Ah, so maybe they are beginning to allow VC stuff on both platforms. That may also be why the merge of the eshops to Nintendo Network.

And since 3DS games are going digital, I don't see how hard it would be for WiiU to emulate even the 3DS hardware. I know it's a big stretch going from SMB is on 3DS e-shop to like NSMB2 being DL'able for the WiiU, but it would be convenient honestly. It sounds kind of silly, but it would be convenient on the long run. Even just 3DS demos on the WiiU DL service would be nice.

I hope so.

Emulating hardware, even 3DS-level hardware, requires a lot of processing power. You can "fake" the emulation on older systems to the point where a game is perfectly playable, but only by tweaking individual emulator settings for each game. This is a laborious process, as anyone who's tried to use a PS1 or N64 ROM can attest. I doubt it's feasible for the Wii-U, or anything less than a cutting-edge PC, to emulate a 3DS successfully. If then.

Without getting into an argument noname (since I don't completely doubt you on this), I would just say that the WiiU will be pretty close to a cutting-edge PC from a capability PoV. Add that a PC with a card lesser than what the WiiU is getting can run Dolphin, I wouldn't see SW emulation as so unfeasible from a technical point of view. From a tweaking and labor-intensive point of view, yeah you're probably right.

As for hardware emulation, that would require HW designs that would affect the WiiU's design, and since the 3DS is graphically intensive, that wouldn't be non-trivial (in contrast with the 3DS HW emulating the DS). I kind of agree with you. but even then, we really don't have all the details and can't say for certain. At the same time, the WiiU is BC with the Wii, which is BC with the Cube, and since the 3DS graphics are close to Cube graphics maybe the architecture is not all that far, but this point is probably a horrible stretch of logic and that isn't something we know either (example questions, can an ARM architecture be emulated by a PC CPU architecture?). I'm just thinking out loud, but yeah I don't know.

I think its unlikely since DS is still out in the market and the 3DS is backwards compatible with it.

Heck there arent even GBA games on the eshop yet.

I would think you will get N64 or gamecube games on the WiiU instead. Hopefully they add GBA games to the 3DS in time aswell since they already offered some as compensation, so we know the 3DS can already run them.

Nem, it's true that GBA games aren't on the e-shop, but they are supported by the 3DS. In the ambassador program, some of us got GBA games like Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion, Wario Ware and F-Zero Maximum Velocity! (Great games too)