I have a Vita and honestly don't really get the excitement Jailbreaking and the homebrew is kinda jank and I can't think of many games that are good or fun to play on it I think it's one of if not the most beautiful and fun looking handheld but it kinda disappointed me No hate on anyone who worked/works on it or who enjoys the Vita though
Wii U was one of those tech marvels that gave us a glimpse into the future. No doubt it was a prototype for the switch, but 10 years from now this will pop up again as a “must own” for niche gamers.
@@PriceptionThe marvel is how it is able to stream 60fps video with near-lossless quality and very low latency; it was released at a time when most TVs didn't have proper low latency game modes, so the gamepad screen was usually updating before the TV. It works even better than, say, the PS Portal, which relies on your router as a middleman. Furthermore, there was no other console that could play console-quality games on a handheld-like device. To simply resume the console's value to its specs is disingenuous, otherwise the Wii would be the most worthless since it's a gamecube with a system-wide 50% overclock.
@leonro You act like streaming a lossless image feed to a screen wirelessly as never been done before prior to that point. Also I like how u say "No console could play console quality games on a handheld like device". When the Wii U wasn't a handheld it was a home console. Makes me think u don't even own one. Lastly, the difference is that the Wii launched as a very cheap system and was at least more powerful than all previous 6th gen systems, while the Wii U was weaker in many ways than the PS3 and 360 but also cost almost as much as the far better and more powerful PS4.
@@Priception He meant "console quality games on a handheld like device" as in the gamepad, you could play the console games on the gamepad in decent quality, which was a handheld controller, though of course you couldn't get too far away from the console itself. But just being able to play a console-quality game on a handheld-like thing such as the gamepad at all is what he's talking about, even if it has portability caveats.
The Wii U was and still is something very special to me. It was the first game console I ever played. The first computer I was allowed to use. I remember sitting on my couch after school, booting up the Wii U, and jumping into a game of Splatoon. Miiverse was still there, so was TVii. I had gotten the Wii U for Christmas, and it was from my uncle. He was very caring, but I don’t remember much about him. He died in 2018, and that made it so I would never get rid of my Wii U ever. Not even if I could get a million dollars, I’m not getting rid of it. It means so much to me and it started lots of things in my life. My love for hacking. My knowledge of computers. Thanks, Uncle Kevin. Thanks, Nintendo.
My condolences man but it’s so cool hearing stories like these especially from a younger perspective because when I first dabbled with Nintendo it was when I walked in on my uncle playing Street Fighter 2 for the SNES. Fell in love with video games immediately & never looked back. Unfortunately he passed from Cancer but it’s life. Anyway thanks for sharing your story & reading mine!
I modded my Wii U, which I had since 2012. I also have a 2TB Western Digital external hard drive connected to it. It's hands down a great console these days.
The Wii U is such a strange little console. Like the Sega Dreamcast, it was a commercial failure despite having a great library and being quite innovative for its time. The fact that it can natively play Wii U, Wii and, with a little homebrew wizardry, Gamecube titles alongside being able to emulate most anything in the 5th gen or below and emulate a DS is pretty amazing.
The issue with the Wii U was solved with the Switch. The Wii U remote play on the gamepad didn't stretch far enough. I can't even take the gamepad to the bathroom 15-20 feet away
A note on doing a full NAND backup: Even people who do not plan on modding their Wii U should absolutely do a NAND backup because of the issues with NAND chips dying. With a NAND backup in hand, if your NAND dies, you can use Voultar's NAND aid kit to replace it with an SD card, and your Wii U will come back to life.
Hey, speaking of the WiiU, there's a lot of people out there with a broken WiiU (broken nand). The vast majority of them are not aware they can work around the issue with a simple SD card nowadays that you don't even need to solder into the console! That's a cool video idea I think...
Yes, PLEASE. I had a system that started maybe one out of every 20 attempts and had to replace it back in the day. It was quite a chore and I'd appreciate anything that protects my hardware's longevity.
On many WiiU systems that "seem" to have a broken NAND there is just a broken entry point into the OS. there is a way to fix those consoles for cheap using a Raspberry Pi Pico. Just search here on YT there are videos on that topic.
The U was underappreciated due to being vastly outperformed by other consoles and even mid range laptops at a time where fidelity and complexity were driving factors in the market while having a relatively cumbersome control setup in comparison to the predecessor and its competition. The backwards compatibility, only rivaled by the fiirst gen PS3 (being able to play almost every Playstation game up to that point), makes it an absolute gem for folks who wanna have a large library of high quality games auch as Nintendo titles from the last 3 decades in one place.
If someone bought it hoping to get lots of new, exclusive games they'd be sorely disappointed. At this point it's great to mod for GameCube, Wii games, to get HD Zelda remakes, when the system is cheap and games are freely hacked. But for the typical person with a Wii/GameCube back when this was launched they could have just as easily passed and gotten a switch and missed almost nothing.
I also suggest you backup your SD card just in case it gets old like mine did and corrupts and you cannot play games added by your own account. Even if you do backup the NAND it can mess up while reinstalling and not recognize the old SD card but for some reason recognize a fresh one.
Wii is one family of consoles that showed up when I finally had the opportunity/skills to dive into modding. It came out right at that sweet spot in high school when I really started tinkering and had a little base to work from. The WiiU came along and I continued on the same path. My kids still play them to this day and we have 7 Wiis and 2 Us. I have all of my consoles from the last 25 years and beyond, but something about firing up the Wii just hits different. I have one I've recently picked up and I hadn't really tinkered with them since eShop went down. Glad to see a simple path forward for us "holdouts" lmao!
@@Cami454.gMaybe the dude is one of those guys who have 7 kids, and might have wanted each of them to inherit a Wii to play with their families. I just hope they have enough Wii remotes.
@@Cami454.g A few spares and one wherever there is a TV. It kinda just started as people giving me Wiis and now we're here. Now that they can be had for less than $20 at most thrift stores I kinda have to buy them when I see them. But I do that with all the consoles to be fair. 🤣
I feel like the Wii and WiiU was the last console built to attempt to be user friendly/comfortable. The switch feels like a game where they try to make you play games their way.
Bought one used in 2023. Played many games and enjoyed my time with it. USB died and with it my games & saves. Will set it up soon to continue playing from a disc drive this time.
A failed lesson in marketing with the name of the console “why do I need to buy a Wii U when my kids have a Wii already?”. It’s actually a cool system with some solid games - many of which that were simply rereleased for the Switch and became hits.
Nintendo Land and Tropical Freeze are two of my favourite games of all time, it's a real shame people didn't realise the potential of the Wii U at the time.
Yeah marketing really doomed the Wii U. People thought it was just an add on for the Wii instead of a new console. I can't imagine how things would be if it was called the Wii 2.0, and marketed as an actual console.
Another reason to use Aroma is Pretendo which aims to bring back Online modes to Mario Kart 8, Splatoon 1 and other games, including Miiverse. Other than that, thanks for pointing out how to sync my other controllers via Aroma, MVG. Felt kinda stupid while trying to do so :,D
Would also recommend trying to run Wii/Gamecube games in 480p mode, as your TV's upscaling might be a tad better that Wii U's internal upscaler. There's even homebrew to automatically load into the vWii mode in 480p, without changing it manually in the settings every time.
@@TheSergeyJW Yea, it's built into Aroma also with the option to choose not only resolution but it fixes the Wii scaling - great piece of kit. GCN running at 480p via Nintendont with 16:9 patches through Wii U is the way to go.
Just got my Wii U hacked right now. Literally took like 10 minutes max. If you have not done this already, it is crazy easy to do so, do it! Oh yeah and I'm also using a Japanese console. I recommend it because they are very cheap on Ebay and I got a full set for only 50 dollars (minus some shipping).
@@rony_rstThat should work if there's a way to inject DS games into the virtual console. Wii U could officially run any Nintendo console at the time other than gameboy, gameboy color, gamecube, and 3ds. And the first three are easily solved through modding, though I wouldn't really want to play gameboy games on it. Only 3ds and switch games are unplayable on the console.
@@leonro you can pretty easily play GC via the vWii and Nintendont. The injection method for the Wii U is not totally compatible with all DS games. As far as I know, Chinatown Wars is one of these examples
7:05 Oh man, region locking controllers is such a Nintendo move. I mean, they didn't do that before and after (right? am i right?), but hearing that just does not surprise me in the slightest.
ignore my previous reply, I did not see controllers in your comment 💀 yeah nothing like that has been done before or since, I'm guessing they only did it for the Wii U because it came with a gamepad that was meant to already be paired to the console, so differentiating between regions for it makes like 1% of sense
A single Gamepad acts like a KEY to a WiiU. Tha´s why they did it. You don´t owning a gamepad means you own a KEY to your machine. And thus you cannot use this machine.
The Wii U continues to be one of, if not; the most underrated console in gaming history. It is truly remarklable how it's hardaware capabilities and base foundation for a system, were taken full advantage of by modders. Special shoutout to Tiramisu, Aroma, active homebrew devs that keep pushing the boundaries by even adding Priiloader to the VWii! (Prior to now, it was impossible to install and would case a brick). Great video as always MVG.
