A rash of reports appeared this weekend after “Bionic Commando Rearmed” producer Ben Judd said “Bionic Commando” can’t come to Wii’s Virtual Console service.

The confusion escalated when Capcom VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson followed up complaints by pointing people to Nintendo. “This is NOT, repeat NOT, a Capcom issue,” he said.

That’s true, but not the whole story. There is no reason “Bionic Commando” can’t appear on Virtual Console, Capcom head of public relations Chris Kramer told MTV Multiplayer last night, but it is true that it’s entirely up to Nintendo.

Capcom does not control what appears on Virtual Console, Nintendo does, explained Kramer. Capcom licensed the rights to their games to Nintendo. Effectively, Nintendo has complete control over Capcom’s library’s appearance on Virtual Console. Whenever a Capcom game appears on Virtual Console, Nintendo’s made that decision independent of Capcom.

Kramer said they aren’t the only publisher who has this agreement with Nintendo.

In essence, there’s no reason “Bionic Commando” can’t show up Virtual Console, but Kramer has no idea when — or if — that might happen. Whereas Capcom is developing and publishing “Bionic Commando Rearmed,” they only take a cut of the profits on Virtual Console releases. Nintendo handles the scheduling and technical work involved.

At least now I know who to get upset at for not having access to “Mega Man 2.”

The Virtual Console’s selection just got a little bit bigger. Sega just announced the first two Sega Master System games that will be making their way to the Wii’s Virtual Console. “Wonder Boy” and “Fantasy Zone” will be available for the rock-bottom price of 400 Wii Points (100 points cheaper than formerly thought), but they have yet to be dated. Given that these games usually appear within a week or two after the press releases hit gamers that never had a chance to play these the first time around should be getting a crack at them very soon. Here’s to hoping Sega CD games are next.

Nintendo announced last week that, at some point in the near future Europe will be receiving an update to their Virtual Console catalog that will include Commodore 64 (C64) games.

It’s really is great news for them, but it leaves the U.S. now behind in the VC exclusivity market, and there should be some way to rectify that - we want our own exclusive console!

It was easy to miss this news amid the flurry of information coming out of GDC. It may even make sense for the Americans among you not to care but C64 games going to Europe is, in fact, a really big deal. This, coupled with the fact that Japan will soon receive MSX games exclusively leaves the U.S. consumer wondering where is our exclusive console? There are a small handful of console that would really fit the bill, and fill this gaping hole, but will they ever happen?

1) The first candidate that came to my mind was Panasonic’s 3DO, the console brainchild of EA Games founder Trip Hawkins. It was the perfect contender since it was an American made console that pretty much no one got to play the first time around due to the console’s exorbitant cost. This meant that it has an entire library that many gamers have never even seen.

The only problem with 3DO games is that since they were CD based games they may start eating up space on your Wii’s tiny flash memory. However, there are already other CD based games that are available for download, so it shouldn’t be that big of a problem. With only about two million consoles sold originally back in the early 1990s this would be a great way to preserve one of the strongest attempts for a U.S. company to enter the console market, prior to Microsoft.

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Remember when the original “Super Mario Bros. 2” or the NES version of “Earthbound” that were never released in the United States?

You may have even had the opportunity to give these games a go, either on the Wii’s Virtual Console, or even on your PC using an emulator — but that isn’t how they were originally intended to be played.

What if there was a way you could play these games the way they were supposed to be — on your NES. If you are a video game traditionalist like I am, then Leon Kiriliuk from NES Reproductions may be your savior.

Leon, an avid collector of NES games, helps retro gamers by selling games that were never released (either because they never came out Stateside, or they because are homebrew games) in their original form — the classic NES cartridge. As an NES collector myself, I have to admit I was more than intrigued, so I reached out to Leon via e-mail last week to find out a little bit more about what he does, how he does it and helpful tips on how to avoid “bit rot”… Read more…

This is the fifth in a series of posts about the games I played and/or finished for fun for the first time in 2007. For comparisons’ sake, see my 2006 list. My previous post in the series was about the PS2 and Xbox games I played.

I can confirm that there was no Wii drought last year, at least not in my house.

