Buying used Wii U

You would want to get a 32GB NAND Wii U if you can, along with the game pad, not just the console itself, try to get as many accessory it come with if you going to buy one. All consoles are hackable.

 

Internal Storage, you would want to get a HDD to install games on after setting up CFW, don't install any games on the internal storage (NAND)

 

I used this when I hacked mine

https://wiiu.hacks.guide/

 

IIRC the black console is the 32 GB Deluxe one, and the white is 8 GB Basic. You need the GamePad to work the console, but could in principle buy them separately and not have them match colour (though as Hayato says, it's much more convenient to get them together).

 

I got one I’ll sell

 

Hello ,

To give you an opinion on the size of the games:


New Super Marios Bros. U - 1.73 Giga
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 - 1.91 Giga
Trine 2: Director’s Cut - 1.94 Giga
Nintendo Land - 2.85 Giga
Madden NFL 13 - 4.84 Giga
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge - 5.44 Giga
ZombiU - 5.73 Giga
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed - 5.89 Giga
The Rabbids Land - 7.38 Giga
FIFA 13 - 7.49 Giga
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two - 7.52 Giga
Darksiders II - 9.57 Giga
Sing Party - 12 Giga
Just Dance 4 - 15 Giga
Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper - 16 Giga
Assassins Creed III - 17 Giga

For the capacity SD card, it's up to you to see what you want to put on it (games, homebrew ...), but prefer an external hard drive to store your games.

If you get a hard drive, you can get a 64GB SD card, see more

 

The Gamepad is the part with the screen - most games use it to show a map or inventory, and some let you show the main action of the game there so your partner &c. can use your TV to watch something else.

But it is also the main controller - unless you want to play with friends or use Wii games, you won't need another controller. You can get a Pro Controller with the same button layout (sticks symmetrically above d-pad/ABXY) but without the screen. But unlike the Switch's Pro Controller, it's missing the motion controls and Amiibo reader that the Gamepad has.

 

MBR and GPT are two types of partition tables, they're not a property of the hardware itself but of how the disk is partitioned (if it is). I'd bet that every SD card or other removable block device today that is sold already containing a filesystem in a single partition is using MBR, but even if not, the option to use MBR or GPT partition schemes should be present in whatever tool you use to format the drive.

If you get an SD card, just put it into the Wii U and see if it is recognized. If not, format it and that's it.

That said, USB 2.0 is capped at 60 MB/s, but the Wii U's SD card reader doesn't really get to wonderful speeds either. If you're going to use Loadiine, you're stuck using the SD card. Don't go all out and spend hundreds on a super fast one, though, as the console won't benefit from it anyways.

Others have told you to get the 32 GB one, and I believe the reason behind that is that the internal memory is much faster than using an SD card or external HDD, so having more of it means you get to reduce load times for something like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Wii U allows you to move things between the external HDD and internal memory, too, so if you're going to start playing a game very often you might want to move it there.

People have successfully used 256 GB PNY SD cards, so maybe whatever SDXC can do? The official statement from Nintendo is 32 GB, 8 times less than there is evidence for.

 

You can only play Switch games on one screen at once - either the TV OR the tablet itself (though the tablet contains the processor &c. so it's portable, whereas the Wii U Gamepad is just a screen and won't work far from the console). Some Wii U games also work like this - Zelda Breath of the Wild (because it was released on both platforms) actually blanks out the inactive screen, some games show the same picture on both.

But many games use the screens for different things - Xenoblade Chronicles X has an interactive map.

The back of the game's box should say whether it supports off-TV play (i.e. main screen is Gamepad).

Edit: there is a piece of homebrew that lets you swap any game's screens, even if the developer didn't include this function: https://github.com/OatmealDome/SwapDRC. But the gamepad screen, and therefore the picture intended for it, are only 480p, so it's mostly useful for shrinking the main display for off-TV play rather than getting a better look at the gamepad display.

 

Definately Get One You will then have two main options for playing Games excluding NAND Size Differences.

Option 1 : SSD with a Y Splitter and you can use Mocha FAT32 and Loadiine/USBLoaderGX and have all WiiU/Wii/GC etc. of SSD.

Option 2 : HDD WiiU/EShop/Wii/GC Run via Main Menu but need to be Installed you will need a fairly Large SDCard I recommend 64GB.

Whatever You decide to do you cant go wrong

 

From wiiu.hacks.guide:

Code:

Compatible Haxchi Games
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Big Brain Academy
Brain Age
DK: Jungle Climber
Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training
Kirby: Canvas Curse
Kirby: Mass Attack
Kirby: Squeak Squad / Kirby: Mouse Attack
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Mario Kart DS
New Super Mario Bros.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky
Pokemon Ranger
Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
Starfox Command
Super Mario 64 DS
Wario: Master of Disguise
WarioWare: Touched
Yoshi’s Island DS
Yoshi’s Touch & Go

So yes it is compatible.

 

Avoid using loadline. Use Haxchi instead.