Nintendo made a series of great announcements Thursday, including the release dates "Star Fox Zero," "Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE" and "Bravely Second: End Layer." Though there were some mishaps, like a noticeable lack of information about long-awaited "Legend of Zelda" title, the stream mostly brought with it good news, but there was one announcement that left some fans feeling just a little slighted.
The company announced that classic Super Nintendo games like "Super Metroid," "Earthbound," "F-Zero" and more would finally be making their way to the 3DS over the next few weeks. Many of these games were already available on the Wii U, but fans have been begging for them to be placed on the 3DS, were they could be played on the go, and Nintendo was more than happy to oblige.
However, just as quickly as Nintendo got fans excited about the news, it dashed that joy by revealing that only owners of the "New" 3DS would be able to access the SNES library on their handheld consoles. This means that anyone who is in possession of the original 3DS, 3DS XL or 2DS has suddenly found themselves out in the cold.
The revelation is a bitter pill to swallow for many. SNES support has long been one of the most requested additions to the virtual console library since the 3DS' inception, and now that it's finally here, many of the people who had lobbied for it won't even be able to access it unless they opt-in for an upgrade.
The resulting situation is somewhat complicated. It's a fact that the 3DS was incapable of properly emulating 16-bit hardware, which is why not only SNES, but also Game Boy Advance games, was noticeably absent from the the virtual console. Reports indicate that support for GBA games was so bad that the 3DS needed to boot in a special mode that would disable a majority of the system's features. In short, the system is simulating the games rather than emulating them.
However, this account flies in the face of the fact that some of the most prominent titles for the 3DS are remasters of classic N64 games like "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" and "Star Fox 64." With that in mind, it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that the 3DS can handle N64 titles, but not ones from one generation before.
It all comes down to hardware in the end, so while that answer is clear, many people, such as some on NeoGAF, have taken offense to Nintendo's inaction on the matter when it was keenly aware of the problem. Now that the 3DS hardware is up to snuff, at least Nintendo is making some effort into enhancing its VC library - even if it alienates a majority of its handheld user-base in the process.
Unfortunately, this isn't the only bad news as far as these new offerings are concerned. Nintendo also announced that there is no cross-platform price relief, meaning that if you purchased "Earthbound" on the Wii U, then you'll need to pay for it again on the "New" 3DS - at full price.
