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Topic: Wii games on Switch VC

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skywake

I just realised that there was a thread about GC games on the Switch but nothing about Wii. How possible do people think this is and if they think it'll work what games would people like to see?

Personally I think the only thing that will be difficult about making Wii games work on the Switch is the pointer controls. The Switch has an IR camera but it's facing the wrong way and there is no sensor bar included. For those games to work they'd probably have to sell a Wii Controller set for Switch. The good thing is that it's all Bluetooth, old WiiMotes would work. But selling WiiMotes again? eh. Though it's either that or finding a way to make those games worth with gyro controls. Not ideal.

But with that said there are other games that would work fine without pointer controls. Specifically all the games that could be played with the Classic Controller, most of the games that were played with the WiiMote on the side and pretty much all the games that used Wii Motion Plus. Which is a long list of games... but also a list that excludes most of the big Wii games.

So the question is, would it make sense to have Wii games on the VC? Would a clunky solution for pointer controls like telling people to get a WiiMote work? And if not is not having Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 ok if it means you can play Xenoblade Chronicles, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Skyward Sword?

Edited on by skywake

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Emperor-Palpsy

Emulation could be a sticking point due to the differences in CPU architecture, but I believe the 'pointing' aspect would be the least of their worries. When choosing multi-player games, they would just have to be sure not to pick titles where 'pointing' isn't required for more than one player, as only the right Joy-Con has this feature.

Nintendo are still holding a lot of information back and haven't even touched on VC yet. My best guess would be that the Switch console itself includes sensor bar-functionality within the top bezel; even a pair of candles can copy this experience.

Purely from a business perspective, it's an opportunity that Nintendo won't want to miss. Some of the best selling and highest rated games made it to the Wii/Wii U, so it's only natural to make further use of the motion controls.

Personally, I would quite look forward to playing Wii Sports again!

cackle

Octane

I agree with @Emperor-Palpsy (although I believe that it's already confirmed that the Switch won't act as a sensor bar). I'm more worried about the emulation aspect than the controllers. I guess the same is true for GameCube, is the Switch even capable of emulating those systems?

I think that IR pointer controls are completely gone. Yes, there's an IR camera on the right Joy-Con, but it's not meant to play a game like Mario Galaxy, I don't think it'll be used a lot outside of the party games like 1-2-Switch. Maybe the gyro controls can emulate the pointer controls. It was extremely slow and clunky in Skyward Sword, but I'm sure the tech has improved over the years.

If they're going to port the games, I think they rather want to turn them into full-fledged HD remasters instead.

Octane

skywake

@Pahvi
This thread is about Virtual Console support, not full backwards compatibility. Obviously these would be digital re-releases of Wii games built to take advantage of the Switch controls if/when possible. As I said the only thing the Joycons can't do easily is pointer controls. They have the IR camera (that's all the pointer was) but it's facing the wrong way and for it to work you'd need a sensor bar (literally just a pair of IR LEDs)

But even without working out the IR pointer stuff there's quite a few games that would work. For example there were quite a few games that supported the Classic Controller. All of those games would easily work in portable mode and the ones they did release on Wii U could be played without a WiiMote. There's a wikipedia list of those games here, some of them are worth revisiting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games_with_traditio...

Then there are all the games that used WiiMotion+ which would work without needing a WiiMote. Skyward Sword being the big one. Any of the 2D platformers (of which there were plenty) that used the NES-style WiiMote config would also work. And quite a few others that never used the pointer controls. They wouldn't need to bring back the WiiMote for it to work.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be able to play this at their next rooftop party?

Edited on by skywake

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Emperor-Palpsy

Another point to make is that having only one Joy-Con work with the 'pointing' feature is to the Switch's detriment. The message of Switch is playing anywhere, with anyone; but if only one of your two Joy-Cons are compatible with pointing, then that defeats the message.

cackle

skywake

Octane wrote:

If they're going to port the games, I think they rather want to turn them into full-fledged HD remasters instead.

Well we are getting World of Goo at launch which was one of the big indie games on WiiWare. So that would be the first "Wii" game to appear on the Switch as a remastered release. The original also used pointer controls so how that'll work on the Switch will be interesting. I'm going to assume it's a portable-only game that uses the touch screen.....

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Octane

@Emperor-Palpsy The pointer controls have to be simulated by using gyro controls. I can't see anyone playing a Wii game with the right Joy-Con upside-down. You wouldn't be able to press the R1 and R2, the face buttons are on the wrong side and the control stick, the only button that isn't too awkward to reach, is pretty much pointless on your right controller.