Remarkable is a big stretch. The system was underpowered and overpriced with a pretty lack luser online and was behind the X360 and PS3 in terms of features, let alone the XOne and PS4. I really don't understand where this "Wii U was great" sentiment has come from and I'm guessing it's by people who've never owned a Wii U.
I’d say Dreamcast takes the cake for most underrated console of all time. The fact that its library was so stacked even with Sega deep in the red is insane.
@ThomastheDankEngine8900 The Dreamcast and PS Vita I would say are underrated systems. The Dreamcast was the most powerful system of its time and had pretty advanced features for the day. But flopped because it was the successor to the Saturn.
@@Priception failed products, especially video game consoles tend to gather the most diehard of supporters always showing up everywhere to sing it's praises and defend their purchase. Their fanbases may be small, but insanely loyal and passionate.
@ericp631 I know. I used to be one of them. But I grew up and realised sometimes u just make a bad purchase, and that's okay. The thing is. I don't hate the Wii U, I had good times with it. But that doesn't mean I think it's a good system, and I do wish I bought an Xbox One or PS4 instead.
A modded Wii U is awesome; I've had mine for about 7 years now. It's worth having for Nintendont which does GameCube titles and the vWii, all upscaled to 1080p via HDMI easily and is therefore way cheaper trying to get that on a regular GameCube/Wii system working via HDMI, whereas the Wii U is available for so little money due to it's relative unpopularity. It's also pretty great for other stuff like DS, Genesis, SNES etc. I've always liked it. Original GameCube controllers work great on it with the USB adapter from Smash, even WaveBirds.
I bought a NAND bricked one from my cousin for 15 dollars. Not a bad deal for a fully working GamePad and set of cables. Bought a nice, working Wii U box off of eBay for about $60 and went to work on it. I've installed all the Wii U games I want, but I haven't even begun to explore its backwards compatibility. That is a rabbit hole that I will have to go down eventually. I love the Wii U. I didn't have one during its heyday but I never disliked it. Such a cool sleeper hit. Modding it is a must.
nice. u get a good deal? I found someone willing to let go of theirs for $125 w all the major Mario games (3D, smash bros, Maker, Kart, SMB, etc) & was so tapped out spending over the holidays - I kinda regret it now! 😭
@@udance4ever I got a 32GB model complete with Pro Controller, Wii Remote and Nunchuck, SMM, Lego City, Xenoblade Chronicles and Skylanders Imaginators for 110€ around the block in supreme condition. I'm also not impressed of the console as of right now. I can see how people thought this was a upgrade to the Wii. I am very dissapointed you can't control Wii games with the gamepad. WHY? It would be so easy to just map the same buttons to the gamepad and code a virtual cursor with the right thumbstick..
11:42 Before you buy a External USB Drive, don't make the same mistake as me, I bought a 2tb external (portable) hdd thinking it was that easy, well guess what, the Wii U USB ports don't transfer 5 Volts, they use 3V, so that's not enough energy to turn on the Portable hdd, and that's why it was making strange noises and it was never recognizible for the console. What I did was to buy a 3TB External HDD BUT with a external Plug to the wall, the Wii U only recognizes 2TB so the other Terabyte it went to trash but I don't care since there was no other smaller thing available.
rip buying a 3TB drive. USB Y-cables are also an option, where one end is whatever the drive needs and the other is 2 USB-A cables, one draws power, and the other pushes data. This also works for using a high capacity HDD for Wii U games, and a second one for Wii/Gamecube games, since the Wii U has 4 USB ports
On my desk, my gaming PC sits on the right. On the left, a Switch, GameCube and of course a Wii U. They all connect to an HDMI switch that passes through an mClassic to my 32" 1440p monitor. The upscaling to 1440p with the mClassic works great for all systems. The audio comes out the monitor through a ground loop noise isolator to a SoundBlaster X4 and then optical out to Logitech Z625 speakers. Because it is a standing desk, it gives a great feel for arcade games.
Ok, that standing desk angle just gave me all types of ideas... I have one that I never stand at, but doubling as an arcade?! Thank you good sir for this inspiration!
Not only that, but they are not that expensive if you build one (recommendation for everyone reading this). I got the legs and top separately. Legs were around $200, and the top, which is a cheaper unfinished butcherblock, 6' x 2' x 1.5" for $150-ish. It can hold more weight than any particle board desk for around the same price. There seems to be a growing trend to get two drawer cabinets and rest a butcher clock on top. You can still add those outside or inside the legs. I have an 8x2 cube organizer on its side on the left that doubles as an L of an L-shaped desk. For the top, I'd recommend at least a sealer for ~$10 more and sanding/routing the top front edge a good 1/2 inch to keep your wrists and arms comfy. You'll need something to hold all your cables like a tray. I have a 'Mount-it Modesty Panel' (search amazon) that holds all cables with the only cables from the desk setup are the power strip plug and speaker cables. Cable management is a breeze (and comfortable) when you can sit under your desk and not laying on your back on the floor. @@kameleongreen
Recently found my Wii U and connected it. I have the 8GB white version. I'm definitely installing homebrew. This is going to breathe new life into it for sure.
Oh, I remember when I got my Wii U in 2019 and used your video as a "guide" to install Haxchi cause I thought "maybe I'll sell it as some point" NOPE. I still play it to this day, I love that console. Thanks for everything MVG! Edit: I dont need to do any of this stuff anymore right?
I bought a used Wii U in 2018. It came with Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. It also had Nintendoland pre loaded. It quickly became one of my most played systems. Over the years I picked up some more titles for it and it continued to be a popular system in our house. My daughter also learned how to play Mario on the Wii U and we had a blast playing 3D World together. I don't think the Wii U was a great system, but I think it gets more hate than it deserves.
The biggest problem ive had with the Wii U is that you can only have 300 pieces of software on the menu at a time, and if you want any more you need to delete some. This sounds like a lot but i was setting up my Wii U to be my "everything" console with a lot of the older Nintendo consoles. I ran out of space before i even got to GameCube.
No. You can create another profile and get another 300 items there. You just cannot have more than 300 items on a single profile. WiiU can have as much as 10 profiles (online and offlilne). tw: the 300 limit cannot be overcome since it´s relying on simply having 15 items per page on 20 pages = 300 items. You cannot have more than 20 pages of items.
The trick is to use the emulators to load the games and not put the games in the menu at all. That will give you access to thousands of games, though not as easy as just clicking on the menu. Same problem exists on the 3DS. Same solution.
My modded Wii U has been played more than any other console and still gets almost daily use. Endless backlog of quality nintendo games going back decades on actual Nintendo hardware. I recommend getting upgraded battery for controlpad. Awesome gallery shooters on the wii. Dozens of mario games, almost every zelda game ever made, infinite pokemon, kirby...
@@iamdmc I am using the big 6600mAh one that is beeing sold on amazon. it is physically much bigger than the original one. nintendo left a lot of space in the gamepad because they probably wanted to release a bigger battery themselves at some point. the runtime is great. gets you a full day of gaming on it without charging, but it ads a good amout of weight to the gamepad. it doesn't bother me when using it but it's probably not for everyone.
@@iamdmc yeah that is the one but check the other offers. It is beeing sold with different names but if you compare the pictures it is exactly the same product. One seller offers it a little cheaper.
I was honestly so close to selling my Wii U, I only hold on to it for sentimental value because I played it in middle school. But I remembered the Wii U was one of the last systems that supported analog output. I would love to see how the Wii U homebrew scene can take advantage of CRT users like me. Native 240p support would be freaking awesome for many games.
Don't forget the WiiU is also the only way to play the uncensored version of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Nintendo really dropped the ball with Encore on the Switch...
The Wii U homescreen was awesome in so many ways. Not the best console but some of the things it did, I do kinda miss on the Switch as well as other platforms today.
Make sure you mod the vWii as well. Use a USB y-cable for your external drives. I have mine setup as follows: 2TB WiiU games, 2TB Wii games, 2TB GameCube games. You CANNOT leave them all connected at the same time.
@@iamdmc Wii U wants its own proprietary format on the hard drive and no other drive connected. Surely the Wii and Gamecube are happy enough on their own FAT32 drive.
I modded mine a long time ago, lots of games on external drive. Nice to see it's still up and running with new hacks. I never knew how good the WiiU was, till I hacked it, some really amazing games for the system. It's too bad it was named WiiU, everyone thought it was just a fancy Wii
This makes me so happy to learn. I never was able to find a new pro controller for my Wii U that didn’t have drift or wasn’t dirty…I got a Wii U in 2019 for peanuts and since then I’ve enjoyed some of the games like WW HD and TP HD and things I missed out on as well as several great games in the eShop. When that closed I packed it up and put it away because I felt its usefulness was at its end…however learning this is a thing, I fully intend to pull it out and get it modded! Thanks!
woah. This is what I've been waiting for 💖 I haven't modded my WiiU because it was a tedious process booting into a state that would allow me to run homebrew and backups. Now I can have my way with the hardware. Very excited to streamline the system
Very underrated console. :) Hope to see an updated video about PS Vita and PS Vita TV. 😎 Keep it up MVG. Thanks gor show so much love for retro community too.
