This Half-Year in Defunct Games: 2012 Report Card!

Last Year: The Nintendo 3DS eShop was launched mere days before our arbitrary cut-off date, making it a little more challenging to compare numbers year to year. However, even with only a week and some change to sell people old Game Boy games, Nintendo managed to release five games. And not just any games, they included some of the very best Game Boy games -- Donkey Kong '94, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, etc.

This Year: After managing to put together a solid 2011, Nintendo has completely dropped the ball this year. It took the company weeks to release a game, and when they did it was the mediocre Lock 'N Chase. We've also seen Nintendo recycling the NES hits given out for free to 3DS owners involved in the Ambassador Program. Needless to say, this has been a disappointing year.

Thankfully there are a few bright spots to talk about. A number of smaller games are finally getting some attention, such as Maru's Mission, GG Shinobi and the original Rayman for the Game Boy Color. Plus, we're finally seeing Sega step up with Game Gear games. Hopefully we'll continue to see support for Sega's first handheld, and maybe even the TurboExpress, Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket Color.

Year End Prediction: While Nintendo manages to impress with the Wii Virtual Console, I can't help but feel disappointed with their handling of the 3DS storefront. As I've mentioned before, there's no excuse for Nintendo to only release thirteen games in 25 weeks; especially when there are so many Ambassador Program games to release. In the same amount of time, Nintendo of Europe has managed to upload twenty old school classics. This is getting pathetic.

As we near the holiday season I suspect we'll see an increase in Virtual Console quality, perhaps with some of Nintendo's big hitters (Super Mario Land 3 seems like an obvious choice). However, I'm doubtful we'll hit last year's impressive 27 releases. At this rate the best we can hope for is 25, which isn't nearly as impressive when you remember that Nintendo introduced the 3DS Virtual Console half way through 2011. I look forward to Nintendo proving me wrong.

Last Year: Forget the dueling Virtual Consoles, because Sony owned the first half of 2011. The PSone Classics store saw and incredible 25 games released, more than Nintendo was able to accomplish with the Virtual Console in a full year. These games include Tekken, Dino Crisis 2, Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Ridge Racer Type 4, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV, Arc the Lad III and Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. It's an eclectic mix of genres and developers.

This Year: Unfortunately, this year has been a different story. Sony has only managed to upload a total of six games in the first half of the year, a staggering 76% decrease from 2011. These games are Final Fantasy Origin, Darkstalkers 3, Future Cop: L.A.P.D., Legend of Dragoon, Myst and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. Not the most compelling line-up, especially after the hits of 2011. What the hell happened?

It would be perfectly understandable for third-parties to hold releases until Sony sorts out the PS Vita compatibility. At this month's E3, Sony announced PSone Classics support would come by the end of summer, a welcome addition to a system in need of software. Of course, it could be that companies are starting to run dry of quality games to add to the list of PSone Classics. Although there are plenty of missing gems, most of the must-own PlayStation-era titles have been released. I guess we'll see what happens when Sony adds PS Vita support later this year.

Year End Prediction: Starting tomorrow, MonkeyPaw Games will be debuting Tomba!, Sony's critically loved 32-bit platformer. This marks the first Sony game to be licensed to MonkeyPaw, opening up an exciting catalog of underappreciated classics for the company to potentially release. The San Jose-based company has hinted at future 2012 releases, though nothing specific has been announced at this time.

As exciting as future MonkeyPaw releases might be, one company alone can't turn this boat around. We need Square to get on the ball and release love overdue games like Ehrgeiz and Tobal 2. It's time for Sony to finally upload the two Gran Turismo games. Konami, Electronic Arts, Activision and Capcom need to come together and deliver the rest of their 32-bit library, even if they aren't always worth owning. This is the easiest way to support the PS Vita, plus a great way to remind gamers why you should care about Sony's cast of characters. That seems like that kind of thing a company might want to do in the run-up to PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale. But what do I know?