There have been few causes to personal a Wii U again after I purchased my authentic unit in 2013 and even fewer to personal one now, however alas, it’s one of the best ways to get entry to the Wii’s catalogue in 2023, and Zelda followers know that Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess are one of the best ways to play each these video games.
It’s possible you’ll giggle at my quest to recapture the nostalgia of the Wii period, however as somebody born in 1996, the Wii was a staple of each family I knew rising up, which means I used to be by no means far-off from a match of Wii Sports activities or another bizarre movement managed recreation. I additionally by no means had a PlayStation 2, so all of my elementary college gaming was performed through Nintendo consoles and handhelds till I lastly bought an Xbox 360 to play Halo 3 on in 2010.
My fondness for the Wii U doesn’t maintain as a lot nostalgia, however I nonetheless have some good causes for why I made a decision to purchase one in 2023.
The place all of it started
This journey began a couple of weeks in the past when the golf replace lastly hit Change Sports activities. My associates and I began enjoying it extra and, by proxy, the remainder of the Change Sports activities video games. This made me begin to really feel nostalgia for Wii Sports activities Resort, a spin-off of Wii Sports activities with tons of different video games like archery, frisbee and even a plane-flying minigame.
If I wished to get the sports activities from Wii Sports activities Resort into my subsequent native multiplayer match, I’d must get a Wii, 4 Wii remotes (with Wii Movement Plus built-in) and 4 nunchucks. Wii Movement Plus is required for the additional sports activities video games in Wii Sports activities Resort because it provides further gyroscopes to offer the distant extra precision. This initially began as an attachment that slotted into the underside of the distant, however newer controllers referred to as the ‘Wii RemotePlus’ constructed all of it into the straightforward Wiimote type issue.
After digging via my basement, I discovered a Luigi-themed Wii RemotePlus and my outdated homebrewed Wii, however no cables. Because the Wii is homebrewed, you want a GameCube controller to entry the menu, too, so it’s roughly out of fee. The distant nonetheless works, however the batteries inside had corroded so it did want loads of cleansing.
From there, I went to Fb Market, and far to my shock, Wii U consoles have been pretty low-cost. “Do I dare?” I requested myself. It will be cheaper to get a Wii, however gaining access to the HD remakes of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker may be very interesting. After a little bit of looking out on-line, I found I may additionally purchase the Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Wii U eShop, and I used to be bought.
As luck would have it, I began this journey right before the eShop is set to close down for good on March 27th. Whereas this appears unfortunate initially, it offers me not less than a slim probability to purchase a few of these video games for a good worth on-line earlier than it’s resale solely.
Bringing it house
After a couple of days scouring the used market in Toronto, I stumbled throughout a 32GB unit {that a} online game store was promoting for $170. That felt like a great deal to me, and since these small retailers usually provide small warranties, I jumped on the probability. After work, my girlfriend Alex and I jumped in my automobile and drove over there to catch them earlier than closing, however once we bought there, they solely had a white 8GB mannequin, which they bought to me for $150.
The unit got here with a Wii RemotePlus, Nunchuck and all the opposite mandatory cables you’d want for a Wii U. To prime it off, I purchased one other RemotePlus/Nunchuck combo, and the shop threw in a duplicate of Wii Sports activities Resort free of charge since they weren’t certain in the event that they’d work (it did). All this additionally got here with a two-week retailer credit score guarantee, which I used to be proud of. If I had been prepared to drive additional or wait longer, I feel I may have discovered a greater deal on the used market.
After I bought house, I plugged the console in, and far to my shock, it spit out a duplicate of Wii Play, one other mini-game-focused Wii title from my childhood.
Then I wanted to manufacturing unit reset the system and log in with my very own Nintendo Community ID — notably, a special login system than the Switch. That is the place issues bought difficult. I saved making an attempt to enter my password, and it wouldn’t work for some motive. I then found that the 3DS makes use of the identical login data, so I dug my 2DS out of storage. I discovered my login data there, nevertheless it nonetheless wouldn’t work.
After much more analysis deep in Reddit forums, I found that the Wii U suffered a hack a couple of years in the past, which kneecapped loads of the protection on the console. Subsequently, I would wish to name Nintendo to get well my account. The opposite various could be to make a brand new account, so I simply did that as a substitute, sacrificing my online copy of Pikmin 3 linked to my outdated username.
That is now two hours after I initially began organising the console. From there, I hopped into the Wii U eShop and try to purchase Wind Waker HD. Fortunately for me, the sport is simply $30, which is cheaper than loads of resellers on-line. I add it to my cart and went so as to add my bank card to the console, and I realized that you would be able to’t add bank cards to the Wii U post-hack. Bummer, however I should purchase a $35 eShop card on Amazon, which ought to cowl the sport and taxes. I attempt to load that into the Wii U, and I’m once more stopped.
Okay, again to Google to learn the way to unravel this.
It seems I can merge my Nintendo Community ID and my Change Nintendo account, add the funds to that, mix the 2 wallets after which purchase my Wii U recreation. My first try at that is via my cellphone, and — unsurprisingly at this level — it errors out. At any time when I enter the code, it despatched me to a clean Nintendo web site web page. I seize my Change, and it lastly accepts the eShop code. I’m going again to my cellphone, log into my Nintendo account once more, and merge the 2 accounts and wallets. I’ll point out that these are two particular ‘merging’ steps, not one thing that occurs mechanically once you hyperlink accounts.
There’s so much jammed into the again of my Wii U, nevertheless it appears to be like nice on the large display screen!
Three hours later, after a easy Wii U reset, I lastly had sufficient cash on the console to purchase the sport. I hit obtain solely to appreciate that the 8GB of storage is unusable for downloading video games. After a bit extra digging round in my home, I discovered a 4GB USB stick that was sufficiently big to carry Wind Waker HD.
It was a trouble, however I’ve bought a smaller 32GB stick on order from Amazon that solely price me $13, and to date I’ve been having a blast reliving my childhood Wii and Wii U video games. I even plugged within the MClassic that I reviewed a long time ago, and it’s actually useful for making Wind Waker look further crisp.
When you have any Wii or Wii U recreation suggestions, let me know within the feedback. I’ve already bought my eye on Battalion Wars 2 and Hearth Emblem Radiant Daybreak for Wii, however I’m on the lookout for different suggestions earlier than March twenty seventh!
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