Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Occasionally, you do have to wonder why Nintendo bothers. In typical fashion, the latest Wii Menu update (released only seven days ago) was designed to render the Twilight Hack useless. Also in typical fashion, it's already been beaten, proving yet again that you can't keep a good hack down.

While some in the homebrew community predicted that the 3.4 update would sound the death knell for the Twilight Hack, Team Twiizers has now written and released new, Wii Menu 3.4-compatible code (though as usual, updating your Wii isn't recommended unless it's an absolute must).

HackMii has a link to the new file and all necessary instructions, so let the brewing of homes recommence!

Nintendo is at it again, unleashing yet another Wii Menu Update which puts us at 3.4, as our glowing Wii just informed us. Aside from augmenting the Nintendo User Agreement, the new system update will also "check for and automatically remove" all "unauthorized modifications to save files." Guess what, homebrew fans? The party is over forever put on hold for the time being.

This is basically all of the info we have right now, but we're sure the homebrew community will step up soon with a response to this. You know how they hate it when Nintendo tries to stop them from running their 'brew.

Keep an eye on Wii Fanboy for more on this as it's made available.

Your Mii Channel holds a terrible secret: DS connectivity. We may not have the DS Personal Trainer: Walking (Aruite Wakaru Seikatsu Rhythm DS) yet, but our Wiis are apparently ready to connect to it. As this video demonstrates, you can unlock the DS connection feature in your own Mii Channel right now, by pressing A, B, 1, and then holding 2. The Wii will start looking for DS systems nearby capable of interfacing with the Mii Channel -- which pretty much means Personal Trainer, into which Miis can be imported. Even if the connection fails, your Mii Channel will now feature a "connect to DS" button.

Sure, this may be useless, but it's like a cheat code -- for your system! How very cool. Has this always been there, or did it sneak in with the last update?

[Update: Apparently the feature's been there since last year, or maybe before, but the method had yet to be documented.]

[Via GoNintendo]

Japanese Poké-enthusiasts will have a pleasant surprise next time they load up My Pokémon Ranch. No, the game won't suddenly be enjoyable or worthwhile or anything -- don't be silly -- but they will be able to enjoy full compatibility with Pokémon Platinum on the DS, and observe Giratina (in its Another Forme, as seen above) and Shaymin (in its Sky Forme, as seen here), or at least some very angular representations of Giratina and Shaymin.

The cap of 1,000 pocket beasties has also been raised to 1,500, and GAME Watch has the first screens of the update -- click through our gallery and take a look.

Well, that was fast. That recent update that wouldn't allow users to install the Homebrew Channel? It's been bested, as the Homebrew Channel beta9 has been released. Among working with the latest update, beta9 also brings the following fixes to the table:

• Installer / updater now works with the October 23 update
• SDHC support
• REALLY fixed the memcard bug
• Installer now picks newest sane IOS, fixes some beta8 regressions
• Added a reload button (for SD card changes)
• Return to system menu skips warning
• Fixed some graphical glitches
• Saner XML load code
• Many fixes to underlying stuff in the newer libogc

[Via /.]

Update 2: "View Compatible Controllers" is now a separate link in the details of each game listing in the Shop Channel. Also, we've corrected the Japanese version number. It's 3.3 everywhere, up from the last update ... 3.3.

Update: Reader John writes in and points us to Wiibrew, who is reporting this update kills The Homebrew Channel, as well as the Mplayer that makes DVD play possible. If you've already followed our guide for playing DVDs and installed The Homebrew Channel, then you're fine.

Chances are, your Wii may have told you this already -- either through the friendly blue light or a message that pops up when you load the Wii Shop Channel. But in case it hasn't, Nintendo has sent out a new Wii firmware update. In Japan, the software is up to 3.4 still 3.3. The Shop Channel is down for maintenance as well, as all references to Wii Points are changed to "Nintendo Points" and various other pre-DSi maintenance is done. But in America and Europe, not much seems to have changed.

This NeoGAF thread is tracking the potential changes -- most notably that some people are now unable to install the Homebrew Channel. People with pre-existing installations are fine, but it's possible that this new update has blocked the ability to install homebrew. There was a fairly ominous message in the update description about deleting altered saves! Of course, these reports could turn out to be in error.

Other reported effects include improved Shop Channel loading speed, possibly reorganized item listings, and nothing.

Serebii has the lowdown on some updates set to hit WiiWare title My Pokémon Ranch in Japan next month. The most notable of the changes is full compatibility with Pokémon Platinum on the DS. But, hey, that's old hat, right? Well, there's more to the free update than just that!

On top of the compatibility, the update will allow players to store more than the current cap of 1,000 pocket monsters. This will be upped to 1,500. In addition to the storage increase, the game will also allow you to deposit the Giratina original form. The Shaymin sky form will also appear.

See also: My Pokémon Ranch makes for great papercraft


[Via Go Nintendo]

Nintendo's Satoru Iwata and his company have come up with a solution to the biggest issue for Wii gamers: storage. Iwata announced during the Japan fall press conference that, in the spring of 2009, gamers can expect to have the ability to load and play software direct from your SD card in your SD slot, as well as download items directly to their SD slot. For those of you with more than 2gbs of downloaded goodies, we only have one suggestion: buy a bunch of 2gb SD cards.