Hey MVG, Great video highlighting the Wii U. One big discovery/development back in late 2023 is prior to then, if you ever factory reset your Wii U without removing the exploit first, then the Wii U would not boot. And you would need a nand writer to copy your backup to the WiiU and solder a few things to get it going again. Works, yes but a pain. But in late 2023, an exploit was discovered where if you had a bricked Wii U (like mine), that all you would need was a Raspberry Pi Pico (bought for $12 at Radio Shack in town), some free software, and I was back up in running in less than 5 minutes. The Raspberry Pi Pico exploit is something you could highlight in a follow-up video. Pretty interesting stuff, and now, people who have a "bricked" WiiU, can fix it in 5 minutes if they have a Raspberry Pi Pico. Super easy. Anyway - great video and highlight!
This is my preferred way to play GameCube games because 1. It uses the vWii back-compat so it is "native-ish" if that makes sense (not your typical x86 -> PPC emulation on most machines). So the emulation accuracy is pretty much perfect (to my eyes, but I'm not an expert). 2. GameCube controller works out of the box (the adapter that comes with Smash works to connect via USB). I wonder if other accessories would work like the Mario Party microphone and DK bongos 🤔 never tested it but I assume if it worked on a real Wii then it would work there too.
The ability to run GameCube games via an HDMI cable is a huge selling point for me to get my Wii U fully modded. Unfortunately the Mario Party microphone uses a memory card slot, which the Wii U doesn't have. The rest of the accessories should work, though!
@@Ultravore The reason for this is that the GCN controller adapter (physical or otherwise) simply lacks the "data" lines in the cable connector that the GC/Wii had. So anything that actually transmits data rather than inputs to the GC/Wii, will not work, including the GCN to GBA cable.
The wii u wasn’t a bad console, there just wasn’t much outside of first party games to play on it. Yes the game pad was a little cumbersome for some but it was fine for my massive hands
so true, Wii U became my fave console of all time because it lets me play GameCube games while I'm on toilet. it also lets you play all generation of Nintendo game up to Wii U.
@@Dudester100it happened to me after factory resetting the system, and I left mine plugged in since the day I got it. There should be a PSA for that stuff, I was able to find only a select few Reddit threads explaining the issue but no actual solution.
To me, the Wii U is such a magical system. Having my cd's as a digital collection is on my mind for a while now. Having high hopes for Pretendo as well, since Nintendo will shut down servers in april.
I was an avid Wii U supporter and have a pretty extensive digital legal library. Having that said, I run Haxchi as well and Nintendont and Wiiflow are amazing on this console! Retroarch as well!
Theres only one issue i have with the wii u and i have not find the solution yet, and that problem is the wii u does not allow more then 300 block (games) on the main menu. When installing more then 300 games (of any-type) the system will tell u that it cannot display all games on the menu, and to delete some games to see them show up on the main menu. If you know a solution to this issue that would be a great help MVG!
Create another user. If the apps are all offline and not requiring online, you can creae an offline-user. Another profile. This profile can then store anoher 300 applicatons. You can have 10 users (10 profiles) on a single WiiU which equals 3000 applications max then.
Why do you wan a pocket-calculated game on a WiiU supercompuing-machine? Wasted ressources! WiiU can soon run AI-tasks! You really want Diablo 1 on WiiU? Lol I rather would want WiiU calulate an OWN AI, and then watch HOW it runs that Diablo 1-game.
The way the plugins work reminds me of the PSP, that thing is a beast. Great video, I'm going to have to dig my Wii U out of storage and set it up as a GC/Wii/Portable console replacement, I only have so much desk space.
Being a poor guy, I was very happy to be able to play BotW because this console. Still have to get a Switch to play TofK, expensive as hell on my country...
Great video, you really only scratched the surface imo. The fact that the wii u plays it's own games, plus wii and gamecube games NATIVELY from the external storage, without having to swap discs at all, is a genuinely awesome experience. It's the ultimate wii/gamecube for that reason.
I mean there are cool things you can do with it but i just never could justify picking one up, i already have a modded wii which can run wii and GameCube and most wii u games are on switch, plus Wii u can be emulated fairly easily now for the like 3 games not on switch
1) WiU can run gamecube games a lot faster! This means games which ran like ass on Gamecube, and run like ass on emulators run perfect and bugfree and flawless on WiiU now through OC-ability. A WiiU can run gamecube-games at lke ~300 fps with this function called "C2W". So yes. This means a WiiU is MORE POWERFUL than the world´s fastest PC in this discipline. 2) Emulators of WiiU cannot do same things which WiiU does. Not even close. WiiU can run Half LIfe 2 or G-Mod now! Yes. It emulates them! And it can run other Source-games or run stuff like "Portal 1" or "Portal 2". Btw. WiiU has about 300 games which aren´t on Switch. 3) A WiiU will soon be able to run first AI-tasks. Because it can via Linux 3-Core script. It is allready being worked on. AI-Tasks are typically written in python. and Python is a perfect language to run on WiiU.
I love the WiiU it is a great system, that many people hate for how it was advertised and never given it a chance. *Hacked or not this system is great!*
My experience with the Wii U is the high fail rates of the console itself (three consoles have broken down on me), while my spare GamePads are sorely underutilized. We need modders to finally figure out how to get GamePads working outside the Wii U console, so we can play the games on more powerful hardware. It's not hard to find Wii U optical drives from China. This will inevitably be the only way left to play Wii U games and I'm surprised the community isn't taking this more seriously. They need to start working on it today
Unfortunately i had the same experience, the right analog has started to drifting and i was unable to move the controller to be able to aim with the bow in BOTW, and that was only after 2 years. Some weeks later the psu got bronken and maybe has fried the console, because after purchasing a new one i was unable to boot the console.
The WiiU gamepad uses a proprietary connection, it's not Bluetooth like other modern controllers. Someone would have to not only reverse engineer the protocol itself, but also build and mass produce a dongle for it, all so we can use the bulkiest handheld gamepad in existence. Emulators already have support for emulating the gamepad and showing it on screen. What's more likely to be made is a way to integrate that with a full blown console like the Steam Deck or the Nintendo Switch. It might even already exist.
Gamepads's tech is outdated and the thing is bulky and uncomfortable. Almost all of what you would need in a gamepad can be found in any smartphone, plus more. Emulation should be more than fine without having the original gamepad with it's giant 480p screen
my gamepad's rumble and speakers are both broken. I've heard other people mention their broken rumble too. My gamepad charging cable has also failed about a year ago but somehow nintendo still had some replacement cables in stock on their store lol
That will never be possible as WiiU uses a CUSTOM USB 2.0 bus for all GPU, bpu (cpu has 10 buses unlike a standard cpu oday) and even he gamepad uses this. You cannot "emulate" this. For this reason you also cannot break WiiU´s USB-protocol. Because a PC cannot read it. A WiiU uses simply way more advanced tech than "PC". PC is so outdated. PC is an invention of 1970s. WiiU used Windows-11-tech in ~2012 allready (Asynchronic cpu-cores = big/Small cores). WiiU used "TMP 2.0" similar security before Windows 11 even demanded it. When did Windows 11 came out again? Around 5 years later or so. Still has much worse latency. A WiiU has NO measurable latency in ALL USB-buses (Cpu, gpu) and for ALL periphery. Which makes it way more advanced than a PC, wih combined similar abiliies than a modern "AAI". Games show you can blow into the microphone and in REALTIME, the character on the touschreen can jump. No other machine can do this. A WiiU can even emulate a full PC now as it can run games like Half Life 2 or G-Mod or even Poral 2 or oher source games. (And it could run "Fortnite"-rom from PC, x86 emulated) last year with ~25 fps. And that was last year, with no optimizing and running on the small cpu cores. With Linux WiiU and the new SMP-Patch it will be possible to achieve 10x faster performance, aka ~250 fps for Fortnite running in SOFTWARE. Because you tell the game o run on he BIG core (Or "performance-core" (PC) like it´s called in Windows 11). You would even be able to render this game in 8k or 16k on a WiiU, since it`s not stuck to the Gpu´s resolutions any longer. So the output would still be limited to 1080p of the HDMI. But internally rendered it would be in 8 or 16k. WiiU will furher more emuate a Switch and other platforms such as PS3 in realtime soon with the big-cpu core support in Linux now.
Just soft-modded my Wii U, got Aroma and Tiramisu on there! Thanks a ton for the coverage MVG! The way I see it, there's no reason NOT to soft-mod the Wii U at this point. I have a bunch of modded systems, including DS, 3DS, PSP, and Wii. Now the Wii U joins them. Hope to get a PS Vita one day and mod that, and to mod my original Xbox as well. Maybe Switch one day too.
Not mention of n64/ds injection? That's my favourite part. I have almost the entire nintendo library playable up to 3ds on wiiU. Ive gotten some games listed as incompatible working. I think people underestimate how much you can do on WiiU.
