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NA Wii Region Unlock?
JediNight
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've tried googling info, but only seem to find articles about things in the works, and searching these forums is hard when Wii is too short a search term ;x
Does anyone know if there are any modchips or bootloaders to allow NA Wii consoles to play JP import Wii games?
Does anyone know if there are any modchips or bootloaders to allow NA Wii consoles to play JP import Wii games?
JediNight on
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There are modchips, but we cannot discuss them in this forum.
That said, the current batch of Wii chips allow neither imports nor homebrew and as such aren't going to help anyone here, at least for now.
That, and Nintendo's Wii updates pretty much destroy every import exploit the mod chips would use, and thus render them useless (they even tell you in the system update!). This is especially bad for chip users because the latest games apparently require the updates.
Anyway, yeah, this isn't the best place to discuss it...
Oh, and the best part: if you pirate a game from the wrong region, and it contains an update on the disc (as MP3 and Mario Galaxy did), and the Wii tries to apply that update, your console magically transforms into a paperweight. Do not pass go, do not collect your warranty replacement.
This isn't exactly accurate. I could only get a Japanese Wii here in Korea, so I have a Wiikey installed to allow me to play American games. As long as you keep your firmware up to date you won't have any problem. If you apply a newer firmware update from a different region than the one you have on your console, you cannot enter your settings, and you sometimes get duplicate channels. To fix it you have to get a copy of a game from your region with a newer firmware than the one on your system. Last summer I played Mario Strikers Charged without updating my Wii firmware, and I had to wait until Super Mario Galaxy came out to fix the issue. I was able to play games just fine the whole time, I just couldn't adjust the settings.
Also, there are some games that just flat out won't work. I can't play the US version of Mario Galaxy, so I had to buy the Japanese one. It wasn't a big deal to me, because I don't need the text to enjoy the game, and I needed the firmware update.
The downside to having a Japanese Wii is that I don't have access to the American Virtual Console. I don't know if you can change the settings like you can with the PS3 to access stores from different regions.
Electronic composer for hire.
There are some of us who do understand what the characters are saying though and we are the ones who want to import.
Electronic composer for hire.
I've been around the block more than a few times, and the number of RPG importers who can understand written Japanese is in the vast minority compared to impatient fanboys. I think tardcores' point is valid.
猿も木から落ちる
猿も木から落ちる
This is a bit off topic but isn't the Japanese VC like 100 times better than the North american counterpart?
Whoa how did I miss that Crystal bearers is coming out in mere weeks? I'll have to grab that. I hope you just need Wiimotes and Nunchucks and nothing else though.
If it actually comes out next week, I'll pull a Mikami.
Yeah I just checked around and cannot find a release date, so I guess I'll go back to thinking it is never coming out.
Yeah.. this isn't true at all. Current Wii modchips do indeed allow for imports to work, just not all of them. Japanese games usually play on USA Wii's (come to think of it, I don't know any that don't work from Jap->USA), but USA games only play on PAL sporadically. While Nintendo patches the Wii via their online update, none of these have had effects on the modchip's ability, to my knowledge. As far as Wii bricking, that usually happens when a import game with an update on it is put into a Wii of another region, but I even think their are ways around this.
Long story short, you can use a modchip to play import games, but I would never say it's reliable enough that I would want to crack my Wii open to do so. Their is a wiki somewhere that has tested games with different region's wii's and reported their findings, but I can't remember what it is.
Oh. No, not at all. But as far as I know, JP games work on NA modded Wii's with a pretty decent success rate, but you usually have to rip the game to an ISO and then run the game through a program that changes it's region.
I think it's much more work than it's worth.