While it’s a great idea for Brawl to cut out the middleman and offer bite-sized pieces of Nintendo’s biggest hits, I’m going to have to say they should really just include small demos of games in the Virtual Console Shop a la XBLA.
It’s a great introductory step for the non-gaming or Playstation generation to jump into a small demo and see where the magic came from, though. In my opinion it’s a smart-but-counterintuitive move, as most people wouldn’t go into the VC to search for games blindly, but at the same time it’s a little preposterous that Nintendo wouldn’t have already implemented demos for the VC Shop in the first place.
What’s even more unbelievable, and yet still not surprising, is that there’s probably no option in SSBB to send players straight to the VC to purchase these games after tinkering around with them. The easiest way to turn a profit would be to include a “Purchase from VC” option. Heck, they’d have a lot of customers nailed if there was a discount through the purchase of the game via DVD implementation, as well.
As far as Smash Bros. is concerned with educating gamers on video games’ past, it’s a little strange that they don’t encourage players to follow up by giving either a direct link to the VC or offering a discount. We already paid $50 got the game, right? Doesn’t it seem like gamers may be a little more compelled to buy a title based off a demo if a game disc chunked off a dollar or two to buy these VC titles?
Yeah it’s all theory, but with Nintendo’s ass-backwards online strategy, it’s pretty safe to assume that it’ll remain as a little daydream. Most people may not even consider picking up any of these “master"pieces in the first place, but you gotta strike while the iron’s hot.
Game looks pretty sweet, though.
Posted by Mr. Spinnington on 01/25 at 02:14 PM
