Well, my Wii Freeloader has gone 1 for 2 so far in my quest to play obscure, often-crappy Japanese Wii games that probably have no chance of being released here in North America. Will I ever be able to play this somewhat poor-looking Arkanoid clone without making the investment in a Japanese Wii? OK, maybe I should back up a bit.
The Wii Freeloader is a GameCube-sized disc put out by the fine folks at Datel, which is the same company responsible for all those great old cheat devices, like the Action Replay. It’s designed as a boot disc for import games, meaning you can put in the Freeloader disc, it loads (complete with crazy screen effects), and then presents you with the Wii’s main menu. You pop out the Freeloader disc, pop in a European or Japanese Wii game–which normally wouldn’t run on your North American Wii thanks to region lockouts–and it automagically loads as if you were playing it on the console it was originally encoded for. Sounds easy, right?
Well, my first experience with the Freeloader was pretty negative. I ordered it as soon as it came out and, realizing that I didn’t have any foreign Wii games to actually test, I quickly ordered a cheap-but-interesting-looking Wii game, Simple Wii Series Vol. 5: The Block Kuzushi. It sounds like a budget Arkanoid clone.
Upon receiving both items, I managed to get The Block Kuzushi to boot on my Wii. However, once it gets into the game’s first menus, I quickly realized it wasn’t working properly. The first option screen is probably asking me if I want to create a save file, but there’s no text on the screen at all, just a gray box with two buttons at the bottom. Regardless of what I select, the game swaps to an all-gray screen and locks up right there. Bummer.
So my freeloadin’ schemes were quickly brought to a temporary halt. I recently decided to give it another shot with another budget-priced Wii game, a little something from Hudson called Puzzle Collection Vol. 1: Sudoku. After letting it sit for a couple of days (for good luck, obviously) I finally tossed it in.
Unlike The Block Kuzushi, Sudoku boots up and gets to a menu. On top of that, it’s actually playable, too… well, that is if you consider a super-budget sudoku game that doesn’t use the Wii’s pointer at all to be “playable.” But, alas, there’s still a catch. All of the non-stylized text shows up as total gibberish. That’s not me making fun of the way kanji looks, it just shows up using characters from the system font. Makes me think that North American Wii hardware doesn’t even have Japanese characters buried deep in its guts. In most higher-budget games, developers are providing their own slick, stylized fonts and stuff, so you probably won’t see this issue in too many “real” Wii games. At least, I haven’t really seen too many Freeloader users complaining about it.
In other Freeloader news, a handful of reports about Mario Kart stated that the newly-released Wii racing game wouldn’t work with the Freeloader, but the import-friendly posse over at NCS got some copies in and gave it a go. Looks like they aren’t having any trouble getting it to load, provided you’re running the 3.1U or 3.2U firmware on your Wii. As of this writing, 3.2U is the latest firmware here in the States. So if you’re absolutely crazy for Mario Kart and can’t wait a couple more weeks to get it sans hassle, the import option is still available.
55 Comments
I heard about the Freeloader when it came out. It sounded pretty cool and I think the only reason I would get it is to play games that come out early in other countries.
Thats kind of neat but it doesn’t really sound like its worth all the trouble. Unless they release an Ouendan game for the Wii sometime then I don’t think I’ll bother.
What’s the purpose of this whole region-lock crap. People should have the freedom to buy whatever they want. Let’s say someone bought a wii from Europe and then moved to the US. He payed for the darn thing. What right do console makers have to make his purchase worthless in case he decided to move to a different country?
They should have just made it region free. That’s one of the very few things I like about the PS3’s strategy so far.
Too much hassle the freeloader with upgradeable firmware in use.
I’m glad Sony decided on region free software, no excuse for region lockouts on HD systems - and it seperates the import community here in Europe from the jolly rogers.
Nintendo will find a way to break each updated version of the freeloader eventually.
I would seriously hope people wouldn’t be that starved for Mario Kart that they would import it…
Honestly, that’s why I just own import and U.S. versions of each console. Sure it’s the more expensive option, but since I tend to buy more import games than U.S. games it works out in my favor. Plus, after some of the issues F-Zero GX had with the GameCube version of Freeloader I was better off investing in an import ‘Cube so I could actually see the HUD and avoid future compatibility issues with other games.
Your wii actually needs to have the update from Super Smash Brothers installed in order for Mario Kart to work properly, both games use a version of the wii system files which is not currently available through online updating
Being in the UK, the Freeloader has been a godsend to me and my Wii. With it I’ve been able to get a hold of the Japanese game Oneechanbara Revolution and a US Copy of SSBB, the former likely never to see daylight outside Japan normally, and the latter being in PAL release limbo. But yeah, I’ve had no problems with it, and it actually saved my Wii from gathering more dust between Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart Wii.
