Last week's Game Theory podcast brought up some great points about the Nintendo Wii and it's Virtual Console. If you've got a Wii, or even if you use GameTap, you probably have been faced with the allure of buying into the Retro Game Craze.

For me there are several games that I look back on with great nostalgia. Tempest, Super Mario Bros. (my nemesis) and even games like Kid Icarus stand out as major enterainments from my younger days. While I'm happy with my purchase of Super Mario Bros., even though I still haven't beaten it yet, playing Tempest on GameTap has betrayed my memory of the game.

The curse of Retro Games is twofold. Like walking into your elementary school after having been away to college you find yourself almost immediately underwhelmed. Games that used to be so big and intimidating are suddenly small and trivial. My disappointment when returning to games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tempest have tempered my desire to buy more VC games. It may be safe to assume that the same experience is being shared by other gamers.

One aspect of the issue which is discussed by the GameTheory crew involves the absence of a demo system. Unlike games that have been popping up on the XBox360 games appearing on the VC provide only a screenshot as a preview. This weekend a few sites pointed out that Nintendo is now offering short video previews of their VC games - it's really no substitute for a full demo though.