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Kotaku linked to an interesting article concerning the value of Virtual Console games on the Wii. Vintage Computing and Gaming took all the current games available on the Virtual Console and compared their Virtual Console prices to the street value of getting the physical game. Using the info from the article, here’s how my current collection fares:

I’ve “saved” around $57 buying VC games instead of the real deal. Of course, VC games have zero value since they’re stuck to your physical Wii machine and Nintendo account, I don’t have anything tangible representing my actual ownership of these games, and most of these games are impulse buys, meaning I wouldn’t have bought them if I wasn’t so bored and they weren’t so readily available. I think the only games I would have ever considered getting the physical copies prior to VC are Ice Climber, Super Metroid, and Paper Mario. Assuming I could find the consoles elsewhere, that’s only around $50, so I’ve spent $45 more than I would have (nevermind that I get 10 more games).

I’m not surprised I got ripped off on Pinball, Elevator Action, and Altered Beast. Pinball is a simple game and super common, but it’s a great pick-up-and-play-whenever game. Elevator Action is a terrible game, but I loved it as a kid, so purely nostalgic. Altered Beast is also a terrible (god, it’s so terrible) game, but this was Kelvin’s choice game of nostalgia.

New thing I learned today: In Donkey Kong, the maiden kidnapped by Donkey Kong and rescued by Mario wasn’t Princess Peach, but some other girl named Pauline. Pauline is also the girl that shows up in Pinball’s bonus stage.