Feature: Touring the Wii Virtual Console on $30 Subscribe to this RSS feed

Sure, there's lots of cheap thrills to be had in the Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Store, but those little charges can add up fast. Here's the first of our monthy guides to getting the most out of a limited online budget.

Looking for travel guides for the other online marketplaces? Check out our guide to getting the best $30 can offer on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store!

We've all seen the guides for thrifty travel abroad. You know, "Backpack through Europe on $10 a Day", and "Amman's Best Lung Goulash"? Whether it's in the travel section at your bookstore or it's the water-stained guide on your friend's end table, you can count on them to see exotic new things on the cheap. But what of the virtual landscape? After plunking down a chunk o' change for an HDTV, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii, you need to watch how you spend the rest of your hard-earned cash. Instead of splurging on new games that will leave your bank account empty, why not consider getting a handful of downloadable games for much cheaper? Of course, you have to set a budget, and $30 is an affordable bar we can all limbo under.

Some of the Wii's best activities are free: A beta version of the Opera browser is free for download through June, and if you're a junkie for Cosmo-style opinion polls, there's the "Everybody Votes" Channel. Both the browser and voting channel can be found on the Wii Shop Channel. But you're a gamer, and you want to play games; thus, the Virtual Console beckons, peppered with classics from the pre-PS2 era. Whether you're new to retro consoles like the Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, or NES, or just missed out on some of the best games of all time, you're in luck... they're now available as downloads through the Wii Virtual Console.

The Wii's current Virtual Console offerings are like a trip through the remains of ancient civilizations. These games are the classic pillars on which gaming was built, and Nintendo is adding to the museum every Monday. This is your chance to stroll through the earliest origins of gaming, including those antiquated NES titles, some of which are over twenty years old. They're also some of the greatest titles ever to grace a console.

In this first installment of Wii's Shop Channel on $20 a month, we'll take you through the best way to spend your Wii Points on the goodness Nintendo has brought since launch, with ten extra bucks to spend on the months of goodness accumulated already. That $30 is 3,000 Wii points, and we'll bring you in just under that with a game from almost all of the emulated consoles of gaming's past.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1,000 points) is one of Nintendo's most beloved games, and received universal acclaim in 1998. Sadly, the console it was released for did not, so many gamers without a Nintendo 64 missed this puzzle-filled Link adventure. If you're looking for a break from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, or just looking for a (cheaper) link to Zelda's past, this is the perfect time to revisit a classic.If you've been able to experience this classic on one of the GameCube complitation discs, go for Super Mario 64, which is the only N64 game so far that hasn't had to sacrifice a feature or two in the emulation process.