7:13 if you have UDPIH you can pair any region locked gamepad to any console, you can use a raspberry pi pico or even oddly enough a nintendo switch on CFW.
The Xbox One had better marketing to not confuse players with it's weird name, it did have a way better first year than the Wii U (the Wii U barely had anything on it's first year while the One got 2 Forzas, MCC, Dead Rising 3, Sunset Overdrive or Titanfall as console exclusives) so the interest on the console didn't completely lose momentum, and also had multiplatform titles unlike the Wii U to gain sales from millions of casual people who play Fifa, Madden, COD, Minecraft or GTA who didn't jump to the PS4.
My absolute favorite way to use the wii u is sm64 ds with the analog hack, playing one of my favorite games on the gamepad screen and a tv is really cool
If they could somehow figure out 3DS emulation on Wii U, then the entire Nintendo library from Wii U and before would become available on a single console.
@@SomeRandomPiggo No. You need to run LINUX on WiiU first. Without WiiU Linux it will NEVER be possible. Then you need a SPECIAL compiler which compiles a special SMP-Ability into your Linux for WiiU (Custom WiiU LInux Kernel!). The compiler allready exists! then you need a special SCRIPT BEFORE you start the application! which tells the processosr you want this "Citra"-emulator executed on Core 1 (because Core 1 is much more powerful on WiiU´s cpu than Cores 0 or 2, which are just "helper-cores"). And then it will work. You cannot automatically shove execution from Core 0 to Core 1 or vice-versa. WiiU uses asynchronic multicores.You need to start on a certain core first and then you need to KILL that application first before you can use another application on that core! You need a script each time you want to use this way more powerful cpu-core. So for every program a SCRIPT Is required.
@@SmartZero-f8e Interesting, don't know much about Citra's inner workings but I'm assuming it has a software renderer which should be quite easy to port to the Wii U's native OS
@@SomeRandomPiggo Correct. Btw: It doesn´t matter because WiiU´s Linux does NOT have GPU-accelleration to begin with! so everything works with software-rendering only.
Six months after the Wind Waker Wii U special edition came out, they still had stock of them at my local GameStop (RIP that store). I finally gave in and bought one. The dude that rang it up was like “I win”. I asked, “you win what”? He replied, “I win the bet.” Then he went into explain that he and his other co-workers had a pool going on. They basically bet on how long it would take to sell a Wii U since the last one, and he won with three months. 😂😢😂
I bought Wii U 6 years ago with Haxchi - it's still working perfectly. Console resting under my bed for 2 years till the day i knew that it can run Gamecube games... wow! Now i'm playing in old classic Resident Evil games and awesome GC exclusives like Eternal Darkness. Also i installed Virtual Console versions of my beloved TLOZ: Ocarina Of Time & Majora's Mask. Crazy console! I like it so much. Being hacked it can run GC, N64, Wii, Nes, Snes games!!! OMG))))
Before people who never owned a Wii U say "The Wii U was a great system"... as someone who owned a Wii U from 2013. No it wasn't. It was an undepowered, overpriced system with terrible online and lacked features and support from Nintendo.
Fact. It was an abomination from the start. The fact that the Switch is more powerful says it all when the Switch can be emulated on modern phones. Wii U was never competitive in gaming even at the time
Then it means you are simply dumb. You don´t know what you have in the house then (or had in the house). A WiiU can run gamecube-games with 300 Fps through a special OC-script which allows to have 5x faster bandwidth, which directly results in 5x faster execution of the iles. A Highend PC for 5000$ CANNOT do this as it has to emulate gamecube, and it cannot even handle 100% emulation of all gamecube-games with 60 fps. A WiiU will soon allow you to run ALL Apple-software at more than 10x faster execution-speed (it is being worked on to make i possible, there is a special Linux-program to allow NATIVE execution of Aple-programs like Mac OS X etc). And this is just part of what it can do. A WiiU is a good hacking-device. Or if you want to kill the internet or banks. Gaming is just a side-task on this machine.
If you don't already own a Wii U and don't need yet another emulation box is there any reason to get one? It looks like the hardware price is only going to grow from this point so it's hard to justify if all the games worth playing have been ported to the Switch and the homebrew has to compete with every mini PC, desktop and Steam Deck under the sun. Or am I missing something?
bit.ly/3UAQC93 - 🚀 JOIN HAWKED and get free rewards when you download with my link!
You don’t play this garbage, MVG, why you lyin’?
What is the likelihood of after market Nintendo compatibles becoming popular?
I have a scientific paper in the works on an arbitrary disassembler.
noooo... Really? @@lilmul123
I eat the cotton candy from my walls
The Wii U is very similar to the Vita, abandoned by their companies as soon as they released only to be saved by the amazing homebrew scene
Nintendo tried WAY HARDER
They are quite similar. They both even have completely unused expansion ports: Vita 1000 on top and Wii U gamepad on bottom.
Vita was not abandoned in Japan.
I think the VITA would still be looked well upon even without its incredible hacking scene. But the Wii U? God no. One of the worst libraries ever.
I have a Vita and honestly don't really get the excitement
Jailbreaking and the homebrew is kinda jank and I can't think of many games that are good or fun to play on it
I think it's one of if not the most beautiful and fun looking handheld but it kinda disappointed me
No hate on anyone who worked/works on it or who enjoys the Vita though
Wii U was one of those tech marvels that gave us a glimpse into the future. No doubt it was a prototype for the switch, but 10 years from now this will pop up again as a “must own” for niche gamers.
I would not call the Wii U a "tech marvel" especially since its CPU is weaker than the Xbox 360s
@@Priception form factor, not specs
@@PriceptionThe marvel is how it is able to stream 60fps video with near-lossless quality and very low latency; it was released at a time when most TVs didn't have proper low latency game modes, so the gamepad screen was usually updating before the TV. It works even better than, say, the PS Portal, which relies on your router as a middleman. Furthermore, there was no other console that could play console-quality games on a handheld-like device. To simply resume the console's value to its specs is disingenuous, otherwise the Wii would be the most worthless since it's a gamecube with a system-wide 50% overclock.
@leonro You act like streaming a lossless image feed to a screen wirelessly as never been done before prior to that point.
Also I like how u say "No console could play console quality games on a handheld like device". When the Wii U wasn't a handheld it was a home console. Makes me think u don't even own one.
Lastly, the difference is that the Wii launched as a very cheap system and was at least more powerful than all previous 6th gen systems, while the Wii U was weaker in many ways than the PS3 and 360 but also cost almost as much as the far better and more powerful PS4.
@@Priception He meant "console quality games on a handheld like device" as in the gamepad, you could play the console games on the gamepad in decent quality, which was a handheld controller, though of course you couldn't get too far away from the console itself. But just being able to play a console-quality game on a handheld-like thing such as the gamepad at all is what he's talking about, even if it has portability caveats.
Playing nearly every DS game (some exceptions like Pokemon Black/White and its sequels) on the tv is peak greatness.
I’m sorry, but you misspelled sequel
Agreed. Playing Chrono Trigger DS a few years ago on my TV was awesome :D
connecting PC to a TV screen isn't an option?
@@manoftherainshorts9075 Is this a video about PC's or one about the Wii U? Do PC's have touch screen capabilities the same way a GamePad does?
Nintendo DS on the WiiU is great. I agree there.
The Wii U was and still is something very special to me. It was the first game console I ever played. The first computer I was allowed to use. I remember sitting on my couch after school, booting up the Wii U, and jumping into a game of Splatoon. Miiverse was still there, so was TVii. I had gotten the Wii U for Christmas, and it was from my uncle. He was very caring, but I don’t remember much about him. He died in 2018, and that made it so I would never get rid of my Wii U ever. Not even if I could get a million dollars, I’m not getting rid of it. It means so much to me and it started lots of things in my life. My love for hacking. My knowledge of computers. Thanks, Uncle Kevin. Thanks, Nintendo.
My condolences man but it’s so cool hearing stories like these especially from a younger perspective because when I first dabbled with Nintendo it was when I walked in on my uncle playing Street Fighter 2 for the SNES. Fell in love with video games immediately & never looked back. Unfortunately he passed from Cancer but it’s life. Anyway thanks for sharing your story & reading mine!
lmfao zoomer cringe right here
@@idkanymore3382 chill 🤣
@@idkanymore3382 god damn lmao
@@idkanymore3382dude, leave him alone. He was just sharing his experience with the wii u
I modded my Wii U, which I had since 2012. I also have a 2TB Western Digital external hard drive connected to it. It's hands down a great console these days.
isnt 2tb overkill for wiiu
@@olevet75 Just barely.
How are you able to get pass the 300game limit?
@@victorvillacis6764you dont
Sell me one
The Wii U is such a strange little console. Like the Sega Dreamcast, it was a commercial failure despite having a great library and being quite innovative for its time. The fact that it can natively play Wii U, Wii and, with a little homebrew wizardry, Gamecube titles alongside being able to emulate most anything in the 5th gen or below and emulate a DS is pretty amazing.
The issue with the Wii U was solved with the Switch. The Wii U remote play on the gamepad didn't stretch far enough. I can't even take the gamepad to the bathroom 15-20 feet away
@@deansmits006 But that's the purpose of the Wii U, it was a home console but people don't understand the proposal like you do.
A note on doing a full NAND backup: Even people who do not plan on modding their Wii U should absolutely do a NAND backup because of the issues with NAND chips dying. With a NAND backup in hand, if your NAND dies, you can use Voultar's NAND aid kit to replace it with an SD card, and your Wii U will come back to life.
Hey, speaking of the WiiU, there's a lot of people out there with a broken WiiU (broken nand). The vast majority of them are not aware they can work around the issue with a simple SD card nowadays that you don't even need to solder into the console! That's a cool video idea I think...
Yeah good idea
Have a link or what I can specifically google for that
Yes, PLEASE. I had a system that started maybe one out of every 20 attempts and had to replace it back in the day. It was quite a chore and I'd appreciate anything that protects my hardware's longevity.
@@nathankean7968 I'm not sure I can post a link but google gbatemp upgrade wiiu storage, you want to do the rednand route.
On many WiiU systems that "seem" to have a broken NAND there is just a broken entry point into the OS. there is a way to fix those consoles for cheap using a Raspberry Pi Pico. Just search here on YT there are videos on that topic.
The Wii U was not a terrible system, yeah it maybe wasn’t the most popular. But imo it’s one of the most underrated console’s ever
The games have been amazing. Most games are now on the switch though but before the switch, it was such a nice console.
The U was underappreciated due to being vastly outperformed by other consoles and even mid range laptops at a time where fidelity and complexity were driving factors in the market while having a relatively cumbersome control setup in comparison to the predecessor and its competition.
The backwards compatibility, only rivaled by the fiirst gen PS3 (being able to play almost every Playstation game up to that point), makes it an absolute gem for folks who wanna have a large library of high quality games auch as Nintendo titles from the last 3 decades in one place.
@@publichearing85364 decades
If someone bought it hoping to get lots of new, exclusive games they'd be sorely disappointed. At this point it's great to mod for GameCube, Wii games, to get HD Zelda remakes, when the system is cheap and games are freely hacked. But for the typical person with a Wii/GameCube back when this was launched they could have just as easily passed and gotten a switch and missed almost nothing.
I love it for the fact that it can output digital or analog signal. I mainly use mine for Gamecube games on a CRT
dude i dont care
@@lordsosa9383 neither did your parents, now you comment shit like this
@@lordsosa9383 dude nobody cares that you don't care
@@sarcasticmcspastic dude you wanna fight because i still dont care whatcha gonna do about it punk
@@sarcasticmcspastic hahahahahahahahahahahha soft sweet man
bring it on punk
I also suggest you backup your SD card just in case it gets old like mine did and corrupts and you cannot play games added by your own account. Even if you do backup the NAND it can mess up while reinstalling and not recognize the old SD card but for some reason recognize a fresh one.
sometimes tech is weird like that, right?
Wii is one family of consoles that showed up when I finally had the opportunity/skills to dive into modding. It came out right at that sweet spot in high school when I really started tinkering and had a little base to work from. The WiiU came along and I continued on the same path. My kids still play them to this day and we have 7 Wiis and 2 Us.
I have all of my consoles from the last 25 years and beyond, but something about firing up the Wii just hits different.
I have one I've recently picked up and I hadn't really tinkered with them since eShop went down. Glad to see a simple path forward for us "holdouts" lmao!
Who needs 7 wiis?
@@Cami454.gMaybe the dude is one of those guys who have 7 kids, and might have wanted each of them to inherit a Wii to play with their families. I just hope they have enough Wii remotes.
@@Cami454.g A few spares and one wherever there is a TV. It kinda just started as people giving me Wiis and now we're here. Now that they can be had for less than $20 at most thrift stores I kinda have to buy them when I see them. But I do that with all the consoles to be fair. 🤣
@@leonro The problem is the batteries. 🤣 I have a nice little stash of Wiimotes.
I feel like the Wii and WiiU was the last console built to attempt to be user friendly/comfortable. The switch feels like a game where they try to make you play games their way.
Bought one used in 2023. Played many games and enjoyed my time with it. USB died and with it my games & saves. Will set it up soon to continue playing from a disc drive this time.
USB port can probably be fixed handy enough. It's probably just a blown cap or something simple.
@@Tuathband Thanks for replying. My WiiU's usb ports are fine, it's the usb drive that stopped working. PC doesn't recognize it.
@@gerardoexber Is the USB drive a thumb/flash drive or hard drive/SDD?
@@gerardoexberwould it happen to be a western digital or Seagate?
@@shawndasilva it's a Kingston 128gb usb drive
A failed lesson in marketing with the name of the console “why do I need to buy a Wii U when my kids have a Wii already?”. It’s actually a cool system with some solid games - many of which that were simply rereleased for the Switch and became hits.
Nintendo Land and Tropical Freeze are two of my favourite games of all time, it's a real shame people didn't realise the potential of the Wii U at the time.
Yeah marketing really doomed the Wii U. People thought it was just an add on for the Wii instead of a new console. I can't imagine how things would be if it was called the Wii 2.0, and marketed as an actual console.
Another reason to use Aroma is Pretendo which aims to bring back Online modes to Mario Kart 8, Splatoon 1 and other games, including Miiverse.
Other than that, thanks for pointing out how to sync my other controllers via Aroma, MVG.
Felt kinda stupid while trying to do so :,D
Bring back? Online still exists.
@@pooki-dooki Yes, for like a couple of weeks.
Pretendo as the name suggests is a preservation project of the WiiU's and 3DS' online functionality.
Including Miiverse?
I've had Aroma for about 2 months but I was unaware of this!!!
Bought a Wii U just for Nintendont to play gamecube games with the hdmi, insane
The HDMI is one of the best thing about it
Would also recommend trying to run Wii/Gamecube games in 480p mode, as your TV's upscaling might be a tad better that Wii U's internal upscaler. There's even homebrew to automatically load into the vWii mode in 480p, without changing it manually in the settings every time.
The Wii U being able to natively play GameCube, Wii, and Wii U titles is pretty damn cool.
@@TheSergeyJW Yea, it's built into Aroma also with the option to choose not only resolution but it fixes the Wii scaling - great piece of kit. GCN running at 480p via Nintendont with 16:9 patches through Wii U is the way to go.
@@overwatch761 hell yeah, I'm currently playing the GameCube Harry Potter games that way, looks really good.
Just got my Wii U hacked right now. Literally took like 10 minutes max. If you have not done this already, it is crazy easy to do so, do it!
Oh yeah and I'm also using a Japanese console. I recommend it because they are very cheap on Ebay and I got a full set for only 50 dollars (minus some shipping).
I have been modding the WiiU for years and it plays any nintendo game I have threw at it. Thanks for the video and the deep dive Dimitri.
Even the Switch? 🤨
Ultra sun and Moon???
GTA Chinatown Wars?
@@rony_rstThat should work if there's a way to inject DS games into the virtual console. Wii U could officially run any Nintendo console at the time other than gameboy, gameboy color, gamecube, and 3ds. And the first three are easily solved through modding, though I wouldn't really want to play gameboy games on it. Only 3ds and switch games are unplayable on the console.
@@leonro you can pretty easily play GC via the vWii and Nintendont.
The injection method for the Wii U is not totally compatible with all DS games. As far as I know, Chinatown Wars is one of these examples
These reacuring updates on moded consoles incl. Emulators are the best of this channel. Would like to see an update on NVIDIA shield capabilities.
7:05 Oh man, region locking controllers is such a Nintendo move. I mean, they didn't do that before and after (right? am i right?), but hearing that just does not surprise me in the slightest.
ignore my previous reply, I did not see controllers in your comment 💀 yeah nothing like that has been done before or since, I'm guessing they only did it for the Wii U because it came with a gamepad that was meant to already be paired to the console, so differentiating between regions for it makes like 1% of sense
A single Gamepad acts like a KEY to a WiiU. Tha´s why they did it.
You don´t owning a gamepad means you own a KEY to your machine. And thus you cannot use this machine.
I love my WiiU. I’ll never get rid of it, actually playing twilight princess at the moment.
Aroma looks like the mod I've been looking for. Launching everything from the main menu front end is perfection.
The Wii U continues to be one of, if not; the most underrated console in gaming history. It is truly remarklable how it's hardaware capabilities and base foundation for a system, were taken full advantage of by modders. Special shoutout to Tiramisu, Aroma, active homebrew devs that keep pushing the boundaries by even adding Priiloader to the VWii! (Prior to now, it was impossible to install and would case a brick). Great video as always MVG.
Remarkable is a big stretch. The system was underpowered and overpriced with a pretty lack luser online and was behind the X360 and PS3 in terms of features, let alone the XOne and PS4.
I really don't understand where this "Wii U was great" sentiment has come from and I'm guessing it's by people who've never owned a Wii U.
I’d say Dreamcast takes the cake for most underrated console of all time.
The fact that its library was so stacked even with Sega deep in the red is insane.
@ThomastheDankEngine8900 The Dreamcast and PS Vita I would say are underrated systems.
