When Nintendo first announced their Wii console's ability to download and play a back catalog of thousands of Nintendo classics I was giddy. Nay, scratch that, I was catatonic with joy. There are so many amazing games that you just can't find anymore. The list is endless and trust me I've tried making it, in hopes that Nintendo might read my mind and find it in themselves to make me happy.

Of course, making thousands of games available from day one would have been stretch and taken way too much out of their sails trying to get it ready, but still the launch lineup for the virtual console was weak at best. I was disappointed. Mario 64? I have at least two other copies of it laying around somewhere. It was a launch title for two other consoles already. And Zelda's great and all, but where were A Link to the Past and Ocarina. I knew Nintendo would deliver the goods eventually though, so I waited and in the past few weeks they've steadily began to offer more and more of the top tier classics that made them the best in the business and will put the Wii back on top. So what are the best options available right now for the virtual console? They're still sparse, but there are some real gems in there

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past This is one of the greatest games ever made for the SNES and one of my favorite Zeldas. Though, I might be biased by the hundreds of hours and replays that went into it, it totally revamped the way you looked at the action RPG. The original Zelda invented it, but Link to the Past started to really visualize it. That, and the map was so big. In that time only Final Fantasy could rival Zelda for sheer size and depth, but not even close in the fun factor.

Mario Kart 64 Some people like to say that the SNES Mario kart was better, and I'll agree for the most part, but Mario Kart 64 took the whole formula to a new level, adding 3D gameplay, 4 player action, and some huge amazingly cool courses. I still own the original cart so this probably won't end up on my VC, but if you don't own it, do yourself a favor and buy it.

Castlevania 4 Castlevania was an incredibly fun series and when the fourth entry came out for the SNES, it became legendary. The epic, vampire hunting formula never got better than in this entry and should always remain in classic 2D. This is a favorite for many reasons, not the least of which is that it's incredibly hard to find.

Golden Ax The inclusion of Sega and TurboGrafx games on the VC is genius, and this game is one reason why. The hack and slash action of Golden Ax was pure arcade fun back in the day and still is, surprisingly. And since no one still owns a Genesis (at least not outside the boxes in their basement) this is a great way to check it.

Legend of Zelda - The original Zelda started the whole thing and it's all here, fully emulated. It's funny how games this old are still so much fun if only because of the nostalgia factor. Facing off against Ganon the pig is still one of my favorite gaming moments and then restarting the whole game for a second run through.

Learn more about this author, Anthony Chatfield.
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