Wii Shop Channel Adds 100th Classic Game

Nintendo has added its 100th "classic" game to its Wii Shop Channel, and says Wii users are downloading 1,000 games every hour.

Nintendo has announced it will be adding Zelda III—The Adventure of Link to its Wii Shop Channel on June 4, marking the 100th “classic” game the company has made available to Wii owners since the console’s launch in November, 2006. Owners of Nintendo’s hot-selling Wii game console can access the Wii Shop channel and spend Wii Points to download video games originally developed for the NES, SuperNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx16 consoles. For some gamers, these games represent blasts of nostalgia; to new gamers, they often represent fun, easy-to-play games which enhance the value of the Wii console.

Nintendo says almost 40 percent of Wii users have connected the consoles to the Internet, and have downloaded more than 4.7 million classic games, which equates to more than 1,000 downloaded games for every hour since the Wii’s launch.

“With an Internet connection rate reaching 40 percent, Wii owners have more options than ever to find the kinds of games they love to play,”

“Beyond the Wii Shop Channel, all types of people are getting connected and checking out the information and entertainment options available on the Wii Menu. Whether voting, creating a Mii or just checking the weather, everyone has a favorite channel,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior VP of marketing and corporate communications, in a release.

According to Nintendo, the most popular classic games on the Wii’s Virtual Console are:

1. Super Mario Bros for the NES
2. Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64
3. Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64
4. Super Mario World for the Super NES
5. The Legend of Zelda for the NES

Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday.