Wii in a Wii U

Nintendo finally got it’s ass around to delivering on pre-launch promises of being able to play Wii titles on the Wii U with the Wii Virtual Console. It effectively eliminates the need for buying a new and now extinct Wii ($99). Nintendo’s mainstay has been cannibalizing it’s old tittles while releasing slightly updated clones. That’s essentially what this update is. You can transfer your Wii titles to the Wii U and them update them for a fee to have TV-free on-Pad play, or else play them in the Virtual Console and a Wiimote. I’d previously been confused by this, thinking you could just enter the codes in the Nintendo eShop (The Nintendo eShop is pitiful on the Wii U. There’s only three pages of item and two-and-a-half of them are shelf titles at full retail price. The only downloadable games that aren’t old Nintendo games is The Cave and Bitrunner 2, and Tribes 2 I think, which you can play on virtually every other console system and computer. That’s months and months after the Wii U launched. The tiny section the Wii U takes up in retail stores and gaming boutiques is sad too. The only thing sadder than the Wii U’s lineup is the 360’s Kinetic section of the store.)

I’d previously been stockpiling Wii game download codes using coins earned on Club Nintendo, but couldn’t use them. Now I have three N64 games for free in my Wii Virtual Console, on the Wii U. To recap, I’m playing N64 games on a Wii on a Wii U.

Yo dawg…

I’d been playing my son’s Lego City Undercover game up to Chapter 12 and only discovered where to buy unlocks. As you play, you find hundreds of unlocks for costumer and cars, but I had no idea how to purchase them and use them. I assumed it was at the Police Station, but all I could find in there was a place to enter cheat codes (which you get from buying real-life Lego products). Then after about my fifth trip, I noticed an elevator door that was opening and closing, which took me down to the basement where I could buy what I’d unlocked. The whole system is kind of doing that is kind of bullshit. I assume there was one point in the game that explained it, but my son must have played that part. Every time you want to use an item you pick up, you’re expect to first drive across the huge world map back to the Police Station, and enter. The load times for getting into the Police Station are almost as long as it takes to load up the game, which is a ridiculous amount of time. The Wii U update didn’t make it any faster, either. It’s pretty discouraging. It’s not like other Lego games like Star Wars or Batman where the area where you buy items is part of a menu hub between levels. No, you have to go the entire distance after finishing a level.