I guess it's official that GBA games are coming to 3DS VC now.

[Lady Lilith]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/game-boy-advance-games-come-to-eshop/

Nintendo's schizophrenic Virtual Console business is expanding on the Nintendo 3DS eShop with Game Boy Advance games.

Few digital distribution businesses are as mystifying and mercurial as Nintendo’s. While services like Steam run sales that let you buy major AAA HD video games like Batman: Arkham City for less than $10, Nintendo still sells 20-year-old games from the Super Nintendo for $8 or more then tells you you can’t download it on more than one system. Since opening for business alongside the Wii in 2006, Nintendo’s Virtual Console has frustrated audiences far more than it’s convinced them to part with their cash, and the company’s glacial trickle of releases doesn’t ease their high prices.

The latest peculiar move in Nintendo’s digital distribution strategy: Nintendo will finally release Game Boy Advance games via the Nintendo 3DS eShop. German website 3DS-Online found that Nintendo Europe recently uploaded are assets for Game Boy Advance games Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Super Mario Ball, and Mario Golf Advance Tour. This will be the first time that Nintendo has made Game Boy Advance games commercially available since it stopped publishing them in 2007.

Of course, Nintendo has legally made some Game Boy Advance titles available to Nintendo 3DS owners. People who bought a Nintendo 3DS between March and July of 2011 were compensated with 20 downloadable games following the machine’s price drop, 10 of which were Game Boy Advance games including Metroid Fusion and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. The releases made it clear that the system’s games would eventually be released on the eShop, it was just unclear as to when or how much they will be.

Cost will certainly be high for these old games too. Since Nintendo priced NES games at $5 and SNES games at $8 on Wii, the Game Boy game pricing of around $4 to $6 means Game Boy Advance games could cost as much as $9, an absurd premium for games dependent on emulators to run, not hardware.

Nintendo is trying to evolve its business by creating parity between physical products and digital releases. All of Nintendo’s Wii U games will be available as digital downloads as well as packaged goods. The same for Nintendo 3DS games. For Nintendo’s retro releases, though, the company needs to make them available at low costs on every one of its machines, and customers need to be able to download them on more than one device. The schizophrenic releases and unreasonable pricing are blocking Nintendo from having a competitive, unique digital business.

Ugh...Now we have GBA games. While this is no doubt good, it'll likely slow down GB/GG releases, which are the main ones I want. All I want on GBA is maybe the three Castlevania games. I do have the Double Pack with Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance, but I got that second hand, and have no idea how long the battery will last.

Ah well, maybe this'll get me to finally beat Superstar Saga.

[Death]

Why are they complaining about the prices? That doesn't sound bad at all. That's almost what you would pay for a physical copy. (unless the one you're buying is a popular one and the douche selling it knows what he's doing and wants to squeeze every penny out of your wallet) There weren't many Advance games that I liked besides Pokemon obviously. I know there were a lot of Castlevania games, but I haven't gotten around to getting any. I highly recommend Metroid Fusion though. And they really need to release Metroid: Zero Mission and Medal of Honor: Infiltrator.

[Lady Lilith]

Fusion was part of the Ambassador program, so I'm pretty sure it'll get released to everyone else. I agree on Zero Mission though, so much better than the original NES game. Zero Mission was actually the first Metroid game I played, and it was only two years ago. Yeah...I never got into Metroid before.

[Death]

Yeah...I never got into Metroid before.

Maaaaaan, you sure missed out on some classics! Super Metroid is easily in my top 3 favorite games.

[Lady Lilith]

Maaaaaan, you sure missed out on some classics! Super Metroid is easily in my top 3 favorite games.

Yeah, don't worry, I got Super Metroid on Wii VC, and Metroid II on 3DS VC. I'm actually enjoying Metroid II a lot, despite the somewhat bad reviews it gets when stacked up to Super Metroid.

[Death]

Yeah, don't worry, I got Super Metroid on Wii VC, and Metroid II on 3DS VC. I'm actually enjoying Metroid II a lot, despite the somewhat bad reviews it gets when stacked up to Super Metroid.

Super Metroid is way better than Metroid II, but II is pretty good for a Game Boy game that came out in 1991. One of the few things I didn't like is how you couldn't access a map.

[Parker]

There really isn't a huge list of GBA games that I want (and all the ones I do want, I already own physical copies of) but this is a good thing for those who weren't able to play the games when they were released.

Parker

[Crisis001]

It's too bad I had not bought my 3DS before price cut when those 20 games were released cause Zelda Minish Cap would have been on my list. Luckly, I have the Metroid Fusion game at least, so that wasn't a lost! But, what surprises me the most is that I have yet to see Gameboy Advance games on the 3DS and it's been like what more than a year since the 3DS release.