Wii Virtual Console migrate to Wii U?

[+Ripdubski]

Is this possible? How does that work? Do I have to re-buy all the virtual console games I have on the Wii?

 

For that matter is the Wii shop channel still active?

[Austin]

You have to do a system transfer from your old Wii to the Wii U. See Nintendo's website for instructions.

 

After the system transfer is done, you can re-download your Wii VC games in the Wii U's Wii backwards compatible mode. It is a cumbersome process. If you want them on the main Wii U dashboard, you have to pay the upgrade fee ($1 for NES, I believe $1.50 for SNES). Not all of the original VC titles are available for the Wii U, so you won't be able to upgrade every game even if you want to. However, the upgraded versions give you customizable controls, save states, and obviously HD/upscaled visuals. It's worth the hassle and little bit of extra money, in my opinion.

[Atariboy]

Is this possible? How does that work? Do I have to re-buy all the virtual console games I have on the Wii?

Austin has you covered, but since I did this a few weeks ago, I'll add that it went nice and smoothly with zero issues. There are a lot of videos detailing the process that you can look at if you want to clarify all the steps like this one.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEV33L_3HZs

 

The only things I did special was moving Mega Man 9/10 and my delisted games to the dashboard so they wouldn't have to be redownloaded (Normally, I keep all my WiiWare & Virtual Console games on my SD card).

 

You're supposed to be able to redownload delisted games after transferring everything, but once in a while, someone claims they couldn't (Likely they looked for a non-existent product page on the Wii Shop instead of going into their purchase history like they're supposed to). And I had some Mega Man 9/10 DLC and had never seen anyone mention if that is transferred.

 

But if it's on the dashboard, it's transferred directly during the transfer process and doesn't need to be redownloaded. So I decided this was the safest course of action for these few downloads just to play it completely safe even though I was confident it wasn't necessary.

 

But I'd minimize how much content you're transferring directly and just plan to redownload most of it after the transfer. The more that has to moved to the SD card and then be moved off it at the end, the more likely something might screw up during the reading/writing process.

 

However, the upgraded versions give you customizable controls, save states, and obviously HD/upscaled visuals. It's worth the hassle and little bit of extra money, in my opinion.

Not to mention off-screen play with the Wii U gamepad.

 

For that matter is the Wii shop channel still active?

It's still alive and well. It doesn't get any new additions anymore and games are delisted every once in a while, but the bulk of the content remains available for purchase and everything is able to be redownloaded.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Atariboy

[+Ripdubski]

Thx for the info. If I buy the updated version will I lose my game saves? Like my Zelda link to the past progress?

 

Btw I'm only talking about three games.

Zelda link to past

Super Mario 64

Bonks revenge (no save ability)

 

I was debating getting SNES super Mario world now which sparked my original question. I don't really like the Wii and never wanted a WiiU but my son plays it and it's been freezing a lot lately do if a replacement is due it won't be another 6 year old tech.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Ripdubski

[Austin]

The Link to the Past progress won't be there when you upgrade to the Wii U version. However, the version of the game still sitting in the Wii's backwards compatible mode should still be there, save file intact. When you buy the upgraded version, you have to download the upgraded version, which is a separate file/install from the original that's still stored in the BC mode.

[Atariboy]

When you upgrade a Wii Virtual Console title to the Wii U version, the Wii version is no longer available in backwards compatibility mode.

 

So make sure you finish off your in-progress save in Link to the Past if it matters to you before paying the $1 upgrade fee to convert it into the Wii U version.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Atariboy

[+Ripdubski]

Still a bit confused mainly because I do t know how back compat mode works or why they made it difficult to migrate. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and lose my place and though I'm halfway done.

[Atariboy]

The transfer is easy.

 

You just need both systems hooked up and ready to go, a SD card with at least 512MB's of free space, and download the app on the Wii Shop on your Wii. Then start the process on the Wii U by going into Wii mode via the Wii dashboard icon (Which boots up the original Wii OS and is where Wii software is played on the Wii U) and start the factory installed Wii transfer app.

 

Then just follow the on-screen instructions and prompts. Should only take you about 30 minutes to do and then your Wii DLC, your saves, and your Mii's will be transferred to your Wii U and erased off your Wii (Except your Mii's which will be on both).

 

And if you desire later on after doing the transfer to upgrade your downloads to the Wii U version to enable new features such as save states like Austin mentioned in post 2, you go into the Wii U's eShop and can buy them at a discounted price. The only one of the three that you can upgrade at this time to a Wii U version is Link to the Past for $1.50.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Atariboy

[Austin]

When you upgrade a Wii Virtual Console title to the Wii U version, the Wii version is no longer available in backwards compatibility mode.

 

Really? Huh.. I didn't know that.

[Atariboy]

Yeah, sort of stinks because of the save aspect, but that's how it works.

[+Ripdubski]

Thx, that helps.

[Atariboy]

Most of these were already mentioned, but I came across a list of reasons why it's beneficial to pay the upgrade fee that I had posted at another forum a while back and thought I'd repost it here.

