Nostalgic Wii U eShop Trip to the "Nearly" Complete Virtual Console Section

Browsing the Virtual Console section of the Wii U eShop was like opening a portal to a time you didn’t realize you missed so deeply until you were already there. The soft, ambient theme music drifted through the speakers like a lullaby from a simpler age, washing over you as you scrolled through rows of pixelated memories.

Seeing games from NES, TG-16, SNES, Game Boy Advance, N64, DS and even Wii all in one place gave you a sense of the console’s role as both a gaming platform and a digital archive. For many, it was a chance to revisit childhood favorites with added features like save states and off-TV play on the GamePad, but it was also a gateway to explore titles they might’ve missed the first time around.

Each game tile wasn't just software—it was a key to a long-lost summer, a quiet weekend afternoon, or a dimly lit bedroom glowing with the light of a tube TV. You weren’t just buying games—you were chasing ghosts of your childhood, moments wrapped in 8-bit soundtracks and awkward plastic controllers.

There was something achingly sweet about seeing Super Mario World, Metroid Fusion, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past—titles that once required stacks of cartridges, late-night rentals, and blown-on connectors now quietly waiting for you, polished and re-presented, like old friends dressed in clean clothes.

The Wii U’s GamePad made it feel even more intimate, like holding the past gently in your hands. And the eShop’s slow, deliberate navigation only deepened the nostalgia—it made you linger, forced you to savor, to really think about what it meant to revisit a game you hadn’t played since your fingers were smaller and your world simpler.

In those quiet moments, browsing the Virtual Console wasn’t just a way to find games. It was a way to feel the ache of time passed. To remember who you were when those games first mattered, and to reach—however briefly—for that feeling again.

Do you remember the first game you downloaded just for the memories?

The "Nearly" Complete Virtual Console Section does not contain several TG-16 Games delisted on June 30, 2020: R Type, Ninja Spirit, Vigilant, Legend of Hero Toma, Battle Chopper, Image Fight, & Image Fight II