Virtual Console
5 years ago
United States

I bought a Wii a few weeks ago hoping it still had Wii points so I could get VC runs, but it didn't have any points or smash. How can I get Smash on VC since the Wii shop is shut down?

GhillieGuide
He/Him, They/Them
5 years ago

After the Eshop shuts down(I thought it was still up until JAN30) the only way to play VC smash 64 is to "hack" a wii with a kernel exploit and play a legally-obtained WAD of the game or play on a wii with it already downloaded. Both options are allowed for speedrun submissions currently.

United States

You can't buy Wii points anymore (Eshop currency) Thank you for the advice.

GhillieGuide
He/Him, They/Them
5 years ago

Unfortunately the responsibility of preservation of the eshop releases has been put on the shoulders of a small dedicated group of passionate fans. These VC wads will be preserved but the accessibility of the version is taking a sharp nose dive, this solution of hacking your wii will push people towards obtaining WADs instead of supporting Nintendo which is just a lose-lose.

If you care about a version of any game that has no physical release I highly recommend taking action to preserve the content before servers are shut down like this. This problem only gets worse as you get more modern in games with dozens of patches completely changing the content with no formal backup. For smash 64 however I highly recommend the N64 versions over the VC versions where possible, they are just better versions of the same game and the level of competition is higher(except on PAL).

Edited by the author 5 years ago
United States

I don't understand why Nintendo took down the Eshop, there are people I know still play Wii more than newer gen games. It is even worse when a game that has separate categories like smash 64 make it worse since that limits the availability of said game. They are also taking out Netflix, which is never fun. When I was younger, I would go to my friend's house and we played Melee, Brawl, and 64, but he sold his Wii to get college money. He had so many other awesome games. With the Eshop gone, it makes games like Earthbound, Mother for NES, and other hard to access games even harder to, especially the English dub of Sin and Punishment (Eshop exclusive). I hope Nintendo makes a way to get VC games more accessible, since I am wanting to run VC to try to go for records. Guess I will have to learn modding skills.

United States

Because of mental health reasons, I will be taking a break from speedrunning.

Is wii homebrew considered virtual console