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The End of the Wii Shop Channel - All WiiWare/VC titles to disappear


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So as many of you know, the Wii Shop Channel is in its twilight days and we are fast approaching the end of the service.  You can no longer add points to your account on March 26, 2018, and all re-downloads will cease permanently on January 31, 2019.  This means you have about a week left to add WiiWare and Virtual Console titles before they forever become unbuyable, or extremely difficult to obtain, respectively. 

 

The Wii Shop Channel was Nintendo's first foray into digital distribution and we've come a long way since.  What were some of your favorite WiiWare and Virtual Console titles on the service?  Which games would you recommend to others before it's too late?  Discuss.

Edited by The Ultimate Mario Fan
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As far as "last minute purchases", I bought Fluidity (haven't finished yet, but seems interesting so far) and Excitebike: World Rally (only 16 courses, not too hard to S-rank.  Can't unlock all of the bike colors though, because they required online).

I was considering getting:
ReBirth series (Castlevania: The Adventure, Gradius, Contra) - I'm kinda surprised Konami never released this on other platforms.
Blaster Master Overdrive - I beat Blaster Master Zero on Switch and liked it a lot.  Not sure if I should get Overdrive.
Art Style series - I've heard they are fun, but a combined 3000 Wiiware points is kinda a lot, so out of all of these I probably won't get these.

I really don't have a lot of WiiWare titles.  Mostly just the two I bought recently, and Dr. Mario Online Rx.  I have a lot of VC titles though, several of which I first played on VC, like ALttP, SMRPG, Kirby's Adventure, and StarTropics.  I probably won't be buying any more VC games (for Wii or Wii U) until Switch rolls out whatever its successor will be.

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The inaccuracy of VC emulation and Nintendo's nonsense approach to adding titles really left a bad taste in my mouth. It's super embarrassing when fans can create better emulators for Nintendo games than the actual company, and then they proceed to shut down all fangame work they possibly can while piggybacking off the success of the concept (stuff like Nintendo shutting down romhack videos all over youtube right before the release of Mario Maker).

Many VC games don't run at the right speed or don't emulate correctly at all. There's really no reason Nintendo couldn't have the resources to emulate most of their library and then release everything they can. They were swimming in money in the 2000s, after all. And then the Wii U VC emulator is even worse somehow! They changed it and there were only improvements for a few games (like Paper Mario). It seriously baffles me.

I hope that the subscription-based VC-like service comes to fruition, at least. It'd be much less of a rip-off. In the meantime, play your games on FCEUX, Higan, or elsewhere. It'll be much more like playing on console. Especially since you can't get away from wireless lag on the Wii without modding it anyway lmao

Wiiware is a different story, but I never played most of those games, so I can't speak on it. My buddy had Dr. Mario and some Pokemon stuff back in the day, but I haven't even thought about it in a long time.

Edited by Pichi
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I still remember being really excited at the prospect of the VC and eventually WiiWare when it was coming around.  I never dipped around too much in some of the best WiiWare had to offer primarily because I bought so much physical software for the console that I spent a lot of time on, but I played some good ones and those that I enjoyed and remember really well.  One WiiWare title in particular that stands out is OnSlaught which most probably remember for a certain "and that's why you're still a kid!" line while you fought the alien insect menace.  It was also online cooperative which was cool at the time for a WiiWare game fairly early on in the system's life.

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I sunk so much money into Wii shop games and when I transferred games to Wii U I was not thrilled about having to redownload every single game I had(only picked my favorites at the time). My account balance for Wii is empty thankfully and there is nothing left I want as far as I remember.

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My life as a vc/wiiware whore...... the affordability of most titles kept me coming back for more, or would be cheap enough to give new things a try.  

 

The vc side of things gave me a chance to play games from other systems that I missed.  Landstalker, columns, Paper Mario for a few.

 

Wiiware had some fun offerings, despite the memory limit.  

 

World of Goo-  addictive puzzle game, I initially balked at its high price but everything went well together.  

 

Cue Sports- fun pool game with online. Worth the price.

 

Art Style games- most of these were great, I am surprised art style series has not made a return to a system yet.  Orbient and Cubello were my faves,  Rotohex.....not so much.  The small playing field for later stages.....

 

Dr Mario was fun for matches, Nurse SafariSuz was a sadistic opponent with that smile on the mii's face while whooping butt and taking names.

 

Alien Crush Returns- the visuals for online matches.....

 

 

 

 

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I had a fair few VC games on the Wii, more than on my Wii U or 3DS, since it felt more new and novel at the time to be able to replay some of my favorites all on one system. And despite the awkward restrictions on file size there were some great WiiWare games too: World of Goo, the Bit.Trip series, the Lost Winds games, NyxQuest, Swords & Soldiers, Mega Men 9 and 10, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, And Yet It Moves, etc. Thankfully a lot of them have been ported so they're not going to be lost with the Wii Shop Channel, but for those that haven't it's sad that they're just going to be gone soon.

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20 minutes ago, InXplotch said:

I think I have to go re-download DK tropical freeze. blech, I gotta figure out how I will fit that file on my wii.

I think you might be misunderstanding? It isn't the Nintendo eShop on Wii U that's ending its service anytime soon, it's the Wii Shop Channel on the original Wii that is. So you can download Tropical Freeze again whenever without worrying about this.

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17 minutes ago, Chrom said:

I think you might be misunderstanding? It isn't the Nintendo eShop on Wii U that's ending its service anytime soon, it's the Wii Shop Channel on the original Wii that is. So you can download Tropical Freeze again whenever without worrying about this.

real talk, the wii and wiiu have just blended in my mind software wise. I genuinely thought it was on the wii.

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I forgot about the disappearance of the Wii Shop. It so confusing to keep track what Nintendo online legacy (sounds weird saying that) is going to be no more. I can't honestly list which I bought of the Wii (more so on Wii U, with being older and means of disposalable income) but yeah I played those exclusive Square Enix Wiiware. I spent too many hours in those game.

 

I will miss the shop, no regrets then or now to pick up some titles, my time with the shop ended a while back maybe like a year or two ago. So I'm good, so long Wii Shop Music

 

 

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  • Chrom featured this topic

I never really used the Wii VC and WiiWare all that much, but some of my most cherished Wii memories came from it, like Sin and Punishment 64 and the Wii version of Cave Story. In what will likely be my final Wiiware purchase, I just went and downloaded Special Cybernetic Attack Team and Shadow of the Ninja for the NES, since my chances of owning the cartridges are slim to none. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People was tempting, but I remembered it's exponentially cheaper on PS3.

 

I still have 400 points left over, so I'm trying to convince myself I shouldn't buy 1000 more WIi points so I can use them up on Final Fantasy II (IV) and III (VI). 

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