There were 12 total NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis games available at launch on the Wii Virtual Console for the North American region.

While other previous Japan-only titles had been released through the Virtual Console prior to this, the first being Battle Lode Runner from the TurboGrafx-16, added on April 23, 2007, this and all others were originally written in English and required no localization.

Despite the fact others fit the category, there are currently 25 titles listed under the "Import" genre with 1 removed: Sin and Punishment, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (previously available in North America as part of Super Mario All-Stars), Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, Alien Soldier (although the game was previously available in North America through the Sega Channel), DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure, Puyo Puyo 2, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, Dig Dug, Gley Lancer, Super Fantasy Zone, Break In, Star Parodier (Removed), Cho Aniki, Final Soldier, Digital Champ: Battle Boxing, Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou, Bomberman '94, Detana!!

[19] While the gameplay remains unchanged for all of the classic titles offered for the Virtual Console, Nintendo has stated that some games may be improved with sharper graphics or better frame rates.

[22] These original games are made available through the WiiWare part of the Wii Shop Channel, as opposed to through the Virtual Console.

Satoru Iwata stated in a speech on March 23, 2006, that Nintendo, Sega, and Hudson Soft were working in collaboration to bring a "best of" series of games to the Wii.

Within this press release, Nintendo stated that more than 4.7 million Virtual Console games had been downloaded, at a rate of more than 1,000 titles an hour.

On February 23, 2009, the first three Commodore 64 titles (International Karate, The Last Ninja and Pitstop II) were added to the North America Virtual Console for the first time.

Several NES and SNES games released before March 30, 2007, have also been given updates in Europe and Australia to fix previous problems with the Wii component cables.

In later years, some games have been removed from the service due to their licenses expiring, namely R-Type and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among others.

However, both North America and Europe still have both games available to download on the Wii Shop Channel and Xbox Live Arcade.

The Wii Remote itself (turned on its side) can be used for NES, Master System, TurboGrafx-16, and some Mega Drive/Genesis and Neo Geo AES games.

[42] However, Commodore 64 titles use a pop-up "virtual" keyboard, which can be toggled on and off by pressing the "1" button on the Wii Remote, and are only used to set up the game and are not for input during gameplay.

Companies currently supporting by publishing games are Bandai Namco Entertainment, Hudson Soft, Irem, Konami, Nintendo, Taito and Windysoft.

Furthermore, two NES import titles were added in North American and Europe; Summer Carnival '92 Recca and The Mysterious Murasame Castle in both 2013 and 2014, respectively.

[65] On June 14, 2015, prior to Nintendo's E3 presentation; Mother was released worldwide and for the first time in North America and Europe on the Virtual Console service, under the title "EarthBound Beginnings".

Matt Casamassina of IGN reported that Rare titles absent of Nintendo-owned characters, such as Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark, would be unavailable for purchase due to Microsoft's acquisition of Rare;[70] SNK has announced intentions to release the Samurai Shodown series and a few other games to the Virtual Console which has brought the Neo Geo AES to the list of consoles available.

[71] Midway had also planned to bring the classic Mortal Kombat games to the Virtual Console,[72] but later sold the franchise to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment when it filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

[citation needed] Nintendo has stated that the Virtual Console releases will be faithful to the original games, eliminating the possibility of graphical enhancements, customizable controls, or added online multiplayer features.

The N64 game Pokémon Snap allowed players to take their Game Paks to special in-store kiosks to print stickers of their in-game photos; the Virtual Console version emulates this by letting players send a photo to the Wii Message Board once per day but this was removed from the Wii U version.

For example, Super Mario World is often cited as being more difficult to play due to the GameCube controller's button mapping.

[citation needed] Similarly, Mario Golf originally had a code to enable password input for special tournaments, but had this feature removed for Virtual Console.

[82] The title Donkey Kong: Original Edition was available via promotion on the Wii and 3DS Virtual Consoles, then later was made purchasable on the PAL Nintendo 3DS eShop.

Similarly, Nintendo DS games made available on Virtual Console are identical to their original release, complete with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection set-up screens; however, as the wireless features are not emulated, attempting to use online play or local wireless multiplayer features (such as in Mario Kart DS) will not function, especially as the original service had been terminated about eleven months prior to the Virtual Console debut.

The Wii U Virtual Console re-release of Animal Crossing: Wild World removes the requirement to have someone visit your town and buy an item from Tom Nook's shop in order to upgrade to Nookingtons.

With the launch of the Wii in territories using the PAL television system, it has become apparent that in most cases the games supplied for the Virtual Console run in 50 Hz mode and in their original unoptimized state.

Unoptimized PAL games run roughly 17% slower than their original speed in 60 Hz and have borders covering the top and the bottom of the screen.

Some of these games, namely Japan-only titles such as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, are run in 60 Hz only, thus keeping the original speed and gameplay.

The fast moving sprites in NES and SNES games generally create a significant amount of interlace artifacts on such displays that the 480p option resolves.

Initially, some PAL Virtual Console games would not display correctly on high-definition televisions when connected via the component lead.