Homebrewing Your Wii U - How? Why?
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If you're on this forum, you're probably already familiar with the homebrew scene for various consoles, especially the Nintendo Switch. Yet, the Wii U is a console which often goes overlooked because of its poor sales and lack of unique titles.
Despite its flaws, the Wii U has an amazing homebrew scene. There's many talented developers who look to give the console the love that Nintendo doesn't, and that leads to a large amount of cool applications and games!
Why should I mod my console in the first place?
There's so many cool things you'd be able to do with a modified Wii U! Here's a small list.
- Use “ROM hacks” for games that you own.
- Backup, edit and restore saves for many games.
- Play games for older systems with various emulators, using RetroArch or other standalone emulators.
- Play out-of-region games.
- Dump your Wii U game discs to a format that can be installed on your internal or external Wii U storage drive.
- Use controllers from other consoles using Bloopair.
After you've successfully modified your console, you can check out other places, such as the Homebrew Appstore, to find new homebrew applications and games! You might even learn something new that peaks your fancy over at GBAtemp.
Can I mod the Wii Menu on my console?
While the Wii Menu (also known as vWii) can't be modified through the traditional Letterbomb exploit found on original Wii consoles, you can use a homebrew application which will allow you to install the Homebrew Channel on your Wii Menu.
From there, you can use revived channels with programs such as RiiConnect24 and WiiLink, play game modifications with Riivolution, and anything else an original Wii can do!
Can I play games from my older consoles?
The Wii U is known to be an emulation beast! It's got a wide variety of emulators on both the Wii U and Wii sides you can utilize to play your dumped copies of many classic games.
Not only are RetroArch and other open-source emulators supported, you can also create custom Virtual Console games with the use of UWUVCI AIO. You can even restore native Nintendo GameCube functionality with the use of Nintendont!
I'm sold! How do I modify my console?
If you're interested in modifying your console, check out the definitive guide for Wii U hacking, wiiu.hacks.guide! This is one of the only reliable sources you'll find to get you started! It's always kept up-to-date as advancements are made compared to video guides.
Make sure you read the written guide entirely before proceeding to make sure you have everything you need, so that you can easily perform the modifications! If you still find yourself stuck, head on over to the Nintendo Homebrew Discord server where you'll find me, other writers of the guide, and many more friendly folks ready to assist!
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What Wii U?