Wii U and Transferring Data From Wii

Yesterday I got my Wii U system.

Nintendo Wii U system - whiteI got the basic (white) set, along with Scribblenauts: Unlimited and Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition. I also have New Super Mario Bros. U on the way (I should have it by Monday).

After charging the gamepad (2.5 hours), I set up the system and downloaded the day-one system update, which took just over an hour. I then played some Scribblenauts: Unlimited for a little bit. I don’t fully know how to use the object editor quite yet, but this is my first attempt at making a banana stand from Arrested Development.

Scribblenauts Unlimited - Banana StandLater, I played some Batman (B:AC:AE is too long of a title, so I’m just going to call it Batman). I have not played the game on PS3/360, so it’s all new to me. After that, I decided to look into doing the system transfer, to move my Wii data to my Wii U. These screens detail what will and will not be transferred:

Transfer Wii data to Wii UTransfer data from Wii to Wii UAnd then you are treated to a scene in which Pikmin pick up and carry your data from your Wii to a rocket ship, and then from their rocket to your Wii U. In my case, the transfer took about 45 minutes. Of course this will vary depending on how much data you are moving.

Pikmin moving data from Wii to Wii UPikmin moving data from Wii to Wii UOnline data does transfer. So your game friend rosters will still be intact and you can still play online.* But any features that use WiiConnect24 (such as the Mario Kart Channel for Mario Kart Wii) will no longer work. Also, remember that the Wii U does not have GameCube controller ports. So if you exclusively used GameCube controllers in games like Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros. Brawl, you might want to think long and hard about whether or not you want to transfer your data. Remember, you can’t selectively choose what to transfer or what not to transfer. It’s basically all or nothing.

There are things that don’t transfer though. Things like the weather channel, news channel, your message board posts, and so on. Thankfully, things that don’t transfer remain on the Wii. They are not deleted. This is contrary to what some sites previously reported, some of which said the Wii is basically formatted. That caused me some alarm at the time, but fortunately it’s not the case.

Also, your Miis are moved from Wii to Wii U. If you want to keep some of your Miis on your Wii, there is a way! Most people probably forgot about this, but a Wii remote has the ability to store up to ten Miis. Copy those Miis to a Wii remote before doing the Wii-to-Wii U transfer. Then after you’re done, move them back from the Wii remote to your Mii plaza. These Miis will have also been moved to the Wii U, so you will have those Miis on both systems.

*Update/reminder: This entry was written in 2012, and Nintendo no longer supports online play for regular Wii games.

Superfly DX

A while back, I saw a video of a homebrew game for the Atari Jaguar CD called Superfly DX. It’s a simple game, but it looked pretty good (especially for a homebrew). The developers offer the game free as a download (which you can burn to a CD). So I had downloaded the file, but I never burned it onto a CD. Until today.

So I gave it a try. You play as a superhero (or at least a guy wearing a cape) who flies or swims from left to right as the screen constantly scrolls. The game only requires one button to play. And I don’t mean the directional pad plus one button, I mean only one button. Pressing the B button makes you go up by a little bit. Gravity then pulls you back down of course, so you have to strike the right balance to keep from hitting the cavern walls above or below you.

Superfly DX Jaguar screenshotIn some modes, you have to collect objects (such as stars) as you go, but other modes have you just trying to survive as long as you can. The game seems to be just a score-based game at first, but a story mode can also be unlocked. There are four worlds, but so far I’ve only seen the first two–the underwater world and the lava world.

Superfly DX Jaguar screenshot - lava worldSuperfly DX has good music and it’s surprisingly fun to play. It’s honestly better than a lot of the professionally-made, retail games released on the system. I’ll be playing this game more in the coming days, and you can expect a review in the near future. If you’re interested, the developers’ site is at reboot.atari.org.

UPDATE: My Superfly DX review has since been posted, and here is a video to give you a better sense of what the gameplay is like.

The Typing of the Dead

Tonight I started playing The Typing of the Dead for Sega Dreamcast. I actually got the game two years ago and played it some at the time, but I didn’t beat it. It got put away and I hadn’t played it for a while…until tonight.

If you don’t know what the game is, it’s based on House of the Dead 2. But you don’t use guns or even a regular controller; you use the Dreamcast keyboard. To shoot at enemies, you type the words, phrases, or sentences that pop up on-screen. Type fast enough and you’ll kill the zombies and advance. Too slow and you’ll be dead meat. It is an odd combination for sure.

Well, I had a problem when I first tried playing tonight. The Dreamcast didn’t seem to recognize my keyboard! Even though I hadn’t used it in two years, I kept it in its original box safe and sound. I started to disassemble the keyboard to see if anything was obviously wrong, and before I was done, I started up the Dreamcast again. This time, it recognized the keyboard and started up normally. So I put the screws back in the keyboard. But then it didn’t recognize it again! Ugh! So I just turned the system off and on a couple times and then it worked again.

The Typing of the Dead - Sega Dreamcast screenshotI played the arcade mode, which has six levels. I actually got to the boss of the fifth level, which is pretty good for not playing it in so long. I guess I’m a fairly good typist, but I’m going to have to improve some more if I’m going to beat the game.

The game does have other modes besides the arcade mode though, so I’ll be giving them all a try in the coming days.