I would have searched previous threads, because I’m sure we’ve done this before, but the name of the console is too damn short.
After many years of never quite getting a Wii, my best friend got me one for Christmas. To go with the new TV my wife got me. I’ve been a very good boy.
Anyway, what do I do with it? There aren’t nearly as many games on Virtual Console as I thought there would be by now, although since I can probably pick up armloads of used games that probably won’t matter.
I never had a GameCube, although I did rent one to play the first Metroid Prime. It looks like the Wii is backwards compatible with GC games. True? Or just some of them, a la PS1/2? Do I even care? I mean, the GameCube didn’t do so well, so I’m assuming it didn’t have that many great games.
I looked at the WiiWare stuff but couldn’t make heads or tails of half of it, and the details aren’t particularly helpful.
I don’t have a Classic Controller or a GC controller yet, which appears to be limiting my options. I do have a WiiMotion Plus controller and nunchuk, which… well, are handy for Wii Sports Resort. I’ll take it as read that you need an old school controller to play SNES through GameCube games, and go get one.
In the meantime, what games should be on my must play list? VC included. Here’s my top ten games of all time list, which might help:
Goldeneye
Half Life 2
F-Zero (the original one)
GTA: San Andreas
Metroid Prime
Fallout 2
Baldur’s Gate 2
Super Mario 64
WCW vs. NWO World Tour
The Witcher
I have a perfectly good console to play RPGs and FPSs on, so I’m not too worried about those.
The Wii is 100% compatible with all GameCube games. You do need the Classic Controller or GameCube controller to play them (and maybe a GC memory card too). There are a bunch of good GC games, but several of them have Wii equivalents (Resident Evil 4, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Metroid Prime 1 & 2 are included in Metroid Prime Trilogy). Exclusive games only on the GC that you can’t find anywhere else include Zelda: Wind Waker, Eternal Darkness, Fire Emblem (with a Wii sequel), Tales of Symphonia (also has a Wii sequel), and Killer 7.
New Super Mario Bros. is as much fun as I’ve had playing a video game in a long time, and it’s INSANELY fun when you’re playing in 2-, 3- or 4-player cooperative mode (I haven’t done 4-player, but I imagine it’s just ridiculously fun chaos).
I’m also really enjoying Donkey Kong Country Returns right now, though it’s much more difficult than I expected.
I picked up Metroid Prime 2 (GC) and Zelda: Twilight Princess yesterday, along with a GameCube controller. Irritatingly, it looks like the GC controller isn’t compatible with SNES VC games. Well, it is, but you can’t switch the button assignments.
Handy tip: You can use Google to do those annoying searches; just use the advanced search feature, type in those too-short words, and search only on the straightdope domain.
To the side of the usual Google search box, click “Advanced Search.” Fill in the words you want to search on, and at the bottom of the search options, there’s “Search within a site or domain.” Try “straightdope.com” or “boards.straightdope.com.”
Mind you, knowing this doesn’t help me when I’m cursing the short-word restriction or long timeout between searches, as I rarely actually remember to do it then. But perhaps you will!
Just my experience but if you can run the wire, I’d invest in a LAN adapter for the Wii. Connecting my Wii directly to the router made a big difference for me when streaming Netflix through the Wii or other internet applications. I use the one by Rocketfish and it worked without a hitch but there’s others out there as well.
Obviously if your Wii is across the house from your router, this may not be an option.
It’s not really an option. The cable modem is on the other side of a concrete wall, and my wife would never ever ever let me run a cable around the door. I just went out and got a wireless router.
ETA: I saw a Rocketfish adapter at Best Buy which supposedly uses power outlets to share a LAN. No idea how that works, but it sounds cool.
