Originally posted by: C3PX
I do not have a Wii, but I must say I have been very impressed with all I have heard about it since its release. Especially the whole ability to play all sorts of classic games on it. But there are a few things I have been curious about. First off, how are the games obtained? Are they downloaded onto a hard drive? Or are they floating out on a network? If they are actually saved to your Wii itself, what happens when your disk gets full, assuming you could dl enough game to fill it, would you have to get rid of some to get more? Or if the games are kept on a network, what happens when the Wii becomes obsolete and Nintendo decides it is no longer worth keeping the Wii network online. Will all your paid for classic games be unaccessible? Also does it bother anyone else having to repurchase games you have already at one point paid the full price for? I would not like that. For me to repurchase my entire NES and SNES collection (or even just the few I consider "must have" games) at five bucks or so a game would really take a chunk out of my wallet. But the whole concept as a whole is really cool. And if these classic games purchased for use on the Wii were to be usable on the next Nintendo system as well, that would make them all the more valuable.
I do not have a Wii, but I must say I have been very impressed with all I have heard about it since its release. Especially the whole ability to play all sorts of classic games on it. But there are a few things I have been curious about. First off, how are the games obtained? Are they downloaded onto a hard drive? Or are they floating out on a network? If they are actually saved to your Wii itself, what happens when your disk gets full, assuming you could dl enough game to fill it, would you have to get rid of some to get more? Or if the games are kept on a network, what happens when the Wii becomes obsolete and Nintendo decides it is no longer worth keeping the Wii network online. Will all your paid for classic games be unaccessible? Also does it bother anyone else having to repurchase games you have already at one point paid the full price for? I would not like that. For me to repurchase my entire NES and SNES collection (or even just the few I consider "must have" games) at five bucks or so a game would really take a chunk out of my wallet. But the whole concept as a whole is really cool. And if these classic games purchased for use on the Wii were to be usable on the next Nintendo system as well, that would make them all the more valuable.
All of the classic games available to download and play on the Wii are stored on the 512mb internal Flash memory. The games can be backed up on SD cards, but they are unplayable from the card itself. The games you download are locked to your system, and you must transfer the game back to your Wii console to play them.
In the event that you need to erase any games you download, you can re-download them free of charge whenever you want. Nintendo tracks which games have been downloaded to the Wii console, resolving any issues of "losing" games for good. Essentially, once bought you own the games in perpetuity.
It doesn't bother me that I've spent money on games I've already owned in the past for two reasons. One, it's nice not to have a clutter of systems. The downside of this is that you're not using the original controller to play the games, but the Classic Controller is so similar to the SNES controller that it's negligible. It's hard to explain, but it evokes the NES, SNES and N64 controller all at the same time.
Second, if you have a decent AV setup, the games look better than they would on the original console. Super Mario Bros. looks a hell of a lot better on the Wii hooked up to an LCD TV with the component cables, than regular RCA cables with the original NES. So, that's a benefit if you care about that sort of thing.
Personally I still like to have the boxed copy of the game on the original system it was intended for - you won't catch me playing 'Ocarina of Time' on the Wii, the original setup was just too perfect, but it's still nice to have the option to not have to drag out all of your vintage systems.
As for your last question, well, Nintendo could essentially "future proof" the games you've downloaded by implementing a Virtual Console into their next system, but who the hell knows what that is going to be.
I'd much rather have the ability to transfer the games over to a portable gaming device like the DS - now THAT would be cool.