Wii Q&A Thread

[Azazel]

Slight Necropost, but hey, it's the Wii Q&A thread.

After fucking up and buying a Bluetooth dongle by mistake recently to wireless my Wii, I've had another look just now, and found these:

One
Two

Is this what I want, for plugging into my PC and being able to wirelessly connect the Wii? If so, which one is better/good enough for just a Wii?

[Trippy]

Slight Necropost, but hey, it's the Wii Q&A thread.

After fucking up and buying a Bluetooth dongle by mistake recently to wireless my Wii, I've had another look just now, and found these:

One
Two

Is this what I want, for plugging into my PC and being able to wirelessly connect the Wii? If so, which one is better/good enough for just a Wii?

I'm not sure I understand your problem. Do you not have a wireless router already?

Edit: if you don't have a wireless router you can get one of these thingies:

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/onlineUSB.jsp

It was originally designed for the DS but apparently it works for the Wii as well.

[Azazel]

No, I don't have a wireless router or network.

The Wii apparently works if you have any form of wireless network, if you do a eBay seaarch for Wii wi-fi you'll find hundreds of chinese USB wi-fi thingies.

The official Nintendo USB Wi-Fi dongle costs AU$72 or $79 and only works with a Wii/DS. The ones I linked are $35 and $48, so basically half price. And if they are in fact what I think they are (essentially the same things that the Ninty one is) they also allow other devices to later connect, as I purchase them.

[Trippy]

No, I don't have a wireless router or network.

The Wii apparently works if you have any form of wireless network, if you do a eBay seaarch for Wii wi-fi you'll find hundreds of chinese USB wi-fi thingies.

The official Nintendo USB Wi-Fi dongle costs AU$72 or $79 and only works with a Wii/DS. The ones I linked are $35 and $48, so basically half price. And if they are in fact what I think they are (essentially the same things that the Ninty one is) they also allow other devices to later connect, as I purchase them.

No, that's not what those things are. Those are for giving devices that don't have a wireless adapter wireless access. E.g. you have a desktop PC that you want to connect wirelessly but you don't have a free PCI slot so you use of those those things. Or you have a laptop that doesn't have wireless nor a PCMCIA slot.

Your Wii already has wireless access. What you need is a wireless "bridge", aka a wireless "access point", that will connect a wireless device to a wired network. Those USB dongles are not bridges. You need something like this, this, or this or the above Nintendo Wi-Fi USB connector.

[Azazel]

Those appear to be wireless routers.. and I already have a wired router with a wired network.

What then are these as the seller claims that they do the same thing as the Nintendo one? Essentially I'm looking for one of these kinds of things, locally, at a reasonable price, without having to send away to China and hope it arrives within 4 weeks.

[Trippy]

Those appear to be wireless routers.. and I already have a wired router with a wired network.

No those are wireless access points as I said. That's not the same as a full blown broadband wireless router.

WiFi Wireless Internet Connection WLAN for NDS NDSL PSP MAX


Description:

If you have not got a wireless router then this is the item for you, This will create a wireless AP Access Point, just connect this to your internet enabled PC and connect your PSP/NDS/DS Lite to the wireless AP you have just created. then surf the internet or WIFI gaming without the need for a wireless router.

Emphasis mine. That thing is a wireless access point as well, according to the description. Buy it at your own risk.

[Azazel]

Um, yeah. I was going to skip the cheap dodgy-looking Chinese one and see if I could have gotten a logitech equivalent locally for somewhere less than the official Nintendo-version's price. There's a Datel one on PlayAsia which also looks like the eBay one or the Nintendo one, as in being a small USB dongle and not looking like a router.

Though if it comes to it, I imagine the Linksys one would be more useful than the Nintendo one, and for basically the same price.

[Trippy]

Um, yeah. I was going to skip the cheap dodgy-looking Chinese one and see if I could have gotten a logitech equivalent locally for somewhere less than the official Nintendo-version's price. There's a Datel one on PlayAsia which also looks like the eBay one or the Nintendo one, as in being a small USB dongle and not looking like a router.

Though if it comes to it, I imagine the Linksys one would be more useful than the Nintendo one, and for basically the same price.

Be careful you don't confuse form factor with functionality. Just cause it looks kind of like the Nintendo dongle doesn't mean it's a wireless access point. The Datel WiFi MAX adapter on PlayAsia would work. Logitech, however, doesn't make any wireless WiFi products that I'm aware of (they make lots of non-WiFi wireless stuff).