The Dreamcast was the most powerful system of its time and had pretty advanced features for the day. But flopped because it was the successor to the Saturn.
@@Priception failed products, especially video game consoles tend to gather the most diehard of supporters always showing up everywhere to sing it's praises and defend their purchase. Their fanbases may be small, but insanely loyal and passionate.
@ericp631 I know. I used to be one of them. But I grew up and realised sometimes u just make a bad purchase, and that's okay.
The thing is. I don't hate the Wii U, I had good times with it. But that doesn't mean I think it's a good system, and I do wish I bought an Xbox One or PS4 instead.
A modded Wii U is awesome; I've had mine for about 7 years now. It's worth having for Nintendont which does GameCube titles and the vWii, all upscaled to 1080p via HDMI easily and is therefore way cheaper trying to get that on a regular GameCube/Wii system working via HDMI, whereas the Wii U is available for so little money due to it's relative unpopularity. It's also pretty great for other stuff like DS, Genesis, SNES etc. I've always liked it. Original GameCube controllers work great on it with the USB adapter from Smash, even WaveBirds.
I love how you kinda made this look like an infomercial. Black and white for old and busted, color for new hotness.
Thanks for covering the Wii U
I bought a NAND bricked one from my cousin for 15 dollars. Not a bad deal for a fully working GamePad and set of cables. Bought a nice, working Wii U box off of eBay for about $60 and went to work on it. I've installed all the Wii U games I want, but I haven't even begun to explore its backwards compatibility. That is a rabbit hole that I will have to go down eventually. I love the Wii U. I didn't have one during its heyday but I never disliked it. Such a cool sleeper hit. Modding it is a must.
I just purchased one a few hours ago, literally, this is perfect timing.
nice. u get a good deal? I found someone willing to let go of theirs for $125 w all the major Mario games (3D, smash bros, Maker, Kart, SMB, etc) & was so tapped out spending over the holidays - I kinda regret it now! 😭
@@udance4everi got mine with the gamepad for 50 usd. Got some wii motes and a pro controller after the fact
Funny, Ihad bought my first Wii U right before his video on it 4 years ago lol.
@@udance4ever I got a 32GB model complete with Pro Controller, Wii Remote and Nunchuck, SMM, Lego City, Xenoblade Chronicles and Skylanders Imaginators for 110€ around the block in supreme condition.
I'm also not impressed of the console as of right now. I can see how people thought this was a upgrade to the Wii. I am very dissapointed you can't control Wii games with the gamepad. WHY? It would be so easy to just map the same buttons to the gamepad and code a virtual cursor with the right thumbstick..
@@TheErwinK007Archive if it's simple, why don't you do it, it's an open community of developers !
good luck !
Modded my wii u a couple years ago, it has been by far the best emulation system I have ever used.
Being able to play Gamecube games through HDMI with the use of Nintendont makes Wii U worth owning for alone.
11:42 Before you buy a External USB Drive, don't make the same mistake as me, I bought a 2tb external (portable) hdd thinking it was that easy, well guess what, the Wii U USB ports don't transfer 5 Volts, they use 3V, so that's not enough energy to turn on the Portable hdd, and that's why it was making strange noises and it was never recognizible for the console.
What I did was to buy a 3TB External HDD BUT with a external Plug to the wall, the Wii U only recognizes 2TB so the other Terabyte it went to trash but I don't care since there was no other smaller thing available.
rip buying a 3TB drive. USB Y-cables are also an option, where one end is whatever the drive needs and the other is 2 USB-A cables, one draws power, and the other pushes data. This also works for using a high capacity HDD for Wii U games, and a second one for Wii/Gamecube games, since the Wii U has 4 USB ports
@@kamen226 I did buy that Y-cable for my portable hdd and it didn't work, such a shame. But if it works for you or someone else that's good.
On my desk, my gaming PC sits on the right. On the left, a Switch, GameCube and of course a Wii U. They all connect to an HDMI switch that passes through an mClassic to my 32" 1440p monitor. The upscaling to 1440p with the mClassic works great for all systems. The audio comes out the monitor through a ground loop noise isolator to a SoundBlaster X4 and then optical out to Logitech Z625 speakers. Because it is a standing desk, it gives a great feel for arcade games.
Ok, that standing desk angle just gave me all types of ideas... I have one that I never stand at, but doubling as an arcade?! Thank you good sir for this inspiration!
Not only that, but they are not that expensive if you build one (recommendation for everyone reading this). I got the legs and top separately. Legs were around $200, and the top, which is a cheaper unfinished butcherblock, 6' x 2' x 1.5" for $150-ish. It can hold more weight than any particle board desk for around the same price. There seems to be a growing trend to get two drawer cabinets and rest a butcher clock on top. You can still add those outside or inside the legs. I have an 8x2 cube organizer on its side on the left that doubles as an L of an L-shaped desk. For the top, I'd recommend at least a sealer for ~$10 more and sanding/routing the top front edge a good 1/2 inch to keep your wrists and arms comfy. You'll need something to hold all your cables like a tray. I have a 'Mount-it Modesty Panel' (search amazon) that holds all cables with the only cables from the desk setup are the power strip plug and speaker cables. Cable management is a breeze (and comfortable) when you can sit under your desk and not laying on your back on the floor. @@kameleongreen
This shit sounds like a paid ad lol quit shilling
and its crazy that you could've just used the gaming pc to emulate all of those games lmao
@@mariobatguy some people like playing their games natively if they can, on real hardware
Recently found my Wii U and connected it. I have the 8GB white version. I'm definitely installing homebrew. This is going to breathe new life into it for sure.
Oh, I remember when I got my Wii U in 2019 and used your video as a "guide" to install Haxchi cause I thought "maybe I'll sell it as some point"
NOPE. I still play it to this day, I love that console. Thanks for everything MVG!
Edit: I dont need to do any of this stuff anymore right?
Getting WiiU to run homebrew or backups has for sure gotten easier over the years. Good video!
I bought a used Wii U in 2018. It came with Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. It also had Nintendoland pre loaded. It quickly became one of my most played systems. Over the years I picked up some more titles for it and it continued to be a popular system in our house. My daughter also learned how to play Mario on the Wii U and we had a blast playing 3D World together. I don't think the Wii U was a great system, but I think it gets more hate than it deserves.
Love our modded Wii U. Being able to use our PS5 Dualsense controllers has really breathed new life into the Wii U for my family.
The biggest problem ive had with the Wii U is that you can only have 300 pieces of software on the menu at a time, and if you want any more you need to delete some.
This sounds like a lot but i was setting up my Wii U to be my "everything" console with a lot of the older Nintendo consoles. I ran out of space before i even got to GameCube.
Me as well, I think that if someone cracked the display limit it would be unbeatable as a multi gen console.
No. You can create another profile and get another 300 items there. You just cannot have more than 300 items on a single profile. WiiU can have as much as 10 profiles (online and offlilne).
tw: the 300 limit cannot be overcome since it´s relying on simply having 15 items per page on 20 pages = 300 items. You cannot have more than 20 pages of items.
The trick is to use the emulators to load the games and not put the games in the menu at all. That will give you access to thousands of games, though not as easy as just clicking on the menu. Same problem exists on the 3DS. Same solution.
i just got a JP wii u for only $50 on ebay, it came with everything in the box, the whole kit n kaboodle im soo hyped to finally have one!
My modded Wii U has been played more than any other console and still gets almost daily use. Endless backlog of quality nintendo games going back decades on actual Nintendo hardware. I recommend getting upgraded battery for controlpad. Awesome gallery shooters on the wii. Dozens of mario games, almost every zelda game ever made, infinite pokemon, kirby...
which battery did you go for? I'm weary of the explody chinesium ones especially leaving the gamepad docked while I'm away from home or asleep
@@iamdmc I am using the big 6600mAh one that is beeing sold on amazon. it is physically much bigger than the original one. nintendo left a lot of space in the gamepad because they probably wanted to release a bigger battery themselves at some point.
the runtime is great. gets you a full day of gaming on it without charging, but it ads a good amout of weight to the gamepad. it doesn't bother me when using it but it's probably not for everyone.
@@Ultravore is that the "Pickle Power" one?
@@iamdmc yeah that is the one but check the other offers. It is beeing sold with different names but if you compare the pictures it is exactly the same product. One seller offers it a little cheaper.
I was just thinking about my Wii U a few days ago and the state of homebrew and it's almost like you read my mind!
9:37 - Can the Wii U actually run Gamecube games natively just like the original Wii? Or does it use emulation?
It runs them natively! And: It can even run them faster with as pecial program called "Caffe-to-Wii" (C2W)! Be careful with this though.
I was honestly so close to selling my Wii U, I only hold on to it for sentimental value because I played it in middle school. But I remembered the Wii U was one of the last systems that supported analog output. I would love to see how the Wii U homebrew scene can take advantage of CRT users like me. Native 240p support would be freaking awesome for many games.
Don't forget the WiiU is also the only way to play the uncensored version of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Nintendo really dropped the ball with Encore on the Switch...