Update: Just to clarify, you won't be able to play games direct from the SD card. You'll merely be able to download items directly to it. Sorry for the mixup.

[Thanks, Sonic_13!]

If you happen to have a Japanese Wii and a copy of Pokémon Platinum on the DS, you may have discovered that My Pokémon Ranch does not interface with the new continuation of Diamond and Pearl. Pretty short-sighted of Nintendo, or Game Freak or Ambrella! We wouldn't expect Platinum to be that different.

In any case, Nintendo has announced via the official Pokémon site that an update for the WiiWare Pokémon storage device/game is forthcoming sometime this year, to allow connection between the game and Platinum. Also according to the Pokémon site, there is no issue with connecting Platinum to Pokémon Battle Revolution.

[Via Inside-Games]

We're excited about Madden NFL 09. Oh no, sports on a game blog, run! But, in all seriousness, this year's Madden NFL 09 looks like it's going to be a solid title and unique from the other versions available. Plus, the All-Play stuff looks fun. If the video up top tickles your fancy, then the one past the break is going to blow you away.

Also, check out the latest video updates to the Nintendo Channel tucked away back there as well.

Who loves you, baby? We do, of course! That's why we strive, each and every day, to provide you with all of the Wii news and community content we (hope) you crave. And, we're one step closer to achieving that goal we sacrifice so much sleep on chasing, thanks to the handy little tables on the right sidebar there. We're talking about the Events Calendar and Hot Topics section.

What are they? Well, we would hope the titles make them pretty obvious, but we'll try to explain them as best as we can. The Events Calendar is something that will be home to all of the hot upcoming events, including games, shows and anything we feel you fine folk need to know about in advance. There, you'll find links that direct you to various topics on the site. Hopefully it'll make your time here a bit easier.

Second, we have the Hot Topics section. This area is where all of the most popular posts will go. Sure, we have areas where the topics that get the most comments are listed, but that isn't the same here. These are stories that are being read by the most amount of people, our most popular pages. So, if you're looking for the day's hot stories and don't want to skim down the whole page, just check out the box here.

We would just like to take the opportunity to thank each and every one of you for checking out Wii Fanboy. We try our best to make sure we have the most up-to-date content and informed Nintendo-loving community on the net. With your help, we'll keep working every day to attain that goal. Thanks for reading!

The very day that Nintendo released their anti-Twilight Hack update, clever programmer types found the new code and figured out how to beat it. Team Twiizers has made practical use of that information, releasing their own update of the Twilight Hack save file. If you were worried about having to go a whole week without homebrew, you can relax.

While they were sprucing the code up with the Wii Menu 3.3 compatibility, Team Twiizers added a few other nice modifications, including better video configuration, region-specific save file icons, and Twilight Hack-specific "Still Alive" parody lyrics hidden inside the LOADER file. That's, uh, totally a feature!

Now get out there and brew some homes!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Nintendo's going to have to devise more minor Mii Channel upgrades, because they'll have more homebrew-killing attempts to barely camouflage. Almost immediately after the new Wii Menu 3.3 software went up and killed the Twilight Hack, coders at the HackMii blog figured out what the new code was: surprisingly, it was targeted specifically at the one Twilight Princess bug that enables homebrew loading. And they found bugs in that.

Soon after, they wrote up some code that exploits the bugs in the new security code, and allows them to "fool their check into ignoring the TP hack." They have yet to release the fix, but at least we can stop panicking until the next update.

The blog post goes into explicit detail about Nintendo's update code, and it's interesting reading even if you know nothing about programming. We know this firsthand.

Usually, the news that Nintendo updated the firmware on your Wii while it's away for repair would hardly count as news at all. Since yesterday, however, when everybody caught wind of how the latest Wii Menu Update knocked the Twilight Hack and Freeloader on the head, Nintendo's meddling hasn't been as appreciated.

A group of disgruntled Wii owners whose consoles have been repaired and updated with new firmware congregated on the forums of GBAtemp.net, in a thread titled "CURSE u NINTENDO!," to howl about Nintendo's repair team and their habit of adding unwanted updates. While we can only sympathize with them, we should probably let this serve as a warning to others: if you are a homebrewer or importer with a Wii that's conked out, you might want to think twice about sending your machine to Nintendo.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Turns out the Twilight Hack wasn't the only casualty of the latest Wii Menu Update. Import gamers everywhere are turning on their Wiis to find that the Freeloader disc they purchased to play (for example) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (remember that?) on their PAL Wiis is also rendered useless by the update. Slotting the Freeloader disc into a Wii now results in a message telling you that:

1. An error has occurred.
2. You'll need to eject the disc and turn off your Wii, please.
3. Your worth as a human being is infinitesimal at best. Why do you even bother going on?

So there you go, folks -- say goodbye to playing imports early, and hello to waiting for big-name releases that already appeared elsewhere months ago.

[Update: Corrected "infinitesimally small"]

[Via videogaming247]