I use wiiware and vc a lot, there are some gems there like World of Goo, and for the past few days I've been playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as King, which I am enjoying a lot! But I don't like the terms of the service, basically it says that Nintendo can revoke the license to all the games for no reason whatsoever at any time. And you can't change your system, you lose your games.

It would be so much better if it was a username system like Steam, so you werent dependent on your hardware. I hope Nintendo comes up with a solution when the "Wii 2" is released to transfer the VC/Wiiware content, I will be majorly pissed if I have to rebuy my Zelda games AGAIN.

loving VC, wiiware is flooded with bad games but i loved Final Fantasy and World of Goo. I own all the old systems but i've been buying many games that i never got to play or finish when i was younger. I don't play most of my old systems because it's annoying to dig the systems out of the closet, find the games and controllers, hook them up, then put it away again. I got 16 VC games and 4 Wiiware, i'm really glad this SD card update came.

WOW a ton of responses. Thanks everyone. I agree there are some good games on Wiiware, and VC. I got a couple gift cards for downloading games a few months ago and did download a couple of them. I see them there among my channels and hardly ever play them. I put in a disc and play that.

A couple of the games I hated, so I deleted them. Big difference there, because if I hate a game I buy I can sell it on eBay, or Amazon. With downloading I can recoup nothing.

Someone said something about the future and music. I download music and to me the difference is this - I download a song or two instead of purchasing an entire album (CD). I can't see video games letting me only download a couple levels of a game and me being content with that.

I have done more downloading on the Xbox and PS3, mainly because they have a lot of free demos. So I suppose besides being traditional in wanting a disc I don't want to pay a lot, or I like to try before I buy. I know Sony is big on the nickle and diming gamers to death to spend a few bucks for another level, character, etc. After spending 60 bucks on a game I don't want to keep paying. Which is why I left online games a long time ago.

I love the VC, what got me to first play Ocarina, and some other awesome games on NES and 64.

love VC and WW, hope DSiW is as good.

your funeral =P

One main point against owning the physical copy of an old cartridge game would be battery life of game cartridges. If you went out and bought old system cartridges (NES, SNES, etc..) then your saves would eventually be erased due to the battery dying.  Also, the game cartridge could freeze during gameplay.  Plus, saving the game progress by hitting home and going back to the Wii Menu is far superior.  Also, you only have to worry about having one system (Wii) hooked up to be able to play a ton of different systems.  Thus, you only have to worry about one system failing than multiple systems failing.  The price for some older games is far greater than what you have to pay on VC.  I could keep going but I feel that I have listed enough to support VC/WW.

It used to be possible to get those batteries replaced. I have no idea what the cost/availability of such replacements would be nowadays, though.

My solution was to just turn off my TV and leave the NES running. :P

You can still replace them, but it's a do-it-yourself project.

What happens two generations from now?  Odds are you will have to redownload the games for them to work on a future machine, or keep the Wii going.  You do make some valid points though.  I own a lot of the Turbuduo, Genesis, SNES, and NES games that have been offered so I see no reason to pay twice for the same game.