Virtual Console

So the Nintendo Wii has another successful holiday season well in hand, with no slowdown in sight. One of the biggest selling points of the Wii has to be the Virtual Console. I have accumulated an interesting series of games:

Donkey Kong Country
The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario World
Wave Race 64
Golden Axe
Mario Kart 64
Super Mario 64
Super Metroid
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting
Wario's Woods
Bomberman
Toe Jam and Earl
Space Harrier II
Star Fox 64
Tecmo Bowl
Punch-Out!

There are numerous games that I want to buy, but I haven't bought yet since I haven't beaten the games I own already. Some of the games I want are F-Zero, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mario Bros 2, Sin and Punishment, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Baseball Stars 2.

I have some gripes with the Virtual Console service so far:

(1) Why has Nintendo not released a Hard Drive solution, or allowed third party hard drives to connect to the USB port on the Wii. Additional storage space would allow Nintendo to release games with larger cartridge sizes and demos for upcoming Wii games.

(2) Why so few Super Nintendo games? Isn't it the same system that has a library of 700+ games. There are only 26 SNES games released so far. Where is Chrono Trigger, Super Mario World 2, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings, Star Fox, and Super Bases Loaded? There are 43 Genesis games in comparison.

(3) Why hasn't Nintendo released some sort of subscription service? This idea would probably tie into the Hard Drive, but why not allow users to pay $25 to download 4-5 games? Or offer to download one game a month for $7/month? I know those ideas suck, but that is why Nintendo has professionals. Can't they come up with something that would entice gamers to download a few more games?

My Big Wish for the future:
** If the Nintendo DS can play Super Mario 64 remakes, isn't it possible then for it to play any game included on the Virtual Console list? So why not make it possible to take the Virtual Console games you purchase and transfer them to the Nintendo DS for portable play? This would be a huge feature that would sell a lot of systems, and a lot more Virtual Console titles.

I think the Virtual Console was a great idea, and it has definitely been one of my favorite parts of the Nintendo Wii. I hope Nintendo continues to develop the idea and make the next year for the Nintendo Wii an even better one than 2007 was.