Wii U is super fun

[Reaperman]

I've been on a Wii U kick for the last few weeks, and it's just been great.  I wanted a nintendo switch, but I wasn't sure if they would announce a hardware update at E3()--I bought the wii u to pass the time waiting for E3 because they pricing has gotten close to my impulse-buy range.

 

Holy jeez is this thing fun, I'd been missing out!  The Wii U games are nice, the wii/gc backwards compatibility seems a great way to play those.  Wii U's got like a million kinds of controllers it uses, and a ton of ways to play.

 

And being hacked wide open, it's just so easy to get that 'game overload' feeling.  Haxchi is easy to get going, usb helper makes it easy to fill it up, and teconmoon's wii/gc nintendont injector is easy to get wii/gc going pretty much how you'd want them (launching right from the menu, with correct box art and loading screens, and using the wii u gamepad or gamecube usb adapter).

 

I know I'm late to the party--I almost always am--but holy cow this system has a permanent spot in the rotation, and I can't think of a reason to ever plug my wii in again.  It's surprising that an obsolete modern system, with dead/dying online functionality could still offer this kind of permanence.  I think wii u will go down as the go-to easy way to play the powerpc nintendo systems.  (The HDMI mods do a bit better, but they're awfully complex.)

 

If you're also late to the wii u party, now's a great time to get in.  The switch has a ton of great games, and I'm eventually going to get one.  But right now, even if I had a switch, I think I'd still be playing wii u.  I hope nintendo gave their marketing department a stern talking to, because this system's a big winner in my book, and I get the feeling it didn't do so well for them.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Reaperman

[boxpressed]

18 minutes ago, Reaperman said:

And being hacked wide open, it's just so easy to get that 'game overload' feeling.  Haxchi is easy to get going, usb helper makes it easy to fill it up, and teconmoon's wii/gc nintendont injector is easy to get wii/gc going pretty much how you'd want them (launching right from the menu, with correct box art and loading screens, and using the wii u gamepad or gamecube usb adapter).

Agree! I have a couple of them, and the second one I bought to softmod (but haven't done so yet). Is there a guide or a Youtube video that you used to softmod yours?

[Reaperman]

10 minutes ago, boxpressed said:

Agree! I have a couple of them, and the second one I bought to softmod (but haven't done so yet). Is there a guide or a Youtube video that you used to softmod yours?

I have really loved the hacks.guide format.  It got me through my 3ds modding, and IIRC even my wii modding.  Very well laid out, but it starts falling a little short on what to do with it after the modding.  I opted for haxchi without the cold boot (so I run it at power on if I need cfw).  I bought my wii u pre-modded, but there was enough cleanup left for me to do that I still needed the guide.

 

haxchi

https://wiiu.hacks.guide/

 

usb loader helpful vid (it takes a bit to get it working these days)

 

teconmoon wii/gc vid

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Reaperman

[JBerel]

Agreed. MassEffect 3 was freakin' awesome on it, and Batman Arkham City was noice too. It was just a shame that the 3rd party devs decided to screw it to death in favor of the other two platforms. Ubisoft didn't do it any favors with their glitchy games. I'm sure Nintendo had something to do with the shortcomings as well. Still, it could have been a long term favorite if not for a few unfortunate missteps. 

[boxpressed]

22 minutes ago, Reaperman said:

I have really loved the hacks.guide format.  It got me through my 3ds modding, and IIRC even my wii modding.  Very well laid out, but it starts falling a little short on what to do with it after the modding.  I opted for haxchi without the cold boot (so I run it at power on if I need cfw).  I bought my wii u pre-modded, but there was enough cleanup left for me to do that I still needed the guide.

 

haxchi

https://wiiu.hacks.guide/

 

usb loader helpful vid (it takes a bit to get it working these days)

 

teconmoon wii/gc vid

 

Awesome. Thank you!

[Austin]

The Wii U is a fun system. Never regretted getting one in the first month it was out and it's still hooked up to this day. I binged out on Mario Maker a few months back and it was so much fun.

 

I snapped up a spare used system for something like $75 near the end of last year with the intent of hacking it. I haven't done so yet but with your post talking about it, I may have to do that ASAP.

[spacecadet]

The Wii U is a fun system but for me, most of the actual Wii U games that I have (which isn't many) are already available on Switch. The Wii U's catalog wasn't very big and a large proportion of it is being re-released now. I'm sure there will always be some good, overlooked games that only exist on the Wii U, but I don't think there are any that I personally care much about.