[Azazel]

Oh, I was definately confused, but confused enough to ask here before buying anything (else). The logitech ones I linked earlier were a case of "hmm.. that looks like the same kind of thing, and it sounds like it might be.. time to ask people who know WTF this stuff is better than I."

Might go the Datel then, thanks for that.

[Strazos]

It might be easier for you if you think of these devices as doing one of two things.

Either they allow you to connect a PC, and only that PC (or stuff routed through that PC), to a wireless network. Essentially the same as a wireless card, but in the form of a USB dongle instead. Someone I know actually had the bright idea to restrict their kid's PC internet access by using one of these; he can only go online when his parents give the kid the dongle. Makes cutting him off real easy when you just need to jank the thing out of the front of the PC.

OR, the device gives you a wireless access point, essentially turning the PC into a sort of wireless router. The PC must already be online, obviously. This is what you need for your Wii or DS if you don't have an existing wireless network to connect to.

[HaemishM]

If you have a wired network router, I'd suggest going and getting the Nintendo LAN adapter, that lets you plug an Ethernet cable into the Wii. I bought the DS dongle, used it for a little while. The software it installs had the irritating habit of popping up every 2 minutes or so to tell me that my Wii was connected to the Net. Great, only it would remove focus from whatever I was working on. Luckily, it didn't do that on games that take up the full screen, but when you're trying to write and you suddenly stop typing because your Wii just pinged you, it gets irritating after the first 100 times or so.

So I decide to upgrade to the newest version of the software, hoping it would remove that annoyance. Suddenly, despite following their uninstall/reinstall procedure, I can no longer get the thing to connect. Fuckers. Luckily, I've downloaded all the VC titles I want for now, and there are no online games to speak of, so it hasn't been a screaming big deal.

Buy the wired adapter, run a long wire and be happy. It's about $10 US less than the USB dongle anyway.

[schild]

Wii + New Wiimote/Chuck+ Dongle = $360.

Now you're ready to start buying games.

[HaemishM]

Except you really don't need the dongle unless you want to buy VC games or you only have a wired network. 

[schild]

Uh.

Why else would you have a Wii if not for VC access? 90% of the appeal of the system goes out the window if you don't care about VC.

[HaemishM]

Why do you hate fun?

[stray]

I haven't had much fun with the Wii except VC either (especially Gunstar Heroes).

Well, that and Excitetruck (if I have friends around).

[schild]

I don't hate fun. Nintendo is simply charging the same amount for their games as XBLA and PS3Online. It's total bullshit. And I don't get a box with cool art anymore.

[Roac]

Why else would you have a Wii if not for VC access? 90% of the appeal of the system goes out the window if you don't care about VC.

Who the hell is spending 90% of their Wii-time on VC?  That could very well explain why you dislike the system.  I'd be pissed if I spent $250 just to play 20 year old games too.

[stray]

I can't speak for Schild, but I think Zelda is boring.

That's basically why I don't spend 90% of my Wii time on Wii games.

[EDIT]

Mind you, I'll be happy when that changes. But I'm not just going to play Wii games "just because"  they're Wii games.

[Yegolev]

More than half my Wii time seems to be spent on Mii stuff, bowling, baseball, and target-shooting.  Zero VC games.

[Sauced]

I played Link to the Past, and will grab Actraiser later this month when it hits, but mostly we use ours for an excuse to play games when we have people over for drinks. 

[Kageru]

Let me get this straight.. The Wii continues to move an immense number of boxes giving a substantial installed base. Development for the platform is easy, the audience is less demanding of teh shiny, tolerant of experimentation and there's a massive market for innovative new games. If the Wii *doesn't* develop a software library then that's a pretty good indication that the development scene is stagnant. And the thing has a classic controller if the wiimote doesn't fit the gaming model.

[schild]

No. See. Developers know Nintendo will come out with a hi-def box, and combined the 360 and PS3 will push a SHITLOAD more consoles. There's no reason to make shitty, ugly, less expensive games for a weaker, piece of shit system. Especially when you're competing with Nintendo. You don't have to compete with them on the 360 or the PS3.

Also, classic controller, yea, piece of shit.

I'm not sure the audience IS less demanding of the shiny. But they might be too poor to really support the shiny OR they're willing to give up the shiny for lower price point. Which I guess falls into line with too poor. If anyone even begins to pretend the Wii has as better or even AS GOOD games as the 360, they should be fucking shunned from the entire gaming community. Because it's not an opinion. It's just wrong.

[Kageru]

Frankly you've lost any semblance of sense.

