To commemorate the 20th anniversary of EarthBound releaseing in North America, the original Mother was released for the very first time outside of Japan under the name EarthBound Beginnings. Because of the hardware limitations preventing SNES games on the original models, only the New Nintendo 3DS allowed players to purchase and play EarthBound from the eshop. The Virtual Console was succeeded by a feature on Nintendo Switch Online that allows subscribers to play a library of old games on their Nintendo Switch.ĮarthBound was available to purchase from the Nintendo eshop. Previously purchased titles are still able to be re-downloaded.

The Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U closed on March 27th 2023, as such the Virtual Console service has also been discontinued on those platforms as well.

Due to the discontinuation of the Wii Shop Channel service, it is no longer possible to purchase Virtual Console titles on the Wii.

Restore points allow the player to make a temparory save point anywhere that they can return to at any point. The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U adds the Virtual Console menu that allow players to create restore points and configure button controls (Wii U only). Virtual Console titles were able to be purchased from the Wii Shop Channel for the Wii and on the Nintendo eshop for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

The Virtual Console (Japanese: バーチャルコンソール Virtual Console) was a service for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U that allowed players to purchase games released on older game consoles to play them on newer consoles through an emulator.

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