The Wii U homescreen was awesome in so many ways. Not the best console but some of the things it did, I do kinda miss on the Switch as well as other platforms today.
Make sure you mod the vWii as well. Use a USB y-cable for your external drives. I have mine setup as follows: 2TB WiiU games, 2TB Wii games, 2TB GameCube games. You CANNOT leave them all connected at the same time.
You could’ve just had a hard drive for all 3
why not 1 drive for all 3 systems?
@@ssj99gohanisthebest48if I remember correctly it’s because you can’t
Impossible at this time.@@iamdmc
@@iamdmc Wii U wants its own proprietary format on the hard drive and no other drive connected. Surely the Wii and Gamecube are happy enough on their own FAT32 drive.
I modded mine a long time ago, lots of games on external drive. Nice to see it's still up and running with new hacks. I never knew how good the WiiU was, till I hacked it, some really amazing games for the system. It's too bad it was named WiiU, everyone thought it was just a fancy Wii
0:25 Your TV has seen better days
Thought I was the only one playing BotW with a Dualsense. Weird.
This makes me so happy to learn. I never was able to find a new pro controller for my Wii U that didn’t have drift or wasn’t dirty…I got a Wii U in 2019 for peanuts and since then I’ve enjoyed some of the games like WW HD and TP HD and things I missed out on as well as several great games in the eShop. When that closed I packed it up and put it away because I felt its usefulness was at its end…however learning this is a thing, I fully intend to pull it out and get it modded! Thanks!
Once you start doing custom injects for individual games, the fun really begins. Be careful there is an eventual limit to the homescreen
woah. This is what I've been waiting for 💖
I haven't modded my WiiU because it was a tedious process booting into a state that would allow me to run homebrew and backups. Now I can have my way with the hardware. Very excited to streamline the system
This is gonna be my task this afternoon 🤘
Very underrated console. :) Hope to see an updated video about PS Vita and PS Vita TV. 😎 Keep it up MVG. Thanks gor show so much love for retro community too.
Hey MVG, Great video highlighting the Wii U. One big discovery/development back in late 2023 is prior to then, if you ever factory reset your Wii U without removing the exploit first, then the Wii U would not boot. And you would need a nand writer to copy your backup to the WiiU and solder a few things to get it going again. Works, yes but a pain. But in late 2023, an exploit was discovered where if you had a bricked Wii U (like mine), that all you would need was a Raspberry Pi Pico (bought for $12 at Radio Shack in town), some free software, and I was back up in running in less than 5 minutes. The Raspberry Pi Pico exploit is something you could highlight in a follow-up video. Pretty interesting stuff, and now, people who have a "bricked" WiiU, can fix it in 5 minutes if they have a Raspberry Pi Pico. Super easy. Anyway - great video and highlight!
I'm so glad i picked up two WiiUs cheap in 2019. We had so much fun with them during lockdown and after.
This is my preferred way to play GameCube games because
1. It uses the vWii back-compat so it is "native-ish" if that makes sense (not your typical x86 -> PPC emulation on most machines). So the emulation accuracy is pretty much perfect (to my eyes, but I'm not an expert).
2. GameCube controller works out of the box (the adapter that comes with Smash works to connect via USB).
I wonder if other accessories would work like the Mario Party microphone and DK bongos 🤔 never tested it but I assume if it worked on a real Wii then it would work there too.
The ability to run GameCube games via an HDMI cable is a huge selling point for me to get my Wii U fully modded. Unfortunately the Mario Party microphone uses a memory card slot, which the Wii U doesn't have. The rest of the accessories should work, though!
the GC -> GBA link cable is not supported by nintendon't unfortunatly, the bongos should work just fine.
@@Ultravore The reason for this is that the GCN controller adapter (physical or otherwise) simply lacks the "data" lines in the cable connector that the GC/Wii had. So anything that actually transmits data rather than inputs to the GC/Wii, will not work, including the GCN to GBA cable.
The wii u wasn’t a bad console, there just wasn’t much outside of first party games to play on it. Yes the game pad was a little cumbersome for some but it was fine for my massive hands
so true,
Wii U became my fave console of all time because it lets me play GameCube games while I'm on toilet.
it also lets you play all generation of Nintendo game up to Wii U.
Important to be able to game while logging out.🪵
My Wii U broke a few years ago. If not for that, I would definitely be checking this. This seems amazing.
But isn't there a problem with certain ram memory and if you don't power it up regularly the console will die?
I thought that was a myth?
@@Dudester100 nope, look up wii u nand issues. Some wii u versions have bad nand chips it seems. And quite prevelant.
@@Dudester100it happened to me after factory resetting the system, and I left mine plugged in since the day I got it. There should be a PSA for that stuff, I was able to find only a select few Reddit threads explaining the issue but no actual solution.
To me, the Wii U is such a magical system. Having my cd's as a digital collection is on my mind for a while now. Having high hopes for Pretendo as well, since Nintendo will shut down servers in april.
does the launcher boot any digital WiiU title directly off an external or do titles need to be installed to the internal NAND before booting?
@@udance4ever I think you can run them from external storage directly, since that is also how Nintendo describes it.
I was an avid Wii U supporter and have a pretty extensive digital legal library. Having that said, I run Haxchi as well and Nintendont and Wiiflow are amazing on this console! Retroarch as well!
Haxchi in 2024? update that shit dude
@@pooki-dooki mine also runs on Haxchi.. why not? I did this mod 2 years ago...
@@pooki-dooki if it ain't broke don't fix it, ya?
The coincidence that I finally set up Aroma on my Wii U just a day before this video is wild
Theres only one issue i have with the wii u and i have not find the solution yet, and that problem is the wii u does not allow more then 300 block (games) on the main menu. When installing more then 300 games (of any-type) the system will tell u that it cannot display all games on the menu, and to delete some games to see them show up on the main menu. If you know a solution to this issue that would be a great help MVG!
Create another user. If the apps are all offline and not requiring online, you can creae an offline-user. Another profile. This profile can then store anoher 300 applicatons.
You can have 10 users (10 profiles) on a single WiiU which equals 3000 applications max then.
@@SmartZero-f8e interesting, ima check that out right now
Wii U running Ship of Harkinian. It’s beautiful
I love my Wii U, I use it more then the Switch because of how many games I can play on it.
Not to mention you don't need a paid subscription to play online or classic games.
The Wii and Wii U will always be some of (if not) my favorite nintendo consoles of all time.
Still waiting on someone to bring DevilutionX to the Wii U, would love it on the gamepad!
That sounds like a fun project
Why do you wan a pocket-calculated game on a WiiU supercompuing-machine? Wasted ressources! WiiU can soon run AI-tasks!
You really want Diablo 1 on WiiU? Lol I rather would want WiiU calulate an OWN AI, and then watch HOW it runs that Diablo 1-game.
@@SmartZero-f8ewhat are you even talking about
@@SmartZero-f8e Cringe
The way the plugins work reminds me of the PSP, that thing is a beast. Great video, I'm going to have to dig my Wii U out of storage and set it up as a GC/Wii/Portable console replacement, I only have so much desk space.
Being a poor guy, I was very happy to be able to play BotW because this console.
Still have to get a Switch to play TofK, expensive as hell on my country...
Great video, you really only scratched the surface imo. The fact that the wii u plays it's own games, plus wii and gamecube games NATIVELY from the external storage, without having to swap discs at all, is a genuinely awesome experience. It's the ultimate wii/gamecube for that reason.
I mean there are cool things you can do with it but i just never could justify picking one up, i already have a modded wii which can run wii and GameCube and most wii u games are on switch, plus Wii u can be emulated fairly easily now for the like 3 games not on switch
1) WiU can run gamecube games a lot faster! This means games which ran like ass on Gamecube, and run like ass on emulators run perfect and bugfree and flawless on WiiU now through OC-ability. A WiiU can run gamecube-games at lke ~300 fps with this function called "C2W". So yes. This means a WiiU is MORE POWERFUL than the world´s fastest PC in this discipline.
2) Emulators of WiiU cannot do same things which WiiU does. Not even close. WiiU can run Half LIfe 2 or G-Mod now! Yes. It emulates them! And it can run other Source-games or run stuff like "Portal 1" or "Portal 2". Btw. WiiU has about 300 games which aren´t on Switch.
3) A WiiU will soon be able to run first AI-tasks. Because it can via Linux 3-Core script. It is allready being worked on. AI-Tasks are typically written in python. and Python is a perfect language to run on WiiU.
The WiiU was my first big console so it has a special place in my heart. I am glad there are hacks like this giving it a new live.
the Wii U having more and better exclusives than PS5 is something I never would have predicted lol
WiiU was made for gameplay. Not for Movie-games. PS5 is full of movie-games.
Wii U was all better than gaming nowadays, Wii U games are really games, not movies like today
Woah! The work that has been done since the Tiramisu mod I did years ago is astounding!
I love the WiiU it is a great system, that many people hate for how it was advertised and never given it a chance.