 

But I never had an original Wii so for me, most of the fun has been in using it as a Wii. I still don't regret buying a Wii U because I got a good deal on it as a Nintendo direct "refurb" (I don't think it even is one; I think they had just stopped making retail boxes at that point) and I got to play games like Bayonetta 1&2 before it was released on Switch. But now I'm mostly playing games like Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, House of the Dead and Punch Out.

 

I wish every system were backward compatible, and I do think that between Wii U and Wii games, it's a great system to have.

[+wongojack]

I got one late too from Offer Up. The guy had a box and everything.  He said that his kids didn't play it anymore.   I went a little crazy last summer when Gamestop had a buy 2 get 1 free sale on used games and padded up the library.  I also have been buying Wii games that I missed.

 

Seems like a great system, but I do worry about the gamepad.  That thing may turn into a "wired only" item before long, and if it breaks, I'm not sure what happens.

 

I haven't bothered to mod it yet.  Not sure if I will.  I have plenty of games and ways to play them as it is.  Maybe someday . . .

[Reaperman]

One thing that is a bit of a bummer is the 300 icon game limit.  Doesn't matter if they're in folders, the thing only wants to display 300 icons.  I'm currently looking into ways around that without much luck.

 

I can do a bunch of smaller titles off of SD using loadiine (128gb of that is somehow like $20 these days), or I can launch past 300 using the system config tool since they won't show on the main menu.  I can also dump many of the wii/gc games to the vWii--which involves modding that half of the house, and getting a second HD for it.

 

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

The Wii U is a fun system but for me, most of the actual Wii U games that I have (which isn't many) are already available on Switch.

For me, the reverse that was actually one of the big Wii U selling points.  Many of the games and newer franchises that I wanted to try on Switch were already on Wii U.  I'd imagine I'd be much more in line with your thinking if I already owned a Switch, though.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Reaperman

[Hyper_Eye]

I'm stilling playing my Wii U a lot (MH3U and BotW in particular.) It is a great system. Too bad it didn't see more support.

[Austin]

3 hours ago, Reaperman said:

For me, the reverse that was actually one of the big Wii U selling points.  Many of the games and newer franchises that I wanted to try on Switch were already on Wii U.  I'd imagine I'd be much more in line with your thinking if I already owned a Switch, though.

Yep, this is actually a selling point for the system. Many of its first-party games are on the Switch, but they are comparable in quality and considerably cheaper on the Wii U. If you've missed out on Nintendo's first party lineup for the last six or seven years but want to catch up on the cheap, the Wii U is a great way to do so.

[Gamemoose]

I've had a Wii U a couple of times but never, until recently, had a chance to sit down and play it myself. My first lives at my daughter's house which I left behind after her mom and I divorced. The only times I got to play was when I'd watch my daughter before taking her to school and we'd play Super Mario 3D World or Nintendoland.

 

A few months ago I bought a Wii U fixer-upper for a great price. Now in my new life with a gaggle of step kids plus my daughter and my son, needless to say Dad doesn't get much of a chance to play. Typically it's maybe a few minutes until someone needs me or I get the "when is it MY turn?" question...even though I let them play more than their fair share. 

 

I picked up Zelda:Breath of the Wild for a good price and actually had a chance to sit and play it for a whole hour and a half!  Woah....while I'm sure Skyrim is better on the technical side, I love this game a whole lot more. I'm not used to using the control tablet/pad so I fumbled a lot but still, I had an awesome time. Last night I remembered that some games allowed you to play them on the controller and Zelda was one of them.

 

I had napped as I wasn't feeling well that evening, so when I finally got my little guy asleep, it was game time.  Headphones, couch set up.  Here we go. I played for two and a half hours, ending my run while on the way to find Impa. Both hands from middle finger down were asleep but I didn't care. Wii U is definitely fun and a totally underrated system.

[boxpressed]

Aren't there some DS games that are on VC only on Wii U? I think Animal Crossing Wild World is one. The Wii U seems like it would be the perfect platform for bringing DS games to your TV in a way that retains the functionality of the touchscreen.

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, boxpressed said:

Aren't there some DS games that are on VC only on Wii U? I think Animal Crossing Wild World is one. The Wii U seems like it would be the perfect platform for bringing DS games to your TV in a way that retains the functionality of the touchscreen.

YES IT DOES!

