After getting the shipping label, I shipped my Wii out on monday..and got a new one back today. They apparently just copied over my account and save files to a new Wii and sent that to me. I have to re-download the system updates and any VC games, but so far it seems good. The new Wii is noticably quieter than my old one: the old one had a weird somewhat loud "click" that would happen whenever it was reset to the Wii menu.
Yes, my Wii has a problem. It is the infamous flickering white and gray pixels problem. I talked to the support line, and they are going to repair it after I send it back to them.
Oh well. It's a bit disappointing that it has this problem so soon after it was released, but they were really good at the customer service, offering to send a brand new one right away if I didn't mind losing any virtual console games that I had downloaded. I have spent $20 on Wii points, so I decided to just have them repair my existing console and keep the few games I downloaded already.
When the problem first happened I was playing Link To the Past and there started being what looked like white and gray pixels stuck in the textures as they moved around. It later started happening in other Channels like the News and Weather, and finally I tried out a Wii game and saw the same thing, so I called Nintendo.
Here's an idea for the Wii that I wish that Nintendo had done, and hope that someday they may still do: allow NES and other 8- to 16-bit virtual console games bought on your Wii to be transfered to the Nintendo DS. This seems like a no-brainer to me! What better than having the original Zelda/Mario/other NES games on your portable DS system to cart around when you leave the house? When you come back you should be able to somehow "synch" your saved games back to your Wii console and resume playing on your TV. It would be great. Please, Nintendo, hear me!
So far I've downloaded Super Mario Bros and the original Legend of Zelda from the Wii Virtual Console, and it has been well worth the $10 total.
It's one thing to play those games on an emulator where you can easily cheat using save states and you can easily look up things on the web about how to beat some part of Zelda, but it's different when you treat them as they were played originally, and using a genuine controller and a TV.
I'm biding my remaining 1000 Wii points until something really attractive comes along. I've been considering getting Mario 64, another great game that of course I already paid for once on N64, but which I've never really been able to emulate satisfactorily. I hope they get Goldeneye as well. As tempting as it is I may bypass the original Metroid. That game I've played via emulation enough times that I really don't need to play it again. Super Metroid however...
If you are skitterish about the price (as I was at first), think of it like this: you can get ten NES games for the price of one new Wii game. Games as good (and classic) as Zelda, and Mario, are well worth it. If they can bulk out the lineup I'd be happy to drop $50 on good Virtual Console games.
Ok, fine here's the list of old games I really want to get on the virtual console: Super Metroid, Goldeneye, Mario 64, Zelda: A Link To The Past, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Gain Ground (SEGA), Zillion (SEGA), and probably others.
The Wii-pocalypse occurred on Sunday, and I was thankfully able to secure my ticket to the rapture.
We camped out at Target on Saturday night, and were 56th in line for 81 Wiis. We got there around 2:30AM and Tricia slept comfortably in my 20-degree rated sleeping bag with a pad, while I suffered some minor CBD (Cold-Butt Disorder) from sitting in my folding chair.
They handed out tickets for the people in line around 7AM and started letting people in to buy them in groups of 10 at 8AM. Finally we made our purchases and got home by 9:30AM. So, it was 7-hours wait in the cold, but so far from the scant hours I've played Zelda and Wii Sports, it was well worth it.
Oh, did I mention that my girlfriend is frickin' awesome to camp out with me?!
The coolest thing to happen during the whole ordeal was right at the end:
They passed out tickets at about 7AM, and then most people woke themselves up and de-camped, moving their gear back to their cars and taking breaks to get food and stuff. A few latecomers arrived occasionally, but at the news that there were no tickets, they all headed back home.
At around 7:45, this SUV speeds up, and a bright eyed kid jumps out and runs up to the line.
"Is this the line for the Wii?!" he says, breathless, stuttering in excitement. "Is this... are you waiting for the Nintendo Wii?"
"Yeah," someone tells him, "But they already passed out the tickets."
"Oh." You can see he doesn't really know what this means. "But, is that the end of the line?"
"Yes, but do you have a ticket?"
"No..." You can see in his eyes that his worst fear has come true: he didn't get there in time. "But, maybe I'll just wait... because... I don't know."
"Well, they already passed all the tickets out."
"Oh." Finally it sinks in and he realizes it's all for naught.
"You could try going and asking if there are any extra, but there were 81 tickets and they passed them all out."
"Ok." He turns, face drooping, and begins to run towards the front, still hoping that if he hurries, maybe, just maybe he can still get it.
Suddenly, a woman says, "Hey Kid."
"Hey Kid."
He turns and she holds out a ticket.
"Here's a ticket."
"Really?" He says, and it's like Charlie found the Golden Ticket. "You don't need it?"
"No," the woman says, "I already have one. I'm just waiting to buy some games."
The kid grabs the ticket and runs full tilt to the end of the line.
A while later he comes back with his Mom, who thanks the woman and makes sure she really doesn't need the ticket.