I'm absolutely sure nintendo will release a HD and gruntier wii in 2'ish years. But there's millions of the boxes actually sold and still selling, sitting in peoples houses and giving them a hunger for fresh titles. Developers are going to wait an indeterminate amount of time so they can release the HD version of cooking mama, wii play or guitar hero rather than take the money now?

I'm willing to accept that all of them assumed the PS3 would dominate, and the wii be a sad little also-ran, but I also think it's a safe bet some of them are taking another look. Though it will be some time before we know for sure.

And yes the wii will have *better* games because the market isn't one undifferentiated mass and better is a relative concept. DDR using the wii-mote to enable hand actions makes painfully good sense. Something like Animal crossing,  which has it's own fan base, will be a wii game not because the PS3 can't run it, but because the markets are different. And there will be others. I expect the wii version of Katamari to outself the PS3 version.

I even see capcom want to port Okami, a game that fatally tanked on the PS2, to the wii.

[schild]

Until the Wii has an install base larger than the PS3 and the 360, it's simply not going to be a system even worth looking over.

Maybe you've missed it. Nintendo makes games for the Wii. The REASON there's so many Wiis being sold already is everyone can afford one. Not many people can afford a 360 or, especially, a PS3. But the PS3 and 360 together, will ALWAYS outsell the Wii. As such, the PS360 combination will yield a larger install base and developers - I don't know why people keep ignoring this - don't have to compete with Nintendo. See, Nintendo has Pokemon, Mario, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Mario Party, all those Mario sports titles, Smash Bros (the best selling fighting game in YEARS, probably since the original SFII), and a slew of smaller titles - somehow I forgot Zelda. Anyway, point being, even EA can't compete with that. That's too many historied titles to compete with. If you develop for the PS360 combination, the worst things you have to worry about are being released within a 2 week period either direction of Madden, God of War, Grand Theft Auto or... uh.... No. That's it. Yea, there's lots of titles we love here at f13. Lots of people love Metal Gear Solid, Disgaea, and some other hardcore shit.

But not everyone does. Everyone loves Madden, GTA, and God of War. Oh, and Halo. Don't release the same week as Halo.

Anyway, to put it succinctly - and this isn't anecdotal, I'm just too goddamn lazy to find the reports.

People who buy Nintendo systems, buy them for Nintendo games. They own less games than people who owned a PS2 in the last generation.

And while a study hasn't been done, I would NOT be shocked if age of people who owned Nintendo products is a lower range than the other systems. As such, games are being purchased for people with little to no income. Nintendo has no online service to speak of and absolutely no futureproofing (the PS3 is going to probably be the longest lasting system ever - and Microsoft has already been forced to release a system with HDMI and a new HDD).

Basically, great, Nintendo pushed a shitload of units out the door. No, not even a shitload. It's still on par with the GC at this point. But there's already the obvious signs of pure shit for 3rd party support and too few releases from Nintendo. I'm sorry, that's just the reality of it. Capcom is already throwing them a bone with the RE: Umbrella Chronicles. They might as well name it "Resident Evil: Pitycase."

The N64 was a Goldeneye Box.
The Gamecube was a Smash Bros or Resident Evil Box.
The Wii, right now, is a Zelda Box. But will probably turn into a Smash Bros or RE box again.
Just like the Xbox was the Halo Box.

Honestly, at this point, it doesn't matter how much hardware they push out the door.

Also, Guitar Hero? Are you for real? What's the fucking appeal of being on the Wii? Substandard sound? Crappy friend-code based leaderboards? Oh, great, #97364582392 got a 400,000 on Misirlou. GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. System sucks. Deal with it. ANY, absolutely, ANY game that can benefit from online competition or leaderboards has no place on the Wii.

[Azazel]

It might be easier for you if you think of these devices as doing one of two things.

Yes, I was assuming that some of those that look like your standard USB dongle would do the same thing as the Wii wireless thingy. Hence my post.

If you have a wired network router, I'd suggest going and getting the Nintendo LAN adapter, Buy the wired adapter, run a long wire and be happy. It's about $10 US less than the USB dongle anyway.

I'd have done that, but unfortunately the layout of my house doesn't work for hooking anything at the main TV up to the Ethernets. Having read about your experience with the Ninty one, I'll probably go for that Datel one. Does the Wii also pop-up and interrupt your PC while it's turned off?

Why else would you have a Wii if not for VC access? 90% of the appeal of the system goes out the window if you don't care about VC.

Fake Bowling FTW. Party Games FTW.

VC doesn't particularly hold much appeal for me with it's current poor selection, overpriced-ness, and poor PAL conversions.