In 2007 I played more Wii games than I did disc-based games on any other console. I popped in 24 of them and finished six. But when it rains, does it pour quality? I permanently ejected some of these games in mere minutes. Onward with the recount…

My Wii Games I Played For Fun 2007 Playlist
(Games I finished are in italics)

1) “Battalion Wars II”

Nintendo gave me early dibs on this game, but I would have played through it anyway. I’m told there are better, more complex real-time-strategy/action war game hybrids, but this one was pleasant and bombastic enough for me. And it has very pretty submarine-based levels.

2) “Big Brain Academy”

The DS was making me smart enough, thank you very much.

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Sega and Apple announced this morning that “Sonic: The Hedgehog,” the 1991 Genesis game that introduced the world to the feisty blue anti-Mario is now available on the iPod.

On Monday I talked to president and COO of SEGA of America Simon Jeffery about that development. We also chatted about the state of the “Sonic” brand, what he thinks of the criticism of recent “Sonic” games and how Sega’s recent coziness with Nintendo is going.

My interview with Jeffrey is lower in the post, but first, you may be wondering the same thing I first wanted to know when I heard about “Sonic” iPod:

How in the world do you play that game with an iPod wheel?

Straight from Sega, here are the controls:

Control Scheme A (this is designed with two hands in mind):
Click left or right to run.
Click center button to jump.
Touch down while running to roll.

Control Scheme B (this is designed to enable one-handed play):
Touch left or right to run.
Click left, right or center to jump.
Touch down while running to roll.

The Jeffrey interview follows below. Here’s a tiny excerpt:

Jeffrey: Yeah, we are very much aware of Sonic’s perception issues in the gaming market.

Read on for the rest of that, comments on Sonic’s success on next-gen consoles and whatever else we could fit into 10 minutes. Read more…

Nintendo announced this morning that “Pokemon Snap” is now available on the Wii’s Virtual Console system. I plan to buy the game. It will be the second — possibly third — time I’ve bought “Pokemon Snap.”

Earlier in the year, when “Sin & Punishment” was released on the Virtual Console, I bought it too — my second time owning that game.

And back when I got the Wii and downloaded “The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time“? Let’s see, how many that was:

1. The Nintendo 64 original
2. The “Ocarina of Time” Master Quest GameCube disc that was a pre-order for “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker“
3. The “Zelda” compilation GameCube disc (though, if memory serves this wasn’t really bought, but traded-in for)
4. The Wii virtual console edition

There you go. I bought that game four times. And it’s not even my favorite game or anything. I just like having an accessible version. (My reason for having multiple “Pokemon Snap”s, however, is that I keep meaning to play it, I keep never getting around to it, and I keep trying to make it easily accessible to myself.)

I’ve bought “Yoshi’s Island” twice, on the SNES and GBA. I bought “Halo” twice, because I lost my first disc — and I’m considering buying it a third time through the new Xbox Live Originals program, just because I like the idea of having lots of games available on my hard drive (which reminds me, I guess I’ve now bought “Psychonauts” twice).

So I’m wondering: which game have you bought the most?

[UPDATE/ CLARIFICATION -- Which game have you bought the most, across any format the game has been released in?]

I bet there are a lot of you out there who keep buying “Super Mario Brothers.” Or “Pac-Man.” Again and again, on your Atari, your cell phone and so on. Admit it.

This may be the easiest $13.37 Gamer I ever write.

This week’s best buy for under $13.37 has been 21 years in the making, meaning I’ve waited the vast majority of my life to spend money on it. And it is well worth every penny. Coming in a under half of the assigned cost, the original “Super Mario Bros. 2” (a.k.a. “The Lost Levels“) was released on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console service this week.

It will only run you $6 of the best spent dollars (or, more appropriately, Wii Points) of your entire life.

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So, it isn’t Mario Galaxy just yet, but it is the oddball of the NES Mario Bros. family. Super Mario Bros. 2 (or the reskinned Doki Doki Panic - depending on how you look at it) heads the pack of this week’s Virtual Console titles, along with Ecco: The Tides of Time, and Dragon Spirit. While SMB2 might not fit in with the traditional Mario Bros. mythology, it’s still a pretty fun game (with possibly the most addicting music). Hopefully, someday, Nintendo will finally release the original SMB 2 in its full 8-bit form to the world. While dolphins and dragons aren’t really my thing, I encourage you to buy as many Virtual Console games as you can afford.