i would totally buy some VC games for my XL, but that whole non-unified Nintendo account thing pisses me off.
You can still transfer them to a new system.
In one very particular way that only works to Nintendo's advantage. I'm more worried about it getting lost or stolen, but the current way also prevents you completely from getting rid of the old system before getting the new one. Sometimes I get through everything I want to play for a system and get rid of it for a year or two while more games come out for it. This happens all the time with Nintendo systems since they tend to have an emphasis on 1st party and under emphasize 3rd party compared to PS/MS. When I buy another one, the used prices for the systems are much cheaper by then as well. I've had a bunch of PS3s and 360s because I know I can always grab my account and everything I've bought with it previously. I've spent thousands between Sony and MS, easily less than $100 with Nintendo.
The way they currently do it comes off like some archaic measure to prevent people from getting rid of their console...but as they release more consoles subsequently, it also looks like more of a greedy "aha!" tactic. We all know that a console is just refined and customized PC parts and custom software in a custom hardware case--amateurs get old Nintendo games running on anything that can process data. But Nintendo can tell kiddies and moms that running NES games on Wii and WiiU is so wildly different that they can't just give them away to people who already purchased them on other consoles. Not only that, they can also convince the kiddies and moms that there needs to be a graded cost scale depending on whether you're redownloading NES, SNES, etc.
The WiiU roms will be a little different with pad support, but they could've gained big points by just linking accounts and letting you redownload for free. For me, it'd be reassuring to see Nintendo get into this century. I'd spend more money with them. But the graded costs for each system's roms are complete, 100% bullshit though-- that's for profit. We know those games don't actually cost anything to transfer. They're tiny.
