Final Fantasy III hits Wii this week

By Fred Dutton Published 14 March, 2011

Virtual Console release for SNES classic.

Square's classic SNES RPG Final Fantasy III arrives on the Wii's Virtual Console download service this Friday, Nintendo has announced.

It's the original 1994 version and will set you back a princely 900 Wii Points – that translates to a little under £7 in real money. It's worth noting that SNES games are usually 800 Points. No explanation has been offered for the price hike.

Now for the confusing part. Technically this is actually Final Fantasy VI. However, seeing as when it was initially released in the US the first two titles in the series had never left Japan, it was referred to as Final Fantasy III in the West.

It was ported to the PSone in 1999 and then the Game Boy Advance in 2007, where it won a glowing 9/10 from this very site.

Also available for download this Friday on Wii is the ambiguously titled Bingo Party Deluxe (500 Points). DSiWare gets a slightly more meaty selection with strategy effort Castle Conqueror (500 Points), puzzle platformer Arctic Escape (500 Points) and 5-in-1 Mahjong (200 Points).

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #1 1 year ago

    US FF3 is actually FF6, which is probably one of the best in the series,

  • kingbelly #2 1 year ago

    So is the SNES original of the western version DS Final Fantasy III remake?
    Edited by kingbelly at 14/03/11 @ 17:07

  • Ninja_Tino #3 1 year ago

    I think the answer to your question, kingbelly, is no. This is Final Fantasy VI, the DS III was a remake of the Japanese III, which was never released in the US.

  • Cataferal #4 1 year ago

    ^Indeed. Final Fantasy III on the DS is a remake of the NES original.

    The west never received FFII or FFIII on the NES.

    Instead, for marketing reasons Nintendo re-branded FFIV and FFVI with those names, respectively. It's a tad confusing.
    Edited by Cataferal at 14/03/11 @ 17:15

  • SpookyTang #5 1 year ago

    Best Final Fantasy ever !

  • Drygore #6 1 year ago

    FF VI, one of the best games ever.

  • ZeroAX #7 1 year ago

    wow. No explanation for the price hike?

    Really? Are you that uninformed about a topic you are covering? Hey Eurogamer, give me this guy's job.

  • Cataferal #8 1 year ago

    It's the Square Enix tax.

    They know their audience is willing to pay that little extra.

  • carrotcake #9 1 year ago

    The actual story - FF 1, 4 and 6 came to America NES / Super NES, they missed out on 2, 3, 5 Famicom / Super Famicom games because no time to localise so many games or something, so they pretended those ones didn't exist and renumbered the games 1, 2, 3. And none of these original six were released in Europe until PlayStation days.... so what we have here is the American Super Nintendo FF III, with wrong numbering intact because Virtual Console releases are unaltered emulated originals.

  • FenderMaster #10 1 year ago

    It's worth noting that SNES games are usually 800 Points. No explanation has been offered for the price hike.

    good old Nintendo, always doing right by their shareholders! if not their customers... they're certainly not the only ones, but VC has always been horrible value, take Gunstar Heroes, it's 5 Euro on PSN, updated with a HD filter and online co-op. It's 8 Euro on Wii, for the rom, no updates or anything.

    They do the same thing with their Hanabi festival thing, yeah, thanks for the japanese imports and all, but why the price hike? It's not like you actually translated the game or anything...

  • Nikanoru #11 1 year ago

    it's 5 Euro on PSN, updated with a HD filter

    Ah, the shitfilter. That must explain why it's cheaper. The filter detracts from the value.

  • FenderMaster #12 1 year ago

    at least they attempted to add something new, give me a cheaper port with added online co-op play an optional HD filter and online leaderboards over an overpriced rom any day...

  • RoOhDaMite #13 1 year ago

    There's no better way to support Japanese economy in this desperate times than buying this masterpiece of JRPG.
    This game is worth every single point.

  • tossum #14 1 year ago

    Is this the one with suped up graphics. And one of the characters is called kefca? And if memory serves me wasn't there a bizarre oprah bit? Yeh its coming back to me now. My favorite was the one with the job system I think that was ff5. It was only payable as a fan translated rom at the time

  • Charlie_Miso #15 1 year ago

    FFS - I vowed not to buy anymore crap off the Wii Store and just last week spent my last 900 points on the Super Mario RPG.

    Having never played this and there, strangely, not being a remake on the horizon means they've got my $ again.

    Every time I think I'm out - they pull me back in.

  • WinterSnowblind #16 1 year ago

    Now that they've finally sorted out the numbering fiasco, thanks to all the re-releases and spin off games.. why on Earth have they decided to call this III again? Madness.

  • IMD1_Pk #17 1 year ago

    If it weren't for the fact that 900 points is a weird sum I wouldn't mind paying 1200 or even 1600 for it. It is one of the best FF games ever made!

  • Mister-Wario #18 1 year ago

    "It's worth noting that SNES games are usually 800 Points. No explanation has been offered for the price hike".

    Maybe they know people are willing to pay for it?

  • SlackMaster #19 1 year ago

    I've pretty much given up on the VC. Very few games get released on it now which is surprising since so many classics are just begging to be re-released. Considering it would take very little additional effort to release games like say Earthbound in the UK and US, or many others I just don't understand why its not been done already.

    Every week I'll check to see if anything decent has been released and it's usually just WiiWare shovelware. Also the cost of games are expensive and they never have sales like XBL or PSN. Basically put Nintendo seem far behind Microsoft and Sony with their online store.
    Edited by SlackMaster at 15/03/11 @ 07:16

  • kingbelly #20 1 year ago

    @Ninja_Tino, Cataferal, carrotcake

    Thanks for the explanations! I've long been confused by the series differences between regions, especially since the (relatively) recent barrage of remakes and ports. I've already played the DS FFIII remake so wasn't sure if this was worth getting.

    As this is FFVI it makes this the most tempting virtual console release for me for a good while, even with the "import" price hike that the Wii shop always suffers from...

  • Nikanoru #21 1 year ago

    Now that they've finally sorted out the numbering fiasco, thanks to all the re-releases and spin off games.. why on Earth have they decided to call this III again? Madness.

    They didn't "decide" anything actually. VC games are console games in their original state, that's the point. The game says Final Fantasy III on its titlescreen, so that's that. Yes it's confusing, but you're playing a part of history. ;)