Nintendo prices their games on the value of the game, not how old the game is. In addition, many of you forget.. some people haven't EVER played those games. Just because you may have already bought or purchased them doesn't mean they should be worth less money. Try buying a retail copy of those games today as they will cost you plenty more on EBAY.

People are complaining that Nintendo discounted the games for people who already owned them? LOL. If your whining so much, why don't you just play them on your Wii/3DS instead of complaining? You're lucky enough they even discounted them in the first place.

What's with everyone comparing these digital prices to the prices of physical cartridges? That's just ludicrous. It's like saying that a digital comic book from the WW2 era is a bargain at $10, because a physical copy would cost you 100 times that. Really?
OP: yes, VC games are overpriced.

I'm sure they will be running promotional sales at times on certain titles. They already offered Super Mario Land last year for $2.99 on 3DS. They are giving us a chance to buy certain NES games at 30 cents over the next few months and we've seen reduced prices on Trine 2 and Little Inferno on Wii U eshop. So, if the price is what frustrates you, only buy when its on sale.

Consider that back in the day, NES and SNES games were around 30-40 dollars and N64 games were 60 dollar range, and some high end titles got even more expensive. 5, 8, and 10 dollars respectively doesn't seem that bad now, especially when you adjust for inflation.

Today? Nah, not so much. But their games cost the same at retail, in dollars and cents mind you, that they do today back when they released, now that's a rip-off. A Nintendo game back in the 80's and 90's cost 500NOK here, and its the same price today, when you adjust for inflation and salary increases, that's a truly massively disturbing price for a game (about 1300NOK disturbing, that's around 235 US dollars with todays exchange rates).

I have an HDTV as well, and I popped Medievil PS1 into my PS2 last month.  I was astounded at how terrible it looked playing it now considering the fond memories I had from when that game first came out.

I don't consider $8 a rip-off for SNES games when it would cost you far more to buy the games outside the Virtual Console.  Good luck to you if you think you can get Final Fantasy 3 or especially Secret of Mana for cheaper.

As some has said before, NES, and SNES games seems to age better than N64/PS1 or GC/XBox/PS2 games.

Now, they are probably going to price N64 and GC games, higher, you may have your rant then.

As long as the service is available in my region, I'll pay for it even if they're 15 quids a pop! ;)

I think the games should be priced according to demand / value rather than simply a one-price model per console for every game. For example, the Mario and Zelda NES games are fine at $5, and for $8 SNES games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, FFIII and SMRPG are a steal compared to what their original physical versions regularly go for online.

But then you got NES titles like Volleyball, Ice Hockey, Pac-Man, Xevious, Galaga, etc... basically 1st gen games and arcade ports selling for $5 each, when they should be priced for like $1.99 since the same or similar games are available for that price on iPhone and other mobile devices. Same thing with SNES / Genesis games... while most are justified at $8, there are some that should be $5 or below because there just isn't alot of interest or value in them. Same thing with Master System and TG-16 games... most of these with the exception of some rare Turbo CD games like Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood and Ys Book I & II just aren't worth the asking prices.

The only games on the VC that are priced perfectly IMO are the N64 games. $10 is a great value for games like Paper Mario, Zelda TOOT and MM, the original SSB,

The prices are far from bad, really. You're paying for quality, and if you don't want quality, don't buy it.

(I agree with Sal's statement, too. If people don't buy it, Nintendo will react.)