the Wii shop channel is awesome,I already used Wii points for Donkey Kong and Super Castlevania IV,and going to get many many more,and the only difference with the later version of the Wii is it will play DVD movies,thats it,everything alse will be the same,not playing DVD movies with the Wii is NO problem with me,I already have a OPPO upconvert DVD player and the PS3. DJ