Topic: Wanting to play old wii games

I really like the wii because it's iconic and memorable for me.

I mainly only desire to play metroid corruption on it.
But I have enough old consoles. I know that they get slow over time. My xbox can't even run halo wars without serious, serious lag. The power supplies wear down, components age... Would anyone recommend a wii U instead? However, the wii U is very expensive and also ugly.

Does anyone know if wii's may have deteriorated significantly over time and that buying them nowadays would pose a problem to me enjoying a game that's a little more intensive, for instance metroid?

I can also enjoy myself with a dolphin emulator I've heard. is that true?

@WiiUseWiis The Wii was very reliable compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 back when it was popular. They aren't really old enough for there to be issues with power supplies etc yet. Some might be faulty, but I would guess that most of them will be fine. I still have my old Wii which I got in 2009 and it is still perfect. I have heard of people having issues with the disc drive, but I think most of them are still fine. I think the issue is with dust/dirt from not looking after it well, so a Wii U probably won't be better.

There are probably more potential issues with a Wii U since it is more complicated and has the GamePad, which is difficult to replace if it has any problems.

I haven't looked at Dolphin for years, but I think it is pretty good. I think there is a list on their website of how well each game runs on it. The Wii is limited to 480p, which looks quite bad now. The Wii U also only runs the games at 480p, it just stretches the image to 1080p. With Dolphin you might be able to get a higher resolution.

I would recommend getting a Wii. I think that they are reliable enough, and it will avoid any potential emulator issues with Dolphin.

@WiiUseWiis

I think you should get a Wii. I’ve had mine for over 10 years and it still works almost like new. I would be a little cautious though of buying a used one since you never know what might be wrong with it. And like GX_64 said, the main thing that might be wrong with it is the disk reader, but if it’s well taken care of you shouldn’t have that problem for a while.

This thread makes me want to play some Wii games! It must have been well over a decade since I retired my Wii....

@WiiUseWiis Isn't dust accumulating inside the main thing that causes problems for older consoles/computers? If the inside is dusted with canned air, I would think you're as good as you're going to get. Forgive me if that's a flawed idea.

But yeah, since the pandemic, used console demand & prices have been inflated.

I have all my Nintendo consoles from NES through Switch, and I’ve never had one wear out, slow down, or stop working. The only thing I’ve had to replace through the years are carts and controllers. I would not blow canned air into any cart console without the shell removed, and even then; I wouldn’t do it. I would definitely not blow canned air into anything with a disc drive. Pretty sure there are cleaning discs for this. The best preventative maintenance for old consoles is to play them/run them regularly, and don’t go poking around unless there’s a reason.

@WiiUseWiis I have had three Wii's in my lifetime and none of them have ever deteriorated. The Prime Trilogy including Corruption plays perfectly, even today.

You can run them through Dolphin as well but that, unfortunately, requires a lot more hassle.

Wow. That's really good news to hear.

Thanks all.