This is a thread that I think is almost desperately needed, because there are some people who have Japanese Wii's (most likely because they have no other choice) but cant find any information about Jap consoles. There are also those people who are thinking of buying a Jap console (again most likely because they have no other choice), but want to know some stuff first. Both of these cases apply to me (obviously the second one no longer applies).
So to help those people out, I'm gonna post some general info, and maybe some more detailed info later.
Facts of Interest to those planning on buying a Jap Wii:
Info for Jap Wii owners:
Some important info is there in the above points so it would probably be a good idea to read through those first...
More to come later...
Please feel free to post any other information that may be of use...
Thanks.
So to help those people out, I'm gonna post some general info, and maybe some more detailed info later.
Facts of Interest to those planning on buying a Jap Wii:
- The Japanese Wii has no option for English language menus. All Wii menus will be in Japanese.
- If you have a modded Wii, and run NTSC-US games that work, the games will be in English (Sonic & the Secret Rings is a semi-exception, as you can change the language from the default Japanese to English) (Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 have only Japanese though)
- As long as you can get the **** WiFi working with your router (or USB WiFi adapter, or LAN adapter), you will be able to connect to the Wii's onlince service (WiiConnect24), BUT everything will be in Japanese, again with no option to switch to English.
- If your country's electricity voltage is 220V-230V, you'll need a decent 110V/220V transformer to be able to power the Wii up safely. Most console shops will have a transformer you can buy. If you just use a plug converter to change the type of plug, you'll burn your console, as those converters dont change the voltage.
- NTSC-J is almost identical to NTSC-US in terms of video output, which basically means you will have no problems whatsoever plugging an NTSC-J console to an NTSC-US compliant display device (eg. NTSC TV). In case of PAL TVs, I havent tried but most likely it wont work. The solution for PAL regions is to use a multi-system TV which are actually quite widely available.
- A couple of NTSC-US games have failed to work on modded NTSC-J console, most importantly the three most recent releases: Heatseeker, Legend of the Dragon and Spider-man 3. There are also some 4 other games that havent worked, but considering the other 46 games released work, its a pretty good ratio. For the full listing check http://wiki.gbatemp.net/index.php/Wii_Region_Free_Patcher_Compatibility_List
- NTSC-US GameCube games all seem to work, I've tested a fair number of them. The exceptions are Star Fox Adventures which works, but is only in Japanese (the option to change to English is not available when the game is loaded in Japanese :mad2: ) and Star Fox Assault which boots up to a black screen (I've burnt each 3-4 times already...). The PAL version of Star Fox Adventures doesnt have Japanese on the disc at all, so theoretically if you could get it to boot you should be able to play in English. It's really a shame those two dont work because they're good games... Star Wars: Clone Wars also boots but shows a neverending loading screen, this might just be a bad burn though.
Info for Jap Wii owners:
Some important info is there in the above points so it would probably be a good idea to read through those first...
- The latest firmware version, as far as I know is 2.2J (if anyone else knows of a newer version please let us know)
- Super Paper Mario - NTSC-USA is said to work on Japanese consoles and PAL consoles without bricking (breaking) the consoles IF AND ONLY IF the firmware version is 2.2J (or 2.2E for Euro consoles)
- The above point applies to ALL first-party (Nintendo) games (regardless of region) released after Super Paper Mario (USA).
- Big Brain Academy: Wii Edition, can semi-brick consoles even if they have firmware version 2.2J/E/U, resulting in not being able to enter the Wii setup menu.
- A program has been released that removes updates from discs, therefore preventing any possibility of bricking. The program name is WiiBrickBlocker, and it is available here: http://www.wii-addict.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2017
More to come later...
Please feel free to post any other information that may be of use...
Thanks.
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