Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

General and high profile video game topics.
User avatar
Retro STrife
Posts: 2531
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Retro STrife » March 14th, 2018, 2:27 am

Several years back, I posted about one of my concerns being that eventually consoles go out of production, and therefore their servers go offline and their download-only game stores close down-- which may mean that some of those games can never be obtained again if you didn't download them when they were available.

Along those lines.. as a reminder, the Wii Shop on the Nintendo Wii is closing soon. The official close date is January 30, 2019. However, you cannot add any new Wii Points to your account after March 26, 2018. So, effectively, you have til March 26 to decide what you want, so that you can add the appropriate funds.

(Official Nintendo announcement here: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detai ... nouncement )

I don't use my Wii much these days, and I never paid much attention to downloadable titles back when I did. I also don't own a Wii U or Switch (yet), so I'm unfamiliar with Nintendo's current online stores. So please help me out. Wondering a few things:

1. First, does that mean that a ton of games are vanishing forever? Or has everything moved over to the Wii U and Switch? Essentially, I want to know if I need to act now or if I can delay my decisions... If most good WiiWare and Virtual Console games from the Wii are still be available on the newer Nintendo consoles, then this is less of a concern.

2. Second, how do you even add points to your Wii account these days? I used to buy Wii Points cards at stores or on Amazon. Those seem to no longer exist, and sell for almost double price on ebay. Can you use a credit card on the system, or is there another way?

3. Third, what are some of the best things to buy from the Wii Shop before it closes? I'm not even sure what's in there, as I haven't checked in years. Any good apps/channels to pick up before it closes? Any must-have DLC for games?

4. And, of course, which games to buy? I'm not too interested in Virtual Console games.. unless it's a super rare game, where the VC might be the only realistic way to play it. (Otherwise, I'd pay a little extra and get the physical copy on the original console.) But I'm definitely interested in top-notch Wiiware games, especially if they'll be disappearing forever when the Wii Store closes.

Fill us in with your knowledge!

User avatar
Atariboy
Posts: 956
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:07 pm

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Atariboy » March 14th, 2018, 3:27 am

Wii Shop credit is added by credit card.

These downloads haven't been moved anywhere else, so yes, many will officially now be unavailable. The only games also available on the Wii U and Switch eShop are those games that were ported to a more recent system or the many Virtual Console titles that saw releases on both the Wii and Wii U VC's.

For apps/channels, many are already offline and delisted from the Wii Shop. It's basically just video streaming apps left, and I imagine they will be dying off shortly like the YouTube app already has. No retail Wii games had DLC, but certain WiiWare games did. And if you might like to play Zelda: Skyward Sword someday, you may as well grab the save repair app while you're at it, just in case you find the bug.

Here's a Virtual Console list I made a while back to show what VC titles were exclusive.

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/wii ... #reply-579
Last edited by Atariboy on August 11th, 2019, 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Atarifever
Posts: 461
Joined: April 12th, 2015, 5:55 am

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Atarifever » March 14th, 2018, 5:53 am

Atariboy wrote: No retail Wii games had DLC, but certain WiiWare games did.

I believe some of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games have paid DLC (and that it is still available).


I added 5000 Wii points awhile ago in advance of this, so I can keep downloading this year. I will be saving enough to make a final NES or SMS download on store closing day, just so I can claim I was one of their last customers. :)

User avatar
Atarifever
Posts: 461
Joined: April 12th, 2015, 5:55 am

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Atarifever » March 14th, 2018, 6:01 am

Retro STrife wrote:

4. And, of course, which games to buy? I'm not too interested in Virtual Console games.. unless it's a super rare game, where the VC might be the only realistic way to play it. (Otherwise, I'd pay a little extra and get the physical copy on the original console.) But I'm definitely interested in top-notch Wiiware games, especially if they'll be disappearing forever when the Wii Store closes.

Fill us in with your knowledge!

