10 Problems That Stop Popular Video Game Companies Being Perfect

8. Nintendo's Virtual Console Is Useless

NINTENDO 64 Mario Party 2
Nintendo

With decades of experience and hundreds, if not thousands, of brilliant games in its back catalogue, Nintendo could survive as a company just by relying on people re-buying old titles they've already released.

But Nintendo being Nintendo, the company seems to enjoy making it as difficult as possible for fans to get their hands on their favourite childhood games.

While they have a virtual console for each of their machines (minus the Switch) that acts as a legacy store where players can buy old games for their new system, a slow release schedule and under-the-hood technical problems have made the store virtually useless.

In over five years the Wii U's virtual console amassed just over 200 games that players could pick up, which, while sounding like a lot, is a drop in the bucket compared to what Nintendo could have put out.

Also, Nintendo's backward understanding of online systems means that buying a game on one virtual console won't allow it to be played on another, so just because you dropped money on something for the 3DS doesn't mean that you'd be able to play it on the Wii.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.