I never heard of the Freeloader until now. Seems pretty cool.
The problems Jeff seems to have with the Freeloader might be a problem with importing the actual freeloader. I dont know if you did this Jeff but at least my Freeloader says its a “European freeloader” so even tho you can import the games the actual freeloader must be bought in Europe. So if you imported both the freeloader AND the games you might end up getting wierd problems with the japanese games. Not sure if this is accurate at all,its just a thought. My Freeloader DO say “for use with EU Wii” or something like that.
I only like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros., apart from that, i think the wii is a total waste of money.
The old CDX Pro action Replay Datel made for the sega cd was awesome. My import library is twice that of my domestic due to it. My GC freeloader worked great as well. Datel rarely disappoints when it comes to these.
Although the infamous “reindeer disc” for the Dreamcast is still the most awesome of import loaders, even though it was pure bootleg.
Missed a perfect chance to turn Wii into a prefix. Freeloader, more like Wiiloader!
Yeah, I dont even care. Mario Kart WIi is abso-fucking-lutley amazing. Not to battle the bulge of said games getting relesaed in America before they get released in ‘Europe’ before us with no blood, see No More Heroes. Its just great to actutally have an online experience with the Wii that its a fucking mission to set up.
I say this tho, I own a 360 so If Wii ever have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever offering a decent competitive offering of any online experience on a WIi they have a long shot..did anyone say COD4 Mappack? Oh that IS a shame. From England.
Dont feel too sorry for us. Mario Kart IS quite sexy.
the freeloader is a godsend for PAL Wii owners. Paper Mario came out 6 months later than in JAP & USA and it seems to be the same for SSBB. fortunately it works perfectly fine on my PAL Wii and an imported NTSC SSBB.
My Freeloader let me play my copy of No More Heroes, early and uncensored. For that reason alone, it was worth every cent.
Why are there region lockouts? That’s kind of dumb if you ask me.
That’s a bummer Jeff. Hopefully you can find another way to appease your desire to European and Japanese releases.
Got a UK copy of Mario Kart Wii yesterday and it prompted me to update my Wii before the game boots - freeloader lock out I wonder?
I use the ol’ freeloader to play Brawl here in the UK, but it plays everything in black and white for some reason. Maybe it just goes to show how great Brawl is- I’ve been playing it non-stop since it was released and it’s not even in colour (plus it seems more pixalated then normal. A severe headache is a small price to pay for hours of Brawl-tastic action, though!).
That was one thing that really interested me with the PS3 no region lockouts! no i just need to get around to buying some crazy Japanese game. On topic tho i thought Nintendo released a firware that messed with the freeloader?
I really think I may get a Freeloader as I really fined the gap between US and UK a pain, also who dose not want to play crazy Japanese games!
I’m glad I own a PS3, so I don’t have to mess with stuff like that. On the other hand, I don’t import games which makes it kind of useless.
The Freeloader isn’t as big of a deal for US people as it is for europeans, really. Nintendo games take extremely long to get released over here. Smash Bros doesn’t even have a release date yet.
mario kart wii is a exellent game far better than double dash, but on startup it does ask you to do a system update before you can play it. im not shore if that was just for the online stuff like the mario kart chanel. but the game is brill even the addition of bikes and tricks it feels fresh, bit like mario kard DS.
mario kart DS, LOL no edit option haha
The future should be region free.
^ Only in 2084, dude.
I’m really not bothered about playing Japanese games on my UK machine, but I would like to play US games on it. My second generation Freeloader for my Gamecube worked a treat, and gave me access to Gamecube games months in advance of the UK release date.
The present should be region free, or have simultaneous wordwide release dates.
i agree
Still waiting for something that will make me buy it.
And I am sure it will be some nice Japanese Game
I prefer PS2 + Swap Magic
I can’t wait until Nintendo catches wind of what Jeff is doing, takes all of his Miis away from him, and only allows him access to the “Cheater” channel.
seems liek a lot of hassle to not much
I have only used the Freeloader for the US version of Brawl and well it works perfectly. Hopefully an update doesn’t screw it up but thus far there has been none.
The future should be indeed region-free.
good to know that option’s out there. playing japanese games is just too much hassle to me. you can never fully enjoy it because you usually wont know what’s going on due to the language barrier. there are some exceptions, of course.
I freeloaded your MOM. ooooooooooooooooo.
Seriously, thanks for the update, was considering one of these myself.
Dude, EyeShield.
