Virtual Console
You can purchase Virtual Console games from past console systems, including the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx-16. Expect to pay more for games from more powerful platforms. NES games cost 500 points apiece, but you'll have to pony up 800 points for SNES and Genesis games and 1,000 points for Nintendo 64 games. Note that some games require the $20 Wii classic-game controller or GameCube controller to run. You'll see the controller requirements pictured next to the ESRB rating on the game-purchase screen. The system won't even let you run the game if you don't have the proper controller attached.
All the Virtual Console games we bought worked great--you can find reviews for many of them on our Wii console platform page. We didn't notice any emulation problems, but we did have to set our display aspect ratio on the actual hardware to 4:3 because the Wii would ignore its own system display settings and stretch games out to fit our widescreen display. Each game download comes with instructions in electronic form. We were impressed with the robust instruction sets--many descriptions use in-game screenshots for illustration. The Wii also has a nifty built-in suspend utility for Virtual Console games. You can stop your game at anytime and come back to it at a later date at exactly the same spot. You'll probably still want to use the game's built-in save features to record your progress if you live in a household with multiple Wii players since you never know who might restart the game from your suspend point. The suspend feature also wasn't available in all the games we tested, notably Super Mario 64.
Storage space will become an issue if you buy a lot of Virtual Console games, but you can delete old games to make room for new ones. Nintendo will let you redownload old purchases at no charge. However, purchases made through the Wii Shop are tied to your specific Wii console. You cannot transfer Virtual Console games from one Wii to another. You can transfer game saves from the console to the SD card, but the system won't let you copy Virtual Console games.
Wii Message Board
The Wii Message Board is the community area on the system. You can post memos or write messages to other people on the Message Board. Only people using the console will actually be able to see and read the memos, but you can send messages to other Wii systems over the Internet if you have them registered as friends.
To add an online friend, each person needs to add the other person's Wii system code into the system's Address Book. The system code is a 16-digit number that you can find by scrolling left on the Address Book's opening page. You can also register PC or cell-phone users as friends if you enter in their e-mail address. Nintendo will send a confirmation e-mail to the address, and the person must respond to confirm the Wii system as a friend.
Registration wasn't an instant process when we tried to get two Wii systems to make friends. We got two Wii systems together and registered them as friends by adding each other's system codes, but we weren't able to send messages to each other right away. We had to wait 10 minutes before the "send message" option opened up on the first system. Even then, the second system didn't recognize the first as a friend until 30 minutes later.
We had a better experience when we tried adding a PC as a friend. We registered a friend with a Gmail address. Then we logged into the Gmail account and confirmed the registration e-mail sent by Nintendo. We were then able to send messages from the Wii to the Gmail address and vice versa. Messages took about 5 to 10 minutes to arrive, but we can understand if Nintendo needs some time to get its mail servers running smoothly.
Overall, we are very impressed with how well the entire Wii system works. When you think about the wireless remotes, the Wii Channels, the Virtual Console system, and the Message Board--there's a lot that could have gone wrong, but Nintendo was able to deliver a complete system on day one. A couple features such as the News and Forecast channels, as well as the Wii Ware items, are still missing, and the online friends system runs a bit slow, but everything else in the system works perfectly.
Visit our Wii Launch Center to find out more about the Wii.
Wii Hands-On: Hardware, Wii Channels, and Virtual Console
Hands-on with the Wii! We explore the system, check out the difference between component and composite cables, test the Wii Channels, and play Virtual Console games.
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