During the big blowout Nintendo Direct last year, Nintendo announced that at some point in the future, titles from its classic Game Boy Advance handheld would be added to the Wii U’s Virtual Console service. That point is almost here, and the first games to be released have been unveiled.
Beginning this April, Nintendo will release classic GBA titles on Wii U. In North America, the service will include games such as Metroid Fusion, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3; meanwhile, users with a Japanese Wii U will be able to enjoy Game Boy Wars Advance 1 + 2 (A compilation of games known in the west as Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising), Golden Sun, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, and Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, in addition to Superstar Saga.
Pricing details for the North American releases have yet to be announced.
Source: 2.13.14 Nintendo Direct
Why would someone want to play the GBA version of Yoshi’s Island over the SNES version?
SNES has better controls. GBA has washed out graphics, no special FX effects, annoying N64 Yoshi voice, and tingy scaled-down music. The extra levels don’t make up for the overall downgrade.
I remember there being some legal issues with Nintendo re-releasing the SNES version for some reason, something about some of the effects I think? Don’t quote me on that, though.
I don’t understand why it’s coming to Wii U and not 3DS (or both). 😐 I know they can do GBA games on the 3DS because they released some as part of that Ambassador Program (right?), so why would they only release the handheld virtual console stuff on a TV console? I mean I know there’s the gamepad but you still have to be in the vicinity of the Wii to use that so it’s not the same.
Because Nintendo doesn’t make sense lol
I dunno. 3DS would make a lot of sense. They have GBC games already.