Gaming Wii games on the game pad

[Ghork]

I just heard that you won't be able to play standard Wii games on the game pad, nor will you be able to play Wii virtual console titles there. This just makes me sad, I was hoping to play Super Smash Bros Brawl on there.

While I understand there might be some controller issues, like the Wii games not supporting the Wii U game pad's controls, do you think it would be possible to get this feature later on?
I mean, couldn't they make Wii games and VC games consider the controller a Classic controller or a gamecube controller? Do you think there's another reason for Nintendo to keep us from getting Wii games on the controller?

 

[Lanlan]

I just can't wait to try out the Gamepad for SNES games. I wanna put that Dpad to work.

 

[Arras]

I just heard that you won't be able to play standard Wii games on the game pad, nor will you be able to play Wii virtual console titles there. This just makes me sad, I was hoping to play Super Smash Bros Brawl on there.

While I understand there might be some controller issues, like the Wii games not supporting the Wii U game pad's controls, do you think it would be possible to get this feature later on?
I mean, couldn't they make Wii games and VC games consider the controller a Classic controller or a gamecube controller? Do you think there's another reason for Nintendo to keep us from getting Wii games on the controller?

Wiimotes use Bluetooth to connect to the regular Wii. The WiiU has an extra Wifi module inside it that allows it to connect to the Gamepad. So unless WiiU mode gets hacked and someone figures out a way to get access to that thing OR someone finds a way to use the normal Wifi module for this (not even sure if this is possible) it's impossible. And even then someone would still have to write drivers for the thing which would take a bit of time as well.

 

[Ghork]

Wiimotes use Bluetooth to connect to the regular Wii. The WiiU has an extra Wifi module inside it that allows it to connect to the Gamepad. So unless WiiU mode gets hacked and someone figures out a way to get access to that thing OR someone finds a way to use the normal Wifi module for this (not even sure if this is possible) it's impossible. And even then someone would still have to write drivers for the thing which would take a bit of time as well.

I see, but wouldn't ninty be able to let that kind of stuff be accessible in Wii mode? Or do you think they have good reasons not to?

 

[Foxi4]

I see, but wouldn't ninty be able to let that kind of stuff be accessible in Wii mode? Or do you think they have good reasons not to?

The good reason not to is typical everyday lazyness - it would require re-working of the system. Rather than creating a system where the Wii is emulated in WiiU Mode by a software clock restriction, Nintendo uses a physical one, resorting to hardware-based emulation. The WiiU practically becomes a Wii, and hence due to lack of resources or WiiU functionality, the gamepad is disabled until you re-enter WiiU Mode.

It's made that way because it's simplicity itself - doing it in any other way, albeit probably more beneficial to the end user, would be quite a task for the OS programmers. That, and playing Wii games on the gamepad wouldn't be very feasable unless you used it only as a display and pointed the Wii remote at it, which if I recall correctly was the original idea.

 

[Eerpow]

I see, but wouldn't ninty be able to let that kind of stuff be accessible in Wii mode? Or do you think they have good reasons not to?

It's the same as why you can't use the wiimote in GameCube mode. The GameCube wasn't designed to use wiimotes so it's technically difficult and maybe even impossible to implement it considering how the Wii U plays Wii games. If there was a way Ninty would still not do it because it could potentially open a gate for hackers out of the Wii mode sandbox.

As for Virtual Console support I think they'll eventually release newer Wii U versions to replace the Wii mode only ones.

 

[Foxi4]

It's the same as why you can't use the wiimote in GameCube mode. The GameCube wasn't designed to use wiimotes so it's technically difficult and maybe even impossible to implement it considering how the Wii U plays Wii games. If there was a way Ninty would still not do it because it could potentially open a gate for hackers out of the Wii mode sandbox.

Devolution works entirely in Wii Mode and yet plays Gamecube games just fine - such an implementation does not open any "gates" from the Sandbox, really - it's simply hard to program properly.

 

[Lucifer666]

Plus - think of titles like Twilight Princess of even Wii sports for that matter. Wii Remote motion controls being displayed on a gamepad? That'd be awkward as hell to play, having the gamepad on a stand on a table and you swinging your Wii motes from a distance.

Nintendo's not gonna redesign the controls of every game. It's all just too much of a hassle to deal with.

 

[Eerpow]

Devolution works entirely in Wii Mode and yet plays Gamecube games just fine - such an implementation does not open any "gates" from the Sandbox, really - it's simply hard to program properly.

It was a long time ago I played around with Wii hacks I know about devolution but I haven't read up on it... I have a modchip in mine for gamecube.
But is it really Wii Mode? I thought it was because the GameCube had some kind of support for SD and USB implemented. Does that mean that it's theoretically possible to implement the use of classic controllers for gamecube games? The old CC with analog triggers. GameCube on the Wii U or the newer Wii's should be enough motivation I think.

 

[Foxi4]

It was a long time ago I played around with Wii hacks I know about devolution but I haven't read up on it... I have a modchip in mine for gamecube.
But is it really Wii Mode? I thought it was because the GameCube had some kind of support for SD and USB implemented. Does that mean that it's theoretically possible to implement the use of classic controllers for gamecube games? The old CC with analog triggers. GameCube on the Wii U or the newer Wii's should be enough motivation I think.

Including Wiimotes and their perhaptials is within future plans as far as Devolution is concerned, yes. Seeing that it's indeed Wii Mode, it's technically feasable to add Gamecube support to the WiiU that way, however the creator is againts piracy and the only way to enable the image to play is to validate it with a legit Gamecube disc, which isn't possible on the WiiU due to the fact that the reader doesn't accept them... perhaps via an adapter it would, but it's still inconvenient.

 

[Ghork]

But hey, what about the VC and WiiWare games? Are those only available in Wii mode or will they be on the Wii U menu?

 

[Lucifer666]

But hey, what about the VC and WiiWare games? Are those only available in Wii mode or will they be on the Wii U menu?

I believe those will strictly be available in Wii mode only.

 

[Foxi4]

But hey, what about the VC and WiiWare games? Are those only available in Wii mode or will they be on the Wii U menu?

Those that are transferred from the Wii or made for the Wii will run in Wii Mode, those that are released for the WiiU will work in WiiU Mode. Nintendo will gradually switch, I'm guessing.

 

[Eerpow]

But hey, what about the VC and WiiWare games? Are those only available in Wii mode or will they be on the Wii U menu?

Nobody knows that they have planned for VC at this point, it's possible that they might upgrade them for the Wii U, they are still releasing VC and there are many titles still not released. So I think we'll see something in the future. Hopefully it doesn't require you to repurchase VC you already own in Wii mode.

 

[DiscostewSM]

The 3DS has a small active layer when running DS games, allowing the Home button to be used and doing a scale filter on the display. I don't see why the WiiU couldn't do something similar with Wii games. Much of it is leaving some WiiU-specific components active (like streaming to the Gamepad), and redirecting the output to the Gamepad instead of the regular route.