I can't speak for Schild, but I think Zelda is boring.
That's basically why I don't spend 90% of my Wii time on Wii games.
[EDIT]
Mind you, I'll be happy when that changes. But I'm not just going to play Wii games "just because"  they're Wii games.

I mostly play Fake Bowling, but hey, I don't have an overriding need to play the Wii every day. Or even that often. I'll be happy when that changes too, but to me it's a machine mostly for party games and such. Actraiser might get a look in though.


schild has clearly lost the plot again though. Unfortunately your self-righteousness and opinionatedness tends to put people off the sensible stuff you have to say.

If anyone even begins to pretend the Wii has as better or even AS GOOD games as the 360, they should be fucking shunned from the entire gaming community. Because it's not an opinion. It's just wrong.

mmm.. hyperbole FTW. 
It does what it does. It's does a couple of things very well, but while I do think it's part of this generation, I don't see it in direct competition with the other two (like the GC was). Even Nintendo said as much before they released. What you said about it competing with more traditional board games and such was a good point.


Aside from the various arguments, a question:

How many PS3s sold right now?
How many Wii's sold right now?
How many 360's sold right now?

worldwide figures, as well please.

[Trippy]

Here's the running total according to VG Chartz:

http://www.vgcharts.org/

Here's a news article discussing the January sales figures which started people buzzing about the Wii because it outsold the Xbox 360 and the PS3:

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6418457.html

[Velorath]

Aside from the various arguments, a question:

How many PS3s sold right now?
How many Wii's sold right now?
How many 360's sold right now?

worldwide figures, as well please.

Not exactly known.  Media-create gives estimated sales numbers for Japan on a regular basis.  NPD releases US estimates, but they don't get any sales data from Wal-mart so they kind of have to do a lot of guesswork.  Chart Track keeps track of UK sales (on a related note, they're reporting that PS3 hardware sales have dropped 82% in the second week of release).  I think all the other areas are a little harder to track.  The result is that all the sites I've seen that try to keep track of all three consoles' sales vary widely from one another.

[Kageru]

Wikipedia quotes 4.7million wii sold. And the machine is still selling well, unlike the PS3 in the UK seeing an 80% drop in sales for its second week and 20k pre-order cancellations. I suspect that puts it well ahead of the PS3. Though of course it's still early.

Future proofing in a console, meh. As you yourself observed Nintendo now have an immense pile of profit, something Sony does not, to put out a wii2 in 2-3 years. And it will be easy to make it fully backwards compatible because their architecture is pretty basic / clean.

Wikipedia lists 210 titles announced for the wii (that does not include such things as "a fighting game"). Of those 24 are from Nintendo. I see multiple EA titles there and they have said "...we have ramped up [game] production for the Wii and DS Lite".

[schild]

That list should be disputed.

100 Bullets, PS2 - already out in Europe afaik
Alien Syndrome is a PSP port to the Wii
Beautiful Katamari ISN'T announced for the Wii, but if it's coming out, it's a port from the XBL game.
Broken Saints? Based on the comic? OK.
Brothers in Arms? No doubt crippled from the HD versions
Sengoku Basara 2? The JPY PS2 game that isn't coming out for the Wii?
Guitar Hero 2?

Ok. I'm done with this. There was more stuff in between here. This isn't announced. This is fucking speculatory.

The real list would probably be about 40 titles long. Possibly shorter. And would look more like the list you can pull off a computer at Gamestop.

Edit: lolololol, the 360 list is shorter. My ass it's shorter.
Edit 2: The PS3 and Wii list do not account for canceled games.

[Yegolev]

Aside from RAGE, I generally agree with Schild about the Wii.  The biggest difference is that I enjoy the electronic board games (good term, Schild-san) and can happily waste time with them.  I don't mean to speak for him, either, but whenever I read "developer" I translate that to "real developer, not a Java-phone-game developer or puzzle-game developer".  Maybe "traditional" developer is a better term than "real"... sematics, keke.

Scenario: New AAA cross-platform title, Chocolate Jesus, hits retail on October 16, 2007.  Let's be ignorant assholes for a minute and assume that each platform version is actually the same game, just ported.  If you could play Chocolate Jesus on any currently-sold hardware, would any of you pick the Wii version?  For this mental excercise, you may assume that you have magical access to all of the systems.  I would probably have some strenuous thought over whether or not I should get the PS3 or 360 version, or possibly the PC version if it's a FPS, RTS or somehow mod-able, but I would not spare a second considering the Wii version, nor the N-Gage/phone version, nor the DS version.  As every anime villain says right before the monster shows up: It's only natural.

