Korea’s Empty Virtual Console

Another week, another meager Virtual Console release. At least this week’s Virtual Console game, Wolf of the Battlefield: MERCs (aka MERCs or Wolf of the Battlefield II) is a pretty good one. Ever since WiiWare came out Nintendo has been releasing fewer Virtual Console games, but our selection really isn’t that bad compared to South Korea.

Korea has an anemic selection of Virtual Console games. Instead of getting weekly releases they get a few Virtual Console games a month and WiiWare isn’t even available over there. The list below is the complete selection of Virtual Console games in South Korea since the console launched on April 26, 2008.

Famicom

Super Mario Brothers
Kirby’s Adventure
Donkey Kong
Antartic Adventure
River City Ransom
Super Mario Brothers 3
Bubble Bobble
Super Mario USA
Galaga
Xevious
Yoshi
Pac-Man
NES Open Tournament Golf
Adventure Island
Urban Champion
Downtown Nekketsu Koshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundokai
Mario Brothers
Adventures of Lolo
Nekketsu Koko Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen

Super Famicom

Contra III: The Alien Wars
Cybernator
Super Metroid
Super Mario World
Gradius III
Donkey Kong Country
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past
F-Zero
Super R-Type
Panel de Pon
Donkey Kong Country II: Diddy Kong’s Quest
R-Type III: The Third Lightning

Nintendo 64

Mario Kart 64
Starfox 64
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
1080 Snowboarding

Doesn’t this list make you feel a little grateful for Nintendo of America/Europe/Japan’s constant stream of Virtual Console games?

Licensing issues may have been a reason why there are no Sega Genesis games are on the list. Samsung took care of releasing Sega stuff in the past, but Nintendo of Korea could have filled the void with more Japanese/US releases.

Images courtesy of Nintendo.