Wii U Gets GBA Classics In April, Including Golden Sun, Advance Wars, WarioWare

Nintendo is going full steam ahead on its plans to bring Game Boy Advance games to the Wii U Virtual Console, gearing up to offer a big eight games on the service throughout the month of April including the likes of Advance Wars, Golden Sun and WarioWare, Inc..

It’s hard to write the above sentence and not feel at least a little twinge of disappointment. Ah, who am I kidding? I’m very disappointed in the fact that these games aren’t coming to the 3DS Virtual Console, too. I have a hard time believing that some sort of emulation software can’t be developed for Nintendo’s newest handheld device, especially when a collection of GBA games were given away to early adopters of the new console a couple of years back. It makes perfect sense that GBA games would also be brought to the handheld console’s successor, yet it looks like only the Wii U is going to be soaking up the GBA love for the foreseeable future.

I guess we can just chalk this up to yet another confusing decision by Nintendo to not rake in some extra cash from portable fans who are clamoring for some older games on their 3DS. Or maybe it’s all part of a plan to get people to pick up a Wii U. But no matter what the reason is, I can’t argue that April’s GBA Virtual Console lineup isn’t pretty dang fantastic, even if I’d rather see these games available once again on the go.

But enough of my griping. At least Nintendo is doing something to make GBA games readily available on the virtual marketplace, right? And they’re coming with some spiffy new features, too.

“In addition to off-TV play, these games feature Restore Points that save progress during game play, and Miiverse functionality,” reads a statement from Nintendo.

Everything gets rolling on April 3 with Advance Wars, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Metroid Fusion, kicking things off with some strategy combat and platforming goodness starring some of Nintendo’s most iconic characters.

On April 10, the GBA Virtual Console will receive a one-two punch of Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and one of my favorite games of all time (no joking), WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!.

Just a week later, on April 17, gamers will have plenty to swoon over as F-Zero: Maximum Velocity and one of my favorite RPGs of all time (again, no joke) Golden Sun hit center stage.

Finally, the whole April shebang wraps up on the 24th with Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, the GBA port of the SNES classic.

Kirby, WarioWare and F-Zero will go for $6.99 with the rest set at $7.99. If I may return to my soapbox for just a moment and speak directly to Nintendo for a moment: I would buy literally every single one of these games if they were on the 3DS. I doubt I’m the only one that feels that way. Just sayin’.