Although you already know what games were up on the Virtual Console today (see here if your not) it seems that the little gold star next to those games is part of a Hanabi Festival for European and Australian Virtual Console users. Named after the Japanese holiday season famous for its firework displays, the Hanabi Festival on Wiis Virtual Console will see the release of unreleased Japanese titles split over three themed weeks, starting from today. More Inside

Starting this week and continuing for 2 more we will be receiving never before released games on the the Virtual Console, this week being Mario week with Marios Super Picross and Super Mario Bros 2 (Japanese Version, aka Lost Levels). Next week is ninja week (21st of September) with both Ninja Gaiden and Ninja JaJaMaru-Kun appearing. The week after (28th of September) being Sci-Fi when the long awaited Sin and Punishment (hurrah!) and Graduis III go up. This move is great and more themed months/weeks may be planned in the future says Nintendo.