*Hacked or not this system is great!*
I love WiiU. Have already three of them. Classic white 8GB on Haxchi, Black 32GB on Tiramisu and now a white Japan region white 32GB with Aroma xD
My experience with the Wii U is the high fail rates of the console itself (three consoles have broken down on me), while my spare GamePads are sorely underutilized. We need modders to finally figure out how to get GamePads working outside the Wii U console, so we can play the games on more powerful hardware.
It's not hard to find Wii U optical drives from China. This will inevitably be the only way left to play Wii U games and I'm surprised the community isn't taking this more seriously. They need to start working on it today
Unfortunately i had the same experience, the right analog has started to drifting and i was unable to move the controller to be able to aim with the bow in BOTW, and that was only after 2 years.
Some weeks later the psu got bronken and maybe has fried the console, because after purchasing a new one i was unable to boot the console.
The WiiU gamepad uses a proprietary connection, it's not Bluetooth like other modern controllers. Someone would have to not only reverse engineer the protocol itself, but also build and mass produce a dongle for it, all so we can use the bulkiest handheld gamepad in existence.
Emulators already have support for emulating the gamepad and showing it on screen. What's more likely to be made is a way to integrate that with a full blown console like the Steam Deck or the Nintendo Switch. It might even already exist.
Gamepads's tech is outdated and the thing is bulky and uncomfortable.
Almost all of what you would need in a gamepad can be found in any smartphone, plus more. Emulation should be more than fine without having the original gamepad with it's giant 480p screen
my gamepad's rumble and speakers are both broken. I've heard other people mention their broken rumble too. My gamepad charging cable has also failed about a year ago but somehow nintendo still had some replacement cables in stock on their store lol
That will never be possible as WiiU uses a CUSTOM USB 2.0 bus for all GPU, bpu (cpu has 10 buses unlike a standard cpu oday) and even he gamepad uses this. You cannot "emulate" this.
For this reason you also cannot break WiiU´s USB-protocol. Because a PC cannot read it.
A WiiU uses simply way more advanced tech than "PC". PC is so outdated. PC is an invention of 1970s.
WiiU used Windows-11-tech in ~2012 allready (Asynchronic cpu-cores = big/Small cores). WiiU used "TMP 2.0" similar security before Windows 11 even demanded it.
When did Windows 11 came out again? Around 5 years later or so. Still has much worse latency.
A WiiU has NO measurable latency in ALL USB-buses (Cpu, gpu) and for ALL periphery.
Which makes it way more advanced than a PC, wih combined similar abiliies than a modern "AAI". Games show you can blow into the microphone and in REALTIME, the character on the touschreen can jump. No other machine can do this.
A WiiU can even emulate a full PC now as it can run games like Half Life 2 or G-Mod or even Poral 2 or oher source games. (And it could run "Fortnite"-rom from PC, x86 emulated) last year with ~25 fps. And that was last year, with no optimizing and running on the small cpu cores.
With Linux WiiU and the new SMP-Patch it will be possible to achieve 10x faster performance, aka ~250 fps for Fortnite running in SOFTWARE. Because you tell the game o run on he BIG core (Or "performance-core" (PC) like it´s called in Windows 11).
You would even be able to render this game in 8k or 16k on a WiiU, since it`s not stuck to the Gpu´s resolutions any longer.
So the output would still be limited to 1080p of the HDMI. But internally rendered it would be in 8 or 16k.
WiiU will furher more emuate a Switch and other platforms such as PS3 in realtime soon with the big-cpu core support in Linux now.
Just soft-modded my Wii U, got Aroma and Tiramisu on there! Thanks a ton for the coverage MVG! The way I see it, there's no reason NOT to soft-mod the Wii U at this point. I have a bunch of modded systems, including DS, 3DS, PSP, and Wii. Now the Wii U joins them. Hope to get a PS Vita one day and mod that, and to mod my original Xbox as well. Maybe Switch one day too.
Now I want a WiiU.
I'll be looking into purchasing a Wii U now. Thanks for the video!
Not mention of n64/ds injection? That's my favourite part. I have almost the entire nintendo library playable up to 3ds on wiiU. Ive gotten some games listed as incompatible working. I think people underestimate how much you can do on WiiU.
Props for yet again blowing my mind with content I’ve either never heard of, or could have dreamed of.
Please revisit Nintendo switch security system
7:13 if you have UDPIH you can pair any region locked gamepad to any console, you can use a raspberry pi pico or even oddly enough a nintendo switch on CFW.
It’s surprising the Wii U sold so much worse than the Xbox One when it had way better games.
The Xbox One had better marketing to not confuse players with it's weird name, it did have a way better first year than the Wii U (the Wii U barely had anything on it's first year while the One got 2 Forzas, MCC, Dead Rising 3, Sunset Overdrive or Titanfall as console exclusives) so the interest on the console didn't completely lose momentum, and also had multiplatform titles unlike the Wii U to gain sales from millions of casual people who play Fifa, Madden, COD, Minecraft or GTA who didn't jump to the PS4.
My absolute favorite way to use the wii u is sm64 ds with the analog hack, playing one of my favorite games on the gamepad screen and a tv is really cool
Way to start a morning
Yep lol
A 1 and a half minute ad in a 12 minute video? Dear lord...
If they could somehow figure out 3DS emulation on Wii U, then the entire Nintendo library from Wii U and before would become available on a single console.
It might be possible with Citra, I'm not sure if it has any architecture specific code though, Wii U is PowerPC based
@@SomeRandomPiggo No. You need to run LINUX on WiiU first. Without WiiU Linux it will NEVER be possible. Then you need a SPECIAL compiler which compiles a special SMP-Ability into your Linux for WiiU (Custom WiiU LInux Kernel!). The compiler allready exists! then you need a special SCRIPT BEFORE you start the application! which tells the processosr you want this "Citra"-emulator executed on Core 1 (because Core 1 is much more powerful on WiiU´s cpu than Cores 0 or 2, which are just "helper-cores"). And then it will work.
You cannot automatically shove execution from Core 0 to Core 1 or vice-versa. WiiU uses asynchronic multicores.You need to start on a certain core first and then you need to KILL that application first before you can use another application on that core!
You need a script each time you want to use this way more powerful cpu-core. So for every program a SCRIPT Is required.
@@SmartZero-f8e Interesting, don't know much about Citra's inner workings but I'm assuming it has a software renderer which should be quite easy to port to the Wii U's native OS
@@SomeRandomPiggo Correct. Btw: It doesn´t matter because WiiU´s Linux does NOT have GPU-accelleration to begin with! so everything works with software-rendering only.
I'm happy to see this kind of content again, good stuff man
Nothing like an another MVG video about a consoles niche usefulness to continue to drive up the rates from sellers
Six months after the Wind Waker Wii U special edition came out, they still had stock of them at my local GameStop (RIP that store). I finally gave in and bought one. The dude that rang it up was like “I win”. I asked, “you win what”? He replied, “I win the bet.” Then he went into explain that he and his other co-workers had a pool going on. They basically bet on how long it would take to sell a Wii U since the last one, and he won with three months. 😂😢😂
Looks like I'm buying a Wii u
I bought Wii U 6 years ago with Haxchi - it's still working perfectly. Console resting under my bed for 2 years
till the day i knew that it can run Gamecube games... wow! Now i'm playing in old classic Resident Evil games
and awesome GC exclusives like Eternal Darkness. Also i installed Virtual Console versions of my beloved TLOZ: Ocarina Of Time & Majora's Mask.
Crazy console! I like it so much. Being hacked it can run GC, N64, Wii, Nes, Snes games!!! OMG))))
Before people who never owned a Wii U say "The Wii U was a great system"... as someone who owned a Wii U from 2013. No it wasn't.
It was an undepowered, overpriced system with terrible online and lacked features and support from Nintendo.
Fact. It was an abomination from the start. The fact that the Switch is more powerful says it all when the Switch can be emulated on modern phones. Wii U was never competitive in gaming even at the time
Then it means you are simply dumb. You don´t know what you have in the house then (or had in the house). A WiiU can run gamecube-games with 300 Fps through a special OC-script which allows to have 5x faster bandwidth, which directly results in 5x faster execution of the iles. A Highend PC for 5000$ CANNOT do this as it has to emulate gamecube, and it cannot even handle 100% emulation of all gamecube-games with 60 fps.
A WiiU will soon allow you to run ALL Apple-software at more than 10x faster execution-speed (it is being worked on to make i possible, there is a special Linux-program to allow NATIVE execution of Aple-programs like Mac OS X etc).
And this is just part of what it can do.
A WiiU is a good hacking-device. Or if you want to kill the internet or banks. Gaming is just a side-task on this machine.
@@chiquita683 good luck emulating the switch on a phone and play for 30 minutes plus the phone generates so much heat its not enjoyable.
I wanted this video so much. The WIIU is a great homebrew machine
If you don't already own a Wii U and don't need yet another emulation box is there any reason to get one? It looks like the hardware price is only going to grow from this point so it's hard to justify if all the games worth playing have been ported to the Switch and the homebrew has to compete with every mini PC, desktop and Steam Deck under the sun. Or am I missing something?
I shelved my modded Wii and have all my GameCube, Wii, and WiiU libraries on one console. It's nice.