Next, Katamari on Wii.  Let's ignore hardware power.  I don't think I would want to play it without a pair of analog sticks.  Assuming it ends up being the same game, of course; if I am controlling the katamari by tilting the wiimote then it's basically Sticky Monkeyball and - if you ask me - a fundamentally different game.  Pretty sure that would not work anyway, unless the game was simplified somewhat.  Yes, you would have to simplify Katamari Damacy to play it on the Wii.  No matter what you did, it would be a different game, for better or worse.

I like my Wii, but let's be realistic (if anyone isn't).  Nintendo isn't some sort of third-party-developer nirvana.  Cross-platform titles already suck, so now what you are going to get on the Wii will be like the cell-phone version of Oblivion.  Your Obi-Wan here is Nintendo themselves, supported by Hudson, the "he took my stapler" basement-office crew at Sega, and whatever three-man operation EA has bought this week.  No, that's not bad if you like that stuff; I have said that I like Wii Sports and Wii Play already, and I'm giving a hard look at Wario and Cooking Mama.  However, that's how it's going to be and I am confident that we can all stop getting upset about it now.

[Strazos]

The only gripe I can't understand is about the leader board nonsense. If you look at a leader board for Any Game, you're probably not going to know Any of the names on there, so what difference does it make if they're numbers instead?

[stray]

Chart Track keeps track of UK sales (on a related note, they're reporting that PS3 hardware sales have dropped 82% in the second week of release).

I can't believe you posted that. Every console drops in the second week (yes, even the Wii went down to the high 70% range, even in Japan of all places --and during a holiday season at that).

It's normal.


Also, you should take these things into account: Sony supplied the UK with 220k units. The PS3 ended up selling in record numbers there (to refresh your memory, the first week was nearly 200k. The Wii was 105k. The 360 was 70k). In the second week, with demand naturally dwindling down, coupled with less supply, people ended up buying about 30k units instead of 200 (30k nearly exhausts the entire of number of PS3's that were even left anyways) -- And even then, 30k units in a week sold is still one of the best consoles-per-week figures around.


What are you expecting here? If Sony somehow maintained even 50% of those launch numbers for every week afterwards, then they would end up having at least 3 million PS3's in the UK alone at the end of the year. And that's just unrealistic.

[EDIT] I know the math is shaky. I can't find a consistent number on the entire UK launch week (the first two days were 165k though). I keep saying "nearly 200k" because the figures fluctuate around that area.

So take it for what it's worth. But basically, my post should still make sense. It's an 82% dropoff of what is already a big number -- So it's more or less 30k sales in the second week.

[Velorath]

Chart Track keeps track of UK sales (on a related note, they're reporting that PS3 hardware sales have dropped 82% in the second week of release).

I can't believe you posted that. Every console drops in the second week (yes, even the Wii went down to the high 70% range, even in Japan of all places --and during a holiday season at that).

It's normal.


Also, you should take these things into account: Sony supplied the UK with 220k units. The PS3 ended up selling in record numbers there (to refresh your memory, the first week was nearly 200k. The Wii was 105k. The 360 was 70k). In the second week, with demand naturally dwindling down, coupled with less supply, people ended up buying about 30k units instead of 200 (30k nearly exhausts the entire of number of PS3's that were even left anyways) -- And even then, 30k units in a week sold is still one of the best consoles-per-week figures around.


What are you expecting here? If Sony somehow maintained even 50% of those launch numbers for every week afterwards, then they would end up having at least 3 million PS3's in the UK alone at the end of the year. And that's just unrealistic.

[EDIT] I know the math is shaky. I can't find a consistent number on the entire UK launch week (the first two days were 165k though). I keep saying "nearly 200k" because the figures fluctuate around that area.

So take it for what it's worth. But basically, my post should still make sense. It's an 82% dropoff of what is already a big number -- So it's more or less 30k sales in the second week.

Wow man, you really just need to ease off the whole defending the PS3 thing a little bit.  I posted a link with no opinion one way or the other about what it contained. No "lol Sony is teh doomed" or anything.  Even the article itself didn't state much of an opinion.  I just read the article yesterday after seeing it posted elsewhere and it was more or less related to what I was posting (never having paid much attention to UK game or music sales, it was the first I'd heard of Chart Track) so I threw it in there.

[stray]

Nah, I'm not easing off. I'm happy explaining to you why even mentioning that estimate is pointless. It needs to be said.