Fast Racing League is pretty great. It's kind of F-Zero like. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but it is one of the highest quality and complete Wiiware experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91a1zYtYjI

Some Japanese exclusives are in there that are worth a look. Sin and Punishment for the N64, the TG16 Castlevania, etc. I even picked up the TG16 version of Street Fighter 2, just to have it. Ys 1 and 2 are there as well, and I keep meaning to pick those up.

User avatar
Atariboy
Posts: 956
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:07 pm

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Atariboy » March 14th, 2018, 7:57 am

Atarifever wrote:
Atariboy wrote: No retail Wii games had DLC, but certain WiiWare games did.

I believe some of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games have paid DLC (and that it is still available).


I forgot about those. Looks like Samba De Amigo had some, too.

Since I know you've tried a few of these out, did any of the Wii Call of Duty ports offer map downloads?

User avatar
Atarifever
Posts: 461
Joined: April 12th, 2015, 5:55 am

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Atarifever » March 14th, 2018, 8:56 am

Atariboy wrote:
Since I know you've tried a few of these out, did any of the Wii Call of Duty ports offer map downloads?


No, I don't think they ever did. I have, and play, all three of the Wii Modern Warfare type ones. I didn't play World at War or any others if there are others on there from before that, so I don't know if they ever had DLC.

I know Black Ops 2 Wii U got a really late (like over a year after release) map update for free, so I don't know if there was ever an update to the Wii versions that I was just not aware that I got. (With the Conduit 2 there was a patch added at one point to single player that occurred automatically the first time you connected online to play multiplayer; it is possible that something similar may have happened in COD that, as I wasn't playing back in the day, I just don't know about but that is currently included in my game).

Robotrek
Posts: 638
Joined: June 6th, 2016, 9:24 pm

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Robotrek » March 14th, 2018, 11:04 am

The games will most certainly not be "lost". The .WADs have been readily available for years. And the means of extracting them on your system are not difficult to figure out at all.

User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby ptdebate » March 14th, 2018, 1:09 pm

Robotrek wrote:The games will most certainly not be "lost". The .WADs have been readily available for years. And the means of extracting them on your system are not difficult to figure out at all.


I think that's a great point to keep this all in perspective. Rarely anything digital is ever truly lost.

If Nintendo makes WiiWare completely unavailable for purchase, I see nothing ethically wrong with downloading them from the internet.

Voor
Posts: 1555
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Voor » March 18th, 2018, 10:48 am

Is super metroid available? That’s the only game I’m really interested in at the moment.

User avatar
Retro STrife
Posts: 2531
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Last Call: Wii Shop closing - What should we download?

Postby Retro STrife » April 6th, 2018, 4:41 pm

Atariboy wrote:Here's a Virtual Console list I made a while back to show what VC titles were exclusive.

http://www.nintendolife.com/forums/wii_ ... #reply-581


Thanks for sharing this. I found it really useful for trying to decide from VC games I must download on the Wii and which ones I could hold off on and obtain elsewhere. So far I downloaded Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Master System) and Ys Books I & II (Turbografx CD). These are two games I've always wanted, but I've held off from buying the originals for years due to the cost of getting them. It was nice to buy each for a few dollars a piece as VC games. (Plus, I started playing Alex Kidd in Shinobi World and wasn't impressed, so I'm glad I didn't spend $60+ on the original!)

After getting those two games, I stopped shopping and instead decided to put enough money on my Wii to get several games at a later date (the deadline to put money on the Wii was March 26, but games can be purchased until Jan. 2019). Browsing online through Wiiware reviews, it seems like there's a lot of unique games out there. While there might be ways to get those games off the internet for free, I'm terrible at learning how to do that so it's not realistic. Eventually, I decided to put $100 on my system, which was pretty painful to do considering I don't even know what games I want. But I figured that was enough money to weed through everything out there and pick several gems that I don't want to lose out on.

Again, if anyone has suggestions on must-have Wiiware games, feel free to let me know! (especially if they are not available on physical media or other systems, and thus will be unavailable for purchase when the Wii Shop closes)


Return to “Video Games General”