Super Mario Kart out on Virtual Console April 2

The game that created and defined a genre will finally be available on the Wii's Virtual Console on April 2. Kart racing at its finest, I'm sure fans of the series will be happy to return to the original for arguably the best Battle Mode in kart history, and I know I will be pleased to play a Rainbow Road without walls again. With this much anticipated release comes the inevitable talk of producers convincing consumers to pay for the same game multiple times through ports such as Super Mario Kart. Some wish that game companies would focus their efforts on new games instead of continuing to milk older cash cow titles and think it is crazy that gamers will buy the same game two or three times. As a member of the latter group, for better or for worse, I personally love having old favorites ported onto more recent systems, especially when some new content is added (think anime cutscenes in Chrono Trigger for PS). You really can't argue with supply and demand; there is a real demand for ported or updated versions of popular games, and as long as consumers buy them, producers will keep putting them on shelves. I don't see a major issue with this anyway as development time is generally considerably shorter than it is for a new title so ports don't take much away from the creation of new games. Now if we can just get Squenix to re-do Final Fantasy VII as they've been hinting for years, we'll be ready for business.