 

I kept waiting for the functionality to actually play DS carts on the Wii U.  I think the DS is now the highest earning console of all time and second in sales only to the PS2.  I've gotta think DS via WiiU was in the pipe but got cut due to the poor sales.  Too bad that we missed out on that feature (probably) forever.

[RockyRaccoon]

Heh, I bought a Wii U at a Thrift shop recently for ten dollars. It was just the main console unit, and it was dirty but for ten dollars I figured it was worth the attempt. I bought a cheap power supply and bam, it booted up just fine. So I sunk in the cost of the tablet controller since I already had a sensor bar and wii controller and It works pretty great! Disc Drive works, etc. I mean I also obviously cleaned the outside and opened it up to dust it out with a can of air, etc. Basic, maintenance stuff it hadn't had for a bit.

There was a 50 cent charge involved with getting a master PIN though for unlocking the parental controls that we're set on it so I could set a new PIN and E-mail, attached to that, etc. 

 

I installed a custom CFW on mine and CFW'ed the virtual Wii in it, and replaced my White Gamecube compatible Wii with the Wii U. Works just fine!

 

Really enjoying it. Sure is a unique console! I may try some DS game injections for the Phoenix Wright series. 

[boxpressed]

On 6/17/2019 at 9:45 AM, Reaperman said:

teconmoon wii/gc vid

Thanks for this video. I modded my Wii U today with the Haxchi exploit and installed Retroarch, which seems to work fine.

 

What I really wanted the mod for was to load my Wii games off a USB drive. (The long quest to get good HDMI output for Wii games off USB is almost over.) For my softmodded Wii, I use USB Loader, which works great. But I take it that I need another method for the Wii U.

 

I may end up using the WiiVC injector, but does anyone know if there are other good options?

[Reaperman]

6 hours ago, boxpressed said:

I may end up using the WiiVC injector, but does anyone know if there are other good options?

You can mod the wii u's vWii using the same hacks.guide above. (link) Then you can use the same software to launch games from the usb drive that you used back on wii and load it as expected. 

 

One big down side to this is you'll need a second hard drive for your vwii, and it doesn't seem that the wiiu likes having two drives installed in wiiu mode (though maybe if one's formatted wii, and the other wii u it will).  The wiivc injector gets around this and allows use of the wiiu hard drive for wii games, but then you may start running into the 300 game limit.

 

I may cut down my teconmoon injector use to just my absolute favorites and start doing the vwii modding.  I haven't fully decided yet.

 

You mentioned that you got retroarch working--this is a feat I haven't achieved yet.  I think I'm going to need to watch a video or two on it.  Heck, when I tried it on PC a bit ago I very similarly failed.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Reaperman

[boxpressed]

12 hours ago, Reaperman said:

You mentioned that you got retroarch working--this is a feat I haven't achieved yet.  I think I'm going to need to watch a video or two on it.  Heck, when I tried it on PC a bit ago I very similarly failed.

I just clicked on the Homebrew App Store, found Retroarch, and installed it from there with a click. Then I added a few ROMs to the SD card and found them with the Retroarch app, and they loaded and played fine. I'm not sure if I did it right because I've never used Retroarch before.

[Bixler]

The Wii U is a wonderful, underappreciated system hampered by terrible marketing. I love using mine to play my extensive Wii library and a smattering of Wii U games.

[Austin]

I've been building up my Wii U library quite a bit. Even the first party Nintendo stuff is getting ridiculously cheap and I've been grabbing some of them. Nabbed Hyrule Warriors last week for instance for about $12. Same with Splatoon. Good stuff!

[Atariboy]

Noticed any deals for Paper Mario?

Edited July 21, 2019 by Atariboy

[Austin]

Not yet. I do want to pick that one up sometime.

[homerj]

GameStop has been having a 3/$15.00 sale on games $9.99 & under.  There are quite a few great Wii U games that fall in that price range.  

[Everett1954]

I've got to agree, I just got one a month ago and it is Fantastic!!!! I love playing Bayonetta 2 on it, all the games look great in HD.

 

Splatoon is fun also...still lots of activity online.

 

I also home brewed it and play a lot of backup games..it is very easy to do. 

 

Someday I may get a switch but for now I am lovin' the Wii U

[power]

I bought a Wii U very late in the lifecycle brand new (because I wanted a nice shiny one) and I too am someone that loves the Wii U, it's still the best console for Zelda imo with three mainline games on it two of which you won't play better anywhere except through emulation and then you miss out on gamepad functionality.