Which old Ninendo to buy?

[Fenris]

PS: And I don't see us picking up a Wii in the next say, 4 years if ever.

I didn't say never.

 

[ssampier]

sings
There are no cats in America....

Opps wrong song!

 

[Fenris]

Yes, the Wavebird works just fine (I have 2 hooked up). The only note, is any Wii game that uses them or a classic controler will default to them first if they are plugged in.

You also need a GC memory Card.

I highly recomend Tales of Symphonia if the GC if you like Final Fantasy style RPGs. It's a fun and enjoyable game, good (if unorigional) plot and character development, and a fun actionish combat system that supports multi-players.

You have your Wii Code? Let people know and you can make Wii Friends.

My wife found a pair of new Wavebirds on ebay, so we're set there. The Nintnedo site says the GC controllers will work with all Virtual Console games except the Turbografix games so those should be fine for the VC games.

I still haven't played but that one evening, and the kids don't even know about it yet, though we now own about 8 games

 

[Bront]

Classic Controler works better for several classic games due to the button config. (Mario World, and Street Fighter for example)

 

[Fenris]

Thanks again all for your replies. We gave the kids the Wii on Saturday as an early (very!) birthday present and they have been enjoying it very much.

I have a question though, we picked up a couple of Game Cube games. Is there some way to start a GC game with the GC controller or do you need the Wii remote to get started. Secondly, how do we exit those GC games once in them? I have been having to turn the Wii off to get out of the game.

 

[Alzrius]

Thanks again all for your replies. We gave the kids the Wii on Saturday as an early (very!) birthday present and they have been enjoying it very much.

From your previous posts, it sounds like it's going to be fun for the whole family.

I have a question though, we picked up a couple of Game Cube games. Is there some way to start a GC game with the GC controller or do you need the Wii remote to get started.

You'll need a Wii Remote to get it started. Once the game has begun, the GameCube controller works normally for whatever GC game is in there, but you'll need to use the Wii Remote to select the Disc Channel and then hit the start button to load the game.

Secondly, how do we exit those GC games once in them? I have been having to turn the Wii off to get out of the game.

So far as I know, that's the only way to do it. Even hitting the "Home" button on the Wii Remote won't stop it while it's playing a GC game, since it emulates a GameCube perfectly.

 

[Megaton]

The N64 gets a lot of hate, because it was still cartridge when other systems went disk, a lot of people don't like the joystick and there weren't a lot of games...but the N64 has some of the greatest games ever made.

possibly the 5 best gams of all time?

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - best game ever?
Super mario 64 - started 3D platforming
Banjo Kazooie - close to perfection and just plain fun
Jet Force Gemini - hidden gem!
Mario Kart 64 - best multiplayer for all levels of skill

Super Smash Brothers - Fighting game Nintendo style
the first few Mario Parties - ditto
Legend of Zelda:Majora's Mask - not as good as Ocarina, but all Zeldas are great
Mario Golf - makes golf fun
Mario Tennis - makes tennis amazing
Banjo Tooie - not as good as the original, but what is?
Goldeneye - FPS on nintnedo
Paper Mario - a great Mario-style RPG
Perfect Dark - the other FPS.
DK 64 - can get frustrating in spots, but still worthy
Conker's BFD (Rated M) - um...yeah, not for your kid

I'm also the only fan of the N64 joystick. I loved the three-prong stick with multiple options on how to hold it.

I have to agree, the N64 was highly underrated. I also saw the cartridges as a plus too, because it meant no loading times. Some PS games were annoyingly slow in that regard.

My roommate and I had a bunch of friends over for New Years and everyone wanted to play Mario Kart 64.

 

[Fenris]

Update:
So we've had the Wii for a while and are enjoying it. I finished Raving Rabbids and that was fun. My wife has discovered ebay and has been picking iup old GC games on the cheap.

We have two Wavebirds on the advice of Bront and Alz here. Two more questions. We wpould like to get two more, but the Wavebirds are expensive. Target was clearanceing two madcatz wireless GC controllers for $20. Good deal?

Secondly we saw the our local Game stop has refurbished GCs for $25. We have over a dozen games for the and thought it might be nice to have a second box (at that price at least). Thoughts?

 

[Alzrius]

Hi Fenris!

Update:
So we've had the Wii for a while and are enjoying it. I finished Raving Rabbids and that was fun. My wife has discovered ebay and has been picking iup old GC games on the cheap.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the Wii. I've just gotten Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and absolutely can't pull myself away from it!

We have two Wavebirds on the advice of Bront and Alz here. Two more questions. We wpould like to get two more, but the Wavebirds are expensive. Target was clearanceing two madcatz wireless GC controllers for $20. Good deal?

I can't really help you here. I never got one of those controllers (properly called a MicroCON), so I can't really say if that's a good deal or not. However, I found the following review on Amazon.com, giving it 3 out of 5 stars:

I bought this as a Gamecube and Virtual Console controller for my Wii, with which it works very well. The controller functions right out of the box, is nicely responsive, and just works. Most of the buttons are solid enough, the thumb stick works very well, and the price was certainly right. The grips are hard plastic and the controller itself is lightweight.

After using it for a few weeks (and through two games, the excellent 'Beyond Good and Evil' and 'Metroid Prime'), I have two criticisms, both of which have been mentioned in Amazon reviews.

First, it is very small for an adult. While I don't worry too much about it being hard to reach the 'start' button (I'd rather not accidentally hit it, so I consider this a 'feature'), the A/B/X/Y buttons are very close together for my big thumb, and I'm always accidentally hitting the X button instead of the Y. The Left and Right shoulder buttons feel cheap, but they work well.

Second, after the beating I've given it with 'Metroid Prime', The analog sticks are (reasonably enough) starting to drift a bit.. (ED. After a bit of playing, I found if you unplug the wireless plug from the Wii, and then plug it back in, the controller recalibrates. Putting the Wii in standby mode doesn't do it, since the gamecube ports are still powered. Also, you must make sure the controller is switched on before you start the gamecube game, or the sticks will be off..)

All and all, it seems to be a decent product and unless the stick problem gets worse (ED. It's fine..) I'd definitely buy it for a younger child to beat up. Or if an extra $10 makes a big difference.

Edit, 4 months later: As time goes on, the joystick portion becomes less and less accurate and drifts badly.I'd drop my rating down to a 2 if I could. Good price, but not very rugged at all.

So it might not be such a great deal. Wavebirds are expensive, I know, but you get what you paid for.

Secondly we saw the our local Game stop has refurbished GCs for $25. We have over a dozen games for the and thought it might be nice to have a second box (at that price at least). Thoughts?

That really depends on if you think it's worthwhile. Do you have a second TV to hook it up to? Do you play the Wii so much that someone wanting to play another GameCube game will have to wait a long time to get a chance to play it? Do you have enough controllers that people playing the Wii won't miss the GameCube controllers if someone else is using them?

If you do pick up a refurbished GameCube, make sure to ask to try it out there in the store. You don't want to find out that it has some problems after you've purchased it and taken it home.

Hope that helps!