Remember the Nintendo Wii Mini? It arrived on the market in 2012, after the original Wii had sold millions of units all over the world. With the shiny new Wii U hitting store shelves around the same time, the intention was for the Wii Mini to provide a cut-price, $99 option for gamers on a budget. The problem was that in reducing the cost of the system, Nintendo had to take away many key features, such as online connectivity and the ability to store and load data from a SD card.
The removal of these two features has meant that hacking the Wii Mini has taken longer than expected, but in 2019, an exploit known as 'BlueBomb' was found. Now, it's possible to hack this seemingly unhackable system, and Modern Vintage Gamer has put together an excellent video showing exactly how you do it.
There are a few hoops to jump through – understandable when you consider the console lacks any internet connection – but once complete, you've got a neat little game box. Speaking of which, the video also looks at what you can do with a hacked Wii Mini.
Do you have a Wii Mini in your cupboard gathering dust? This could bring it back to life. Let us know if you've attempted this hack already by posting a comment below.
Comments 37
My Wii is the first model (RVL-001).
Beautiful in White color, for playing both Wii and Gamecube games.
These comments will be the usual morale brigade no doubt. Popcorn at the ready….
I have my Nintendo life ROM use bingo card ready…. Fiver on…
“You wouldn’t steal from a shop so….”
Is said at some point…
This Version really was toooo crippled down.
I would say that it now can get more Love, but i am not so sure
The original Wii or a Wii U are better.
This really happened a few years ago, but I'm happy this got shared so that people who are dissappointed with the Wii Mini might become aware of their options with it.
The only real disadvantage with it now is the lack of component video output.
Took them long enough.
@Stocksy Not really, modding actually makes the Wii Mini worth something and not the piece of garbage that Nintendo produced in 2012
Its a pretty neat exploit. For those who don't want to watch, basically you put software on a SD stick, stick it into the Wii's USB port. Then you get a system running linux with a bluetooth dongle (a raspberry pie will do) and run a script on it. Then fire up the Wii without any controllers synced, hit the "sync" button so it syncs with the Linux box and it uses a bluetooth exploit to pull software off the USB stick and install it onto the Wii.
From there you are somewhat limited on what you can install, but it will boot games and software from the USB port, so it's usable on the high seas.
I can't watch the video at the moment, but does this add online connectivity and the ability to store and load data from a SD card?
It's cool and all that this is possible but I can't help but feel why not just get a proper Wii and use that?
Thevies never stop and this us facts
@MichaelP Yes, LAN adapter support via USB.
Ah the Wii Mini
I remember when at certain point a used Wii was around €100 with no games, but stores sold the the Wii Mini brand new with Mario Kart for €59 to get rid of stock nobody wanted.
It seems somewhat pointless. The Wii Mini isn't just more limited in functionality but it is also a lot harder to find than the regular Wii.
Took me 3 Minutes to buy one at Ebay. 5 Minutes ago.
This is awesome. I never picked one up because it was so restrictive in what you could do with it.
When i saw and read about the wii Mini i had always assumed it was intended for the Chinese market after the IQue wasn't approved.
It's pretty cool but I still have my original model Wii and Wii U hacked. If you have the gamecube USB adapter a hacked Wii U is the way to go because it gives you every option and Gamecube games can stream to the Wii U controller!
@Darkyoshi98
I'm using mine to play Mario Kart Arcade and F-Zero AX - games never made available for a home system. If you'd like to explain who is losing out here, I'm all ears.....
I wonder if this will lead to an updated Handheld Wii, with an maybe even smaller PCB hack?
@Darkyoshi98 Well said. **** those thevies!
We will watch your career with great interest.
Came here for the Other M game case, for some reason. I'm oddly fascinated with the mechanic of easily flipping a switch (or a controller) to change from a side-scrolling perspective to first-person and back. I actually wish that the mechanic would return in Metroid Dread!
Nintendo would like to apologize for the previous hacking. Those responsible have been hacked.
A hacked Wii was amazing, all the Wii and Gamecube games I could simply boot up from a usb drive, let's not forget the excellent emulators as well!
@beantherio I also recall that in North America, the Wii Mini even had a significant time it was available only in Canada before eventually getting a US release.
If it had stayed the former, it would've probably been immensely rarer.
@Stocksy I dunno, I'd rather hear some moral ranting than preemptive snark about people possibly having an opinion different than yours.
Anyway, it's fun they figured out a way but why even bother when the regular model is super easy to hack and readily available usually at a lower price than the mini?
So... uh... it might be too late for saying this Wii Mini stuff. Sorry... I guess.
Without internet access the Wii Mini is basically similar to an NES/NES Mini, Super NES/Super NES Mini, N64, and GameCube. You could just easily use an EverDrive like devices or a dongle to access that USB and give it some homebrew features. The best part is once it's hacked Nintendo can't prevent it from happening as there's no way they could send firmware update to block the exploit as there's no online gateway for them to do so. This will probably make the Wii Mini more useful than what Nintendo did. Hopefully TerraOnion release an MODE drive for Wii Mini in the future as well.
Still hoping for a Mariko switch hack 🤞🏻
Well, yOu WoUlDn'T sTeAl FrOm a StOrE wOuLd YoU?
Lol jk, that's pretty cool that after this long they figured it out
@Gwynbleidd
Even when it's hacked it's still massively inferior to a hacked regular Wii, and you can get a Wii for $30-50, so I doubt it
Always loved the design of that Wii Mini, it's a real shame how they took away the component cable compatibility. That said the Wii U has always been the ultimate Wii.
The pic in the article scared me for a second. I have a setup that looks almost exactly like that, and I just pulled out my Wii mini and Other M the other day. For half a second I wondered if someone was spying on me...
I would like to let you know that this article is 2 years too late. The Wii Mini was modded in 2019, and it was a big deal at the time. Now it's not so big a deal because of everything people have been doing with it for 2 years. Guess you just saw the video and decided to get some clicks off it though.
@Meteoroid Hacking the Wii Mini is especially good to bring back basically every feature it lacks. Online connectivity is a big advantage to modding a Wii Mini.
My first edition Wii came from a secondhand store already homebrewed, it's already my happy little gaming box
@MichaelP how could it possiby do either of those if it doesn't have the components.
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