 

-Games are correctly displayed as 4:3 pillarboxed instead of stretched to 16:9 (Since fixed with a Wii U update last Fall that allows 4:3 Wii games to be correctly displayed in 4:3 when the Wii U is set to a HD resolution).

-Wii U controller support including off-screen play.

-Save states rather than the limited suspend state of the Wii Virtual Console.

-Improved emulation such as the NES color palette appearing a bit more vibrant.

-Improved picture quality and decreased input lag due to upscaling directly to HD instead of first to 480p.

-Full button remapping options.

-Games are tied to a more modern online shop with more life likely left in it than the Wii Shop.

-Convenience of not having to boot into and then out of Wii mode to play your VC game.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Atariboy

[Atariboy]

When you upgrade a Wii Virtual Console title to the Wii U version, the Wii version is no longer available in backwards compatibility mode.

 

Upgraded some games finally and this didn't happen. Not sure if it's a recent policy change or if I was just mistaken or read misleading information. But the Wii originals definitely still work.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Upgraded some games finally and this didn't happen. Not sure if it's a recent policy change or if I was just mistaken or read misleading information. But the Wii originals definitely still work.

No, you definitely don't lose access to a title in Wii mode when you upgrade it to Wii-U. I had an entire page devoted to Mario on my original Wii system Menu. I've since transferred all my Wii software to Wii-U and everything still shows up on my Wii system menu exactly as it was on my old flailing Wii. When I upgraded many of those titles to Wii-U, the home screen slots dedicated to my original Wii games were still there. Mario, Mario LL, Mario 2, Mario 3, World are still on my Wii home menu and as well I have the upgraded titles on my Wii-U system menu as well in a tidy row. They do not disappear off the Wii menu after you upgrade.

 

As for redownloading everything, it isn't entirely necessary. If you used the SD card menu to load games, then you can use the same SD card and load the same games in Wii mode on your Wii-U post transfer. When I did the system transfer, it hanged at 90%. I moved the SD card to my Wii-U and it transferred the Wii shop licenses over but not the downloaded games. I moved the SD card back to the Wii and it prompted me the transfer was not complete. Retry? I clicked "yes" and it quickly jumped to 90% then completed. I stuck the SD card into my Wii-U and once completed, all my downloaded games and save data were intact.

 

If anyone's interested, in case the process hangs at 90% like mine did, you will temporarily have duplicate download hisories on both the Wii and Wii-U. You Wii-U will have download history but no save files/downloads whereas your Wii will still have your downloads and save files. Completing part 2 of the transfer will give you access to your old data on the Wii-U and simultaneously wipe it from the Wii. If you leave the transfer process uncompleted, it may give you access to software simultaneously on the old Wii and redownload on the Wii-U, so there's a slim possibiity that an incomplete transfer will allow a duplicate license to exist on both the parent Wii and the host Wii-U.

 

I did the transfer in December 2012 and my old Wii had frequent crashes and was starting to develop memory errors so I'm lucky it worked at all. The duplicate license loophole may not work for subsequent Wii-to-Wii-U system transfers and if a true loophole existed, has likely been patched by now. The software was still on my Wii but I never tried to access the Wii Shop to see if I could still redownload, prior to completing the transfer and removing everything off the old Wii.

 

Wow, that was a mouthfull.

[Atariboy]

The only games that don't have to be redownloaded are those that were residing on your Wii's internal flash memory when you initiated the transfer (Or at least that was the situation in April 2014 when I did it).

 

In my case, as I said above, I only put a small amount of my DLC onto my dashboard for the transfer. The way I looked at it, the more data that had to be wrote to the SD card and then read by the Wii U, the greater the chance there would be a hiccup during the transfer process. Everything else I kept on my SD card where it always was during this.

 

After I was finished, to my surprise, everything I left on my SD card showed up in Wii mode on my Wii U anyways even though I only transferred the licenses, not the DLC. But each would give me an error when I attempted to play them. So if this is what you did, if you actually go and try to play one of these games that you didn't directly transfer, you're going to more than likely find that you have to delete and redownload it off Wii mode's Wii Shop even though it's still showing up like normal.

 

Only what's on the Wii's 512MB's of flash memory is transferred directly.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Atariboy

[Austin]

After I was finished, to my surprise, everything I left on my SD card showed up in Wii mode on my Wii U anyways even though I only transferred the licenses, not the DLC. But each would give me an error when I attempted to play them. So if this is what you did, if you actually go and try to play one of these games that you didn't directly transfer, you're going to more than likely find that you have to delete and redownload it off Wii mode's Wii Shop even though it's still showing up like normal.

 

This is what happened to me, and talk about a pain! I had about five pages worth of stuff to re-download, and as we know, the Wii's download shop isn't exactly modern-day, cutting-edge stuff (not that the new e-Shop is much better). It was quite a cumbersome process and took a good while to get those games re-downloaded again. The whole time while downloading I was sitting there thinking, "@#)*#&$, the data was already on the card!!". Gah. Glad that one's in the past, haha.