I don’t understand why Nintendo has to region lock all their games. Why do console developers have to be so against importing?
no days off
One thing troubles me, wii updates on the disc…
If ever you manage to load an other region wii game be it by freeloader or with a somewhat more say “alternated” console and there happened to be an auto-update on the disc that is not yet on your wii (or that doesn’t yet exist in your region) you’re kind of screwed.
US wii with US firmware + EU firmware update = bricked wii
(of course there is a work around but it consist of changing code on your disc which is quite a hassle)
That’s too bad about the freeloader.
I like that Nintendo didn’t use any region locks on the DS; I’ve been able to play the awesome Ouendan and Mother 3 thanks to that.
Sounds like it would probably work better playing North American games on a Japanese Wii…since the Japanese Wii would have all of the North American text sets plus the Japanese ones. I remember a few Gamecube games having the same problem though. For example, if you boot up Nintendo Puzzle Collection on a North American Gamecube, Yoshi’s cookie’s text come up as complete garbage.
I wonder how many English games it can play on a Japanese Wii. I would probably buy a Japanese Wii and Freeloader if I could play the English version of Metriod Prime 3…my Japanese isn’t good enough for something as difficult as Metriod.
I bought a Freeloader for my Cube back when it first came out. But I never ended up using it.
make new stuff
Well I got a euro copy of the freeloader and a US copy of Super Smash Brothers last week and it works fine.
I really like the way that the PS3 is region free. It just makes so much sense in this day and age.
Maybe Nintendo will see how popular the freeloader is and unlock the Wii. However I don’t see this happening some how.
Slow week, huh. I guess that shoulder injury was really bad.
I think we need a discussion board, seriously. this way we can discuss things, that’s wut a discussion board is, right? right? right?
I have a Wii and a 360, and I am glad that Datel is making progress with this on the Wii. I had a first generation GameCube AR and it had a few flaws when it came down to newer code types. I don’t have a PS3 because I am not one of those persons who flashes and swipes their credit card through the Point Of Sale terminal to buy every new gizmo or gadget out there and with the price of everything going up, I can’t afford one right now and my brother said that the PS3 is a rip off. Plus, I am still using my 13 year old 19 inch Panasonic TV for my game machines. I had to rent a converter box from my cable company for $5 a month because of the digital switch over because my cable company is going to do away with the analog signals.
Ben
Comon, updates!
…pretty please?..
We need to give the Giant Bomb crew a break with regards to updates. There are only two of them at the moment writing content for the site, and it takes a while to properly review a game. I think it’s impressive that they’re even managing to put in the odd video, news item and podcast in amongst all of the reviews. Remember folks, the site is not officially blowing up until the summer! And its not as if we’re paying for it!
Give them a break guys. It may not show in content, but I have no doubt in my mind that Ryan and Jeff are working hard.
The only japanese game that I would buy for the wii will be Naruto EX 2(It is not Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 UNDERSTAND)… I have Clash of ninja revolution for the wii, and is fast pace and fun to play. The only disappointment of Ninja Revolution is that there are only 20 characters….
Some people told me to buy the japanese version of the game and a freeloader, but I really do not believe in the freeloader because as we can see is not 100% guarantee. “Datel will look somewhere else in order to ignore your complain(as I read in some forums).”
Good thing the Nintendo DS is Region-free plus in japan they already make a Naruto: Shinobi Retsuden II (And is not NINJA DESTINY 2 like others said it). I bought it, because I knew it was going to be a great game, and I was right. Is almost similar to Naruto EX 2(and is far better than the first Shinobi Retsuden)
There are things that I learn from Japanese video games
1. When a game is awesome the Japanese keep it for themselves and later after 2 or 3 years it comes to the other regions. That happen with many games since 1980’s (Final Fantasy and many more I do not remember well..)
2. When Nintendo says: “Exclusive for the U.S., Europe, etc.” that means Japan is making a better version of the game because their first one(which are giving it to the other Regions….) SUCKS.
Example: Naruto:Shinobi Retsuden(Japan) suck and they make the game for the other regions as Naruto Ninja Destiny after a FEW MONTHS.
While Ninja Destiny was coming to the other Regions… Japan was having Shinobi Retsuden 2…
3. When a game sucks in japan… then it goes to the other regions in less than 5 months…
Finally, all I can say is that Region-lock is the most stupidest way to fight againts piracy, because it also affect us the customers. At least the Nintendo DS is region-free, but there are rumors that they are making a new Nintendo DS handheld (which I hope it stills region-free). The Freeloader is a nice software, but in my opinion as long as is not 100% guarantee to work…. I will not buy it. And last, Ryan and Jeff you guys are making a very good job….keep it up!!!