Markup View

Author: Kayube

May 18th 2012 at 10:01:40 AM

Creator/{{Nintendo}} systems often have some form of this. Among consoles, the SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem has the Super Game Boy, a cartridge with a slot that allows GameBoy games to be played on the TV. The NintendoGameCube has the Game Boy Player, an attachment that can play Game Boy, GameBoyColor, and GameBoyAdvance games on the TV. The {{Wii}} is backwards-compatible with [=GameCube=] games, memory cards, and controllers and also includes the VirtualConsole which allows many games from previous systems to be downloaded and played on the Wii. The WiiU is backwards-compatible with the Wii, and will also include a Virtual Console, probably including [=GameCube=] games.

For handhelds, the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance (except the Game Boy Micro model of GBA) were all backwards-compatible with previous Game Boy-line games. The NintendoDS was backwards-compatible with the GBA (except for the [=DSi=] systems), while the Nintendo3DS was backwards-compatible with the DS.

Many of their systems also have alternate methods of playing games designed for that system, though most of them were [[NoExportForYou only released in Japan]]: the Famicom Disk System, the Bandai Satellaview-X for the Super Famicom, the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive; only with WiiWare did gamers around the world have the opportunity to get games for their Nintendo consoles in a different format than the basic disc. On handhelds, things were a bit different; the GameBoyAdvance had the ability to run games downloaded from other systems, allowing for multiplayer games using only one cartridge or bonus downloads from the [=GameCube=]. The DS had the same Download Play feature. The [=DSi=] had [=DSiWare=], and the [=3DS=] continues in the same tradition, having downloadable games designed for it along with its Virtual Console. Starting with ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'', in fact, full-size retail games will be available in download form rather than requiring a physical game card.