Virtual Console

Virtual Console (or VC) is a series of game rereleases on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS consoles that consisted of emulated versions of games originally released on the NES, SNES, and N64 consoles. (Note: The 3DS does not have N64 virtual console games, and the Wii U has Wii virtual console games that are not emulated but simply digitally downloaded. Also, it is important to note that since the Wii U also includes the Wii Menu in its original form, the Wii Menu's Virtual Console is really the Wii VC version [usually referred to as Wii U Wii VC] and not the Wii U VC version.) The Wii Shop has been discontinued, so there is no legal way to obtain new Wii VC games. Even though the Wii VC and Wii U VC versions of Super Mario 64 are emulated, they are still considered to be a legitimate release to play the game on. There are differences in these versions caused by the emulator.

Each Wii VC game was packed with an emulator. Since SM64 was the first N64 game to be released on Wii VC, certain bugs exist in its emulator that don't exist in later N64 VC releases or in Wii U VC. The most notable of these is Wii VC Round-to-Zero, which is caused by an incorrect rounding mode for 2 MIPS instructions. This causes the Y coordinate of a specific type of oscillating platform found in Bowser in the Fire Sea and Lethal Lava Land to slowly approach 0. This is notable for saving the A press needed to get past the pole in Bowser in the Fire Sea, which reduced the number of A presses needed for the any% category to 0 on the Wii VC version. On both versions, many crashes do not occur. The Wii VC version will, in fact, straight up ignore most errors.