK
27 Apr 2008, 16:23 BST
The Korean Wii SKU still sounds like a raw deal full and full:
-Seperate region to rest of World
-Releases generally worse than Europe
-NO Gamecube backwards compatability (Korea did get the gamecube, it was Japanese region and Japanese style boxes with Korean manuals but with English games)
Btw, in case anyone was wondering i'm not Korean it sjust I remember Play-Asia having a Korean gamecube deal up at one time.
All that aside its still nice for casual consumers plus as far as VC goes the SNES lineup is pretty great. Well maybe not Gradius 3 but the rest are wonderful. Wonder if they'll see any non-Nintendo systems?
Edit: Looking at the ammount of Won the points cards are worth its about the same cost as points as Japan. Though of course how much do other things cost is the more important question.
3. teamdoa
27 Apr 2008, 16:57 BST
Ah yes, Antarctic Adventure...great game!. It first came out on the MSX home computer, the first sequal was called Penguin Adventure. I had them both on Konami cartridges for my MSX.
4. Jupiter Adept
27 Apr 2008, 17:26 BST
That's pretty good. Most of the games are good, and they're cheaper. I wonder when their VC updates...
Also, maybe we'll get Antarctic Adventures as an import?
5. Juampi
27 Apr 2008, 17:28 BST
Oh my god... I remember playing that game when I was little... good times...
6. Angelic Lapras King
27 Apr 2008, 18:24 BST
I wonder if they recieve the MD and other consoles in the future?
7. Roo
27 Apr 2008, 19:10 BST
Good launch line-up...better than the guff we got i.e. Soccer, Pinball and Wario Woods...
8. Jogurt the Yogurt
27 Apr 2008, 19:53 BST
I want that penguin game!
9. aphexbr
27 Apr 2008, 22:34 BST
Excellent opening lineup... that penguin game reminds me of TuxRacer!
10. Pocketim
27 Apr 2008, 22:50 BST
@ Aphexbr: The Tux games are great, have you tried SuperTux Kart?
11. superduper
28 Apr 2008, 01:55 BST
ANTARTIC ADVENTURE!! that game ruled!! at least it got released in mexico
12. riggah19
28 Apr 2008, 02:45 BST
I had antarctic adventure on the colecovision. It would be nice to get those memories back.
13. Tides of Chaos
28 Apr 2008, 03:54 BST
@ Roo
Hey! What's wrong with Wario's Woods? That's a good game albeit the SNES version would have been better.
14. The_Indigo_Effect
28 Apr 2008, 04:49 BST
This game looks awfully repetitive.
15. Viral
28 Apr 2008, 06:29 BST
I think Nintendo should release the "Gameboy Player" as a Virtual Console downloadable, letting you download Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and older Gameboy Advance titles. For instance, how many people actually own Legend : Oracle of Season and Oracle of Ages? I own them both and I know they'd be instant downloads. Pokemon? Super Mario LAND? Metroid II? Those could just be the beginning...
16. MrPoo6321
28 Apr 2008, 07:23 BST
let's get an import of that game please... as well as vectorman finally.... i'm not gonna shut up about it until it happens
17. hal
28 Apr 2008, 07:40 BST
most Happy WiiDAY, S.Korea!!!!
18. Villain
28 Apr 2008, 09:25 BST
Interesting fact; Antarctic Adventure would soon be followed up by the similar game Penguin Adventure for the MSX. THAT game is famous for being the first game that Mr Hideo Kojima worked on.
19. eagidni
28 Apr 2008, 11:10 BST
these are the prices i've said should be standard for vc games for quite awhile now. granted, i've not said anything about it out loud, but... still. ;-D
anyway, i don't begrudge them the lower prices. i'm glad they're getting a piece of the wii glory in south korea!
20. Rapadash6
28 Apr 2008, 15:23 BST
Not a bad start for their VC service.
21. StarDust
28 Apr 2008, 17:28 BST
Hmmm, Antarctic adventure sounds interesting - Penguinn racing conjurs up imagery of that stupid Penguin race star on the ice slide in M64 Cool cool mountain. I fell off a million times.
@superduper - are the VC games for Mexico/Latin/South America different from the US/Canadian releases? (Austrailia did initially get different stuff from EU). If so, I may be tempted to temporarily change the country code on my Wii to have a look.
I will have to D/L Antarctic Adventure and try it for myself (Yes, you can D/L ROMs to the PC, but it is just not the same as owning the cartridge or playing on the Wii). Here is a poor English translation of the official webpage, provided by Google.
22. Alato
28 Apr 2008, 23:24 BST
That's funny. I always thought Antarctic Adventure came out in the West, too.
I owned it on an NES multicart. I also downloaded a PC version a while ago.
It's pretty fun, but the music gets too repetitive, then you want to shut it off.
23. Clayfrd
28 Apr 2008, 23:42 BST
@Roo
Wario's Woods is a good game!
Also, that is not a bad lineup! It's too bad they just got the Wii, though. I guess the next generation will come 1 year and a half later too.
24. kevenz
29 Apr 2008, 00:35 BST
I have Antartic Adventure for my US NES for about 15 years now.... maybe more.
great game but very short.
25. KhaoShar
29 Apr 2008, 09:25 BST
It's so easy to Dazza-sama to ask everybody not to be begrudged about N.'s prizing, but does he have to pay €24,99 for one stupid 2000p-card by now?! That's madness!! Not everybody is luck enough to have a credit card to buy them on a 1000p-to-€10-rate, you know...
But that does not really mean I'm jealous for the prices S.Korea gets. I mean, on my map of the richest countries in the world, Korea does not shine all to bright- but is there anybody on the EUVC who would not be happy to pay those WiiPoint prices in Yen, or in US$ at least!?
26. Dazza
29 Apr 2008, 10:36 BST
@KhoaShar - I have an American Wii, so it is true I don't pay as much as you!
27. dark moogle
29 Apr 2008, 12:47 BST
So Nintendo can give Korea a break, but are still screwing over Australians with VC Prices!!!!! Since I cannot focus my rage into a foul enough curse word I'm just going to slap the keyboard a few times now.
KJBJERAV
lkmd,kzdfnvnkb,aerglnk/sgtk.jthrljkwaerouihnDQLHefn.jdflbon RVIBHadsfKJ.BFDKJ.AFOHUNSAFLJAEBL.JKNTAHRBL/NEWARVU
IOB23as;ouohq34o;hkegoij43t5h;oiuh3q5rohjdaglhjnxdafvoi34!!!!!
I feel a little better now, but not much...
28. Bass X0
29 Apr 2008, 18:26 BST
Wario's Woods is a good game!
On the SNES, yes. But I just couldn't like the NES version. But the addition of bosses was cool.
29. toffeeman30
01 May 2008, 18:57 BST
SECRET OF MANA........ RELEASE IT PLEASE FOR EUROPE!
30. Drizzt
04 May 2008, 16:35 BST
Nice. That's a pretty great start for them I have to say.
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