Finally, the moment you've been waiting for since you lent your copy of Super Smash Bros. to someone who then moved away. If you're in Europe, tomorrow will be a very exciting Virtual Console day: the original Super Smash Bros. will be available for download, according to the Official Nintendo Magazine, for 1,000 points.

Surprisingly, Nintendo isn't taking the opportunity to be lazy and make it a one-game week. Cocoto Platform Jumper will also be up on WiiWare, and both Asphalt 4 and Sudoku 150 will be on DSiWare. We thought we'd mention these here, because they will not get any attention at all this week due to Smash Bros.

Next month, developer Komodo and distributor Innex will one-up (or two-up, we guess) RetroZone's RetroPort Wii controller adapters with their Retro Adapter. Instead of merely allowing you to use a NES or SNES controller with Virtual Console games, the Retro Adapter features ports for NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64 pads in one $20 device. The adapter, being released almost just in time for the release of Majora's Mask on the Virtual Console, purportedly supports true analog control for the N64 controller.

Innex will be demonstrating the product at E3, and we're going to do our best to get all those new games or whatever out of the way so we can spend some time with it.

This week, the Virtual Console finally gets Majora's Mask for the N64. Some people think Ocarina of Time is better, and some people don't. And some people probably never played either, which is something that should be addressed with one's person therapist or physician.

This week, NintendoWare Weekly brings us the second-most requested title for the Virtual Console: Majora's Mask. With its arrival today, that can only mean one thing: Earthbound is next! When is "next?" Well, yeah, that might be a problem ...

This week, we have another question about Nintendo Points, which, we realize as we do these Ask Joystiq Nintendo columns, are kind of weird. The points cards come in different values in different regions, and sometimes even have different costs across platforms! Weird.

Also, the usual sadness, this time about N64 games on VC and Front Mission 2089: Border of Madness. If you'd like us to give you reasons why your favorite game isn't being localized, send an email to asknintendo AT joystiq DOT com.

The original N64 version of Banjo-Tooie was met with near-universal critical acclaim, though some were disappointed by the cancellation of one of the title's most lauded additions -- a feature known as "Stop 'n' Swop," where special eggs located in Banjo-Kazooie could be imported into Tooie to exchange for various prizes.

Now, nearly a decade later, the feature has found its way into the XBLA re-release of Banjo-Tooie -- but this time around, the rewards are a tad more tangible. As seen in the video after the jump, an achievement, gamer pic and a Banjo-Kazooie NXE theme (as well as a few in-game cheats and items) are all up for grabs if you've got the mettle to go egg hunting in Banjo the First. And by "the mettle," we of course mean "the GameFAQs guide."

Collectors, listen up: One Nintendo-loving eBay user has dug through his/her Nintendo collection and decided to give up a few rare (and autographed) collectibles. Included in the auction are four gold and black N64 controllers (won during a Star Fox tournament) signed by legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto and ex-Nintendo president Minoru Arakawa. The auction also includes a copy of Next Generation magazine signed by Miyamoto and Arakawa as well as former Nintendo executives Howard Lincoln, Peter Main and others.

It isn't the sexiest auction available but at $21.48 (as of press time) it may be the cheapest way to grab classic Nintendo autographs... or at least a half-dozen N64 controllers.

[Thanks, Charles P.]

This is probably the best day for downloads on Nintendo consoles in years. If you got a DSi today, you've probably already begun perusing the new DSi Shop and downloading some DSiWare, including the two Art Style games available! But even if you didn't get a DSi, you'll probably be happy with the downloadable selection this week. Well, that is, if you didn't get a DSi and you have a Wii. If you've got neither, this might just irritate you.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has arrived! And we don't even have to make any disclaimers about making sure you have space to download it.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask -- N64-- 1,000 Points
Art Style: AQUITE -- DSiWare -- 500 Points
Art Style: CODE -- DSiWare -- 500 Points
Birds & Beans -- DSiWare -- 200 Points
DSi Browser -- DSiWare -- free!
Paper Plane -- DSiWare -- 200 Points
WarioWare Snapped! -- DSiWare -- 500 Points

Sometimes, one might assume that super-genius game developers don't think the way that you do, but it's just not so! Take, for instance, Shigeru Miyamoto, who you might know for his work on pure undiluted joy. He recently told Japanese mag Famitsu that several aspects of the way Nintendo operated during the N64 and GameCube years made him "very sad." Hey, Shiggy, us too!

