Wii Virtual Console: What Is It?
Old-time video gamers know what a drag it is to lose your old games every time you get a new console. Oh, the joys of planned obsolescence; they make you buy new games because your old games won’t work on your new system. But now, with the Wii Virtual Console, you don’t have to lose those old classic games like Donkey Kong and the older Mario Brothers games. Your Wii can play many of the games that were made for Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and the Sega Genesis.
The Wii Virtual Console (VC) is a section of the Wii Shop Channel, which is an online service where you can download games and other software. The Virtual Console library has lots of pre-Wii games that have been adapted for use on the Wii console. The games that you download from the Virtual Console can be stored in the Wii console’s built-in 512 MB flash memory drive. The newer consoles with Version 4.0 system software let you store and play games on a removable Secure Digital (SD) card. However, games on an SD card can only be played on the Wii console that they were purchased on.
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Before you can download any games, you have to buy Nintendo Wii Points, which are the currency that Nintendo uses. You can buy them online on the Wii Shop Channel, using your credit card. Downloading from the Virtual Console is simple, and complete instructions are given online and in your Wii console’s instruction manual. If you have trouble, you can contact customer support.
Nintendo has tried to ensure that the Virtual Console games play the same as the original games did, and for the most part they have succeeded. There are a few minor differences in some of the games, largely due to the fact that the remote controller for the Wii (the Wiimote) is so different from the old-style joysticks. But Nintendo hasn’t souped up the VC games in any way, wanting them to be as much like the older versions as possible. More games for the Wii Virtual Console are coming soon.
Virtual Console games cost between 500-1200 Points ($5-$12) apiece, which of course is a lot cheaper than many of the new Wii games. Some people have resorted to using peer-to-peer (P2P) torrent sites, where you can get some of the VC games free, but these sites are illegal, and many people who have used them have been victimized by viruses, malware and identity theft. These are common problems in free sites that promise you’ll illegally get something for nothing; they hook the suckers in and then scam them. Even if you luck out and find a free P2P site that isn’t scamming you, it’s apt to have plenty of glitches in its downloading process, as these sites are rarely run by professionals; if they’re truly doing it for nothing, they can’t afford to treat it as anything more than a hobby.
I’ve heard speculation about the possibility of Wii Virtual Console hacks and other Wii hacks, but these are sometimes more trouble than they’re worth and aren’t legal.
There are legal and legitimate sites, however, where you can get VC games for free, as long as you buy a membership to the site. We’ve reviewed these sites, as we’ve mentioned in a previous blog, and found that the My Wii Downloads site is the best. They have a trial membership for 60 days for $29.95 US, a year’s membership for $44.95, and a lifetime membership for $49.95. At least these were the prices the last time we checked; they were on sale, and we don’t know how long the sale will last. Anyway, with any of their membership plans, they allow you to download as many games as you want for free. And, unlike the Virtual Console, where you can only download re-releases of older games, on My Wii Downloads you can also download new games like Wii Fit, WiiWare, TV shows, movies, homebrew, and a lot more. And this site is perfectly legal and safe from viruses, malware, and identity theft. You can’t beat it.