Octane

OorWullie

I doubt I would ever buy any Wii VC if it was available,at least for a few years anyway.I've still got my Wii there and if that fails,there's always my Wii U.I did buy the Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii U as that was impossible to pass up.

I actually don't think we will get Wii VC on Switch,they'll take the remaster route for Wii games instead.It made sense to have Wii VC on Wii U but if Gamecube VC was on there as well,I doubt we would have gotten the remastered Zelda's.I think it's inevitable the Galaxy games will be remastered and definitely deserve to be.They wouldn't have the same impact if they were already available on VC.They could of course hold them back from the VC but you can't have a Wii VC and no Galaxy games.

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Late

I took a look at Just Dance 2017 Switch videos and was able to find one video that showed the menu. Looks like it's not possible to point at the screen like in the Wii version, at least from what I could see. I think they would've had pointer controls if there was a good solution since it's marketed toward the same crowd who are already accustomed to pointing at the screen when playing Just Dance on Wii/Wii U.

Skyward Sword used gyro controls for menus and stuff instead of pointer controls so I guess it's still possible to replicate pointer controls if the gyro in Joy-Cons is better than in Wiimote. I didn't like Skyward Sword's menu controls since it felt very clunky back then.

It's its, not it's.

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skywake

Pahvi wrote:

I don't see why get a Wii "VC" title on Switch instead of getting a physical Wii and the physical disc of the game

For the same reason people would want any system to be on the Switch VC
1. People browsing the eShop on the Switch don't necessarily have the older console
2. The Switch is a very portable console unlike every home console before it
3. The Switch has a clean video signal via HDMI vs the SD outputs of older consoles
4. The list of profitable VC games will always be bigger than the list of profitable HD remasters

Pahvi wrote:

I just don't see the point for Nintendo to do it

The 3DS got ports of Xenoblade Chronicles and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Those were ports because the 3DS had nowhere near enough horsepower to emulate the Wii. With full access to the hardware Nintendo should be able to emulate Wii/GC games on the Switch. Basically it'd mean that they can do releases like those 3DS games for a fraction of the development cost.

I'm tempted not to list games because whatever I list will be disregarded. But still. We're not going to get HD remasters of games like Sin & Punishment, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Punch-Out or Super Paper Mario. Or even stuff that wasn't released in all regions like Excitebots. If the Switch is powerful enough to emulate the Wii there's plenty of content there that's popular enough to sell but not so popular that a HD remaster would be worth it. And there's nothing about those games I just mentioned that would be impossible on the Joycons.

Super Mario Galaxy? Do a HD remaster, the pointer controls need to be redone anyways and people will pay full retail for it in HD. But Wario Land? Why not have it as a VC release?

Edited on by skywake

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

StuTwo

skywake wrote:

Pahvi wrote:

I just don't see the point for Nintendo to do it

The 3DS got ports of Xenoblade Chronicles and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Those were ports because the 3DS had nowhere near enough horsepower to emulate the Wii. With full access to the hardware Nintendo should be able to emulate Wii/GC games on the Switch. Basically it'd mean that they can do releases like those 3DS games for a fraction of the development cost.

I'm tempted not to list games because whatever I list will be disregarded. But still. We're not going to get HD remasters of games like Sin & Punishment, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Punch-Out or Super Paper Mario. Or even stuff that wasn't released in all regions like Excitebots. If the Switch is powerful enough to emulate the Wii there's plenty of content there that's popular enough to sell but not so popular that a HD remaster would be worth it. And there's nothing about those games I just mentioned that would be impossible on the Joycons.

Super Mario Galaxy? Do a HD remaster, the pointer controls need to be redone anyways and people will pay full retail for it in HD. But Wario Land? Why not have it as a VC release?

Yep. Not every game will (or should) get a HD remaster and there were so many great games on the Wii that it'd be a shame to lose them to history.

Another side point is that a lot of the games on the Wii that have any value going forward were first or second party. We'll probably never see things like Dead Space Extraction or Deadly Creatures available digitally for Switch but Nintendo has a vested stake in keeping games like Kirby's Epic Yarn or The Last Story available to buy.

StuTwo

Switch Friend Code: SW-6338-4534-2507

Emperor-Palpsy

Pahvi wrote:

@skywake I don't see why get a Wii "VC" title on Switch instead of getting a physical Wii and the physical disc of the game

For the same reason that not everyone wants to purchase an N64, along with the accessories and games. It's more convenient and cost effective to own previous-gen games on one device.

cackle

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