Of course, we probably have slightly different reasoning. Miyamoto complained about the company trying to follow its competitors during that era, saying, "I was endlessly fascinated with 3D worlds, but what with all the issues I had to tinker with in terms of rendering and processing speed, it got to the point where I didn't know who was making the games any longer." We would have more simply said that "a lot of games for those systems were very, very bad," but it's nice to know the big guy gets where we're coming from.

Yours truly has hazy memories of spending an entire summer holiday glued to Mario Golf, unlocking Metal Mario, and jumping on the bed after fluking a hole-in-one (shamefully, I was nineteen at the time). And now, it's the fifteenth N64 game to appear on the PAL Virtual Console. Hell yeah! It might suffer heavily from the N64 fuzz, but for our money it's still the best in its respective series. It's accompanied this week by Wonder Boy in Monster Land.

• Mario Golf -- Nintendo 64 -- 1,000 Wii Points
• Wonder Boy in Monster Land -- Master System -- 500 Wii Points
  

Videos of each follow the blue text.

Sometimes looking back at the games of our childhood days can be painful. More than a decade later, it's hard to imagine how Combat Cars for the Sega Genesis was ever...well, fun. Ah, the indiscretion of youth: hoarding your money, saving for that one, glorious moment when you pick out a new game to take home and devour, only to realize, years later, how terrible it really was. Still, blind purchases could occasionally lead to good things, and a few weeks ago I went home and recovered my Nintendo 64 from its years of storage exile for the express purpose of reliving some of those magical gaming sessions of my youth. In this case, the game in question was BattleTanx: Global Assault.

Likely one of the few good games to ever come out of the offices of the now-defunct 3DO, BattleTanx is about as straightforward as its name implies. The game turns 10 years old in 2009, and despite the fact that it looks and play like a Nintendo 64 game from 1999, it's still a lot of fun. Simple, arcadey gameplay, a multitude of tanks and a solid lineup of secondary weapons guarantee hours of mindless fun. The single-player is easy to plow through in short order, but fun enough to come back to -- and the real draw lies in the multiplayer, which rivaled Goldeneye, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart for four-player mayhem. Ready to take up arms with Battlelord Griffin Spade and Born for Wii as we assault the post-apocalyptic globe? Hit the link below.

NEXT >>

Gallery: Born for Wii: BattleTanx: Global Assault

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Remember the kid that was so happy to get himself an N64 for Christmas? Of course you do, who doesn't? Well, it would appear the torch has been passed on to a small Canadian child, who is a bottomless well of excitement upon receiving a certain gift this Christmas. We won't ruin the surprise (you probably already guessed, anyway), so just head past the break and watch the video. Oh, and if you need a refresher on the N64 kid, hit up the video above.

Okay, maybe it's not the perfect handheld, but it's an incredible piece of craftsmanship, wouldn't you say? It was created by user SifUf over at the Ben Heck forums. Considering how many of these kinds of projects we've seen lately, we're kind of tempted to do this to our own N64 that is sitting in a box somewhere gathering dust. Of course, we never actually would, because we'd hate to bring the fire department out this way again.


[Via Engadget]

"B-b-b-but I don't live in Japan!" We know, dear reader -- despite the fact that a great deal of the world's population takes up residence in the Land of the Rising Sun, we understand that there are plenty of those who don't. This second group likely just thinks we're taunting them with the information that Super Smash Bros., one of the most requested titles for the Virtual Console, will be landing on the service in Japan sometime in early January.

However, take solace in the fact that this might mean that it'll be hitting North American e-store shelves sometime soon. Let's just hope that our price for the game doesn't mimic Japan's -- 1,200 points (as opposed to the usual 1,000 for an N64 game) is ridiculous, and we absolutely would not pay it. Well, maybe we'd pay it, but we definitely wouldn't feel good about it. Fine -- we'd probably be ecstatic, but we'd totally pout for like, a minute or two. Take that, Nintendo!